Azure, Cloud Computing Platform From Microsoft.

Microsoft has released a CTP, Customer Technical Preview of Windows Azure, a cloud services operating system that serves as a development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform.

Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host and manage web applications on the internet through Microsoft data centers.

So if you want to be up in the clouds, follow this link.

Tags: Windows Azure, Cloud Computing

SUSE Gets Wyse And Collaborates On Enterprise Thin Client Virtualization.

SAN JOSE, Calif. and WALTHAM, Mass.— Wyse Technology, the global leader in thin computing, and Novell today announced the joint delivery of Wyse Enhanced SUSE® Linux Enterprise, the next-generation of Linux* operating system designed for thin computing environments and available only on Wyse desktop and mobile thin client devices. Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise is a powerful combination of Wyse's extensive experience in thin computing and the ease of use, flexibility and security of SUSE Linux Enterprise. Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise will be available pre-loaded on the Wyse thin client devices in Q4 2008.

According to a 2008 IDC report (1), the Linux thin client market will grow from nearly 1 million units in 2008 to 1.8 million units in 2011. Linux will reach a 30.5 percent share of all operating system shipments on thin client devices by 2011. The ever-increasing market penetration of Linux-based thin clients is due to their ability to lower total cost of ownership, while helping enterprises gain a more secure and flexible computing environment. Additionally, in emerging areas such as desktop virtualization, the operating system used by client devices is becoming less relevant, as long as it is an enabler of virtualization technologies, and not the limiting factor.

With Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise customers gain a host of benefits. End-users will be able to maximize productivity and minimize training costs due to the easy-to-use graphical user interface combined with the rich user experience provided only by Wyse, including cross-platform multimedia support, USB peripheral support and flexible hardware options. IT administrators will gain the flexibility of having their thin client devices automatically update and configured upon boot-up, or being able to use the enhanced scalable management capabilities of Wyse Device Manager, the industry-leading thin computing management software solution.

"With the announcement of Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise pre-loaded on our platforms, we are providing more choices and more flexibility to users who wish to deploy Linux-based thin clients," said Ricardo Antuna, vice president of Product Management and Business Development at Wyse Technology, Inc. "Since we announced our intention to collaborate with Novell last year, we have worked towards creating a solution that will enable our customers to deploy Linux without the compromises on security, scalability and performance encountered with non-standard and proprietary thin Linux distributions. Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise doesn't disappoint."

"We are pleased that Wyse has selected SUSE Linux Enterprise as the platform for their next generation Linux-based thin clients," said Carlos Montero-Luque, vice president of product management for Open Platform Solutions at Novell. "This is clear indication of the readiness of desktop Linux overall to meet the needs of enterprise customers, including lower costs, stronger security and improved manageability. All kinds of organizations are finding Linux thin client deployments to be a good fit for their hardware, security needs and budgets, and we are excited to partner with Wyse to deliver a market-leading solution."

Integration with Microsoft* Active Directory* and unparalleled driver and software support will enable enterprises to easily deploy Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise thin clients in a Windows* environment. Finally, Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise includes built-in support for Wyse's suite of virtualization software, enabling enterprises to take advantage of third-party desktop virtualization solutions such as Citrix* XenDesktop* and VMware* VDI.

"Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise further builds momentum for client virtualization by providing customers with multiple options when deploying desktop appliances within their organizations," said Raj Dhingra, group vice president and general manager, Desktop Delivery Group, Citrix Systems Inc. "The tight integration between Wyse’s suite of desktop appliances and Citrix client virtualization technologies, XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp, provides a superior experience for the user and a cost-effective solution for desktop and application delivery."

"The VMware-Wyse partnership has been extended with the release of Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise with built-in support for the VDM client. This release further helps lower the overall costs of deploying a VMware VDI solution by eliminating the need for expensive client-side hardware and operating systems," said Jerry Chen, VMware's senior director of Product Marketing for Enterprise Desktop Products.

Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise includes the GNOME* desktop, Firefox* browser, a powerful terminal emulator, as well as pre-built technologies for connecting to thin computing architectures. These architectures include the VDM client from VMware, the ICA client from Citrix, and the RDP client from Microsoft. This flexibility and support makes Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise the ideal choice for organizations whether they wish to run server-based, Web-based, or local (including legacy) applications.

Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise will be available in Q4 2008 pre-loaded Wyse X50L mobile thin client devices. For more information on Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise and the Wyse family of thin clients visit http://www.wyse.com/products.

Tags: virtualization, Thin Computing, SUSE, Wyse, Linux, Enterprise linux

IC (Integrated Circuit) Is 50 Years Old And TI Launches Kilby Labs To Honor Jack Kilby.

DALLAS (September 12, 2008) - Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:TXN) announced its new "Kilby Labs" today, a center of innovation designed to foster creative ideas for breakthrough semiconductor technology. Launched on September 12, the 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit, the new labs will build on IC inventor Jack Kilby's legacy of revolutionizing our lives through chip innovation.

Kilby Labs will be located on TI's Dallas North Campus and is inspired by the original TI lab, where Kilby first designed the chip that opened the door to 3G cell phones, portable ultrasound machines and automotive antilock braking systems. The new facility, though, will bring together university researchers and leading TI engineers to discover life-changing opportunities for semiconductor technology. From creating new ways to make health care more mobile to harnessing new power sources to enabling more fuel-efficient vehicles, researchers at the Kilby Labs will focus on developing chip advances that make a difference.

"All of us at TI believe that technologies that significantly impact our lives are the right technologies for our business," said Rich Templeton, Chairman and CEO of TI, at the launch celebration held at the Semiconductor Building on TI's North Campus. "The power to help make the world healthier, safer, greener and more fun is what gets us excited about chip innovation, and why we come to work every day at TI. It's what motivated Jack Kilby to build the first IC and why he was able to transform the world through his ideas and inventions."

"Our vision for Kilby Labs," said Gregg Lowe, TI senior vice president and the project's executive sponsor, "is that it will combine TI's experience in developing new chip technologies and our understanding of customer needs with the dreams of a new generation of innovators. Technology springs from imagination, and we want to create an environment where people can both imagine a better world and help build it. The best way we can celebrate Jack's contributions is by providing people with the opportunity to carry on his work and find new ways for a tiny chip to dramatically improve millions of lives around the world."

TI has named Ajith Amerasekera as director of its new Kilby Labs. Ajith, who is a TI Fellow, joined the company in 1991 and holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Physics. He previously served as CTO for TI's application-specific integrated circuit division, and as the holder of 28 issued patents and author of four books on semiconductors, Ajith is well recognized in the international technical community.

In addition to the new Kilby Labs, TI is honoring Jack Kilby's life and legacy with a variety of events showcasing his unique vision within the world of engineering and his creative expression through photography:

• Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University, Dallas: Jack Kilby: The Eye of Genius - Photographs by the Inventor of the Microchip will run through September 21. The exhibit displays several artifacts, such as a collection of Kilby's photography, his original notebook of sketches and ideas for the integrated circuit, his Nobel Prize in Physics, the world's first microchip and the first handheld calculator.
• The Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas: A microchip mini-exhibit will run through October 19. The display features items from the TI archives in contrast to their modern form, along with video footage.
• Texas Instruments Headquarters: The original lab where Kilby worked and made his significant discovery of the first integrated circuit has been recreated onsite. The recreated lab will inspire future inventors and serve as a visual reminder of the power of science and technology combined with creativity.
• Great Bend, Kansas: TI has made a donation toward Jack Kilby's memorial statue in his hometown of Great Bend, Kansas. To learn more about the 50th anniversary of Jack Kilby's invention of the integrated circuit, please visit www.ti.com/tichip.

Tags: integrated circuit, Jack Kilby, Kilby Labs, IC

Volunteer Astronomer Finds “Cosmic Ghost”

Green Object in the center is the “Hanny’s Voorwerp”

New Haven, Conn. — When Yale astrophysicist Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues at Oxford University enlisted public support in cataloguing galaxies, they never envisioned the strange object Hanny van Arkel found in archived images of the night sky.

The Dutch school teacher, a volunteer in the Galaxy Zoo project that allows members of the public to take part in astronomy research online, discovered a mysterious and unique object some observers are calling a “cosmic ghost.”

van Arkel came across the image of a strange, gaseous object with a hole in the center while using the www.galaxyzoo.org website to classify images of galaxies.

