Barker Bites Back
A look at some newsy stuff and interesting bits as well as those hopefully amusing byways of technology.
Friday 30 May 2008, 3:58 PM
HP and IBM tussle in servers
On Wednesday, HP launches a system that doubles the number of blades that can be fitted on one unit, less than a month after IBM introduced the iDataPlex range which also doubled the number and likewise doubled the servers in one any one system.
The move continues the industry trend of increasing the density of systems to get more efficiency, especially in the use of space in data centres as well as power usage.
The HP ProLiant BL2x220c G5 combines two independent servers in one blade. HP is claiming that by combining two servers in one blade it is achieving an industry first, although it appears to be another way of achieving the same end as IBM. HP claims that the BL2x220c delivers 60 percent better performance per watt than similar configurations on the market. IBM claimed that the iDataPlex consumed 40 percent less power and standard rack-mount systems.
Like the IBM system, HP is scalable. Previously, a single 10U chassis would take up to 32 servers. With up to 32 server nodes in a single 10U blade chassis, the new BladeSystem can scale up to 128 servers, 1,024 CPU cores and 2TB of RAM in one standard-sized rack of four enclosures, the company says. The new blade is able to offers double the density of its HP predecessors by fitting two servers into each slot.
Such density should mean lots of heat, but HP's UK product manager, Phil McClean points out that "it users a lower wattage processor than others" and so should be cool enough and stay in control of energy loss without degrading system performance.
The ProLiant BL2x220c G5 costs £3,439 a unit, McClean said.
The competition in this area is definitely hotting up. While IBM's launch last week beat HP to the punch, HP may try and claim the technical stars. Either way, it is more choice for the customer.
Friday 30 May 2008, 10:21 AM
Dell readies ultra-portable?
The Gizmodo site writes that one of their number bumped into Michael Dell who was carrying a brand new ultra-portable.
“He was nice enough to show me this laptop that he was carrying that he said no one's seen before. It's a small form factor notebook, just like the Asus Eee and the HP 2133. He wouldn't tell me what OS it's running, or the pricing, but that it's a low-cost notebook meant for developing countries, and I hope here. Maybe it's Atom-powered. Who knows? But I do see three USB ports, a card reader, VGA out, Ethernet, and that red candy shell.”
It is a long expected mover from Dell and perhaps no surprise that even if low cost portables are not eating into the company profits too much at the moment, may well do in the future.
Wednesday 28 May 2008, 4:15 PM
Ethics? Is that near Sussex?
Embargoes are tricky things. Embargoes are rules that some journalists live by, or not. The choice is up to them.
Officially, embargoes are agreements that a journalist and a subject (company, individual, organisation, etc) enter into in which both sides agree not to publish something before a certain date (or time).
They are voluntary, with both sides choosing to keep to them or not. Both sides must obey them, otherwise the embargo is broken. The latter point escapes a lot of people.
If journalist (a) and company (b) agree to obey an embargo then that is fine. But if publications x, y and z all disobey the embargo then journalist (a) may well decide that as the embargo is well and truly broken he or she is not going to obey it either.
In the real world, things can be even more complicated than that.
I have just been given details of a story that is under embargo and I cannot write about until Thursday. I have been informed of this by company (a) telling me about it and complaining about the way its competition has portrayed the news.
The problem is that I knew nothing about the story whatsoever until the company told me about the that it did not like the way the other company had portrayed it.
Now, it is essential for an embargo to be considered binding for the parties to know what they are letting themselves into BEFORE they enter into it.
I had no idea what I was letting myself into before I agreed to anything. I know that because I have not agreed to anything yet.
I am highly tempted ignore this embargo now, since no-one has officially told me of its existence before the fact, why not?
Tempting it is but will have to remain so I think. I would like to think it is my ethics that stop me, but the reality is much simpler. It is not that good a story.
Anyway, ethics are like motor cars. If they are to remain up to scratch they need to get a quick run out every now and then. Well, not really, but now, who has got some dirt on Microsoft?
Friday 9 May 2008, 3:39 PM
Citrix launch faster web delivery controller
Citrix has given something of a boost to the performance of its web application delivery controllers with the addition of two NetScaler MPX controllers. The 17000 and 15000 slot in above the 12000 range and offer what the company is claiming is much improved performance within controllers that, according to Citrix, fit in the same form factors.
The 15000 has four dual-core processors, 16GB of memory (compared to 4GB in the previous top of the range 12000), two times 10 Gigabit Fibre Optic connection as standard (an option only on the 12000) and a performance that allows 340,000 HTTP requests per second and a throughput of 6,000Mbps (when the previous high was 3,000Mbps).
Other performance highlights include a claimed compression throughput of 3,000Mbps, when the previous high in the 12000 was 1,300Mbps.
This sort of performance comes at a price as the 15000 costs $180,000. There is a higher performance MPX 17000 which has more memory (32GB), four 10 Gigabit Fibre Optic connections and a compression throughput of 6,000Mbps. Citrix has not yet released a price for that.
"This is intended for those customers who need the highest possible throughput," Damian Saunders, manager of the Application Networking Group at Citrix in the UK, told ZDNet.co.uk. He thinks that customers looking to install software such as Software as a Service (SaaS) apps and ISVs will be particularly attracted to the new controllers.
"It is all about throughput and moving large quantities of data but it is also about building capacity for expansion," he said. "These applications will grow quickly and the infrastructure has to accommodate that."
