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All the entries posted on August 02, 2007.
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Thursday, August 2, 2007
Martians, We Come in Peace. Please Accept this Chip for Your Game Consoles.
The Austin-designed chip technology that creates alien landscapes for countless game consoles is about to experience the real deal.
Boldly going where no PlayStation or Xbox has gone before, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander is set to blast off with a radiation-hardened computer based on IBM’s Power Architecture as its brain.
Big Blue, seeing the Red Planet as the final promotional frontier, rolled out this description unlikely to be found at your local PC retailer: “The RAD6000’s proven ability to withstand the rigors of space and open architecture programmable from workstations to supercomputers, make it an ideal platform for the 423 million mile journey.”
Noting the IBM tech in the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Rovers that keep going (and going and going), IBM vice president Raj Desai had this plug that goes beyond talk of mere world domination by Microsoft or Google:
“With Power-based processors in all three major game consoles, in 50 percent of automobile models worldwide, in 60 percent of the world’s fastest computers, and in 100 percent of the systems on Mars, Power is truly the most versatile computing platform in the solar system.”
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AMD: Intel Costs You and Me Billions and Billions
Advanced Micro Devices has just launched its next volley in the still-building war with Intel that could indicate where the landmark lawsuit between the semiconductor makers is headed.
In a new study from an outside researcher that it’s pushing, AMD claims that Intel unfairly made $60 billion over the past decade because of its monopoly in the microprocessor market. Moreover, AMD claims that if the market were more competitive — read: if more government regulators would bring antitrust actions against Intel — consumers could save $61 billion and computer makers could save $20 billion over the next decade.
No doubt the eyes over at Intel are rolling at these accusations. But AMD has been making some major inroads lately with its claims that somebody should do something about Intel.
Regulators in Europe and Japan are already trying to loosen Intel’s commanding stranglehold on the microprocessor market, and AMD’s antitrust suit against Intel, filed in Delaware, is chugging along. Earlier this week, AMD officials compared the rising antitrust activity surrounding Intel to what happened to Microsoft a few years back.
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Dell to Buy ASAP for $340 Million
Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc. is planning to buy ASAP Software Inc. for approximately $340 million, the companies said in a surprise announcement early Thursday morning.
In a news release issued shortly after midnight Central time, Dell said its planned purchase of the Illinois software company would bolster its software business and make it easier for Dell customers to make and manage big technology deployments. ASAP helps big companies and government agenices managing software licensing, purchasing, renewals, and compliance.
Dell said it is increasingly being asked by corporate, government and institutional customers to deliver solutions that simplify software management. In a statement, Paul Bell, senior vice president and president for Dell’s Americas operation said the ASAP purchase would help it do that.
“Merging Dell’s software business with ASAP is part of our effort to re-invent and simplify the way our customers get access to IT,” Bell said.
The deal is expected to close in Dell’s fiscal third quarter.
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