Can keyboards get more weird?

taken from ICE World Team in Mumbai | April 19, 2006 10:59 IST

Let's start with the roll-up keyboard that has the same measurements as a standard 102-key keyboard, but can be rolled up and put it in your pocket.

The wrist keyboard, as the name suggests, can be worn on your wrist. The SafeType keyboard is designed such that your hands and arms shall be in a more relaxed position while working with it as compared to a traditional keyboard.

Then there's the Virtual Laser Keyboard, which is a laser gadget that projects a virtual keyboard on a table or other suitable material, and then interprets your finger movements and passes them on to your PDA or whatever you have it connected to.

You also have the Frogpad, which is a very tiny keyboard. The manufacturer says you can get up to 40 words per minute if you practice between six to 10 hours with it. But why do they call it a Frogpad?

The Twiddler 2, on the other hand, will take you 'a weekend' to learn typing 30 words per minute, so the Frogpad wins that round. Maybe, you can twiddle your thumbs in the meanwhile.

The Orbitouch creates a keystroke when you slide the two domes into one of their eight respective positions. It also has an integrated mouse, so moving the domes gives you full mouse and keyboard capability. And there's the Datahand, which is aimed at people who get pain in their hands from typing with a traditional keyboard.

Si - nett

Founded in September 2002, SiNett Corporation is focused on designing purpose-built ICs and software to power the next generation of equipment for integrated wired and wireless networks. The company’s OneEdge Switch Processor family makes it possible for network equipment OEMs to lower costs, add compelling features and offer significantly increased performance for wireless access products in the enterprise.

Background

After some initial hesitation, enterprises have begun to embrace wireless networks. Now, with concerns about standards and security largely addressed, the desire for mobility in the workplace — and the improvement in productivity it brings — is driving the demand for wireless networks and applications. At the same time, some companies view wireless as the ideal solution for providing network access for "greenfield" deployments. As a result, WLAN device shipments are exceeding forecasts.

As wireless clients and the WLANs that connect them have increased in number, the need to unify wired and wireless networks has created a substantial and growing market opportunity. Analyst groups (such as Gartner) have predicted a fundamental shift in network design as wired and wireless merge into one. In fact, several OEMs made announcements in 2004 that validate that point.

Enterprises to date have been treating WLAN networks as separate overlay networks from their wired networks, but network managers would prefer to work with a single, unified, seamless network. Users could then take advantage of traditionally wired services (such as authentication and access policy services, VPNs, intrusion detection and prevention, etc.), while accessing the network using the mode that is most appropriate to their application.

Concurrently, network equipment providers are looking for ways to add value and improve the profitability of their products, especially as first-generation WLAN devices are quickly being commoditized. While shipments for WLAN devices have exceeded forecasts, average selling prices for devices like wireless switches are falling quickly. OEMs need new, dedicated silicon technologies that allow them to build more intelligence into their products and improve performance, while maintaining margins and lowering the costs of production.

Until now, the only silicon solutions on the market that meet feature-performance requirements for unified network management were based on technology that was designed for other purposes. These solutions are costly, do not offer compelling features or performance and require a long time to develop.

To meet these market needs, SiNett has developed a completely new silicon and software platform that addresses the unique problems of managing a unified network edge.

One Edge Switch Processors

Built from the ground up to unify wired and wireless enterprise networks, SiNett’s OneEdge Switch Processor is the industry’s first single chip solution that provides high-performance wired and wireless packet processing, robust security, advanced mobility and sophisticated traffic management. OneEdge’s purpose-built silicon architecture enables network equipment OEMs to build next- generation unified access switches, WLAN switches and WLAN appliances/controllers with significant performance and cost advantages over existing solutions.

Until recently, OEMs have been required to use multiple, complex silicon components to build networking equipment that supports integrated wired and wireless networks. Members of the OneEdge Switch Processor family share a common silicon and software architecture platform. As a result, network OEMs can leverage their design investment and cost effectively build a complete product family covering a wide price/performance spectrum for WLAN and unified access switching products.

With a single-chip architecture designed from the ground up with unified networks in mind, SiNett’s OneEdge provides several significant benefits, including a dramatic increase in datapath processing —guaranteed performance of 8 Gbps (worst-case) in full duplex mode for all major functions —and a system bill of materials (BOM) which is just one third to one quarter the cost of current implementations. In addition, OneEdge is optimized for advanced services, such as mobility, voice over WLAN, and multi-mode access point support.

Cisco Route Processor Module for Cisco MGX 8000 Series Multiservices

The Cisco Route Processor Module (RPM-PR), is a high-performance route processor module for the Cisco MGX^™ 8000 Series of Multiservice Switches, which allows service providers to quickly enable new, high-margin IP services using Cisco IOS^® Software at a low marginal cost. The Cisco RPM-PR provides high-quality, scalable, IP and ATM integration using Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology to create scalable Internet solutions. The Cisco RPM-PR allows the additions of an MPLS control plane for use by the Cisco Virtual Switch Architecture. The MPLS control plane can be used concurrently with the PNNI and Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) control planes on the Cisco MGX 8000 family of multiservice switches.

