New Intel Products Simplify and Speed Software Development for Multi-Core Processors

Intel Corporation today announced the availability of two software products that help developers efficiently create more reliable, high-performing applications that speed up a computer's responsiveness. The Intel® C++ Compiler and Fortran Professional Editions bring together a unique combination of highly optimizing compilers, performance libraries and the Intel® Threading Building Blocks.

The products feature new automatic support for accelerating program performance on Intel's latest multi-core processors. Applications containing 3-D graphics or video are automatically accelerated through the use of vectors via Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE), including the latest SSE 4 instructions. Application performance is also accelerated by multi-core processors through the use of multiple threads. Combining the use of vectors and threads and integrating them with a technology known as loop transformation generates greater performance on multi-core processors without requiring developers to rewrite their code.

"Combining these capabilities in a cooperative and coordinated manner brings our customers added performance benefits and compiler reliability, which in turn gives greater PC responsiveness for gamers and everyday PC users," said Kevin J. Smith, director of the Intel Compiler Products. "This project has undergone extensive validation and application testing with Intel customers and we're excited about the results our customers are seeing in their applications."

The combined capabilities also provide benefits that extend beyond multi-core optimizations by assisting developers in locating vulnerabilities that would otherwise go undetected, such as uninitialized variables and possible buffer overruns.

The Intel® C++ Professional Edition for Windows*, Linux* and Mac OS* X combines the Intel compiler with the Intel® Math Kernel Library, the Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives and the Intel® Threading Building Blocks.

The Intel Fortran Compiler Professional Edition for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X combines the Intel compiler with the Intel Math Kernel Library. For the first time, the Intel® Visual Fortran Compiler 10.0 now includes Microsoft Visual Studio, which provides the visual development environment to create, edit, build and debug Fortran applications.

The new products are all available today with suggested prices ranging from $599 to $1,599. Upgrades to the Professional Editions from the prior version of Intel compilers or libraries are available for limited time through resellers worldwide.

Intel also announced a new package for students that include all of these products as well as Intel® VTune Performance Analyzer, Intel® Thread Checker and Intel® Thread Profiler in one discounted package for students who qualify.

Intel® Software provides resources, technologies, products and services developers need to create innovative products and industry-leading software solutions with enhanced business value and are designed to run best on Intel platforms. For more information, visit www.intel.com/software/products

Dell Sets Goal Of Becoming Greenest Technology Company

Dell today launched a long-term, global effort to partner with its customers to become the greenest technology company on Earth for the long-term. The new Zero Carbon Initiative will continue to maximize the energy efficiency of Dell products and over time offset their carbon impact. The initiative includes the efforts of Dell, its employees and its suppliers and will reflect the direct feedback of its customers.

The company also committed to reduce the carbon intensity of its global operations by 15 percent by 2012 and extended its " Plant a Tree for Me" program to Europe, allowing computer users to offset the emissions associated with the electricity their computers use.

" We often characterize a certain age group as typifying a generation, like the ‘Me Generation,’ ‘Gen X’ or ‘Gen Y,’ but it’s clear today that we’re living in the ‘Re-Generation,’ which includes people of all ages throughout the world who want to make a difference in improving the Earth we all share," said Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell in comments marking World Environment Day. " Our goal is simple and clear. We’ll take the lead in setting an environmental standard for our industry that will reflect our partnership with, and direct feedback from, our customers, suppliers and stakeholders, and we intend to maintain that leadership."

In his remarks Mr. Dell also announced that Dell is asking customers for their ideas in building the " greenest PC on the planet." Dell’s call for ideas and more information is on its IdeaStorm site (www.ideastorm.com) today.

The zero-carbon initiative will include IT lifecycle assessments, management of Dell’s direct and indirect climate impacts, reduction of the company’s carbon intensity and partnership with customers.

“Our effort to drive IT simplification from desktop to data center will identify efficiencies that help reduce the carbon impact of our products,” Mr. Dell added. “Dell will do its part to protect the Earth’s climate, from providing energy-efficient IT products, to using environmentally responsible practices we hope others will embrace.”

The efforts are a part of Dell’s drive to reduce complexity for customers and partner with them to protect the environment. Dell will undertake a lifecycle assessment of the carbon impact of an IT product through its supply chain and with input from environmental stakeholders.


Customer Use

Dell’s “Plant a Tree for Me” program is now available in Europe. For £1 per notebook or £3 per desktop (€1.50 and €4.50 respectively), customers can offset the emissions associated with the electricity that their computers use. One hundred percent of those funds will be donated to plant trees in professionally managed reforestation projects. The trees absorb the carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere when electricity is generated to power a computer over its average three-year life.

Dell will continue to work with The Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org to manage the European program. Carbonfund.org is supporting a tree planting project in Hungary developed by KlimaFa Kft., a subsidiary of Planktos Corp. Planktos is an ecosystem restoration company working to improve the health of natural habitats on land and in the open ocean. Donations from European customers will be directed to European planting operations. Dell launched the U.S. version of the Plant a Tree program in January. The European program is available at www.carbonfund.org/dell

Mr. Dell also committed today to personally match donations to the program received during the next three months.



Design for Environment

Dell has requested that its primary suppliers begin reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data. Suppliers risk having their overall scores reduced during Dell quarterly business reviews for not identifying and publicly reporting GHG emissions. A supplier’s volume of Dell business can be affected by the scores earned on reviews. Dell will work with suppliers on emissions reduction strategies once data is collected.

Dell takes a precautionary approach in designing products with the environment in mind.

Dell’s strategy is to deliver products that provide the maximum performance at the least amount of power required. Dell has introduced products with Energy Smart configurations across server, desktop and notebook product lines and introduced products meeting the latest Energy Star 4.0 requirements. Dell is also advising customers on data center design to help reduce power requirements.



Dell Operations

Dell recently completed a power-management pilot on more than 50,000 computers on the company’s internal network. The pilot resulted in the savings of about 13 million kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to avoidance of 8,500 tons of CO2 and savings of $1.8 million annually. Dell plans to identify ways to help its corporate customers achieve similar energy savings.

Dell also proposed today that the effectiveness of corporate climate policies be contrasted by a carbon-intensity measurement comparing the CO2 equivalent of total reported GHG emissions to annual revenue. By this carbon-intensity measurement, Dell’s GHG impact is among the lowest of those companies listed on the Fortune 50.1 The company also pledged to maintain leadership by reducing its own carbon intensity 15 percent by 2012.

Dell will meet its 15 percent improvement goal by driving additional efficiencies in its existing operations and ensuring new facilities are highly energy-efficient. Dell will also continue work to identify means to make an absolute reduction in emissions.



