Home > Hardware/Infrastructure

Hardware/Infrastructure

Microsoft Changes Virtualization Licensing Rules

8/20/2008

Microsoft has made substantial changes to its virtualization licensing program, changes that will lower the cost of using virtualization for many customers.

VMware's Updates Cause Problems, CEO Apologizes

8/18/2008

Aug. 12 was a blow-out day for some users of VMware's ESX 3.5 and ESXi 3.5 virtualization products, especially if they had applied the latest product updates called "Update 2."

Intel Releases Interface for USB 3.0

8/15/2008

Intel Corp. this week shared technical plans for an important element needed to develop the Universal Serial Bus 3.0 (USB 3.0) specification. The company has made its Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) draft specification revision 0.9 available to hardware manufacturers and software providers.

Drexel Sees 802.11n as Logical Leap

8/7/2008

For colleges and universities considering a wireless network upgrade anytime soon, whether or not to go with the new, not-yet-final 802.11n standard is a tough call.

Pepperdine U Upgrades WiFi with Xirrus Arrays

8/7/2008

Pepperdine University has deployed 161 Xirrus XS8 WiFi Arrays (1,288 radios) at its 830-acre Malibu, CA campus. The XS8 WiFi Array integrates eight radios and high-gain directional antennas in one device, along with an onboard gigabit switch, WiFi controller, firewall, and dedicated WiFi threat sensor, which, the vendor said, dramatically reduces the number of devices, cables, and switch ports required to achieve a comparable range of WiFi service.

IBM To Team with Linux Vendors on 'Microsoft-Free' PCs

8/7/2008

IBM and name-brand Linux operating system distributors Red Hat, Novell, and Canonical/Ubuntu have disclosed their intentions to join forces with their hardware partners to create what they are calling "Microsoft-free personal computing choices."

U Illinois Urbana-Champaign To Establish Experimental Computing Cluster

8/5/2008

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is collaborating with the National Science Foundation, HP, Intel, and Yahoo! to establish an experimental computing cluster. The resulting "HP, Intel, Yahoo! Cloud Computing Test Bed" will be managed by UIUC and made available to academic users from other institutions for research in data-intensive computing.

Higher Ed Least Likely Sector To Adopt Energy Management Policies

8/5/2008

Information technology leaders in colleges and universities are more concerned about environmental issues than their counterparts in every other sector--corporate, state/local, federal, and higher education. But they are also least likely to have formal policies in place for addressing energy efficiency, according to a new survey released Monday by CDW Government (CDW-G).

University of Utah Named CUDA Center of Excellence

8/4/2008

The University of Utah last week was named a CUDA Center of Excellence for adopting parallel computing strategies and applying them to research and integrating them into the curriculum.

Colorado State-Pueblo To Install Megawatt Solar Electric System

7/31/2008

Colorado State University-Pueblo soon will be the home of a solar electric system in excess of one megawatt, one of the largest such systems for an education facility in the United States. Under an innovative arrangement with Black Hills Energy (formerly Aquila) and BP Solar, the system is estimated to contribute at least 10 percent of the University's electricity needs. Installation of the ground- based solar array begins this summer with full operation scheduled for late fall.

Bentley College Deploys Infor Software to Help Reduce Energy Consumption

7/31/2008

Bentley College of Waltham, MA is deploying Infor EAM Asset Sustainability Edition software to monitor and reduce energy consumption throughout its campus. The school currently runs Infor's EAM Enterprise Edition, which monitors the maintenance and repair of the college's assets.

Intel Unveils Centrino 2 for Laptops

7/15/2008

Intel is publicizing its new Centrino 2 processors, which are currently being integrated into laptop computers by about 250 equipment manufacturers. A number of Intel processor products based on Centrino 2 will be publicly unveiled "within 90 days," according an announcement issued Tuesday by Intel.

UK's Exeter U Signs Multi-million Pound Contract for Major Network Upgrade

7/10/2008

The University of Exeter has chosen UK-based IT services firm Data Integration to undertake a major network upgrade. The new 10,000-port network will incorporate wireless and mobile access, security, Juniper Networks' EX Series switches, integrated Nortel and Microsoft unified communications, and a campus-wide wireless network based on Aruba's 802.11n access points.