The Cisco RPM-PR brings enhanced performance and functionality to the RPM modules Router Blades for the MGX 8230, 8250 and 8850 Series. Improvements include a high-performance, NPE-400 processor capable of processing more than 350,000 pps, greater DRAM and Flash capacity, and hardware-based error checking and correcting (ECC).

The Cisco RPM-PR enables functionality such as Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) aggregation, IP virtual private networks (VPNs), IP quality of service (QoS), and IP routing.

The Cisco RPM-PR is a double-height line card, which connects to the MGX midplane through an internal OC-6 ATM cell bus. The Cisco RPM-PR supports up to two single-height back cards: four-port Ethernet and one-port Fast Ethernet.

Key Features

The RPM-PR offers the following features:

•High performance

•Over 350,000 pps forwarding

•Up to 512-MB DRAM

•32-MB Flash memory

•Support for 2000 virtual interfaces

•Single bit repair and double/triple bit detection ECC support for DRAM

•1:N redundancy

•Robust IP support

•Border Gateway Protocol Version 4 (BGP4)

•Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)

•Routing Information Protocol (RIP) Versions 1 and 2

•Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP)

•Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP)

•Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS)

•Static routes

Functionality

Software

The Cisco RPM-PR runs Cisco IOS Software and offers industry leading IP services and solutions. The Cisco RPM-PR supports all major routing protocols used today in service provider environments. The solutions and services the Cisco RPM-PR supports include:

Multiprotocol Label Switching

MPLS is an innovative approach that uses a label-based forwarding scheme which allows service providers to quickly and cost-effectively provision new customers as well as easily offer high-margin value-added services. MPLS offers the security and QoS of Layer 2 transport such as Frame Relay or ATM, but with the any-to-any connectivity of IP

MPLS-Virtual Private Networks

MPLS-virtual private networks (VPNs) deliver IP VPNs with the security and QoS of ATM and Frame Relay. By using Layer 3 routing protocols (such as BGP), the Cisco RPM-PR dynamically establishes network reachability without the complexity of configuring an overlay "mesh."

The Cisco RPM-PR can separate VPN-specific traffic by application, source, destination, and many other criteria. In a MPLS-VPN network architecture, the Cisco RPM-PR can behave as a provider edge router (PE) for providing VPN services. Some MPLS-VPN mechanisms supported on the Cisco RPM-PR are:

• Multiprotocol BGP extensions

•VPN "route-target" extended BGP community attributes

•MPLS forwarding across backbone

• Multiple routing/forwarding instances on the provider edge router

About google earth

A 3D interface to the planet

Google Earth –Explore, Search and Discover

Want to know more about a specific location? Dive right in -- Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

	Fly from space to your neighborhood. Type in an address and zoom right in.
	Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
	Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings.
	Save and share your searches and favorites. Even add your own annotations.

Google Earth

January 10, 2006 - Now available for the Mac

"For anyone who has ever dreamed of flying..." - NY Times

The idea is simple. It's a globe that sits inside your PC. You point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Tap into Google search to show local points of interest and facts. Zoom to a specific address to check out an apartment or hotel. View driving directions and even fly along your route. We invite you to try it now.

Features:

• Free for personal use.
• Sophisticated streaming technology delivers the data to you as you need it.
• Imagery and 3D data depict the entire earth - Terabytes of aerial and satellite imagery depict cities around the world in high-resolution detail.
• Local search lets you search for restaurants, hotels, and even driving directions. Results show in your 3D earth view. Easy to layer multiple searches, save results to folders, and share with others.
• Layers show parks, schools, hospitals, airports, shopping, and more.
• KML – data exchange format lets you share useful annotations and view thousands of data points created by Google Earth users.

Use it for:

• Planning a trip
• Getting driving directions
• Finding a house or apartment
• Finding a local business
• Exploring the world

Minimum System Configuration

• OS: Windows 2000, XP, or Mac OS X (10.3.9 +)
• CPU: 500MHz
• Free Hard Disk Space: 400 MB
• System RAM: 128 MB (PC), 256 MB (Mac)
• Video RAM: 16 MB
• Screen Resolution: 1024x768, 32-bit color
• Internet: 128 Kbps ("broadband")

recommended

1. Operating System: Windows XP
2. CPU: Pentium 4 2.4GHz+ or AMD 2400xp+
3. System Memory (RAM): 512MB RAM
4. Hard Disk: 2GB free space
5. Network Speed: 768 Kbits/sec
6. Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 32MB of VRAM
7. Screen: 1280x1024, "32-bit True Color" screen
   

System requirements for Google Earth on the Mac

The Google Earth client requires certain system configurations in order to run smoothly on the Mac.

Minimum Configuration:

• Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3.9
• CPU: G3 500Mhz
• System Memory (RAM): 256MB RAM
• Hard Disk: 400MB free space
• Network Speed: 128 Kbits/sec
• Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 16MB of VRAM
• Screen: 1024x768, "16-bit High Color" screen

Recommended Configuration:

• Operating System: Mac OSX 10.4.4
• CPU: G4 1.2Ghz
• System Memory (RAM): 512MB RAM
• Hard Disk: 2GB free space
• Network Speed: 768 Kbits/sec
• Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 32MB of VRAM
• Screen: 1280x1024, "32-bit True Color" screen