[H]ardNews - Blair Tech Ed.

How Caching Works:

Caching is a technology based on the memory subsystem of your computer. The main purpose of a cache is to accelerate your computer while keeping the price of the computer low. Caching allows you to do your computer tasks more rapidly. To understand the basic idea behind a cache system, let's start with a super-simple example that uses a librarian to demonstrate caching concepts. Let's imagine a librarian behind his desk. He is there to give you the books you ask for

DVD-CD Hybrid Sucks:

An attempt to create the Holy Grail of home entertainment - a disc that plays on any DVD or CD player - has been branded a failure by an international working group. Music and movie buffs currently have to choose between CD for stereo music, DVD-Video for full-length movies with digitally compressed surround sound, and DVD-Audio with uncompromised surround sound, plus short video clips.

Saving Moore’s Law:

Experts generally agree that if another way isn't found to make computer chips, the industry will soon show Moore the door – or at least the "law" named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, who predicted a doubling of computer chip transistors every 18 months. While clever engineers have found ways to push the limits of what is physically possible with optical lithography, companies like Mapper Lithography in the Netherlands are experimenting with new methods.

Speeding Up Storage:

"Serial-attached SCSI will allow Hitachi to extend its server hard-disk-drive product line ... for data center and other enterprise applications," said Fumio Kugiya, general manager of the server business unit at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST). The SAS physical layer is compatible with serial ATA (SATA), a rival connection method. This should give people the choice of using either SAS or SATA drives within the same box. SAS will also allow enterprise customers to continue to use SCSI while gaining a faster 3 Gbps data transfer rate, according to the announcement.