Internet2 upgrades backbone

27 already inhaled all the spores into his lungs. Therefore, they told him to continue taking the antibiotics. Largely because officials provided little authoritative information, Ferrante said, his family was concerned at first that he could have carried spores from his clothing to his home. For example, he said, his two sons’ wives are pregnant and were worried about visiting. They were concerned that possible anthrax exposure would force them to take ciprofloxacin, and they were worried about its possible effects. They have subsequently decided the risk is insignificant. “I won’t let this [event] change my life,” commented Ferrante, who was employed by MITRE and Mitretek Systems, two nonprofit firms that work for government agencies, for about 20 years until his recent retirement, “although I’ll look at the mail a little more closely for a while.” In particular, Ferrante said, his IEEE USA committee’s bioterrorism-related work will continue. “This makes me even more determined to move ahead with these activities.” As for the anthrax mailings themselves, he said, “I think it’s despicable. It’s cowardice in its fullest form. I think these incidents have awakened a giant here to try to fix the system. And I think it will be fixed.” ✸ —Lee Garber complex set of interconnections, thereby enabling higher performance. Moreover, multiple chips could be combined within one BBUL package, which would be smaller than other multichip approaches, an important factor for handheld devices. In addition, Intel’s new technique would reduce the risk that future chips with more circuits would short-circuit if the higher number of solder balls touch. The BBUL approach of building the core and substrate together is innovative, according to Jim Walker, principal analyst for semiconductor packaging and assembly at market-research firm Gartner Inc. No one has yet come up with such an approach, which will require considerable time and expense to develop and implement, because the current technology will work well for a number of years, Banerjee said. Therefore, Intel plans to continue working on making the technology cost-effective by the time it is needed, perhaps in 2006 or 2007. According to Banerjee, BBUL’s challenge for Intel is not technological but instead is that the technique would necessitate a new manufacturing process. “It’s early to tell. There are a lot of positives,” Walker said. “But someone could come along in this five-year period with something new that might displace [BBUL].” ✸ —Linda Dailey Paulson