Group Blog
Monday 8 December 2008, 12:01am
Intel’s Nehalem steals the show at SC08
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The big news at Supercomputing 08, this year's get-together of ultra-fast computing aficionados, was competition between processor families.
Despite announcements around AMD's Shanghai processors and nVidia's Tesla co-processors, the hot topic was Intel's "Nehalem" Xeons, according to the Register - even though these won't be available for servers until March 2009.
"According to one server maker, server bigwigs as well as experts from supercomputing labs are being given previews of the Nehalems in private viewing rooms at the show - ones where journalists are not invited - and being told about the expected feeds and speeds of the processors running HPC code," said the Register.
Super Micro, which makes system boards for tier one server companies, already has Nehalem-ready boards, and – according to the Register - has signed up Appro, Silicon Graphics, Sun Micro Systems and Verari Systems to use them.
The company showed three Nehalem boards at SC08, in Dallas Texas, all of which use the "Tylersburg" IOH-36D chipset. The two-socket X8DA3 has up to 96 GB of main memory, as well as plenty of expansion slots - including two internal USB ports to hold flash memory drives for loads such as the VMware or XenServer hypervisors. The X8DTN+ board has more memory, with a maximum of 144 GB. The company also showed a Nehalem blade, for Gigabit Ethernet or Infiniband.
At the same event, SGI also showed off Nehalem-ready boards.
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RedditMonday 24 November 2008, 12:01am
vPro reaches 'white box' computers
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Intel's vPro technology has become a normal part of motherboards, but it’s not always obvious how it will be used. Software deals are emerging that mean even anonymous "white box" PCs will be delivered with everything the user needs to get the best of it.
The Embassy suite from WAVX is designed to give users and IT managers control of the powerful security features included in their PCs. It is now bundled with Intel motherboards designed for the white box market, such as the DQ45CB and DQ45EK.
The suite handles client management for wireless security and VPNs and - because it's built into each PC - is scalable, so IT managers can hook up as many users as they wish to their management system.
As well as vPro, Embassy majors on the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), embedded hardware which protects user data in a tamper-proof storage vault, and provides multi-factor authentication for access to the network. An integrated TPM is now included as standard in Intel's Southbridge chipset, and Embassy says it makes it much cheaper and easier to manage user access control, by eliminating the need for external tokens or smart cards.
Friday 21 November 2008, 12:00pm
It's time to activate vPro!
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With vPro technology now embedded in business laptops and supported by more and more systems software, it's really just down to users to actively switch it on. And since it can be used within familiar systems management software, vendors are pointing out that this really isn't a difficult thing.
In South Africa, for instance, systems management specialist Columbus Technologies reports its enterprise infrastructure management suite will be easier to use and more powerful in the new version, 6.10, thanks to improved support for Intel’sActive Management Technology (AMT), the remote management function within Intel's vPro.
"While few companies are yet taking advantage of the management functionality vPro offers, as the acceptance and use of this technology grows, Columbus Enterprise can assist in streamlining the enhanced management of its customers' hardware," said Braam van Zyl, CTO at Columbus Technologies.
Like other management software vendors, he points out that vPro is a new and powerful function available within the familiar setting of his company's products.
Wednesday 12 November 2008, 09:00am
vPro crosses generations
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Intel set out its road map at the Intel Developers' Forum in Taiwan - and the remote management technology, vPro, gets an important role in the next generation of processors.
Two vPro versions will be in the next Centrino specification, bringing vPro to Intel's forthcoming Core i7 processors.
The next generation of Centrino, currently going under the pre-release code-names Calpella for laptops and Piketown for desktops, will appear in 2009.
Tuesday 11 November 2008, 12:16pm
The downturn and cheaper Xeons
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How will Intel weather the times of economic difficulty that look like arriving? Pretty well, its CEO says - and customers may even get a bit of a helping hand, as Xeon prices just got a bit cheaper.
"We’ve already seen a bit of softening in demand at the end of the previous quarter," vice president Pat Gelsinger said to the Economic Times of India. "But overall, Intel is extremely well-positioned with its products and has the strongest line-up of products around in the market."
And some Xeon chips and desktop processors have just got cheaper: the Xeon X3220 and X3210, 2.4GHz and 2.13GHz chips have been cut from $198 to $188 per thousand - a saving that should add to the continual improvement of price performance in servers.
