America: Unisys offers pay-per-use mainframe
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service/San Francisco Bureau
Unisys Corp. introduced a new line of its ClearPath mainframe servers, one of which will be available with a pay-per-use pricing model that will save customers between 20 and 30 percent on the cost of their big iron, according to the company.
The new line, called the ClearPath Plus Libra 500, is comprised of one midrange system - the Libra 520 - based on Intel's Gallatin multiprocessor Xeon chip, and two systems - the Libra 580 and Libra 590 - that will support either Xeon processors or the Unisys MCP CMOS processor.
Unisys has already begun introducing the pay-per-use Libra 590 to its customers, said Rod Sapp, the director of marketing for ClearPath at Unisys. "(...)
The Libra 590 uses software called the Utilization Sentinel that lets customers actually slow down
or speed up the level of system usage available to their mainframe applications, depending how much they want to spend each month. (...)
Unisys has been working on a port of the open source JBoss J2EE application server to the ClearPath's MCP operating system, and it expects to begin shipping and supporting JBoss with the Libra 500s later this year.
Pricing for the systems, which are available immediately, ranges from US$300,000 to $1.8 million.
America: Imation launches USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drive line
Brad Cook, MacCentral.com
Imation Corp. recently entered the flash drive market with their new line of USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drives, which weigh less than an ounce and plug into any USB 1.1 or 2.0 port. They sport a swivel cap that hinges to the drive instead of popping off and potentially getting lost.
The USB 2.0 Swivel Drives read and write data at 8MB and 7MB per second, respectively. Imation says they'll last up to 100,000 write cycles and retain data for 10 years. They come in 128MB, 256MB, and 512MB capacities for US$70, $125, and $250, respectively. Each also includes a USB extension cable and a neck strap.
America: CTIA: Wireless data dominates CTIA show
By Scott Tyler Shafer, InfoWorld (US)
It may not happen overnight, but the foundation for an empowered and connected mobile workforce is being laid.
At the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) trade show, attention centered on handsets and the extension of high-speed cellular networks that deliver data. These two distinct movements are expected to have a significant impact on the enterprise.
Verizon Wireless Inc. announced it would extend its high-speed data network nationwide, thereby giving consumers and road warriors data rates between 300Kbps and 500Kbps. The service, BroadbandAccess, will be introduced later this year and will reach phones, PDAs, and notebook computers equipped with PC modem cards. BroadbandAccess uses a next-generation CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology called EV-DO (Evolution-Data Only), which, as the name implies, delivers data only.
According to Richard Lynch, executive vice president and CTO of Verizon Wireless Inc., enterprises are clamoring for this kind of service so that they can make their existing applications available to employees on the move. "They're breaking my door down," Lynch added. (...)
Undeterred, handset makers continue to add robust functionality to phones and PDAs in anticipation of these devices being used to access data from an enterprise or for entertainment.
At the show, Motorola Inc. introduced two new phones clearly designed to eat up data. The A845, a UMTS/WCDMA (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service/Wideband CDMA) phone includes two-way video calling, GPS (Global Positioning System) location capability, MP3 audio downloading, and other features.
The second phone, the A840, combines GSM and CDMA technology in a single phone to allow travelers to use the phone in North America, Europe, and other regions while retaining the same number.
America: IBM seeks to push Power chip into new markets
By Stacy Cowley, IDG News Service (New York Bureau)
IBM Corp. made a raft of product and partnership announcements intended to help push its Power microprocessor beyond servers to an array of corporate and consumer devices.
IBM is observing a sea change in chip design: The industry is near the limits of the gains it can wring out of hardware advances, executives said. Future chip improvements will need to come from better integration of chips with the systems they run, in IBM's view.
"Integration eclipses gigahertz, going forward," said Bernie Meyerson, who heads IBM's semiconductor development. "You can't make things smaller forever. What happens when the individual layers in your transistor get down to the dimensions of what they're made out of, which is, roughly, atoms?"
IBM plans to address that challenge with two approaches that have been a foundation of its corporate strategy since Sam Palmisano took control as IBM's chief executive. First, it will abide by its "on-demand" mantra and focus on a flexible, holistic approach to chip design, treating software and other system components as key to technical advancements, said Vice President of Technology and Strategy Irving Wladawsky-Berger. Second, it will work closely with outside partners.
Toward that end, IBM announced new licensing and manufacturing options and plans to build a community of development partners around its Power architecture. Sony Corp. has licensed the Power technology for use in future consumer electronics, and will work with IBM to customize the chips it will use.
IBM had a selection of partners and customers on hand to endorse its development strategy.
(...) IBM also previewed at the event its Power5 processor, due out in the second half of the year, and announced that it will begin shipping in April blade servers based on the Power architecture.
One analyst attending the event said IBM's development strategy differs significantly from those of its chipmaking rivals, including In
tel Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.
"IBM is creating a computing ecosystem that can be pushed up or down. I can't really think of anyone else who is doing that," said Charles King, research director of infrastructure hardware for Sageza Group Inc. "Intel has taken a very different approach, of creating specific processors for specific markets."