Recycling

Dell continues to offer consumers worldwide free recycling of used Dell equipment at any time, and free recycling of other branded equipment with purchase of new Dell equipment. The company regularly conducts third-party audits of recycling vendors to ensure responsible recycling of material collected. Details are available at www.dell.com/recycling

Microsoft Debuts Major Release of Web Conferencing Service Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Today at Microsoft Corp.’s annual Tech•Ed conference, the company unveiled the 2007 release of Microsoft® Office Live Meeting, a new version designed to dramatically improve online meetings, events and training. New capabilities include a redesigned user interface and an integrated collaboration experience as well as support for live video, VoIP and rich media.

Scheduled for availability in fall 2007, the new version of Office Live Meeting will make it easier for organizations of all sizes to experience the benefits of Web conferencing, whether people are conducting simple ad-hoc collaboration sessions, formal Web-based meetings, advanced online training or large communication events.

The enhancements included in the 2007 release of Microsoft Office Live Meeting resulted from more than 10 years of Web conferencing operating experience and customer feedback.

The 2007 release of Microsoft Office Live Meeting helps organizations better connect internally with employees and externally with customers and partners through these features:

• A redesigned and simplified user interface that helps conferencing participants remain focused on core content

• Improved training and event features that give presenters the ability to offer handouts, public class and event listings, and advanced testing and grading

• High-fidelity shared and local recording capabilities that give organizations the power to archive a Live Meeting session for playback


The 2007 release also supports multiple communication channels to provide an engaging experience:

• Two-way phone or VoIP offers participants a choice for integrating conference audio

• Embedded flash, video and audio files help presenters deliver rich content to conferencing participants

• Live webcam video and 360-degree panoramic video with the Microsoft RoundTable™ system offers a virtual experience, bringing the active speaker to participants


In addition, it delivers enterprise-class reliability and security based on new virus scanning capability using Microsoft Forefront™ technologies.

For organizations seeking a conferencing solution that is deployed and managed on-premise, Microsoft will also offer conferencing capabilities — built on the same conferencing technology as those in the 2007 release of Office Live Meeting — in the upcoming release of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, now in public beta. This software-plus-services approach gives conferencing users a consistent user experience whether using the hosted Office Live Meeting service or Office Communications Server conferencing.

“The 2007 release of Office Live Meeting is a prime example of Microsoft’s software–plus-services in action,” said Kim Akers, general manager, Unified Communications Group, Microsoft Corp. “It’s important for us to offer our customers choice and flexibility between software that is hosted, such as the next release of Live Meeting, or software that is deployed and managed on-premise, such as the conferencing capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007.”

The 2007 release of Microsoft Office Live Meeting and the conferencing capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007 are integral components of Microsoft’s unified communications offering. Both conferencing solutions enable businesses to connect with and engage audiences of all sizes through a reliable enterprise-class collaboration solution and to help meet the challenges they face in today’s increasingly dynamic and distributed work environment.

Customers can access video demonstrations of Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 and materials about other products such as Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 at http://www.microsoft.com/uc. Current Office Live Meeting customers can also register on the site for a private preview of Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007, which will be available later this month.

Intel Introduces '3-Series' Chipsets at Computex

In his opening keynote at the Computex computer trade show, Intel Corporation Executive Vice President Sean Maloney unveiled the new Intel® 3 Series Chipset family along with several other technology plans that surround the company's popular Intel® Core™ 2 Duo and Quad processors for home and business PC users.

The products enable a number of innovative features for today's PCs such as greater PC performance, clearer definition video and storage technologies that help better protect valuable data. Maloney, also Intel's general manager, Sales and Marketing Group, and chief sales and marketing officer, said the chipsets are also designed to be used with the company's upcoming Intel 45 nanometer (nm) "Penryn family" processors expected later this year. More than 100 motherboard designs are underway, and he expects the new chipset family to be the fastest growing in Intel's history.

"There is a tremendous amount of excitement and anticipation for our forthcoming 45nm Hi-K processors based on the Intel® Core™ microarchitecture," Maloney said. "The Intel 3 Series chipsets lay the foundation for an exciting, media-rich experience for today's systems and those that arrive later this year."

Maloney also said that Intel and Asustek are working together to offer a family of education focused, low-cost mobile PCs, with one model below $200. Asustek's mobile PCs will play a key role in Intel's World Ahead program that aims to accelerate access to fully featured computers and technology for anyone, anywhere around the world.

Maloney also disclosed plans for an Intel Core 2 Extreme mobile processor product to be released by Intel in the third quarter of this year. The plan follows the company's Extreme Edition brand introduced for desktop PCs in 2003 and extends it to laptops, which continues to be the fastest-growing computing market segment. The upcoming chip is targeted to be the company's highest-performing mobile dual-core processor that still includes energy-saving power features for notebook-friendly designs.

New Chipsets Advance Consumer, Business Experience
The Intel® 3 Series Chipsets, formerly codenamed "Bearlake" enable exceptional PC performance while helping to enable improved energy efficiency, system design and quietness. Computers with these chipsets can deliver CE-like video and sound quality and new data security and manageability features for business users and will be the foundation for Intel's next-generation Intel® Viiv™ processor technology and Intel® vPro™ processor technology, codenamed Salt Creek and Weybridge, respectively.

The Intel 3 Series Chipsets support DDR2 up to 800MHz, or DDR3 memory with data transfer speeds up to 1333 MHz, enabling speedy access to files and a more responsive PC. The chipsets also support PCI Express* 2.0, which doubles the available bandwidth for graphics cards and are engineered to support Intel® Turbo Memory which enables faster application loading and boot times.

The Intel 3 Series Chipsets also includes versions with integrated graphics called the Intel® G33 and G35 Express Chipsets. These products will include Intel® Clear Video Technology which can enhance video playback and supports the High Definition Media Interface (HDMI). System manufacturers can also support HD DVD* and Blu-ray* disc playback with these chipsets at a lower system cost than most discrete graphics cards. Additionally, the G35 integrates hardware support for MS DX10 for smoother, more realistic 3D applications.

Intel® graphics fully support Windows* Vista Home Premium and the Windows* Aero interface. All of the Intel 3 Series Chipsets enable users to add up to six external drives to a PC for extra data protection and performance, Intel® High Definition Audio for up to 7.1 theater-like surround sound quality and Intel® Quiet System Technology to help enable reduced system noise and heat for a much quieter, yet high-performing PC.

