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IBM Still Dominating Green500 List

Paul Lilly — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:02:14 -0600

Who would've guessed that 18 of the top 20 most energy efficient supercomputers on the planet are built with IBM hardware? Let's be honest, who wouldn't have guessed it? This isn't the first time IBM has dominated the Green500 list, which includes a range of energy efficient supercomputers all around the globe, but it's hard not to be impressed that the company holds 69 of the top 100 positions on the list.

"Supercomputers can no longer focus only on raw performance. The era of simply adding more processors is coming to a close," said David Turek, vice president, deep computing, IBM. "Clients need to be able to run supercomputers anywhere, not only places that have cheap power. As the Green500 proves, IBM has focused on this issue for some time and is well positioned to usher in performance breakthroughs along with efficiency gains."

IBM also claims the most energy efficient system in the world with a supercomputer built at the Julich supercoming center in Germany. The machine is capable of producing more than 732 Mflops per watt of energy.

IBM Working on Chips to Simulate the Brain

Bart Salisbury — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:34:30 -0600

Processors are nearing the point where cramming more into a smaller space isn’t going to work--the laws of physics aren’t going to cooperate. This means a new paradigm needs to be found, and the researchers at IBM moved one step closer to one possibility: mimicking the human brain.

The human brain, while it might not seem so at first glance, is a vastly superior computing machine. Nice to know, since it has perhaps a billion years of evolutionary tinkering to work out the bugs. As such it is an ideal model to emulate: the internal communication structure, low power consumption, and compact size make it incredibly efficient. IBM announced today that it has taken a step closer toward developing a computer which stimulates and emulates the brain’s ability to sense, perceive, recognize, and interact.

The result is a computer with an intelligence level approaching that of a cat. (What, it lays about 90% of the day sleeping, and spends the remaining 10% whining?) The breakthrough by the IBM team, in cooperation with researchers at Stanford University, employs a new algorithm that allows large-scale cortical simulation, and replicates a billion spiking neurons and 10 trillion individual learning synapses.

Joesphine Cheng, an IBM fellow and lab director of the IBM research facility, in a released statement said: “Learning from the brain is an attractive way to overcome power and density challenges faced in computing today. As the digital and physical worlds continue to merge and computing becomes more embedded in the fabric of our daily lives, it’s imperative that we create a more intelligent computing system that can help us make sense the vast amount of information that’s increasingly available to us, much the way our brains can quickly interpret and act on complex tasks.”

Image Credit: Terran Jade/Flickr

IBM Introduces New Security Product for Virtual Environments

Paul Lilly — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:04:41 -0600

IBM is taking virtualization security to the next level with a new product designed to safeguard enterprise virtual server infrastructures, the company said.

The product -- IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere -- purports to help growing companies stay protected as they consolidate their data centers. IBM said it has been working with clients to simplify and optimize their virtual infrastructures, and that this product allows those same businesses to put up a shield against next-gen security threats.

"Clients are asking for solutions to secure their data centers as they move from a traditional environment to virtual deployments. To that end, IBM has built this solution based on feedback of hundreds of customers looking to answer this urgent need," said Brian Truskowski, general manager, IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS).

Some of the automatic protection features of IBM's Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere include Virtual Network Access Control (CNAC) to limit network access from a virtual server until security posture can be confirmed, rootkit detection, virtual infrastructure monitoring, and more.

The new product will be available in December 2009.

Image Credit: IBM

IBM Shifting Focus to Zero-Emission Data Centers

Paul Lilly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:48:43 -0600

IBM continues to focus on going green and is now hard at work developing technology that could lead to zero-emission data centers, according to a report at eWeek.com.

Bruno Michel, the guy in charge of Advanced Thermal Packaging at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory, said he and his team have put their heads together trying to figure out new ways of reducing emissions and waste in data centers. Among the ideas being tossed around are chip stacking and liquid cooling.

"High-performance liquid cooling allows data centers to operate with coolant temperatures above the free cooling limit in all climates, eliminating the need for chillers and allowing the thermal energy to be reused in cold climates," Michel said.

According to Michel, his team has been able to remove 85 percent the heat load from high-performance compute nodes at a temperature of 60C.

As data centers continue to consume more energy, expect more companies to devote increasing amounts of R&D into reducing emissions.

