Intel Xeon Upgrade for Oracle-Sun x86

Oracle recently released a new collection of Oracle-Sun x86 servers, networking devices, and storage devices towards the end of June. The releases are expected to be highly conforming to the needs of customers with their advanced features. The new servers included in the Oracle-Sun x86 hardware lineup:

• Sun Fire x2270 M2 – includes 1U, up to 2 sockets, 96 GB memory capable, Xeon 5600 processor.
• Sun Fire x4170 M2 – includes 1U, up to 2 sockets, 144 GB memory capable, Xeon 5600.
• Sun Fire x4270 M2 – includes 2U, up to 2 sockets, 144 GB memory capable, Xeon 5600.
• Sun Fire x4470 – includes 2U, up to 4 sockets, 512 GB memory, Xeon 7500.
• Sun Fire x4800 – includes 5U, up to 8 sockets, 1 TB memory capable, Xeon 7500.
• Sun Blade x6270 M2 – includes up to 2 sockets, 144 GB memory capable, Xeon 5600.

The new servers are implanted with Intel’s ‘Xeon’ processors which were recently released in March. The servers are coupled with a 10 Gigabit Ethernet network blade, a storage blade,  and two 10 GbE switches that are based on the new Intel Xeon Processors. They will ship mainly with operating systems like ‘Solaris’, ‘Oracle VM’ and ‘Enterprise Linux’ but will also support other operating systems like ‘VMware’, ‘Red Hat’, ‘SUSE Linux distros’ and ‘Windows’.

With wide OS support and the Intel Xeon processor upgrade for the servers, conusmers have been pleased by the release. A unix/storage engineer called Tom Becchetti expresses his content with this feature:

“We’re .getting away from Solaris on x86, Our media servers were running Linux and Solaris, but we had stability issues with Solaris. So it’s like, OK, back to Linux.”

The director of product management, Dimitris Dovas, proudly explained that “there is a very vigorous quality process we put our products through. We need time for full integration with the new technology and appropriate testing of the new technology.” He has also claimed that Oracle had started shipment of the hardware in May for customer review and testing.

It seems that Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) is losing to Intel. Oracle hasn’t commented on their future relationship with AMD. No new talks have been made on AMD-based x86 hardware but rumors have been that AMD based server would be dropped by the company. However, the excutives have not confirm these rumors.

As senior director of product management, Graham Lovell said they “will continue to select the best chip components for [their] products going forward. [They] are still shipping AMD-based systems and have the opportunity to include AMD in future products.” Lovell is reluctant to discuss whether there are plans to include AMD in the product line or if they already have hardware with the new AMD release. Lovell justifies this by saying that Oracle does not discuss plans for components they have not released.

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Samsung to roll out Dual-Core A9 Processors for Smartphones

In the ever increasing load of applications and widgets that are being created every day, it becomes necessary to multi task between the various applications that are running in your Smartphone. You might have been frustrated with the occasional delays that your Smartphone may have while starting up. Well, with Samsung introducing the Dual-Core A9 Processor things are certainly going to speed up. Samsung seeks to gain a competitive edge of Qualcomm Snapdragon and Tegra 2 which are currently ahead with developing the dual core processor.

According to Vice president of Marketing, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics, Dojun Rhee “Consumers are demanding the full web experience without compromise while on the go. Given this trend, mobile device designers need an application processor platform that delivers superb multimedia performance, fast CPU processing speed, and abundant memory bandwidth. Samsung’s newest dual core application processor chip is designed specifically to fulfill such stringent performance requirements while maintaining long battery life.”

Experts point out that a mobile device is keen to become the next “PC” for consumers, as advances in application development has brought about greater access to information. Not only do consumers need GUI applications but they would like to have an entertaining experience by playing games, view movies or take photos on the go. In order to make this happen the only alternative is to increase the CPU speed of the processor. Due to these reasons Samsung has invested into the market of Dual Core processors, which will certainly facilitate its own product developments of products like Galaxy Tab and the Galaxy Wave.

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ARM Introduces New Cortex-A15 Processor for Smartphones

ARM has introduced a new processor, the Cortex-A15 which has a processing speed of 2.5 GHz. The new processor represents a 5x performance improvement over the previous-generation technology, which is keenly being looked as a technology multiplier for smartphones. ARM is a leading company in the smartphone processor market, in which the company hopes that smartphone companies will take advantage of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor to run is various devices such tablets, digital home entertainment devices, wireless base stations and enterprise infrastructure.

The 2.5GHz Cortex-A15 processor offers to scalable solutions which include low energy consumption, high processing speed as compared to its competitors in the smartphone market and it allows smartphone companies to introduce graphics intensive application. However one of the major drawbacks is that ARM’ architecture microprocessors are currently incompatible with the major off-the-shelf server applications.