The Intel® G33 and P35 Express Chipsets have been shipping since April, while the Intel® Q33 and Q35 Express Chipsets are shipping now ahead of their Q3'07 introduction. The Intel® G35 Express Chipset and the advanced Intel® X38 enthusiast chipset with dual graphics support will ship within 90 days.

Microsoft, Xandros Broad Collaboration Agreement Extends Bridge Between Commercial Open Source and Microsoft Software

Today Microsoft Corp. and Linux platform provider Xandros Inc. announced a broad collaboration agreement based on a set of technical, business, marketing and intellectual property commitments. These commitments provide customers with enhanced interoperability, more effective systems management solutions, and intellectual property assurances, all of which extend a bridge between open source and commercial software and deliver customers real value in mixed systems environments.

For Xandros, the agreement marks a major milestone in its vision of delivering end-to-end Linux desktop and server solutions as well as Windows® and Linux cross-platform management and interoperability tools.

“Companies today are running a mixture of Linux and Windows systems,” said Andreas Typaldos, chief executive officer of Xandros. “Cross-platform data centers are a reality. To meet evolving customer needs, vendors need to recognize the value of sharing intellectual property, developing more interoperable solutions, and providing management tools that are familiar and easy to use.”

For Microsoft, the agreement is the latest in a series of collaborations with Linux platform and open source software providers. This list of collaborators includes Novell Inc., JBoss, XenSource Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Zend Technologies Inc. and others.

“Customers win when their platform providers build collaborative relationships,” said Bill Hilf, general manager of Platform Strategy at Microsoft. “We have been working with commercial open source companies to deliver better value to our customers in areas like server interoperability, systems management and office document formats. We believe in and encourage respect for all licensing and development models, and intellectual property is an important component in this environment. Our announcement with Xandros is an exciting step to deliver what our mutual customers have been asking for.”

Over the next five years, Microsoft and Xandros will focus on five primary efforts:

• Systems management interoperability. Xandros and Microsoft believe advances in system management technology can significantly reduce the cost of operating large computer networks running diverse platforms. Xandros will partner with Microsoft to deliver value-added heterogeneous management capabilities that will work with the next generation of Microsoft® System Center and Xandros Systems Management products, which provide end-to-end service management. Xandros will also join Microsoft and other management vendors in implementing the WS-Management set of protocols in Xandros BridgeWays cross-platform management products and in various systems management standardization efforts.
  
• Server interoperability. Xandros will license a broad set of Microsoft server communications protocols. Xandros will develop enhancements to Xandros Server, allowing it to interoperate more smoothly with Windows Server® in a network setting.
  
• Office document compatibility. Xandros and Microsoft share the view that competing office productivity applications should, by design, make it easy for customers to exchange files with one another. To that end, Xandros will join Microsoft and other companies that are building open source translators fostering interoperability between documents stored in Open XML and Open Document Format. Xandros will ship the translators in upcoming releases of its Xandros Desktop offering.
  
• Intellectual property assurance. Through the agreement, Microsoft will make available patent covenants for Xandros customers. These covenants will provide customers with confidence that the Xandros technologies they use and deploy in their environments are compliant with Microsoft’s intellectual property. By putting a framework in place to share intellectual property, Xandros and Microsoft can speed the development of interoperable solutions.
  
• Microsoft sales and marketing support. The companies are committing to a set of sales and marketing efforts to promote the output of their technical efforts. As part of this effort, Microsoft will now endorse Xandros Server and Desktop as a preferred Linux distribution due to Xandros’ efforts to establish rich interoperability and deliver IP assurance to its customers. In addition, a specialized team of Microsoft staff will be trained on the value propositions of this collaboration to customers and channel partners. Xandros will also become a member of the Microsoft Interop Vendor Alliance.

About Xandros

Xandros, Inc. is the leading provider of award-winning, intuitive, end-to-end Linux solutions, including desktops, SMB and enterprise servers, and mixed-environment, cross-platform management tools. Xandros pioneered low cost, graphical operating systems that leverage existing skill sets and provide seamless Windows-Linux interoperability. It has since extended its Debian-based consumer and business desktop line with SMB and enterprise servers and management software, featuring workflow automation and “single pane of glass” remote deployment and administration. The company is headquartered in New York with research and development facilities in Ottawa and Mumbai, and sales and support offices worldwide. For more information, please visit www.xandros.com

Siemens Corporate Technology have set a new record for data transmission in optical polymer fiber cables

Researchers at Siemens Corporate Technology have set a new record for data transmission in optical polymer fiber cables. Thanks to a new data transmission technique, they have succeeded in sending one gigabit per second down the plastic fibers – ten times more than with products currently on the market. This should finally enable polymer fibers to become established in the home entertainment sector and in factory automation.

Polymer fiber cables enable every layman to set up high-speed data links in their home network. Small converter boxes convert the electrical signal from the copper cable into an optical signal. The thin cables made of plastic that transport the optical signal to receivers anywhere in the home can be easily connected to these boxes. Because of the very high transmission rate of these polymer fiber cables, television signals with high data volumes could also be transmitted within the home in this way in the future.

Up until now, however, polymer fibers have suffered from the crucial disadvantage that their transmission capacity has been limited to 100 megabits (Mbit) per second. Although that is sufficient at the present time for DSL, Internet telephony and Internet TV, experts are certain that one gigabit (1000 Mbit) will be required soon with the rapidly increasing transmission capacity in the Internet. The future for user-friendly, low cost polymer cables therefore looked bleak for a time. But now researchers at Siemens Corporate Technology have broken the sound barrier and set a new record worldwide. Thanks to a new technique for data transmission, they have actually succeeded in transmitting one gigabit per second over a 100 meter long test route in the laboratory – without errors or flickering on the screen. This would be long enough for application in the household.

The trick for getting optical polymer fiber cables to operate at gigabit speeds is that the bits are not sent as usual light pulses as in the past. Instead, the Siemens researchers applied a special algorithm that changes the light signals in such a way that more information fits into the available bandwidth of the polymer fibers. The researchers have adapted the familiar multicarrier modulation technique used in DSL and WLAN so that it is also applicable to light signals. “Thanks to quadrature amplitude modulation with up to 256 signal states, the so-called bandwidth efficiency measured in bits per second and hertz can be increased significantly,” explained Sebastian Randel, project manager at Siemens Corporate Technology. Thanks to their algorithm, the researchers could finally transmit exactly 1008 megabits per second through a polymer fiber cable.

