Before I even start the introduction to this article, I think it's necessary for me to note that I hold stock in Be, Inc. Whether or not you feel this invalidates the findings of this review is.
BeOS was an OS developed to run on the BeBox hardware, a PowerPC based machine. The OS was first released in October 1995 for use on the AT&T Hobbit, and later moved over to the PowerPC platform the next year. A Intel x86 port of the OS began in March 1998 with version R3. The last version released was R5.1 in November 2001 for x86 only. This OS was meant to be used for multimedia applications. It is POSIX compatible but is not a UNIX derived operating system (Windows is actually POSIX complient also).
Be was purchased by Palm (later acquired by HP), and the OS was abandoned. Former Be developers took the source code for 5.1 and created Zeta, which ceased distribution due to legal concerns. A clean room reimplementation of this OS is Haiku, which is open source and currently under development.
Professional audio recorders still sold run modified versions of BeOS still, such as the iZ technology RADAR 24 and RADAR V.
The final release of the BeOS.
Installation instructions
The Professional edition is installed from CD like other operating systems, and includes extras the Personal Edition does not include.
The Personal edition is installed into a 500 MB virtual hard drive on a Windows (provided it is FAT/FAT32, not NTFS) partition and can only dual boot.
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Intel, Partners Unveil Gallatin Processor
Intel will formally announce its 'Gallatin' enterprise processor this week. Gallatin, a member of Intel’s Xeon family of server processors, was designed as a drop-in replacement to the existing 'Foster' lineup, known by the same Xeon MP brand name as the new chips. With its increased cache — up to 512 Kbytes of level-2 cache, and up to 2 Mbytes of on-chip level-3 cache — and faster clock speeds, users should experience between a 19 percent and 38 percent improvement in performance using various benchmarks on Gallatin compared to the fastest Foster MP processor, which tops out at 1.6-GHz.
Read the full story on: ExtremeTech
IBM Says Builds Fastest Silicon Transistor
IBM on Monday said it had built a transistor that can run at speeds of 350 billion cycles per second — three times as fast as current technology. The IBM transistor is built with silicon-germanium. IBM said it believes that by using the transistor, it can make a communications chip that runs at 150 gigahertz, or 150 billions of cycles per second, within two years. It said that such a chip would require less power and be low cost.
Read the full story on: Yahoo! News
Radioactive Isotopes Fuel Microscopic Battery
Using radioactive isotopes as fuel, a tiny battery developed at Cornell University could turn out to be an ideal power source for remote sensors or other small-scale systems. Cornell professor Amit Lal used microelectromechanical-systems (MEMS) technology to create a millimeter-size battery that can run for decades. The research team plans to scale the prototype to even smaller dimensions so that it could become a power source for MEMS.
Read the full story on: EE Times
AMD Enters 802.11 Wireless Market
AMD said it plans to offer its own twist on the 'Calexico' wireless chipset currently being developed by Intel. AMD’s Alchemy division, a design firm with embedded and wireless expertise the company purchased earlier this year, said it is working on a Am1772 wireless LAN chipset and complementary min-PCI card, which the firm will sample this month and produce early next year. AMD’s Am1772 supports only 802.11b, while Intel’s Calexico will be a hybrid 802.11a/b combination, Intel executives have said.
Read the full story on: ExtremeTech
Mobilian Chip Set Supports 802.11b, Bluetooth Operation
Mobilian Corp. is sampling TrueRadio, a two-piece chip set that supports the simultaneous operation of 802.11b wireless-LAN and Bluetooth radios. First demonstrated two years ago at Fall Comdex, the chip set will enable the manufacture of a PC Card featuring the two wireless technologies with a bill of materials under $35, the company said. Mobilian’s solution uses a direct-conversion WLAN radio and a low-IF radio for the Bluetooth connection.
Read the full story on: CommsDesign
Infineon Preps Multithreading For The Embedded World
Infineon Technologies AG is planning to apply so-called ‘multi-threading’ technology to embedded processors and microcontrollers to achieve up to a tenfold improvement in performance without moving to higher clock frequencies, or to smaller geometries to achieve those higher clock frequencies. Infineon’s first implementation of the technology will be in a 32-bit microcontroller that the company said it plans to introduce in mid-2003. Infineon also said it wants to to license the technology to other chip designers to promote use of the technology.
Read the full story on: EE Times
Hynix Denies Micron Claim Of Improper Subsidies
Hynix Semiconductor Inc. Monday denied charges by Micron Technology Inc. that the Korean DRAM maker received improper government subsidies, claiming the company’s financial restructuring was conducted 'by commercial banks and does not involve the Korean government at all.' Micron late last week filed a countervailing duty case with the U.S. Commerce Department and International Trade Commission claiming that Hynix has received 'multi-billion dollar bailout packages and loan subsidies in violation of U.S. countervailing duty laws and South Korea’s commitments under World Trade Organization agreements.' Hynix also asserted that Micron suffered losses in 2001 because the cyclical DRAM market that year was down.
Read the full story on: EBN
Extending the Reach of the Wireless LAN
Vivato, a new networking company based in San Francisco, has announced a line of Wi-Fi switches that, it claims, can extend the range of your wireless network to several kilometers. Due to be released early next year, the switches can be used with any of the three Wi-Fi protocols: 802.11b, used by most of today’s wireless LANs; 802.11a, the faster standard now creeping into the mar-ket; and 802.11g, the still faster standard that has yet to be finalized by the IEEE. They talk to ordinary 802.11a and 802.11b adapters being used today. They can not only send high-powered signals across long distances, but they can also read lower powered signals at the same range.
Read the full story on: PC Magazine
Meet BeOS 5 PE Max Edition
There are a few BeOS 5 PE 'spin-offs' available (three or four), created by BeOS enthusiasts who want to see more of BeOS in the future. Usually, these distros are loaded with lots of patches, additional drivers and third party applications. OSNews.com takes a look at 'BeOS 5 PE Max Edition'