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Today’s topics include Google’s rollout of the new Android 7.0 Nougat OS, ARM’s push into the supercomputing space, Microsoft’s release of its Visual Studio 15 Preview 4 toolset and IBM’s expansion of its all-flash lineup.
Google has begun rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat, the newest version of its mobile operating system.
In keeping with the usual schedule for Android rollouts, Google’s family of Nexus devices will receive the new OS in the next few days and weeks. Owners of Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus Player, Pixel C and General Mobile 4G will get the new operating system as an over-the-air update on their devices. But it could be months before users of Android devices from most other manufacturers get the upgrade on their systems. The LG V20, which is expected to roll out sometime in the third quarter of this year, will be the first non-Google device to feature the new operating system version.
According to Google, Android Nougat packs more than 250 major features, many of them based on input from developers and users of the operating system, who five months ago were given a preview version of Nougat.
ARM is making a strong push into the supercomputing space as the industry continues its march toward exascale computing.
Officials with the company, whose chip designs can be found in most smartphones and tablets and are working to make their way into enterprise servers, provided more information on a new chip design that includes vector processing capabilities, which will enable the chips to better process many of the workloads being run in high-performance computing environments today.
ARM engineers detailed the company’s Scalable Vector Extension technology Aug. 22 at the Hot Chips 2016 show in Cupertino, Calif.
Microsoft has announced the release of Visual Studio “15” Preview 4, the latest edition of its flagship developer toolset that introduces a host of bug fixes and new improvements including a new installation experience for developers.
The new installation experience is designed to reduce the minimum footprint of Visual Studio, install more quickly with less system impact and uninstall cleanly, and make it easier for developers to select and install just the features they need, Microsoft said.
“The highlight of this release is that nearly all of Visual Studio is running on the new setup engine, resulting in a smaller, faster and less impactful installation,” said John Montgomery, Microsoft’s director of program management for Visual Studio, in a blog post on the new release.
IBM made two storage-related news announcements Aug. 23: First, it is expanding its already extensive all-flash product lineup; second, the company is offering a new migration service to induce current Dell and EMC customers to make the move to IBM.
The product expansion is designed to provide small and midsize organizations as well as global enterprises with primary storage for cloud or cognitive applications and workloads, IBM storage executive Mike Kuhn told eWEEK.
The storage migration program, “Flash In,” is a no-cost program designed specifically to help Dell and EMC clients to transition to IBM on the pathway to becoming cloud-first businesses, Kuhn said.