Scott Ferguson

A new research report shows that despite the uncertainties of the U.S. economy, PC shipments were robust in the first quarter of 2008 with Hewlett-Packard and Dell leading the way. The June 27 report from iSuppli found that worldwide PC shipments increased 12.1 percent in the first quarter of 2008 for a total of 69.9 […]

IBM and Microsoft, which alternate between fierce competitors and willing partners, are teaming up to test new limits in the field of high-performance computing and the cloud. On June 27, IBM officially will announce that Microsoft is one of the first customers for its iDataPlex server array. IBM first introduced this x86 server system in […]

Panasonic is taking Intel’s Atom processor into unexplored PC territory. The Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1, which the company announced June 25, will carry the Intel Atom Z520-1.33GHz, 533MHz FSB and 512KB L2 cache-along with a 16GB solid state drive, a 5.6-inch-wide screen and the promise of 9 hours of battery life. What makes the Toughbook CF-U1 […]

A pair of software companies want to put their own spin on desktop virtualization. Parallels, the company formally called SWsoft, and Quest Software are combining their virtualization and management software suites to offer a unified VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) product for enterprises looking to centralize the management of PCs in the data center. The combined […]

Hitachi is looking to beef up its blade offerings with the latest Intel Itanium processors. The company announced June 24 that it would add Intel’s 9100 series Itanium chips to its high-end BladeSymphony 1000 systems, as well as its lower-end BladeSymphony 320 servers. Additionally, Hitachi will begin offering the latest dual-core Intel Xeon 5200 series […]

The days of the ubiquitous mouse may be coming to an end. Those were the thoughts of Steve Prentice, a Gartner analyst, as he walked the floor of the 2008 CES show earlier this year and saw a host of ways, from facial recognition technology to the multitouch capabilities of Apple’s iPhone, to replace the […]

Rackable Systems is providing new ways for enterprises to build out the cloud. The company, which is known for its high-density server and storage products and has been one of the leading advocates for building mobile data center containers, launched five new systems June 23 aimed at businesses looking to build out their computing capacity […]

Sun Microsystems is looking to shine a light on its high-performance computing ambitions. While IBM and its Roadrunner supercomputer have gained the lion’s share of attention when it comes to HPC (high-performance computing) in the past month, Sun is slowly mapping out a strategy that aims to increase its presence within academic institutions and in […]

The era of the petaflop supercomputer is now officially here. IBM’s $100 million Roadrunner supercomputer, which is being installed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, is now the world’s fastest supercomputer, according to the newly published Top 500 list, with a maximum performance of 1.026 petaflops, or more […]

Sun Microsystems is offering a scaled-down version of its Constellation high-performance computer system, with a new, smaller switch and a blade based on quad-core Intel Xeon processors.This scaled-down version of the Constellation system, which can offer a performance of about 7 teraflops or 7 trillion calculations per second, will be on display June 18 at […]