This not only makes the polymer fiber suitable for the future in private homes but also especially for industrial automation applications where these rugged, low cost cables have long been established as the standard. They are used to connect machine tools or robots together and to link them to the central control unit. In the same way as in the private sector, ever higher data rates are called for in industry, which is also aiming to attain the gigabit mark. Randel sees even more potential applications for high-speed polymer fibers, for example in the automotive industry, in the controlling of wind turbines, or particularly in medical technology where data volumes are growing at a rapid pace due to the constant increase in the resolution of imaging processes such as computed tomography. Now nothing stands in the way of a successful future for low-cost polymer fiber cables.

Oracle Files Amended Complaint Against SAP

Oracle filed its First Amended Complaint in federal District Court in San Francisco in its lawsuit against SAP. Oracle added federal Copyright Infringement claims and Breach of Contract claims to many of the original claims asserted, including violations of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, violations of the state Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, Unfair Competition, and Intentional and Negligent Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage.
Oracle alleges that SAP engaged in a deliberate, systematic and illegal scheme to access, copy, use and distribute Oracle's copyrighted software products and related materials, in violation of federal and state law. The suit seeks to stop SAP's unauthorized and illegal activity and prevent future violations and to recover damages related to the violations. A copy of the amended complaint can be located at: www.oracle.com/sapsuit.

Who is the noob, student or teacher?

The teacher is a noob. The battle to keep geek-speak out of standard English is being lost in the classroom.

HTML Girl Earings

Got this in the mail today. you can order them here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6045947

CB2 Child Robot The Most Disturbing Machine Ever Built?

Imagine if someone, somewhere managed to find the exact formula for producing the most perfectly awful example of the uncanny valley (say, for a horror movie or something). Now, accept the fact that this organization is the Japanese Science and Technology Agency, and that they managed to produce the most disturbing machine you've ever seen, without even realizing it. Read the rest here: http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/03/cb2-child-robot-is-possibly-the-most-disturbing-machine-ever-bui/

Serenity 0.3.3.0 released

Serenity - The Next Evolution of Web Server Technology
Serenity is a free, shared-source web server built on the .NET platform.


Project Goals
Providing an easy-to-use alternative to Apache, IIS, and other web servers.
Creating a stable and structured base to build high- or low-level web applications on.


Features at a Glance
Run it as a stand-alone application, or embed it into your own.
Web applications can be written with any .NET language.
Designed to be both highly structured and flexible.
Can be easily extended to work with any stateless protocol.
Developer-friendly API.
Always free, and released under the Microsoft Community License (Ms-CL) shared source license.

Download the latest release here: http://www.codeplex.com/Serenity/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=3796

Halo 3 to Make Entertainment History on Sept. 25

In a year when Hollywood is launching its biggest blockbusters ever, a video game is set to conquer them all. “Halo® 3,” the final chapter in the groundbreaking “Halo” trilogy, is set to shatter day-one entertainment sales records when it is released worldwide beginning Tuesday, Sept. 25. Created by legendary developer Bungie Studios and exclusive to the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system, “Halo 3” will set a new standard for interactive storytelling and social gaming by engaging consumers worldwide in Master Chief’s epic battle to save humankind. “Halo 3” will be available to audiences around the world starting Sept. 25 and will release in Europe on Sept. 26.

“‘Halo 3’ is much more than a video game release; it’s the biggest entertainment event of the year,” said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. “On Sept. 25, we intend to deliver a finale that will go down in entertainment history and leave people around the world with an experience that will be shared and enjoyed for years to come.”

Fueling the early buzz around “Halo 3”, Microsoft unveiled the multiplayer beta on the eve of its release at a star-studded event in Hollywood. Beginning tomorrow, May 16, Microsoft Game Studios will kick off the “Halo 3” multiplayer beta, which provides audiences worldwide with an exclusive, early look at some of the multiplayer elements of “Halo 3” on Xbox LIVE®. Adding to the excitement, Microsoft is also announcing a special edition Zune™ digital media player inspired by the hugely successful “Halo” franchise. On shelves next month, the Zune-Halo 3 edition comes loaded with a collection of “Halo” content, including videos, soundtracks, trailers, ads and artwork.

In November 2004, the world’s view of video games changed forever with the release of “Halo 2,” which generated a record-setting $125 million in sales within the first 24 hours and changed the way people think about interactive entertainment. Three years later, it remains the most-played game on Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE online gaming and entertainment network, with nearly 1 billion hours of online gaming logged to date.

The unveiling of the “Halo 3” launch date comes on the eve of the release of the “Halo 3” multiplayer beta, which will debut to audiences worldwide via Xbox LIVE on May 16 at 5 a.m. PDT and run through June 6 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.* The “Halo 3” multiplayer beta will provide audiences worldwide with an exclusive early look at some of the multiplayer elements of “Halo 3” on Xbox LIVE. Gamers who are interested in experiencing the multiplayer beta of “Halo 3” can still participate through the purchase of the critically acclaimed, Xbox 360-exclusive title “Crackdown™,” which was launched in February. Starting May 16, the specially marked copies of “Crackdown” will act as a key for gamers to participate in the “Halo 3” multiplayer beta. In addition to giving gamers their first opportunity to get their hands on the new levels, weapons, vehicles and game types, the multiplayer beta will also provide valuable data that Bungie will use in continued development.

The “Halo” franchise has expanded beyond video games into The New York Times’ best-selling books, graphic novels, collectible merchandise and now a new, special edition Zune digital media player. Encased in collectible packaging, the Zune-Halo 3 edition digital media player comes pre-loaded with artwork, trailers and music from all three “Halo” games, as well as an exclusive new episode of “Red vs. Blue” from the fan-adored machinima creator Rooster Teeth Productions LLC. The Zune-Halo 3 edition (estimated retail price $249) will be available exclusively at GameStop starting June 15.

About Bungie Studios
Bungie Studios was founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, intelligent stories and deep gameplay, and then sell enough of those games to achieve its real goal of total world domination. Over the past 10 years it has produced games such as the “Marathon Trilogy” and the first two “Myth” games, hailed as classics by critics and gamers around the world. Bungie’s “Halo” franchise is an international award-winning action title that has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 14.7 million units worldwide, logging nearly 1 billion hours of multiplayer action on Xbox LIVE, and spawning action figures, books, a graphic novel, apparel and more. Bungie is currently at work on “Halo 3,” which represents the third chapter in this “Halo” trilogy and is slated for release in 2007. More information on Bungie can be found at http://www.bungie.net.