King said he expects IBM's strategy to be a successful one, and sees the Power architecture as an emerging industry standard. He also noted that IBM's plans to open its development process gives the company access to a broader talent pool than is available to more proprietary designers.
"You get smart people to help you, and you see where that leads," King said.
America: A digital music player fit for a stereo
By Jason Snell, MacCentral.com
Once you've transferred your music collection onto a Mac or an iPod, and gotten used to the freedom of having your entire music library at your fingertips, it's hard to go back to using your stereo's primitive CD changer. CDs don't afford you the luxuries of an MP3 library - for example, shuffling through an artist or a genre. Slim Devices Inc.'s Squeezebox bridges the gap between your hard drive and your stereo, giving you control over your music from an easy-to-use stereo component.
Like its predecessor, the excellent SliMP3, the Squeezebox has no moving parts or hard drive. Instead, you run the free Slim Server software on the computer that holds your music collection. If you're running OS X and iTunes, installation is a snap - Slim Server appears as a system preference pane, and the software automatically links to your iTunes library and playlists. With its bright fluorescent display and infrared remote, the Squeezebox fits right in as a home stereo component, letting you navigate its iPod-style interface by remote control. (You can also control the Squeezebox via a Web browser.) The device's standard display size is a bit too small, but its double-size mode works fine when you're all the way across the room.
The Squeezebox will please casual users and audiophiles. Its built-in support for 802.11b wireless networking is great for people who don't have Ethernet jacks behind their stereos. Slim Devices also sells the US$249 Squeezebox Wired, which offers only Ethernet connectivity. Connecting to my home network was easy, but AirPort users should write down their Network Equivalent Password if they're using WEP encryption to secure a local network.
The Squeezebox comes with many audio-out options, from the standard RCA stereo plugs to coaxial and optical digital outputs. It even includes a minijack for headphones or powered speakers. (...) Audiophiles will thrill at the Squeezebox's support for raw uncompressed audio, which means it can play back AIFF or WAV files natively, without any compression artifacts. Slim Server can also convert other formats, including AAC and the lossless FLAC, for playback on the Squeezebox, and will play Internet radio streams in MP3 Shoutcast format. However, the Squeezebox can't play encrypted files from the iTunes Music Store, and you have to edit a text file hidden deep within Slim Server's package if you want to change its format-conversion preferences
Europe: Apple offers Xgrid guide
By Jonny Evans, Macworld.co.uk
Apple Computer Inc. has published an introductory guide to using its Xgrid clustering software that shows new users how to set up Power Mac clusters.
'Xgrid: High performance computing for the rest of us' attempts to show who may benefit from using Xgrid, and how it can be set up and used. The company released Xgrid Preview 2 last week.
The piece also includes a selection of case study stories showing how Xgrid is used in different disciplines. These include real-life examples of the use of the clustering software at: the University of Utah; the Ontario Cancer Institute at the University of Toronto; the Center for Advanced Computation at Reed College; Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia and NASA's Langley Research Center. (...)
The page also offers links to other resources pertaining to Xgrid. A PDF guide to the technologies used in Xgrid is also available from Apple.
Asia and Pacific: Sony brings PSX close to original specification
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)
Sony Corp. will begin offering a software update for its PSX digital video recorder and game console that will add almost all of the features originally promised by the company but missing from the device when it went on sale in Japan in December.
Users with a broadband connection to their PSX units will be able to download the new software while others will be able to order a CD-ROM containing the new software from Sony.
The PSX, which combines the functions of a hard-disk drive and DVD-based video recorder with a PlayStation 2 games console, went on sale in Japan in December as one of the key products of Sony's year-end range. It was, however, missing a number of features originally promised by Sony when the company first showed the device at a local trade show two months earlier.
Several promised functions were absent, such as support for DVD+RW discs and the ability to play back data CD-R discs (al-though audio CDs recorded on CD-R discs were supported), display TIFF and GIF format images, show movies taken with Sony's Cybershot digital still cameras and play back MP3 files.
Copying video files from the PSX's hard disk drive to DVD discs was at 12X speeds rather than the promised 24X, and it also could not connect to the PlayStation BB online gaming service.
Sony was unable to deliver the functions because it had run out of time in developing the product to meet the December sales target, the company said.
The new software update adds not only these functions but also several new features such as playback of commercial DVDs at 30X speeds and the ability to record both audio channels of a bilingual television broadcast. However, one feature is still missing from the device - the ability to connect to PlayStation BB. This feature will be available in a further update, a company spokesman said.
The PSX is one of the first of a new generation of electronics devices that can have features added through software updates after the devices have gone on sale. This week, Sony will also provide an update for owners of its Blu-ray Disc video recorder that adds support for digital terrestrial television. Earlier this year Toshiba Corp. offered owners of several of its LCD (liquid crystal display) televisions a new software package that added a Web browser function to the television.