According to Wilkins, principal analyst at iSuppli, “It is also a considerable challenge to persuade CIOs to adopt and invest in a new server architecture that will require new platforms, new applications, and new skills to maintain.”

ARM licenses its core IP technology which means it is not the sole manufacturer of its chips. However in the recent past ARM has been able to establish successful partnerships with IT giants like ST Ericsson, Texas Instruments and Samsung Electronics. Such a partnership will enable ARM to penetrate a larger market segment and increase its revenue base.

According to ARM Executive Vice President Mike Inglis, “The Cortex-A15 MPCore processor will become the next major step along the industry’s energy efficient computing roadmap and open up a wide range of new application possibilities.

The major issues that ARM has to deal with currently are compatibility issues of its Cortex-A15 Processor which applications such as flash, Java, Linux and Microsoft. After these are resolved the Cortex-A15 Processor is keen to capture a larger market segment.

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The z196 Processor-World Fastest Processor

IBM recently announced details of the world’s fastest computer chip which is a microprocessor in a new version of the IBM mainframe which will be shipped on September 10.

With the increase in the number of applications that demand multitasking and high graphic usage it is becoming highly imperative to have high speed processors for enterprise applications. High speed microprocessors are necessary for businesses that handle financial transactions, data mining and communications. As the world becomes increasingly globalized data has grown beyond the world’s storage capacity, and business transactions continue to skyrocket.

With a complete investment of $1.5 the new zEnterprise technology is the result of research and development in the zEnterprise line, as well as more than three years of collaboration with some of IBM’s top clients around the world.

Features of z196 Processor

• z196 processor is a four-core chip that contains 1.4 billion transistors on a 512-square millimeter (mm) surface.
• designed by IBM engineers in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and was manufactured using IBM’s 45 nanometer (nm) SOI processor technology in the company’s 300mm lab
• Up to 60% increase in total system capacity for Data managed with DB2 and IMS Mainframe processor makes use of IBM’s patented embedded DRAM (eDRAM) technology, which allows IBM to place dense DRAM caches
• Up to a 66% improvement in Java performance with Linux on System z

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Sony Introduces Its First SXRD 3D Projector, The VPL-VW90ES

From time immemorial Sony Corporation has always topped the chart and remained in lime light for the innovative and eye-catchy gadgets from its shelves. The Company launched the best ever gaming console’s like playstations that were very much adored by many gamers. The Company was the one that loaded the market with first ever Blue-ray disc, which can expand its storing space beyond 10 GB (Giga byte). Sony Corporation is the one which brought revolution by the introduction of LCD T.V like Bravia, which gave an outstanding theatre feel to the view and took the viewer in to a 3D world. Now to please its consumers the Company have launched yet another masterpiece. A life line for business, education and oodles of purposes is given a new definition by Sony Company. The Company is like a pioneer in the field of Technical gadgets. The life line is a “Projector”.

Now Sony has successfully launched the world’s first ever SXRD 3D Projector, the VPL-VW90ES model. This Projector is a gigantic one that makes use of the 3D projector which is located in front and makes use of the SXRD technology by Sony to offer the mono Ultra High kind of Performance. The latter will hold a price of $10,000 and an ES Label. It has got an ANSI lamp made from 1,000 lumens for the delivery of a gigantic 1080 p 24 picture quality. The projector’s 240 Hz rate of frame is the reason behind the 3D image quality of it. The 3D image fascinated chaps longing for a 3D effect need to have 3D shades on in order to enjoy to the maximum. Sony’s pioneer masterpiece will hit the market by early November this year.

Some features of the Projector

Feature one

Sony brings for its folks the 3D big-screen cinematic kind of experience and one can rejoice with the same sitting at home with the help of VPL-VW90ES. It is the first ever Sony’s projector to receive a tag of ES which stands for “Elevated Standard”. The latter mainly throws light on its significant feature of an awesome video quality and great build up quality.

Feature two

The SXRD technology adhering with the Projector by Sony stands for “Silicon X-Tal Reflective Display”. A HD (High definition) projector with resolution of 1920 x 1080 delivers the cinematic experience with the True Cinema touch with Sony’s 24p. For delivering the best full HD images in 3D, the latter holds a very high frame rate of 240Hz that leaves the folks with a smoothening effect of 3D world.

Feature three

The projector makes use of an UHP (Ultra High Performance) with 1,000 ANSI lumens that carves the brightness and delivers the best ever cinematic experience. The Advance Iris 3 technology by Sony aids to portray a much dynamic and fantastic contrast ration of about 150000:1.

