Traditional measures such as TDP (thermal design power) or CPU architecture-specific benchmarks are no longer good predictors of actual chip power consumption, several computer science professors have charged. Their paper, which will be presented at an Association for Computing Machinery conference in March, advises chipmakers to expose their CPUs' power metering to programmers — something Intel has already done with its “Sandy Bridge” CPUs.

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Elektrobit (EB) and startup Raptor Identification Systems (Raptor ID) announced two ruggedized biometric devices that run Android 4.0 on TI's dual-core 1.5GHz OMAP4460. Raptor ID's RaptorOne smartphone offers a four-inch touchscreen; the RaptorPad tablet features a seven-inch display; and both offer iris cameras, fingerprint scanners, and CAC/smartcard readers.

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HyperShop has begun selling a pocket-size, battery-powered adapter that turns a USB storage device into a wireless file server, sharing files with Wi-Fi-enabled devices including the Apple iPad and iPhone. The $100 CloudFTP runs Linux on a Texas Instruments ARM9-based processor, features a 132 x 32-pixel LCD display and powered USB port, and supports backup and synchronization with online cloud storage services.

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Win Enterprises announced a 3.5-inch SBC (single board computer) equipped with Intel's 32nm “Cedar Trail” Atom processors. The MB-80410 accepts up to 4GB of RAM, has a Mini PCI Express slot, includes a single SATA connector, and provides multiple serial and USB ports, according to the company.

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Notion Ink says it will switch to a Texas Instruments OMAP 4 processor running Android 4.0 for its next generation Adam II tablet. In other tablet news, Pew Research found the percentage of U.S. adults who own a tablet computer nearly doubled from 10 percent to 19 percent between mid-December and early January, and RBC Capital estimated that Amazon.com will earn $136 in content-related revenue from each Kindle Fire customer.

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Ampex Data Systems announced a compact, ruggedized airborne recorder that runs SUSE Linux on a 1.3GHz Intel Atom E660T CPU. The ruggedized TuffServ 40 (TS 40) offers 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 2GB boot disk, an 80GB or 160GB solid state drive, a gigabit Ethernet port, and a -40 to 159.8 deg. F operating range.

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J5 Create announced a USB-based device that allows data, a mouse, and a keyboard to be shared between two computers without the use of a network. The JUH320V2 “Wormhole Station” also includes two backwards-compatible USB 3.0 ports and slots for microSD, SD, and MemoryStick media, according to the company.

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Aaeon announced a fanless controller that features a dual-core Intel Atom D525 processor and an operating range from -4 to 140 deg. F. The AEC-6612 Rev.B includes a CompactFlash slot and room for a 2.5-inch hard disk drive, up to six serial ports and six USB ports, two gigabit Ethernet ports, and optional Wi-Fi, according to the company.

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The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) released a security-enhanced version of Android based on the hardened SE Linux, featuring stricter access control policies. SE Android restricts the system resources available to an Android app regardless of user permissions, blocking malware such as the “GingerBreak” exploit at six different steps during execution, says the NSA.

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Devon IT announced a thin client that runs Linux on a 1.3GHz Via Eden processor. The TC5V includes 2GB of RAM, 4GB of flash, gigabit Ethernet, and dual display support via DVI-D and DVI-I connectors, according to the company.

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Lanner Electronics announced an Intel Core i3/i5/i7-based PC that's ready to provide 3G, Wi-Fi, and GPS connectivity, thanks to a Mini PCI Express slot and SIM card reader. The LEC-7920 supports up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, includes a 2.5-inch SATA bay, and offers gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, and serial I/O, plus both DVI-I and DVI-D video ports.

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Oracle is claiming Google makes $3.65 billion a year in mobile advertising from Android, basing its estimate on Google's own boast of 700,000 daily activations for Android devices. Oracle made the new claim to encourage a favorable settlement in its lawsuit against Google, which is finally scheduled to go to trial in March.

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Linux has vaulted to 1.4 percent worldwide desktop market share from 0.97 percent in July, according to Net Applications. Meanwhile, a new Linux Foundation survey on enterprise adoption of Linux indicates that 84 percent of organizations currently using the open source operating system have expanded their deployments over the last year.

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Kontron announced a 1U server that supports a range of “Sandy Bridge” Core processors and up to 16GB of RAM. The KISS 1U Short KTQM67 supports internal and external 3.5-inch disk drives, includes 10 USB 2.0 ports, and rather unusually also sports three video outputs as well as audio I/O, according to the company.

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Portwell announced a COM Express Basic module that offers Intel's 32nm-fabricated, dual-core Intel Atom N2000 and D2000 series (“Cedar Trail”) processors. Equipped with a Type 6 pinout, the PCOM-B218VG supports up to 4GB of DDR3 memory and includes SATA, gigabit Ethernet, and USB connections.

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