When she posted about the image that quickly became known as “Hanny’s Voorwerp” ( Dutch for “object”) on the Galaxy Zoo forum, astronomers who run the site began to investigate and soon realized van Arkel might have found a new class of astronomical object.

“At first, we had no idea what it was. It could have been in our solar system, or at the edge of the universe,” said Schawinski, a member and co-founder of the Galaxy Zoo team.

Scientists working at telescopes around the world and with satellites in space were asked to take a look at the mysterious Voorwerp. “What we saw was really a mystery,” said Schawinski. “The Voorwerp didn’t contain any stars.” Rather, it was made entirely of gas so hot — about 10,000 Celsius — that the astronomers felt it had to be illuminated by something powerful. They will soon use the Hubble Space Telescope to get a closer look.

Tags: Galaxy Zoo project, astronomy research, cosmic ghost, Hanny’s Voorwerp, Hubble Space Telescope

Apache, PHP and PostgreSQL. As A Stack For All Your OS Platforms,

Bitnami has released a new set of Infrastructure Stacks: LAPPStack, MAPPStack and WAPPStack. If you did not know what they are, it is time you get to know them.These stacks provide an easy to install distribution of Apache, PostgreSQL, PHP and supporting libraries. The user-friendly installer allows users to quickly install and configure a PHP-PostgreSQL platform on Linux, Windows and OS X. These also include phpPgAdmin, a management tool for PostgreSQL, to make administration tasks even easier.
LAPPStack for Linux, MAPPStack for MAC OS X and WAPPStack for of course windows. I have all my development machines that spans all three plaforms, supported by these stacks. If you are in the visinity of any web development, I suggest you pay a visit to BitNami.
You will also find that forum, wiki, CRM and document management applications such as Drupal, Joomla!, WordPress, DokuWiki, KnowledgeTree and SugarCRM are provided as packages for easy deployment. Now you know where I go to get mmost of my development stacks!
Info Source, BitNami Blog

Tags: LAPPStack, MAPPStack, WAPPStack, Apache, PostgreSQL, PHP, phpPgAdmin

$360 Million Data Center in North Carolina by IBM to Serve Cloud Computing.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC - 01 Aug 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today plans to build a $360 million state-of-the-art data center at its facility in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina. The data center will include new technologies and services that will enable IBM to deliver Cloud Computing capabilities to clients.

Cloud computing uses advanced technologies and global delivery mechanisms to enable individuals to access information and services from any device with extremely high levels of availability and quality of experience.

IBM will renovate an existing building on its RTP campus in North Carolina to create one of the most technologically advanced and energy efficient data centers in the world. The new data center will be the first in the world to be built with IBM's New Enterprise Data Center design principles. Clients using this center will have unparalleled access to massive internet-scale computing capabilities, while gaining the cost and environmental protection advantages of IBM's industry-leading energy efficiency data center design.

Data centers are the backbone of information technology (IT) infrastructure for businesses and other organizations, with powerful servers and storage systems running business-critical technology including software applications, email and web sites. IBM owns and operates more than eight million square feet of data center space -- more than any other company in the world.

This new RTP data center is a key component in IBM's Project Big Green initiative to dramatically increase energy efficiency in the data center, as companies face escalating energy costs and the requirement to handle a rapidly rising amount of data.

"This announcement further demonstrates IBM's commitment to our state and to our people," said Gov. Mike Easley. "I look forward to maintaining this partnership with IBM for years to come."

"This new data center is part of IBM's commitment to construct the world's most advanced data centers," said Bob Greenberg, general manager of IT Optimization and North Carolina Senior State Executive at IBM. "This is the latest example of IBM's deep history of innovation in North Carolina. When we open for business in late 2009, the new IBM data center assures that Research Triangle Park will be a strategic location for our outsourcing business for many years to come. I'd like to thank the State of North Carolina, Durham County, the Durham Chamber of Commerce, and Duke Energy for their outstanding support that helped make this project possible."

"IBM's innovations have been a cornerstone of the Research Triangle Park and Durham County, and this new state-of-the-art data center certainly continues that outstanding legacy," said Ellen W. Reckhow, Chairman of the Durham County Board of Commissioners. Durham County approved allocating $750,000 in economic development incentives for IBM's new data center.

