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Why HP, Dell and IBM are on the wrong site of the internet history
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I.B.M. Reports Nanotube Chip Breakthrough
I.B.M. scientists are reporting progress in a chip making technology that is likely to ensure the shrinking of the size of the basic digital switch at the heart of modern microchips for more than another decade.
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Carbon nanotubes are one of three promising technologies that engineers hope will be perfected in time to keep the industry on its Moore’s Law pace. Graphene is another promising material that is being explored, as well as a variant of the standard silicon transistor, which is known as a tunneling field effect transistor.
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Carbon nanotubes are essentially single sheets of carbon rolled into nanoscale tubes. In the Nature Nanotechnology paper, the I.B.M. researchers described how they were able to place ultra-small rectangles of the material in regular arrays by placing them in a soapy mixture that makes them soluble in water. They used a process they described as “chemical self-assembly” to create the patterned array in which the nanotubes stick in some areas of the surface while other areas are left untouched.
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IBM’s Sequoia has taken the top spot on the list of the world’s fastest supercomputers for the US.
The newly installed system trumped Japan’s K Computer made by Fujitsu which fell to second place.
It is the first time the US can claim pole position since it was beaten by China two years ago.
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IBM researchers have built a prototype optical chip that can transfer a terabit of data per second, using an innovative design requiring 48 tiny holes drilled into a standard CMOS chip, facilitating the movement of light. Much faster and more power-efficient than today’s optics, the so-called “Holey Optochip” technology could enhance the power of supercomputers.
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The Holey Optochip uses 4.7 watts in delivering nearly one trillion bits per second, enough to download 500 HD movies. At 5.2 mm by 5.8 mm, it’s about one-eighth the size of a dime.
Source: http://arstechnica.com
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![thenextweb:
Sure, other personal computers came before the IBM 5150, but that, to Microsoft at least, isn’t important: “[T]he introduction of the IBM PC was a defining moment for our industry. […] Once IBM entered the market with a system running the Microsoft Disk Operating System, MS-DOS, our industry really began to realize [its] dream.” (via Microsoft rhapsodizes over the 30th birthday of the IBM PC - Microsoft)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpqd0n0Rhh1qejjfeo1_1280.png)
Sure, other personal computers came before the IBM 5150, but that, to Microsoft at least, isn’t important: “[T]he introduction of the IBM PC was a defining moment for our industry. […] Once IBM entered the market with a system running the Microsoft Disk Operating System, MS-DOS, our industry really began to realize [its] dream.” (via Microsoft rhapsodizes over the 30th birthday of the IBM PC - Microsoft)
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IBM Mysteriously Halts Work on the World's Fastest Academic Supercomputer Since 2007, IBM has been working with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to construct the world’s fastest academic supercomputer. This week we learn that work has been mysteriously halted by IBM, which is taking back the parts it recently delivered to the school, giving U. of Illinois its money back, and ceasing work on the project just months before the massive computer is slated to be completed.
Usually we’d spend the second paragraph telling you why, but in this case we just don’t know. IBM said the supercomputer became more expensive and more complex than the company foresaw. A company spokeswoman said IBM is capable of meeting the technological goals outlined for the project, but nonetheless it is choosing not to.
» via Popular Science
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International Business Machines (IBM) on Tuesday announced the creation of the Services Innovation Lab (SIL), a new global lab that will initially comprise about 200 technology experts hand-picked from around the company.
The lab will accelerate the expansion of real-time analytics and software automation in both IBM’s technology services offerings and its global services delivery capabilities, the company’s press release stated.
The Services Innovation Lab expands IBM’s nearly 10-year-old services research programme by bringing together services, research, software developers and industry experts from around the company to focus on the creation of services software applications for cloud computing, analytics and mobility. -
IBM on Tuesday will roll out a new System z mainframe server that’s designed for midmarket customers and emerging markets. The aim: Use these mainframes for the masses to consolidate traditional servers.
The zEnterprise 114 is positioned as a mainframe for the masses to a degree. IBM’s latest mainframe starts below $75,000 making it its most inexpensive models in the z line-up.
According to IBM, the zEnterprise 114 can consolidate 300 servers on one box.
IBM has been riding a mainframe sales surge since launching its new System z line-up last year. The overall trend among hardware vendors is to pitch uber boxes as a way to consolidate servers. Oracle pitches Exadata as a data center consolidation play and IBM is positioning the mainframe to do the same.
