IBM on Monday is launching its long-anticipated Power7 processor and systems based on the chip.
The processor is a big step for IBM, integrating eight processing cores–four times the number of cores in the prior-generation Power6–in one chip package, with each core capable of executing four tasks–called “threads”–turning an individual chip into a virtual 32-core processor. As a yardstick, Intel’s high-end Xeon processors–systems that Power7 will compete with–typically have two threads per processing core and contain four cores.
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IBM has a tall order from the U.S. Air Force–create a cloud network that can protect national defense and military data.
Big Blue announced Thursday a contract from the Air Force to design and demonstrate a cloud computing environment for the USAF’s network of nine command centers, 100 military bases, and 700,000 personnel around the world.
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Oracle received unconditional regulatory approval this week from the European Commission for its acquisition of Sun Microsystems.
Below is the all-hands memo Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz sent to employees following the announcement on Thursday. Pay particular attention to the first letter of the first 7 paragraphs.
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IBM is expected to announce on Thursday the largest enterprise cloud computing deployment to date as Panasonic begins a migration off Microsoft Exchange to IBM’s LotusLive cloud service. More than 100,000 employees will participate in the initial migration effort expanding to a total of more than 300,000 employees and external partners globally.
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Artist rendering of University of Illinois center that will house IBM's Blue Waters supercomputer (Credit: University of Illinois)
IBM will release a radical new chip next year that will go into a University of Illinois supercomputer in a quest to build what may become the world’s fastest supercomputer.
That university’s supercomputer center is a storied place, home to both famous fictional and real supercomputers. The notorious HAL 9000 sentient supercomputer in “2001: A Space Odyssey” was built in Urbana, Illinois, presumably on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.
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IBM said Monday that it has acquired database security firm Guardium.
Guardium is a leading vendor in monitoring and protecting databases for large enterprises. In addition to securing the data and watching database activity, Guardium’s technology can automate certain tasks to assist businesses with regulatory compliance, said IBM. Big Blue expects the acquisition to help its customers better shield their critical databases against both external and internal threats. Read more…
Insurance companies want us to be healthy. Really, they do. They have our interests at heart, and they defend those interests with an unusual zeal. This is why I am wondering which details might be missing from the tale of Natalie Blanchard.
According to the Associated Press, Blanchard, a 29-year-old IBM employee from Bromont, Quebec, was suffering from depression and took time away from work, relying on sick-leave benefits from her insurer, Manulife Financial.
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