More nformation from IBM.

Tags: Research Triangle Park, IBM, Cloud Computing, Project Big Green

Phoenix, We Have Water On Mars.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.

"We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."

With enticing results so far and the spacecraft in good shape, NASA also announced operational funding for the mission will extend through Sept. 30. The original prime mission of three months ends in late August. The mission extension adds five weeks to the 90 days of the prime mission.

"Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good, so we want to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars," said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm first reached that depth, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday's sample had been exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle.

"Mars is giving us some surprises," said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. "We're excited because surprises are where discoveries come from. One surprise is how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we've done. That has presented challenges for delivering samples, but we're finding ways to work with it and we're gathering lots of information to help us understand this soil."

Since landing on May 25, Phoenix has been studying soil with a chemistry lab, TEGA, a microscope, a conductivity probe and cameras. Besides confirming the 2002 finding from orbit of water ice near the surface and deciphering the newly observed stickiness, the science team is trying to determine whether the water ice ever thaws enough to be available for biology and if carbon-containing chemicals and other raw materials for life are present.

The mission is examining the sky as well as the ground. A Canadian instrument is using a laser beam to study dust and clouds overhead.

"It's a 30-watt light bulb giving us a laser show on Mars," said Victoria Hipkin of the Canadian Space Agency.

A full-circle, color panorama of Phoenix's surroundings also has been completed by the spacecraft.

"The details and patterns we see in the ground show an ice-dominated terrain as far as the eye can see," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, lead scientist for Phoenix's Surface Stereo Imager camera. "They help us plan measurements we're making within reach of the robotic arm and interpret those measurements on a wider scale."

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin in Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

For more about Phoenix, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix

Media contacts: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Tags: Water On Mars, Phoenix mission, NASA, Phoenix Mars Lander

Argonne National Laboratory's IBM Blue Gene/P, The Fastest Supercomputer In The World For Open Science.

Argonne National Laboratory's IBM Blue Gene/P, The Fastest Supercomputer In The World For Open Science.

ARGONNE, Ill. (June 18, 2008) — The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory's IBM Blue Gene/P high-performance computing system is now the fastest supercomputer in the world for open science, according to the semiannual Top500 List of the world's fastest computers.

The Top500 List was announced today during the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany.

The Blue Gene/P – known as Intrepid and located at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) – also ranked third fastest overall. Both rankings represent the first time an Argonne-based supercomputing system has ranked in the top five of the industry's definitive list of supercomputers.

The Blue Gene/P has a peak-performance of 557 Teraflops (put in other terms, 557 trillion calculations per second). Intrepid achieved a speed of 450.3 Teraflops on the Linpack application used to measure speed for the Top500 rankings.

"Intrepid's speed and power reflect the DOE Office of Science's determined effort to provide the research and development community with powerful tools that enable them to make innovative and high-impact science and engineering breakthroughs," said Rick Stevens, associate laboratory director for computing, environmental and life sciences at Argonne.

"The ALCF and Intrepid have only just begun to have a meaningful impact on scientific research," Stevens said. "In addition, continued expansion of ALCF computing resources will not only be instrumental in addressing critical scientific research challenges related to climate change, energy, health and our basic understanding of the world, but in the future will transform and advance how science research and engineering experiments are conducted and attract social sciences research projects, as well."

"Scientists and society are already benefiting from ALCF resources," said Peter Beckman, ALCF acting director. "For example, ALCF's Blue Gene resources have allowed researchers to make major strides in evaluating the molecular and environmental features that may lead to the clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia, as well as to simulate materials and designs that are important to the safe and reliable use of nuclear energy plants."

Eighty percent of Intrepid's computing time has been set aside for open science research through the DOE Office of Science's (SC) highly select Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program. There are currently 20 INCITE projects at the ALCF that will use 111 million hours of computing time this year. SC's Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research provides high-level computer power focused on large-scale installation used by scientists and engineers in many disciplines.

The Top500 List is compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim in Germany, Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of DOE's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The list made its debut in June 1993 and ranked as No. 1 DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory's Thinking Machine Corporation's CM-5, with 1,024 processors and a peak-performance of 131 gigaflops.