About Microsoft Game Studios
Microsoft Game Studios is a leading worldwide publisher and developer of games for the Xbox® and Xbox 360 video game systems, the Windows® operating system and online platforms. Comprising a network of top developers, Microsoft Game Studios is committed to creating innovative and diverse games for Windows (http://www.microsoft.com/games), including such franchises as “Age of Empires®,” “Flight Simulator” and “Zoo Tycoon®”; Xbox and Xbox 360 (http://www.xbox.com), including such games as “Gears of War” and franchises such as “Halo,” “Fable®,” “Project Gotham Racing®” and “Forza Motorsport®”; and MSN® Games (http://www.games.msn.com), the official games channel for the MSN network and home to such hits as “Bejeweled” and “Hexic®.”

PC Ecosystem Gears Up for the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series from AMD

The much anticipated ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series of graphics cards is garnering great support from the PC ecosystem, with 26 power supply vendors already signing up for certification of their products by AMD (NYSE: AMD), and more are expected to follow. They are partnering with AMD to launch the next generation of graphics processing units, which give gamers superior DirectX® 10 performance at every price point, as well as the ultimate HD experience. Coolmax, Corsair, Enermax, Enhance, FSP, Hiper, Mushkin, OCZ, PC Power & Cooling Inc., Seasonic, Silverstone, Sintek, Solytech, Tagan, Thermaltake, Topower/ePower, Ultra, Zalman, and others are together now offering 110 certified models of power supplies certified for use with ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 XT products.1

“The ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series is broadening the high end gaming market by making an immersive HD gaming experience accessible to more hardcore gamers”, said Godfrey Cheng, director, Platform Marketing, AMD Graphics Products Group. “With 26 of the world’s top power supply vendors jumping in to develop customized chassis and power supply units, our customers will have tremendous choice when it comes to building their ultimate custom PC.”

Consumers can also enjoy ultra quiet gaming and multimedia systems thanks to the array of acoustic options, including better cooling, insulation and thermal handling. As well, with the option of six or eight pin connectors, the graphics cards provide a greater margin for performance tuning, resulting in a better game playing experience. Partner power supplies, starting at USD $80 (SEP), are now available from online retailers.2

For more information on the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series, visit http://ati.amd.com. For more information on pricing related to the new AMD family of graphics cards, see the relevant press release.

ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series Ecosystem Support

PC Power & Cooling Inc.
“PC Power & Cooling Inc. will continue to support AMD’s ability to exhibit outstanding value to the mainstream consumer. Even when AMD’s cutting-edge ATI Radeon HD™ 2000 Series graphics cards are rendering the most demanding graphics, our Silencer 750 Quad power supply never breaks a sweat,” said Doug Dodson, CEO, PC Power & Cooling Inc.

Enermax
“ENERMAX applauds AMD’s world leading graphics processing platform by providing a broad range of products to accompany this launch”, said Steven Su, founder & CEO, ENERMAX. “As part of our ‘DXX ready’ campaign, all our products 400 Watts or more have been upgraded so consumers around the world can enjoy this unprecedented era of gaming performance assured of the renowned durability of our power supplies.”

Silverstone
“AMD provides some of the most powerful graphics cards in the market and now, with the ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 XT, even more enthusiasts will be able to experience 3D graphics at its best. Silverstone is partnering with AMD to provide power supplies and chassis that support the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT with ease,” said Joe Lee, president, Silverstone Technology.

Thermaltake Technology
“By working side by side with leading graphics and media processing chip manufacturers such as AMD, Thermaltake’s ability to cool this multi graphic card configuration helps create the ultimate gaming platform” said Johnny Hsu, product manager of power supply division, Thermaltake. “Consumers craving both flexibility and energy efficiency will see that the combination of ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series with one of our power supply units is the right choice.”

Topower/Epower “The ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series is highly stable, and serves as one of the best graphics experiences we’ve seen to date”, said Kent Chou, president, Topower/Epower group. “Epower is welcoming the ATI Radeon HD 2000 family with the launch of ten power supplies that will undoubtedly augment the performance tuning experience for gamers”, said Don Lee, general manager, Epower USA.

FSP
“AMD’s new ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series redefines digital imaging and graphics beyond imagination. Driven by AMD’s technological achievement, FSP’s Kingcraft 1000W and the ATI Radeon HD 2000 family pair perfectly to deliver the ultimate value package for PC graphic enthusiasts and PC gamers everywhere,” said Joseph Huang, director vice president of operations, FSP.

Seasonic
“Seasonic Electronics is committed to providing our customers with the latest technology and integration solutions,” said Cathy Chang, marketing manager, Seasonic. “We are enthusiastically supporting the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series platform, as we believe these graphics cards deliver strong promise to our consumers.”

Tagan
“The ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series, paired with Tagan’s low noise power supply units, delivers superior value to users. The performance exhibited from the new AMD graphics family compliments our continuous drive for advanced technology,” said Naninni Yu, USA branch manager, Tagan Technology Co.

About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information, visit www.amd.com.

1. For the complete list of AMD certified power supply products, visit http://ati.amd.com/certifiedpsu
2. SEP stands for suggested e-tail price

CBS, Viacom, Others Invest $45 Million in Internet TV Service Joost

A group of five prominent media and venture capital companies, including CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc., have invested $45 million in Joost, a company attempting to broadcast television over the Internet, they said Thursday

Joost -- pronounced "juiced" -- was co-founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the entrepreneurs who upset the music industry with the Kazaa file-sharing service and then developed Skype, the Internet telephone system that was bought by eBay Inc. for $2.6 billion in 2005.

"We've carefully selected these investors from a variety of interested parties," Friis said in a statement. They "bring unique assets to Joost that will enable us to significantly accelerate growth and development of the Company."

The other investors were one each from North America, Europe and Asia: Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, Europe's Index Ventures and the Li Ka Shing Foundation, founded by the chairman of Asian conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. All received stakes of an undisclosed size in Joost for their investments, Joost said.

Viacom's participation is especially noteworthy: It struck a deal to supply content from Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures to Joost earlier this month, shortly after it filed suit against Google Inc. for alleged copyright infringement by YouTube, Google's free online video service.

Joost markets itself as a way for media companies to retain control and receive payment for video when they distribute it over the Internet.

Unlike YouTube, Joost does not allow users to upload videos, and it distributes only professional content. While YouTube pulls down videos only when copyright holders complain of infringement, Joost promises to actively fight piracy of the shows on its system.

Like regular TV, Joost is ad-supported and free for viewers.

While not yet fully open to the public, the company has advertising trials with Coca-Cola Co., Nike Inc., Microsoft Corp., Procter & Gamble Co., Sony Corp. and Visa.

Roelof Botha, a partner at Sequoia, said in a statement he was betting on Joost because it offers something to media companies, viewers, and advertisers.

It "allows content owners to reach audiences of any size at any time," he said, while viewers can watch shows whenever they want, for free. Advertisers get "precisely targeted and measurable advertisements."

