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Space

SpaceX's Thursday Launch Enables Starlink's New Satellite-to-Cellphone Internet Service (newatlas.com) 50

Posted by EditorDavid from the long-distance-calling dept.
"SpaceX has launched 20 of its Starlink satellites up into Earth's orbit, enabling direct-to-cellphone connectivity for subscribers anywhere on the planet," reports the tech blog New Atlas. That completes the constellation's first orbital shell, following a launch of an initial batch of six satellites for testing back in January. The satellites were launched with a Falcon 9 rocket from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on December 5 at 10 PM EST; they were then deployed in low Earth orbit. SpaceX founder Elon Musk noted on X that the effort will "enable unmodified cellphones to have internet connectivity in remote areas." He added a caveat for the first orbital shell — "Bandwidth per beam is only ~10 Mb, but future constellations will be much more capable...."

The big deal with this new venture is that unlike previous attempts at providing satellite-to-phone service, you don't need a special handset or even a specific app to get access anywhere in the world. Starlink uses standard LTE/4G protocols that most phones are compatible with, partners with mobile operators like T-Mobile in the U.S. and Rogers in Canada, and has devised a system to make its service work seamlessly with your phone when it's connecting to satellites 340 miles (540 km) above the Earth's surface. The SpaceX division noted it's also worked out latency constraints, ideal altitudes and elevation angles for its satellites, along with several other parameters, to achieve reliable connectivity. Each satellite has an LTE modem on board, and these satellites plug into the massive constellation of 6,799 existing Starlink spacecraft, according to Space.com.

Connecting to that larger constellation happens via laser backhaul, where laser-based optical communication systems transmit data between satellites. This method leverages the advantages of lasers over traditional radio frequency communications, enabling data rates up to 100 times faster, increased bandwidth, and improved security.
The direct-to-cell program was approved last month, the article points out — but it's ready to ramp up. "You'll currently get only text service through the end of 2024; voice and data will become available sometime next year, as will support for IoT devices (such as smart home gadgets). The company hasn't said how much its service will cost. " (They also note there's already competing services from Lynk, "which has satellites in orbit and launched in the island nation of Palau back in 2023, and AST SpaceMobile, which also has commercial satellites in orbit and contracts with the U.S. government, Europe, and Japan.")

Elon Musk's announcement on X.com prompted this interesting exchange:

X.com User: You've stated that purchasing Starlink goes toward funding the journey to Mars, yes?

Elon Musk: Yes.
AMD

Chip Designers Recall the Big AMD-Intel Battle Over x86-64 Support (tomshardware.com) 47

Posted by EditorDavid from the lose-or-Wintel dept.
Tom's Hardware reports on some interesting hardware history being shared on X.com: AMD engineer Phil Park identified a curious nugget of PC architectural history from, of all places, a year-old Quora answer posted by former Intel engineer [and Pentium Pro architect] Robert Colwell. The nugget indicates that Intel could have beaten AMD to the x86-64 punch if the former wasn't dead-set on the x64-only Itanium line of CPUs.
Colwell had responded on Quora to the question "Shouldn't Intel with its vast resources have been able to develop both architectures?" This was a marketing decision by Intel — they believed, probably rightly, that bringing out a new 64-bit feature in the x86 would be perceived as betting against their own native-64-bit Itanium, and might well severely damage Itanium's chances. I was told, not once, but twice, that if I "didn't stop yammering about the need to go 64-bits in x86 I'd be fired on the spot" and was directly ordered to take out that 64-bit stuff. I decided to split the difference, by leaving in the gates but fusing off the functionality. That way, if I was right about Itanium and what AMD would do, Intel could very quickly get back in the game with x86. As far as I'm concerned, that's exactly what did happen.
Phil Park continued the discussion on X.com. "He didn't quite get what he wanted, but he got close since they had x86-64 support in subsequent products when Intel made their comeback." (So, Park posted later in the thread, "I think he won the long game.")

Park also shared a post from Nicholas Wilt (NVIDIA CUDA designer who earlier did GPU computing work at Microsoft and built the prototype for Windows Desktop Manager): I have an x86-64 story of my own. I pressed a friend at AMD to develop an alternative to Itanium. "For all the talk about Wintel," I told him, "these companies bear no love for one another. If you guys developed a 64-bit extension of x86, Microsoft would support it...."

Interesting coda: When it became clear that x86-64 was beating Itanium in the market, Intel reportedly petitioned Microsoft to change the architecture and Microsoft told Intel to pound sand.

Comment They Work (Score 5, Insightful) 100

There's a reason to invest in Things That Work.
Yeah "renewables" are cool.... but most should be called "unreliables."
They NEED the backups. The "renewable" backup is HYDRO.
NUCLEAR would be good, too - a decent breeder reactor setup would be great!
But failing that, it's still down to carbon to deal with the load.
It might not be what many want to hear, but plugging ears changes NOTHING.
I am NOT saying "petrochemicals/coal forever" but... recognize that even in a transition away from them, we'll need them for a while.
I'd LOVE to be able to rely on non-carbon sources... alas, we are NOT there yet - and not even close.
The Internet

WordPress Founder Calls WP Engine a 'Cancer To WordPress' and Urges Community To Switch Providers (techcrunch.com) 10

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg unleashed a scathing attack on a rival firm this week, calling WP Engine -- a managed WordPress hosting provider that has raised nearly $300 million in funding over its 14-year history -- a "cancer to WordPress." From a report: Mullenweg criticized the company -- which has been commercializing the open source WordPress project since 2010 -- for profiteering without giving much back, while also disabling key features that make WordPress such a powerful platform in the first place.

[...] But speaking last week at WordCamp US 2024, a WordPress-focused conference held in Portland, Oregon, Mullenweg pulled no punches in his criticism of WP Engine. Taking to the stage, Mullenweg read out a post he had just published to his personal blog, where he points to the distinct "five for the future" investment pledges made by Automattic and WP Engine to contribute resources to support the sustained growth of WordPress, with Automattic contributing 3,900 hours per week, an WP Engine contributing just 40 hours.

While he acknowledged that these figures are just a "proxy," and might not be perfectly accurate, Mullenweg said that this disparity in contributions is notable, as both Automattic and WP Engine "are roughly the same size, with revenue in the ballpark of half-a-billion [dollars]." [...] Mullenweg published a follow up blog post, where he calls WP Engine a "cancer" to WordPress. "It's important to remember that unchecked, cancer will spread," he wrote. "WP Engine is setting a poor standard that others may look at and think is ok to replicate."

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