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The IBM supercomputer at Brown University is 50 times more powerful, six times more energy efficient and can hold 70 times more memory than the system it's replacing. Researchers and scientists across the region will have access to the supercomputer, which will have a peak performance of more than 14 teraflops. The supercomputer includes IBM's iDataPlex and holds 1,440 microprocessors. The Marine Biological Laboratory, in Woods Hole, Mass., will be one of the first users.
IBM, CA Ease Mainframe Software Management, Development
IBM unveiled a number of new software products to make it easier for businesses to manage their mainframe environments and develop applications for the platform. In addition, CA announced that its Endevor Software Change Manager is integrated with IBM’s Rational mainframe developer platform.
Intel Investing Millions for Supercomputer Research in Europe
Intel and three French research institutes are planning to invest several million euros to create a supercomputing facility to explore the outer limits of high-performance computing. The Exascale Computing Research Center will tackle issues related to weather forecasting and health care.
HP, SGI, Cray and Dell Show Off New Systems at Supercomputing 2009
Industry-standard technology, GPUs and energy efficiency were among the key themes running throughout the Supercomputing 2009 show in Portland, Ore. At the show, which wraps up Nov. 20, a number of vendors, including Cray, Dell, HP and SGI, showed off new and enhanced high-end systems, many of which are designed to enable businesses and HPC (high-performance computing) environments to ramp up performance and density while driving down operational, capital and power costs. In addition, Intel unveiled that it will offer a & Nehalem EX& Xeon processor optimized for supercomputing, while the chip maker boasted that 402 of the top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world are powered by its processors. Rival AMD took the No. 1 spot, with the Opteron-powered & Jaguar& computer from Cray knocking off IBM's & RoadRunner& at the top of the list. Here are a few of the new systems OEMs showed off at the show.
IBM Gets Closer to Computer That Acts Like a Human Brain
IBM researchers at the Supercomputing show say they and their university partners have hit two key milestones in their efforts to develop a computer that can monitor data and act on it in ways similar to a human brain. The development of such a computer could help businesses more logically act on the rapidly growing streams of data that are generated.
IBM Cuts Power Memory Prices to Lure HP, Sun Customers
IBM is pressing what it sees as an advantage over HP and Sun by cutting prices by as much as 70 percent on memory in its Power systems. The goal is to further tempt customers of Sun’s SPARC systems and HP’s Itanium platform to migrate to IBM’s Power architecture. However, one analyst also said that the Power platform also is competing with less-expensive x86 systems, which are moving deeper into scale-up environments.
SGI Takes Wraps Off Altix UV 'UltraViolet'
SGI is showing off its scalable Altix UV supercomputer aimed at HPC environments and high-end enterprise workloads. The system can scale up to 2,048 processing cores with a performance of up to 18.6 teraflops. SGI is unveiling the system, which is powered by Intel’s upcoming “Nehalem EX” Xeon processors, at the Supercomputing 2009 show.
Nvidia Unveils 'Fermi'-Based Tesla GPUs
Nvidia is giving attendees at the Supercomputing show a look at the upcoming Tesla GPUs that will be based on the company's CUDA architecture, code-named Fermi. Nvidia is continuing to push GPUs into the general-purpose computing space, an effort begun in 2006 when the company first introduced the CUDA architecture for massively parallel-processing workloads. Chip makers Intel and AMD are now working to integrate more graphics capabilities into their CPUs, and OEMs are beginning to build systems powered by GPUs.
Egypt Moves for First Arabic Domain Name
As the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers begins accepting applications for its IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process, Egypt says it hopes to be the first nation to have a domain name using Arabic script.
HP Doubles Its Blade Server Density
At the Supercomputing conference, HP shows off the latest of its double-density blade servers, the ProLiant BL2x220c G6 servers, which pack two Intel Xeon-based blades into the physical space of one. The goal is to help HPC administrators increase the capacity and energy efficiency of their environments while keeping costs down. HP also is introducing the first AMD-based ProLiant SL skinless servers.