"This ability poises the company to expand the video distribution business and capture an enormous market opportunity," he said.

To use Joost, viewers have to download and run its software, which is free, but for now only available on invitation from existing members. It appears on the computer's screen as an interface that resembles a TV remote control.

The service increases speeds and saves on bandwidth costs by using a decentralized distribution system that streams videos from user to user over the Internet -- technology similar to that underlying Kazaa and Skype.

Joost is majority-owned by Friis and Zennstrom via their Luxembourg-based Joost Operations SA, but it has offices in New York, London and Leiden, Netherlands, and expects to incorporate under the Joost name globally.

http://www.joost.com

Sun Microsystems Announces OpenID Program

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) announced a new initiative around support for OpenID, a decentralized, web-friendly single sign-on mechanism that allows consumers to reuse a single login across different websites. Through this initiative, Sun will explore the changes needed to make OpenID applicable to a broader spectrum of business and technical challenges.


This initiative is designed to aid in solving the proliferation of login challenges and expand OpenID beyond low-risk transactions such as blog comments. As part of this program, Sun will invite participation from customers and technology partners interested in combining and converging OpenID with enterprise-ready technologies like SAML and Liberty Alliance's Identity Web Services Framework.

"We're excited about finding ways to augment the use of OpenID with technologies that meet web users' needs for autonomy and convenience while making it easy to meet stringent security and privacy obligations," said Jim McHugh, vice president of software infrastructure marketing, Sun Microsystems. "Sun has been participating actively in the community dialogue around OpenID and related technologies, and sees great potential for OpenID's use alongside enterprise-ready software infrastructure."

In order to explore the boundaries of OpenID as a trust system, Sun is offering an OpenID Provider service to its 34,000 employees. Using Sun-based OpenID identifiers at an OpenID-accepting website can convey in this simple and secure manner that the user is a Sun employee, a piece of information that can enable access to employee discounts and unlock other special services all across the web. Sun will work with partners to extend special services on this basis.

The Sun OpenID Provider is built using OpenSSO, the open-source project that is providing the basis for the Sun Java System Access Manager and Sun Java Federation Manager products, as well as OpenDS, the open-source project that is providing Sun's next-generation directory services. Both of these projects now include OpenID extensions.

Sun will also determine how to OpenID-enable its own websites in an appropriate manner, as well as how best to add valuable OpenID support to additional products and platforms, such as the Sun Web Developer Pack.

To obtain more information on Sun's OpenID initiative, please visit http://developers.sun.com/identity.

For more information about Sun's Identity Management offerings, please visit http://www.sun.com/identity.

Sun Unleashes Java Technology Innovations to Accelerate Network Growth, Accessibility and Vibrancy at Annual JavaOne Conference

Today at the 2007 JavaOne conference, Sun Microsystems Inc., (NASDAQ: SUNW) previewed JavaFX, a new family of Java technology-based products. The first of these, JavaFX Mobile, is a complete mobile phone software system available via OEM license to carriers, content owners and consumer electronics manufacturers. JavaFX leverages the security and ubiquity of the Java platform and will support all content and applications currently available across the billions of Java technology-based devices in the world today. Sun today also previewed JavaFX Script, a new scripting language targeted at creative professionals, which will help to radically simplify the process of creating and distributing interactive content that spans all Java technology enabled platforms, from handsets to set tops, laptops to dashboards (see separate announcement). All JavaFX software, like all Java software at Sun, will be available to the free and open source community via the popular GNU General Public License (GPL) license.


"With JavaFX, Sun is leveraging the security and pervasiveness of the world's most widely deployed technology platform to allow creative professionals to easily author and deliver on any device," said Rich Green, executive vice president, Sun Software. "This is a major step towards helping consumers access the best content on the Internet from every device and a significant opportunity for Sun and its partners to deliver a whole new line of products."

With the pervasive distribution of the Java platform and the assets Sun recently acquired from SavaJe Technologies, JavaFX Mobile will be enhanced to provide a unified runtime environment that provides the flexibility and freedom for wireless carriers and mobile device manufacturers to develop innovative consumer electronics featuring rich, dynamic content with the "write once, run anywhere" power of Java technology. More information about JavaFX Mobile can be found at: http://www.sun.com/javafx

"We continue to see remarkable opportunity in delivering compelling content to the hundreds of millions of consumers on Vodafone's global network," said Alan Harper, Vodafone group strategy and new business director. "The Java platform's ubiquity and security have clearly amplified Vodafone's opportunity through our Vodafone live! services, and shoulder to shoulder with Sun Microsystems, we've relied upon open platforms, free markets and competition to drive innovation and value. We are enthusiastic about Sun's new JavaFX product family and the opportunity it presents to Vodafone and the global community to drive deployment of a unified Java solution on mobile devices."

Making a special appearance at JavaOne, Dr. Djibril Diallo, director of the United Nations New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace, and chair of the UN Youth Summit series, offered his support for Sun's technology for developing countries. "Bringing the Internet to people through mobile handsets can greatly expand access, and it is imperative that the technology industry continues to innovate to make that a reality worldwide. The challenge for the entire industry and Sun is in making new technology accessible in developing countries, leveraging its power to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015."

Sun will deliver additional JavaFX products for the manufacturers of set top boxes, navigation devices and automobile dashboards - answering the market's demand for an open, secure, unified platform that drives rich interactivity with consumers wherever they are on the Network.

More information on this week's JavaOne announcements and Sun's eco-responsibility activities at JavaOne, is available at: http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/javaone2007/index.jsp

MySQL AB and IBM Announce Open Source Database Support for the IBM System i Platform

MySQL Conference & Expo 2007 -- MySQL AB and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a joint technology and reseller agreement to bring support for the MySQL open source database to the IBM System i business computing platform.

The two companies will work together to offer the MySQL Server for i5/OS, the flagship operating system for System i, and plan to deliver DB2 for i5/OS as a certified MySQL storage engine on the System i platform. This will allow System i customers to implement online and transactional MySQL applications while storing all data in a single, easy-to-manage DB2 database.

In addition, MySQL Enterprise subscriptions -- a comprehensive offering of MySQL database software, services and support -- will be made available to IBM clients worldwide through IBM's reseller network and System i sales team. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

This morning's announcement was made at the 2007 MySQL Conference & Expo, being held this week at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

"IBM continues to innovate the System i platform with new investments in cutting-edge, open-source solutions. Today's news will make thousands of open source MySQL and PHP applications available to System i clients, helping them respond more quickly to business needs as they arise," said Mark Shearer, general manager IBM System i. "In addition, our customers will not only be able to deploy these applications with the support of IBM and MySQL, but -- thanks to the planned integration with our DB2 database storage engine for MySQL -- customers will continue to benefit from the integration and simplicity that System i consistently delivers."

