If a total of 4GB memory is installed, the system will detect less than 4GB of total memory because of address space allocation for other critical functions, such as:

- System BIOS (including motherboard, add-on cards etc.)
- Motherboards resources
- Memory mapped I/O
- Configuration for AGP/PCI-Ex/PCI
- Other memory allocations for PCI devices
 
Different onboard devices and different add-on cards (devices) will result in a different total memory size e.g. more PCI cards installed will require more memory resources, resulting in less memory free for other uses.

This limitation applies to most chipsets and the Windows XP 32-bit operating system. This does NOT apply to 64-bit operating systems or chipsets that support the memory swap function e.g. Intel 975X, 955X, Nvidia NF4 SLI Intel Edition, Nvidia NF4 SLI X16, and AMD K8 CPU.

As the year approaches the end, every man and his dog in the IT industry has spoken out about their view of the market and industry in 2008.  The Tech Guy of the PC World magazine, who is a good friend of Compucon, gave 9 forecasts including one that CPU speed does not matter any more and remarked that he was always wrong.  Intel also gave 6 predictions and one of it is that the 1.2 billion of school age children is too big a market to be ignored.  After a filtering process, we have decided to stay with Gartner’s top 10 technology list as the basis for review.  Gartner has its agenda too but since Gartner is a market and industry research company, its list suits our purpose well.  The list includes topics as diverse as Mesh Up on one end and Server Virtualization on the other end.  We shall pay attention to them.

At the same time, let us look at what has actually happened on our home soil.  There is good news, bad news and neutral news.  The good news is that a Kiwi with a previously debatable role has succeeded the Father of IP Vincent Cerf as the chairperson of the high profile ICANN.  While this piece of news is easy to read, the others such as Xero, OpenEye and Digital Summit may not be.  We will discuss them at the Tech Briefing.   

IPMI View client software is written in Java for cross-platform support and will allow you to communicate with the IPMI controller/BMC (baseboard management controller) through UDP port 623:

Windows: ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/utility/IPMIView/Windows/

Linux: ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/utility/IPMIView/Linux/ 

User Manual: ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/utility/IPMIView/IPMIView20.pdf

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Legacy Version 2.6.34 build 071024 here: http://www.compucon.co.nz/files/ipmiview.zip

Simply extract the ZIP file and run the IPMIView20.bat. If you do not have Java RE installed you will need to install it first. This can be downloaded here: http://www.compucon.co.nz/files/jre-1_5.exe.

USB flash or hard drive devices by default get assigned the next available drive letter when plugged in. Therefore the QBack device will not always get the same drive letter assignment if other USB drives are plugged in first. Prior to Version 1.7.1.0 Build1115 the QBack software would incorrectly identify the drive letter change so please download and update to the latest version.

Version 1.7.1.0 Build1115 was privately released for Compucon NZ testing only - QNAP will officially release the next version containing this bug fix in the future. So if you are unable to find a later version at http://www.qnap.com/, please download this hotfix here in the meantime.

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A more detailed example describing the fault follows:

When the QBack-25 is the only USB device connected to your PC/laptop, the drive letter assignments might be as follows:
-          QBack Secure Disk (F:)
-          QBack Public Disk (G:)

But when another USB drive is plugged in before the QBack-25, the drive letter assignment will change because that USB drive will then be assigned (F:):
-          USB Flash Disk (F:)
-          QBack Public Disk (G:)
-          QBack Secure Disk (K:)