supercomputers

ALSO NOTED: Next version of IE will be IE8; 20 percent of French iPhones sold unlocked;

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:59:51 -0500

> Next version of IE will be IE8. Article
> Samsung to reveal world's first 1.3-inch hard drive at CES. Article
> 20 percent of iPhones sold in France are unlocked. Article
> Adobe PDF becomes ISO standard. Article
> IBM develops photonic supercomputer on a chip. Article
> Dell and Best Buy partner for retail sales. Article
> Rumor: Dual-core Celerons in January. Article

And Finally... Vista bug presents a paradox. Article

ALSO NOTED: Dell prepping 30" display with HDMI and DisplayPort; T-Mobile Sidekick Slide has sliding problems;

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 06:59:51 -0500

> IBM's BlueGene/L continues to dominate the supercomputer charts. Article
> Windows 7 requested feature list leaked. Article
> zBoost cellular repeater boosts reception. Article
> T-Mobile Sidekick Slide has sliding problems. Article
> Dell prepping a 30" display with HDMI and DisplayPort. Article
> OLPC XO: Laptop Magazine gives one, gets one. Article

And Finally... Exploded iPod gets trapped in resin, still works. Article

ALSO NOTED: Palm Treo 800w revealed?; OLPC XO sees production delays;

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:59:51 -0400

> Verizon pays out as part of a misleading data plan settlement. Article
> Palm Treo 800w revealed? Rumor
> OLPC XO sees production delays. Article
> Palm and Garmin launch a GPS navigator add-on. Press Release
> Comcast to be sued for Bit Torrent obstruction? Article

And Finally... Turn your PC into a "password cracking supercomputer." Article

ALSO NOTED: iTunes DRM-free tracks drop to $0.99, as expected; HTC to ship 50,000 Google Phones this year?;

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:59:51 -0400

> iTunes DRM-free tracks drop to $0.99, as expected. Article
> Linus Torvalds' own family uses Windows. Article
> HTC to ship 50,000 Google Phones this year? Rumor
> Acer-Gateway deal is official. Press Release
> When will your iPod die? Article
> MySpace, Skype hook up. Article
> Ultraportable MacBook on the 26th? Rumor

And Finally... Astrophysicist replaces supercomputer with Playstation 3s. Article

ALSO NOTED: More remote IT workers than in years past; IBM and HP duke it out over supercomputers;

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:59:10 -0400

> More remote IT workers than in years past. Article

> Sun Microsystems posts profit after five quarterly losses. Article

> IBM and HP duke it out over supercomputers. Article

> Tech group accuses sports leagues, media companies of violating fair-use rights. Article

And Finally... Add one more hazard to the environment and your health to the list: laser printers. Article

Big Blue is still Mr. Big of supercomputers

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:01:38 -0400

It has only been eight years since the supercomputer crossed the 4 teraflops (4 trillion calculations per second) mark. But the leader then remains the leader now and Big Blue is not looking back. Many systems on the newest The Top500 ranking--released Wednesday at the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany--weren't on the list at all when the last one was released in November 2006. But one familiar supercomputer, IBM's BlueGene/L at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, again topped the Top500 List of Supercomputers with 131,072 processors, staying far ahead of its closest competitors by achieving speeds of 280.6 teraflops. IBM dominated the list with 6 of the top 10 systems and 192 of the total 500, though Hewlett-Packard is actually the overall leader in terms of the percentage of systems. Forty percent, or 203 of 500, are powered by HP, but IBM's total teraflop sum is 2,060, almost double HP's total of 1,202.

For more on the list:
- see the Cnet article

The era of the supercomputer is dawning

Wed, 09 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Just as the mainframe barreled into the enterprise in the 1970s, the supercomputer is poised to make a dramatic impact on the enterprise of the 21st century. A supercomputer today is lightning-fast, using up to 131,000 processors to handle 280 trillion operations every second. But the real revolution is yet to come. Cost has decreased significantly; today, one million operations per second costs about 10 cents--a true bargain. Companies large and small don't know it yet, but they will become increasingly dependent on their supercomputers, as prices continue to fall and usability improves. There may be some culture shock and resistance before supercomputers come to be seen as natural extensions of computer rooms and data centers, but it will happen.

Read more about the dawning of the enterprise supercomputer:
- read the article at BPM Today

ALSO NOTED: HP leaks investigation goes back to Fiorina; Sprint offers new mobile security service; and much more...

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:00:50 -0400

> HP leaks investigation goes back to Fiorina. Article

> Sprint offers new mobile security service. Article

> Security tech not doing its part, some say. Article

> Turn graphics cards into a supercomputer. Article

And Finally... Aarrr! It's Talk Like a Pirate Day. Article

Need for speed spurs Federal computing investment

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:01:38 -0400

The federal government is turning its attention, and its money, to supercomputing. The government hopes to build supercomputers that break the current barriers in terms of computing speed, far beyond those topping the annual list of fastest systems in the world. Right now those on the Top 500 Supercomputer List are hitting multiple TFLOPS, or teraFLOPS--a trillion floating-point operations per second. But Uncle Sam wants to build PFLOPS or petaFLOPS systems--a quadrillion floating-point operations per second. Cray Inc. is already signed on to build such a system for the Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Computing experts say the investment and development of such computing environments will "change the way we do computational science."

For more on the need for compute speed:
- check out this article at ComputerWorld

SGI adds x86 servers, ready to exit bankruptcy?

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 20:01:35 -0400

Silicon Graphics, still struggling to survive after going bankrupt in May, now is launching a line of x86 servers. Its high-end servers use Intel Itanium chips, which haven't been very popular in the marketplace. The new servers, called Altix XE, are intended for Linux clustering and use Intel's latest dual-core Xeon chips--the 5100 "Woodcrest" series. SGI also announced a new midrange blade server, the Altix 450. (Email me with your bet on where SGI will be in 12 months.)

For more on IBM:
- read this Computerworld article

ALSO: HP unveils HPC blade. Article

PLUS: IBM, ClearSpeed in supercomputer collaboration. Article