"We are very pleased to work with IBM to bring two large, active hardware and software communities together around System i and MySQL," said Marten Mickos, MySQL AB's CEO. "As an IBM Business Partner, we hope this will open up an exciting new generation of online applications to take advantage of all the corporate data stored on one of the most reliable and secure platforms in the IT industry."

IBM becomes a member of the MySQL Certified Storage Engine Program (http://www.mysql.com/engines). With the planned DB2 storage engine for MySQL, System i customers will be able to run MySQL applications while continuing to manage their DB2 for i5/OS databases. It will plug into the MySQL Server and be managed as any other storage engine within the database server. The DB2 storage engine will provide superior storage management, transaction support, and database management for MySQL developers and DBAs -- and enable sharing of data between MySQL and DB2 applications.

About IBM

For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com. For more about System i, visit www.ibm.com/systemi

About MySQL

MySQL AB develops and supports a family of high-performance, affordable database products. The company's flagship offering is 'MySQL Enterprise,' a comprehensive set of production-tested software, proactive monitoring tools, and premium support services.

MySQL is the world's most popular open source database software, with over 11 million active installations. Many of the world's largest and fastest-growing organizations use MySQL to save time and money powering their high-volume Web sites, business-critical systems and packaged software -- including industry leaders such as Yahoo!, Alcatel, The Associated Press, Suzuki and NASA.

With headquarters in the United States and Sweden -- and operations around the world -- MySQL AB supports both open source values and corporate customers' needs in a profitable, sustainable business model. For more information about MySQL, please visit www.mysql.com

Sun Launches Online Sale to Celebrate 25 Years of Innovation

In celebration of its 25-year anniversary, Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) is offering exciting deals on its most popular and innovative products to help customers quickly and securely build, develop and deploy network computing solutions. For two weeks starting today, limited quantities of select award-winning products will be available at discounts of up to 65 percent as an anniversary gift to customers in the U.S. and U.K. Sale offerings include UltraSPARC and industry-standard Sun Fire servers, Sun StorageTek systems, services and software.


"Over the past 25 years, thousands of customers have built their businesses on Sun because of our exemplary value and investment protection," said Marsha Cavanagh, vice president of Lifecycle Marketing at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "On our 25th anniversary, we're further lowering the barriers to entry by featuring great promotional prices on some of our hottest products, offering them online where many of our customers prefer to purchase. In addition to rewarding our loyal customers, we want to introduce the next generation of companies to the innovation that has made Sun a leader in network computing."

Sun technologies—offering customers excellent value as well as processor platform and Operating System (OS) choice—will be available at unprecedented promotional prices online at http://www.sun.com/25thsale. The promotion enables both new and existing customers to quickly and easily engage with Sun's most powerful technologies, including the Solaris OS. Sale highlights include:

Systems: 50 percent off the Sun Fire x4500, the industry's first data server; up to 50 percent off the Sun Fire x4600, the world's first 16-way modular x64 server; up to 60 percent off Sun Fire CoolThreads systems, the most energy-efficient, high-performance systems on the market; and up to 50 percent off high-performance x64/x86 and SPARC workstations.
Storage: Up to 65 percent off leading NAS systems such as the Sun StorageTek 5320 and 5220 NAS Appliances.
Services: Sun offers lower-cost training and high-quality services, including Solaris Subscriptions priced less than commercial Linux; 40 percent off a service plan with the SunSpectrum Instant Upgrade program; and 25 percent off most Solaris support subscriptions.
Software: Sun's Solaris OS is available free at anytime and is supported on the broadest set of x86 and UltraSPARC platforms, making it the strategic OS of choice. Customers can easily develop applications with free Sun development tools such as Sun Studio and NetBeans software.
"Sun is always looking for creative ways to reach new and existing customers, through programs such as Try and Buy and Sun Startup Essentials," said Cavanagh. "Our anniversary sale is intended to attract new customers, encourage migration off competing platforms, and expand our footprint into broader markets."

Sun also launched a Web site (http://www.sun.com/25years) honoring the company's quarter-century of innovation, with videos from CEO Jonathan Schwartz and Chairman and Co-founder Scott McNealy; historical timelines; photos; a virtual scrapbook of memories from Sun's 25 years; and more.

Founded in 1982 and led throughout its history by the guiding principle "The Network is the Computer," Sun has pioneered an abundance of technologies that have helped customers grow their businesses on the network: from Java and Solaris to ultra-thin clients; from network storage to open source software. Now Sun is poised for another 25 years of innovation, delivering new open, eco responsible network computing technologies to help empower the people that will push the boundaries of participation on the network.

During its 25 years in business, Sun has built a massive network of customers, partners, developers, employees, alumni and other advocates. Sun now operates in more than 100 countries around the world and supports an ecosystem of more than 20,000 channel partners, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), System Integrators (SIs) and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). More than 5 million developers code in Java, supporting more than 4 billion personal computers, mobile phones and other devices worldwide that run Java applications.

New Intel Tools Help Developers Create, Debug And Tune Applications For Windows Vista And Latest Multi-Core Processors

Intel Corporation today announced the availability of new versions of its Intel® Thread Checker, Intel® Thread Profiler, Intel® VTune™ Performance Analyzer and Intel® Threading Building Blocks. These software development products enable developers to create more reliable, scalable applications, and have now been enhanced for the latest multi-core processors – Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX6800 and Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 – and newest operating systems - Microsoft Vista*, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise*, Red Hat Enterprise Linux* and Fedora Core*.

"Our Intel Core 2 processors have essential new profiling capabilities we're taking advantage of for the first time in our VTune Analyzer 9.0. Since nearly all systems shipping with Windows Vista will be multi-core systems, developers targeting Vista have been asking us for these parallelism tools," said James Reinders, director of marketing for Intel's Developer Products Division. "Developers on all operating systems want their move to parallelism well supported by development tools and we're committed to keeping up with our aggressive pace of supporting developers in as many ways as possible."

Performing multiple tasks simultaneously is referred to as "running in parallel." Parallelism is accessed in hardware and operating systems with the concept of threads of execution that are easier to program when abstracted into the software concepts of data and task parallelism. Intel Software Development products are the latest example of the company's commitment to simplify parallel programming and represent an efficient way for development teams to prepare applications for multi-core processors. These products ensure threaded applications are scaleable, reliable and optimized for current and future processor innovations.