Cray Jaguar Takes Top Supercomputer Spot from IBM Roadrunner
After more than a year as the world’s fastest supercomputer, IBM’s Roadrunner system was knocked down to the second spot by Cray’s Jaguar. Cray’s XT5 system got a boost when the computer maker swapped out the quad-core AMD Opterons for the six-core “Istanbul” chips, ramping up the power to more than 224,000 processing cores. Sun and SGI also were represented in the top 10 of the Top500 list of the fastest systems.
Appro to Show Off AMD, Intel and Nvidia Systems at SC09
At the Supercomputing show, Appro will unveil a host of new HP solutions that will be powered by CPUs from Intel and AMD, and Nvidia's Tesla GPUs based on its upcoming architecture code-named Fermi. Appro executives say using GPUs for more general-purpose computing jobs will be a focus of the show. Appro also will show off a future system running on upcoming AMD Opteron chips.
IBM Opens Analytics Center in Washington
The IBM Analytics Solution Center, recently opened in Washington, will focus on the federal market.
Cray, Dell, Microsoft Team Up on HPC Workstation, Cluster
Cray and Dell are partnering on a new integrated workstation and compute cluster aimed at such customers as SMB R D groups and enterprises new to HPC. The Cray CX1-iWS systems offer an integrated high-end workstation and a compute cluster, all powered by Intel “Nehalem EP” processors and running only Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows HPC Server 2008. The systems will only be sold through Dell.
eWeek Newsbreak Nov 10 2009
A new company is looking to give enterprises a clearer view into their IT infrastructure and applications to enable them to create more energy-efficient environments and drive down power and cooling costs. IBM is working to deliver technology that could lead to zero-emission data centers. The news was discussed at USENIX Large Installation System Administration conference, where Bruno Michel, manager of Advanced Thermal Packaging at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory, said his team is working on new ways to reduce emissions and waste in data centers, including methods such as chip stacking and liquid cooling. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told an audience in Tokyo that the Microsoft-Yahoo agreement over search-and-advertising could expand beyond the U.S. into worldwide markets. Dell recently introduced its newest laptop, the Adamo XPS. This is the second to be released in its design-minded Adamo family. And its evident--The Adamo XPS further pushes the ideas of thinness, modern design and innovation that were introduced by its predecessor.
IBM Building Zero-Emission Data Centers
IBM is working to deliver technology that could lead to zero-emission data centers, says an IBM researcher at the USENIX Large Installation System Administration conference.
How to Achieve 40 Percent Energy Savings in Your Data Center
Today's data center managers have many techniques to reduce their data center's energy consumption, but a mixture of techniques is often required to achieve energy saving targets. The key to judging success of any energy reduction strategy is the ability to accurately measure results along each step of the way. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Joe Polastre illustrates how power management technology can be used to achieve up to 40 percent energy savings in your data center.
HP vs. Cisco: Polar Opposites in Data Center Strategies
News Analysis: Cisco and Hewlett-Packard are coming at the next-generation data center with opposite strategies: Cisco wants to partner with the best available suppliers, and HP wants to be the one-stop shop for any enterprise. The general direction of all of this is toward cloud computing, and the question is who will become the go-to suppliers of new systems needed to run Internet-delivered services as older data centers get replaced during the next several years.
Global Telecoms Set LTE Standard for Voice, SMS
AT T, Verizon and 10 other carriers, equipment vendors and device manufacturers present a jointly developed technical profile for Long Term Evolution voice and SMS services.
Top 10 Technologies to Consider for 2010
Each year at its October symposium in Orlando, Fla., Gartner publishes a report highlighting the top 10 technologies that could impact the enterprise market in the next three years. The research firm bases its selections on their potential to disrupt IT or business, the demand for investing considerable dollars in a technology, as well as the risk for companies that come late to a particular technology. Some of these selections are duplicated each year, while others knock previous entries out of the batch. Heading into 2010, here are Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies that companies should consider as they prepare their business plans for the new year.