Argonne National Laboratory brings the world's brightest scientists and engineers together to find exciting and creative new solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Angela Hardin (630/252-5501 or ahardin@anl.gov) at Argonne.

Tags: IBM Blue Gene/P, Argonne National Laboratory, International Supercomputing Conference, ALCF, INCITE, Hans Meuer, Jack Dongarra, Erich Strohmaier, Horst Simon, CM-5

Happy 4th Of July America!

Happy 4th Of July America!

Tags: 4th of July, America People We See, Independence day

Ixia To Demo 100 GbE Network Connections

June 17, 2008. In Las Vegas, NV, Ixia will be the first test vendor to demonstrate testing of 100 GbE network connections. This proof-of-concept demonstration can be seen as part of Infinera's demonstration of 100 GbE transport at their booth (#5607) and by appointment in Ixia's private meeting room (MSL 4704).

More Internet bandwidth is continually needed due to the general expansion of Internet usage and to the adoption of bandwidth-hungry applications, including IPTV, video, peer-to-peer sharing, and wireless backhaul. Computer and network architecture and technology have kept pace with such advancements as multi-core processing, virtualization, networked storage, and I/O convergence. These improvements have similarly led to increased demand for data center bandwidth.

Historically, increased bandwidth requirements have been addressed with solutions that begin by combining multiple lower bandwidth links, and then transition to higher bandwidth links. We've seen this multiple times, in the transition from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps.

Today, both within data centers and across major Internet links, multiple 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) links are aggregated using one of several link aggregation protocols. Aggregation, however, comes with a raft of problems. Use of multiple 10 GbE links requires a large-scale replication of resources, including expensive computer interfaces and switch ports. Aggregation of multiple flows can be a complex operation, calling for packing of flows that use less than 10 Gbps of traffic and splitting of flows that use more than 10 Gbps. The bursty nature of most Internet protocols, coupled with stringent SLAs, often results in bandwidth wastage.

It's essential that single, logical, high-speed links be available in the data center and throughout the Internet. The step to 100 GbE is seen as a key ingredient to the next major expansion of the Internet - "the core empowers the edge."

If these high-speed links are ever to become ubiquitous, standards and conventions must be developed. The IEEE has taken the lead in 40 GbE and 100 GbE standards. Starting with the inception of the IEEE HSSG (high speed study group) in mid-2006, the Task Force (IEEE 802.3ba) was formalized at the end of 2007 and is scheduled to issue approved standards by 2010. At the same time, multiple network component vendors are participating in multi-source agreements (MSAs) for internal and interface components not dictated by the standards.

The members of the IEEE committee strongly believe that 100 GbE is ready now - that no new breakthrough is needed to proceed. In fact, due to the immediate need for high-speed links, NEMS and carriers have implemented the 802.3ba pre-standards. There's likewise an immediate need for test equipment to be used by NEMs, carriers, and enterprises to validate full line-rate operation, verify interoperability, and validate protocol operation.

To meet the needs of 100 GbE users, Ixia has concentrated its efforts toward providing IEEE 802.3ba test equipment that tracks the evolving standards for 100 GbE.

Ixia's 100 Gigabit Ethernet Proof of Concept Demonstration offers:

• An IEEE 802.3ba Task Force-based implementation
• The first 100 GbE line-rate traffic generation and analysis solution
• The first PCS-layer implementation using multilane distribution (MLD)

Ixia believes that its active participation in the IEEE standardization effort and its dedication to providing test equipment that paces the standardization effort will help to foster the development of 100 GbE network products. A full family of compatible, tested products will serve to ensure the acceptance of this important technology.

When available, Ixia's 100 GbE interface card will merge seamlessly with all other Ixia interfaces and test applications. As a compatible member of Ixia's test platform, it will allow full layer 2-7 testing with all types of interfaces, at all speeds.

For more information, including white papers on 100 GbE and PCS/MLD, please go to http://www.ixiacom.com/100GbE. For a private demonstration and briefing at NXTComm'08 - e-mail Thananya Baldwin, Strategic Programs Director, at tbaldwin@ixiacom.com to make an appointment to see this leading-edge technology.

Tags: 100 GbE Network, 100 GbE transport, Infinera, NXTComm'08, IEEE 802.3ba