everyday computing

Perhaps the biggest threat to Google Inc.'s increasing dominance of Internet search and advertising is the rising fear, justified or not, that Google's broadening reach is giving it unchecked power.

This scrutiny goes deeper than the skeptical eye that lawmakers and the Justice Department have given to Google's proposed ad partnership with Yahoo Inc. Many objections to that deal are financial, and surround whether Google and Yahoo could unfairly drive up online ad prices.

On Wednesday, AMD announced an external graphics platform technology called ATI XGP. The company hopes to revitalize its notebook-chip business by bringing desktop graphic performance and rich-media capabilities to laptops.

The ATI XGP technology lets AMD deliver graphics over a connected cable to an externally powered and cooled device. It delivers up to 4GB in bandwidth in each direction between the notebook and external graphics, according to AMD.