corporate networks

With video and other rich media growing by leaps and bounds on the Internet and in corporate networks, Cisco has decided it's time to optimize. On Monday, the San Jose, Calif.-based company introduced new technologies and solutions it said will better enable "medianets" in home networks, businesses and through Internet service providers.

The company said "data-based communications are being replaced by video and rich media," and this is straining networks originally designed primarily for data.

'Immersive New Experiences'

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices is among the most recent casualties of the slowdown in technology spending. On Dec. 4 the chipmaker drastically cut its sales outlook, saying fourth-quarter revenue will drop about 25 percent from the third quarter's $1.59 billion.

Attackers bent on shutting down large Web sites -- even the operators that run the backbone of the Internet -- are arming themselves with what are effectively vast digital fire hoses capable of overwhelming the world's largest networks, according to a new report on online security.

In these attacks, computer networks are hijacked to form so-called botnets that spray random packets of data in huge streams over the Internet. The deluge of data is meant to bring down Web sites and entire corporate networks.

Kingston Technology Co. has teamed up with Intel Corp. to market flash memory-based drives to top makers of laptops and servers. The pact with chipmaker Intel is a shift for Fountain Valley-based Kingston, the leading maker of memory modules for computers.

Kingston traditionally has taken a "wait and see" approach to new products. It waited years to get into flash memory cards for consumer electronics, which now make up a quarter of Kingston's $4.5 billion in yearly sales.