Lyon's 1:1 Laptop Program Aims To 'Level the Playing Field' for Students

6/26/2008

This fall Lyon College, a four-year liberal arts school in Arkansas, will join the elite ranks of post-secondary institutions offering laptops to all incoming freshmen. The program is part of a larger initiative, called "The Lyon Experience," which aims to bring "additional value to the education" the school provides. How can a small college roll out such an ambitious technology program? It's all a question of priorities, according to Lyon College President Walter Roettger.

New Green Supercomputer Powers Up at Purdue

6/20/2008

A new supercomputer installed at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN is being compared to a "fleet of thousands of bike messengers." Individually they don't carry much freight, but they use less energy and are more effective in some situations. At least, that's the hope. Gerry McCartney, vice president for IT and CIO at Purdue, said the supercomputer, a SiCortex 5832, uses one-fortieth the power of traditional supercomputers.

Intel 'Holding Back' USB 3.0 Spec, Says Nvidia

6/19/2008

An Nvidia representative Wednesday confirmed the view that Intel is delaying release of the Universal Serial Bus 3.0 specification to chipmakers. That allegation against Intel first surfaced in a CNET News.com report by Brooke Crothers, citing an unnamed source.

Allegheny College Launches Energy Reduction Program

6/19/2008

Buildings on the Allegheny College campus will be audited by Siemens Building Technologies to identify potential energy savings as part of the school's participation in the Clinton Climate Initiative's (CCI) Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program.

HPC Server 2008 RC1 Coming This Month

6/18/2008

At the International Supercomputing Conference being held this week in Germany, Microsoft announced that it will roll out the first release candidate (RC1) of its Windows HPC Server 2008 for high-performance computing in the last week of June. A system at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign running a beta of HPC Server 2008 on Dell PowerEdge hardware debuted today at No. 23 on the list top 500 supercomputing sites for June.

IBM Launches 'Carbon Strategy' Service in Project Big Green

6/18/2008

How green are your feet? That's the question IBM wants to answer as it launches a new consulting service to determine the carbon footprint of IT organizations and help those organizations plan for greener operations throughout and beyond the enterprise.

Sun Microsystems Wins Big in Top 500; Expands Blade and Constellation Technologies

6/18/2008

Sun Microsystems is scaling up its high performance computing portfolio and showing within the stratospheric top 5 on the Top 500 Supercomputers list. At the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden Germany, the company today celebrated its capture of the Top 500's number four spot by a Sun Constellation System-based supercomputer and announced the availability of its newest Sun Blade x64 system.

Swedes Deploy Dual-Boot 'Green' Supercomputer with IBM, Intel Chips

6/17/2008

The High Performance Computing Center North (HPC2N), a Swedish consortium of universities and research centers based out of Umea University, is installing a supercomputer that combines IBM Cell Broadband Engines and Power processors with quad-core Intel Xeon processors running both Windows and Linux in a dual-boot configuration.

Intel Denies Holding Back USB 3.0

6/13/2008

Rumors that Intel is not releasing the Universal Serial Bus 3.0 specification to its technology partners in a timely manner have prompted a rebuttal. The allegation really concerns the Intel host controller specification used by chip manufacturers, explained Nick Knupffer, an Intel employee.

SD Supercomputer Center Processes Red-lining Data

6/9/2008

The San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego will be using clustered storage from Caringo as part of a project to bring red-lining grids to UC campuses. The implementation has started with a CAStor clustered storage pool that is initially tasked with archiving The Redlining Archives of California's Exclusionary Spaces (T-RACES). The project brings the history of red-lining from the shelves of the National Archives and puts it online in digital format.

Clemson U Installs Dell High-Performance Computing Cluster

6/5/2008

Clemson University has gone public with its use of a high-performance computing cluster (HPCC) from Dell to enable academic research on topics ranging from how family migration patterns impact schools and children's development to the design of wireless communication networks.

Shanghai's Tongji U Overhauls Network, Deploys Load Balancing Software

5/21/2008

Tongji University in Shanghai has deployed Radware AppDirector 3020, a load balancing utility, as part of the overhaul of its campus network. With 78,660 students and staff, the campus network covers 17 network systems, including portals, authentication, and student management. The goal of the overhaul was to address network overload, uneven traffic distribution, and server instability, the school said in a statement.