Intel Thread Checker 3.1 for Windows and Linux detects errors in the coding of parallelism so that developers can introduce threading more safely and quickly. With its patented advanced error protection engine, the product provides "thread safety" by identifying the most obscure threading errors in 64-bit applications. This tool is enhanced with optimized performance for lower instrumented image size and runtime overhead, which gives developers even faster analysis.

Intel Thread Profiler 3.1 for Windows provides developers with insight into how application threads behave and pinpoints parallel performance issues such as bottlenecks. It allows developers to measure the number of cores that are effectively utilized by the application and indicates the percentage of the code that is not optimally parallelized for the hardware platform on which the application is running. This updated version now offers selectable stackwalking for much faster analysis and display, and is easier to use repeatedly through support for automatic recall of custom configuration settings within an activity. This updated product increases consistency and saves developers time on repetitive tasks.

Intel Threading Building Blocks 1.1 for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X is a C++ template library that simplifies introducing threads to an application, making performance gains possible while shielding software developers from the low-level complexity of assigning threads to processor cores. It enables developers to write an application once that automatically recognizes the number of available cores and scales performance appropriately. This enhanced version includes an automatic grain size calculator for optimal algorithm parallelization.

Intel VTune Performance Analyzer 9.0 is a solution that helps developers run their software faster on single and multi-core systems. Vista users now have full support, including Intel's new signed driver, which will install without Vista blocking for security concerns. Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad processors have significantly enhanced performance analysis capabilities and support more events, higher precision in event location correlation and an innovative new pipeline stall accounting. The stall accounting features radically improve tuning by focusing the user on instances of possible issues, such as cache misses.

VTune 9.0 for Linux offers a new connection between the Intel compiler's analysis and VTune run time analysis of hotspots. This new version contains an intuitive hotspot navigator that enables developers to scroll to the source from hotspot to hotspot. This allows users to identify hotspots and benefit from the knowledge built into the Intel compiler.

Pricing and Availability

Intel VTune Performance Analyzer 9.0, Intel Threading Building Blocks 1.1, Intel Thread Checker 3.1 and Intel Thread Profiler 3.1 are available today. Suggested pricing for the products: Intel VTune 9.0 $699; Intel Threading Building Blocks 1.1 for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems $299; Intel Thread Checker 3.1 for Windows and Linux $999 and $499, respectively; and Intel Thread Profiler 3.1 for Windows $299.

Intel provides software products, training, resources, technologies and services software developers need to create innovative products and industry-leading software solutions that run best on Intel platforms. Intel offers a complete line of software development products, including compilers, libraries and analysis tools, which enable developers to get more performance out of their systems and applications. Intel software developer products offer industry leading support for parallel programming for systems of all sizes. For more information, visit www.intel.com/software/products.

Sun Microsystems Announces OpenSolaris as Industry's Most Comprehensive Multi-Vendor Storage Operating System

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced it is donating storage technologies for storage developers within the OpenSolaris community. This will enable community members to combine OpenSolaris with hardware from any source to create compelling storage solutions at a fraction of the price of traditional proprietary storage vendors. This combination of open source and commodity hardware heralds a new stage in the storage industry.


Sun is taking the lead in creating a community-driven software development platform that speeds time-to-market for storage application development and which better addresses customers' ever-evolving data management and archiving needs. Sun is donating the source code to the Storage community at http://opensolaris.org/os/community/storage/ which will feature email forums, design documents and open source code.



"Just as free and open source code has changed the way server and desktop operating systems are developed, evaluated and deployed, today marks a big step in repeating this model for storage software technology," said Rich Green, executive vice president, Software, Sun Microsystems. "Sun is taking the lead in changing the market by enabling the creation of compelling low-cost storage solutions via the free and open availability of open source software, including Solaris, on commodity hardware from a wide-range of vendors including HP, Dell, IBM, and Sun."



Today Sun also announced the previously Sun-only flexible administration features of Solaris ZFS will be donated to OpenSolaris. ZFS is a dynamic file system which simplifies management and adds functionality. The features donated include:

• ZFS Clone Promotion feature, which allows storage users to turn a clone back into the active file system;


• Recursive Snapshots feature, which automatically creates snapshots for all descendent file systems.


• Double Parity RAIDZ, a data protection enhancement to that provides storage users with enough protection so that no data will
  be lost if up to two devices fail


• Hot Spares for ZFS Storage Pool Devices, data protection disks that can replace failed or faulted devices, eliminating downtime
  after disk failure.

Sun and its partners are also introducing the following storage technologies into the OpenSolaris Storage community:

• Point-in-Time Copy data service and Remote Mirror data service - allows volumes and their snapshots to be replicated between physically different servers. Includes filter-driver framework and utilities. This is the first commercial version of replication software that has been open sourced;


• NFS v4.1 (also known as parallel NFS) -- provides scalable parallel access to files distributed among multiple servers;


• YANFS (formerly known as WebNFS) - Java implementation of the client side of the XDR, RPC, NFSv2, and NFSv3 protocols;


• iSCSI device drivers -- provides both the initiator and target support for the IETF iSCSI protocol which allows the use of the SCSI protocol over TCP/IP networks;


• OSD device drivers and related software -- provides both initiator and target support for storage devices that adhere to the SCSI Object-Based Storage Device (OSD) command protocol;


• QLogic Fibre Channel HBA driver – The QLogic QLC driver enables booting from internal and external Fibre Channel devices and are now a part of OpenSolaris, making Sun’s stack of drivers which facilitate I/O activity to host bus adapters open from top to bottom – a first in the world of open storage;

OpenSolaris already provides an extensive array of storage software including a native CIFS client, UFS, Solaris Volume Manager, Traffic Manager (multipathing I/O support), a complete Fibre Channel framework with drivers, as well as traditional target drivers. Please see http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/storage/ for the entire list. Sun also has plans to open source the following technologies in the coming months: Sun StorageTek QFS shared file system, Sun StorageTek Storage Archive Manager, Sun StorageTek 5800 client interfaces and simulator/server and other storage-related technologies.



OpenSolaris Launches The First Open Source Storage Development Community
The new Storage community on OpenSolaris.org will help give developers a quicker way to deploy data-intensive applications. The community includes developers adding data management functionality and customizing the storage stack for new applications and platforms; system administrators implementing Solaris technology in data centers; educators and students researching data management in universities; and new users exploring the technology and discovering that OpenSolaris offers new opportunities. Application developers that adopt OpenSolaris as a storage platform can now utilize and enhance their existing data services and have the means to develop their own data services.



Further details on Sun's Storage family can be found at http://www.sun.com/storage.