Image Credit: datacenterknowledge.com

IBM Grabs 200 Customers from Sun and HP in Third Quarter

Paul Lilly — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:03:47 -0500

According to IBM, some 235 former Sun and HP customers moved their critical business workloads to IBM servers and storage systems in the third quarter. And in the past three years since IBM first established its Migration Factory program specifically for this purpose, Big Blue has been able to convince nearly 2,000 customers to make the switch, most of which have come from rivals Sun and HP.

Perhaps weary of what the future holds once Oracle's acquisition of Sun is complete, 84 Sun clients made the move to IBM Power Systems in the third quarter alone. According to IBM, it's the company's long-term investments in systems and consistent roadmaps that have been the biggest draws.

Speaking of Power Systems, IBM gained five share points in the third quarter, which is the sixth consecutive quarter of share gains. System x systems gained two points, while IBM storage went up an unspecified amount in the third quarter.

Image Credit: IBM

Ubuntu and IBM Join Forces against Windows 7

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:17:00 -0500

IBM is hoping its latest war cry can somehow pierce the din that Windows 7 seems to be generating. In September, the company struck a partnership with Canonical, the UK-based sponsor of Ubuntu, which resulted in the launch of an Ubuntu-based desktop bundle in Africa.

The cloud- and Ubuntu-based software package, which is part of IBM’s Smart Work Initiative, will soon be debuting in the States. The Ubuntu-based desktop package includes IBM’s free Lotus Symphony productivity suite and Lotus Notes, which is a business email and collaboration solution.

The IBM Client for Smart Work will only arrive in the U.S. in 2010 despite IBM positioning it to rival Windows 7 – on the brink of launch - in the enterprise market. It will be available both as a run-of-the-mill desktop and as a virtualized desktop.

"If a company is a 'Windows shop,' at some point it will need to evaluate the significant costs of migrating its base to Microsoft's next desktop," said Bob Picciano, General Manager, IBM Lotus Software. IBM and chums are clearly targeting those businesses that are not too keen on Windows 7.

Intel, IBM Execs Hit with Insider Trading Chargers

Paul Lilly — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:50:01 -0500

Robert Moffat, IBM's highest ranking hardware executive and front runner to carry the CEO torch, has been indicted on chargers of insider trading. So has Rajiv Goel, a managing director of Intel subsidiary, Intel Capital, and Anil Kumar, a director at consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and adviser to AMD.

Insider trading carries some serious repercussions, and if found guilty, all three could be looking at prison time. And it's not looking good. Thanks to wiretapped phone conversations and statements from an informant, SEC investigators believe they can show how the trio used inside information and well-timed trades to accumulate more than $25 million in illegal gains.

One alleged illegal instance includes Goel giving billionaire investor Raj Rajaratnam a heads up on January 8, 2007 that Intel share prices would likely rise over the next couple of days. According to the feds, this prompted Rajaratnam to purchase 1 million shares of Intel stock, and then 500,000 more on January 11. On January 16, he unloaded all of his Intel stock, netting about $1 million profits in a matter of four days.

Goel is also accused of alerting Rajaratnam about an impending deal between Clearwire and Sprint, which ended up netting him another $750,000 in profits.

There's a ton more to the scandal, all of which you can read here.

Image Credit: Onlanka News via DailyTech.com

IBM Has Strong Third Quarter, Expects Shares to Rise in 2010

Paul Lilly — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:39:37 -0500

IBM on Thursday posted its third quarter results, and for the most part, it was all good news for Big Blue. Compared to last year, the company posted better numbers pretty much across the board.

IBM report third quarter diluted earnings of $2.40 per share, up 18 percent over last year's earnings of $2.04 per share. Net income also shot up by double-digit percentage points and settled at $3.2 billion, up from $2.8 billion last year, which is a 14 percent gain.

"We continued to invest for growth in areas where clients see potential for value creation including Smarter Planet solutions, cloud computing, and advanced business analytics," the company said in a statement. "We are optimistic about 2009 as we again raise our full-expectations and we remain well had of pace for our 2010 roadmap of $10 to $11 per share."

By the end of the year, IBM said it now expects full-year earnings to hit $9.85 per share compared with its previous expectation of at least $9.70 per share.

Image Credit: IBM