Thus, if you long to get home the world’s first ever Sony Projector VPL-VW90ES with SXRD 3D technology will have to wait until the month of November this year.

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NVIDIA® Readies Dual GPU GTX 590 launch

The race between ATI and NVIDIA continues with NVIDIA announcing release of the Dual-GPU GTX 590. There was rumor in the market that NVIDIA might delay introduction of its Dual GPU to gain an advantage over ATI. NVIDIA had already confirmed that it would be soon introducing a dual GPU. It has named its latest processor as George GTX 590. NVIDIA has made an intelligent move by timing its dual GPU George GTC 590 at the same time when ATI is expected to release its much anticipated dual GPU Radeon HD 6990 “Antilles”. The NVIDIA launch is intended to catch AMD off-guard similarly as it did during launch of the predecessor GeForce GTX 580. AMD had earlier announced that it would be introducing “Antilles” in February 2011.  NVIDIA’s recent announcement was a big surprise for AMD as the dual GPU GeForce GTC 590 will directly compete against its dual GPU Radeon HD 6990 “Antilles”.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTC 590 has its foundation on the 40 nm fabrication process. NVIDIA has announced in its press release that the GeForce GTX 590 will be equipped with 2 GF110 GPUs each having a 512 CUDA core of its own. The card will also have 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, 2 x 384 bit memory interface and enhanced support for DirectX 11.

NVIDIA has made significant changes in the design process of its dual GPU GeForce GTX 590. It has also increased GPU frequencies, thus providing more effective solution. NVIDIA has confirmed that the dual GPU GeForce GTC 590 clock frequencies are set at lower level than its predecessor GeForce GTX 580, which has only one GF110 GPU. NVIDIA has not mentioned how much power the dual GPU GeForce GTX 590 will consume. Experts say that such things will only be known when the dual GPU from NVIDIA hits the market. Experts also have an opinion the power consumption of the new dual GPU will be far greater than its predecessor GeForce GTX 580. The reason given for this is the new dual GPU features two GF110 GPUs, while the GeForce GTX 580 has only one GF110 GPU.

Experts believe that NVIDIA has already decided the design and unnamed sources tell that the dual GPU will have a big 90-mm radial fan fixed in the center of the full cover cooler. The size of the GeForce GTX 590 will be closer to GeForce GTX 295 model. However, the dual GPU will be bit longer than its predecessor.

The GF110 cores used in GeForce GTX 590 are manufactured at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). The dual GPU board is packed with 128 texturing units, 1024 stream processors and 96 ROPs (Render Output Units). NVIDIA has said that it has brought the dual GPU in market to capture the demand of performance market as the sales of entry level GPU is dwindling.

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Intel® Core i7-990X processors

Intel is busy experimenting with a 1000 Core processor on the architecture for the 48 core single chip Cloud Computer Processor. In the year 2009 itself, Intel launched their experimental 48 Core central processing unit (CPU) on a stamp sized piece of silicon. What is really interesting is the processing capability of this 48 core CPU chip, with amazing power management and power consumption features of the same. So, a 6 core or 4 core chip from Intel with speeds and performance capabilities is the foregone conclusion.

The CPU competition has gone manifold into the number of processors that can be squeezed into a single chip and the concurrent speeds of processing is what is the cutting edge technology in mainstream processing production capabilities. In fact, Tilera, the company has claims of production of 36 Core and 64 Core chips, and have even announced a 100 Core processor on the anvil. NVIDIA is claimedly working on a 512 Core Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Working hand–in-hand with Microsoft and various cloud computing technologies, Intel strives to retain its position as the best, and most ingenious processor manufacturer around.

The concept of requirement of less cooling and reducing power consumption against the erstwhile higher and highest frequency race, maximizing processing capacity in smaller and smaller data centers, is what Intel is beating the competition to it, at.

Ranging from the revolution in 1969, with their Intel 4004 processor introduced in 1971 commercially, with 2300 transistors and 10 Micron Silicon technology, Intel have, over various steps grown to the 3 GHz, speed, with 820,000,000 transistors and the 45nm silicon thickness technology in their Core 2 Quad processors in the year 2007. The transition from 1969 to 2007, in 38 years, with technology changing at breakneck speed is something to reckon with.

Multi-core processor chips, principally are designed to do more work per clock cycle, run at lower frequencies, with each core behaving like a discrete logical processor with multiple threads to share the core’s resources. HT technology or Hyper Threading technology gave birth to this need. In fact, Hyper Threading technology allows maximization of performance by splitting the resources of each core, in the multi-core technology system. This logical evolution of Hyper Threading technology has brought about various software vendors like Microsoft, IBM, Red Hat and others to develop software, treating the multi-core processor as a single central processing unit.

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