Seagate Cheetah 15K.6 Hard Drive launched

In April 2006, Seagate released its Cheetah 15K.5 hard drives. Now, the company has gone on to launch the Cheetah 15K.6 hard drive, which happen to be the newest generation of Seagate’s award-winning enterprise Cheetah family.


The Seagate Cheetah 15K.6 hard drive has been built for the most transaction-intensive enterprise servers and storage systems. In fact, this 3.5-inch form factor hard drive offers the highest performance ever complete with a 28% increase in sustained data transfer rates compared to previous generation drives.


The new Cheetah 15K.6 hard drive is available in capacities of 450GB, 300GB and 147GB.
According to Sherman Black, Seagate senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise Compute Business, “With the Cheetah 15K.6 combination of high-performance, capacity and optimized power utilization, it is ideal for demanding transactional and energy-constrained data center environments.”


Besides the above features, Seagate’s Cheetah 15K.6 hard drive includes Seagate PowerTrim technology which dynamically optimizes drive power consumption at all levels of activity. Thus, this hard drive delivers the highest performance in its class without increasing power consumption.


Also, the Cheetah 15K.6 hard drive lowers idle and operational power requirements as much as 61% in watts/GB, while increasing overall sustained data transfer rates by 28% at 164MB/sec.

The Seagate Cheetah 15K.6 hard drive is scheduled to being shipping worldwide in Q1 2008.

source:techshout.com

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Microsoft Releases New Virtual Machine-Management Software

Microsoft Corp. Thursday released its first software designed specifically to manage virtual machines on a network, and tweaked licensing for its system-management products to take into account virtualization.
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007, which has been in the works for about a year and a half, has been released to manufacturing and will be generally available in October as part of Microsoft's System Server Management Center suite of products, the company said.

The new product is built on the same architecture as other products in the enterprise version of the suite -- which include Data Protection Manager, Operations Manager and Configuration Manager -- and is aimed specifically at managing virtual machines in a data center that runs Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, the current version of Microsoft's server virtualization technology, said Patrick O'Rourke, group manager, Windows Infrastructure. "Customers now can use the same tools to manage both virtual and physical assets [on the network]," he said.

Microsoft also has changed the licensing model for its for its System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise, making it available for US$860 per host server -- which means the actual server that hosts any instances of virtual software -- plus two years of Microsoft's Software Assurance plan. Previously, System Center software was licensed per device being managed in the data center, O'Rourke said. The new licensing should make managing virtualized environments with Microsoft's software more cost-effective for customers, he said.

Microsoft has been developing and fine-tuning its virtualization strategy over the past several years to keep up with virtualization leader VMWare Inc. and others, as well as to serve the needs of large customers who increasingly are using virtualization in their data centers. However, the company's strategy has predictably hit some road bumps.

Microsoft is developing next-generation virtualization technology, code-named Viridian, that takes advantage of virtualization-optimized processors from Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and will help keep the company up to speed with competitors. However, though Viridian will be a component of Windows Server 2008, it won't be available until six months after that new OS is released. And since Microsoft recently pushed back the release of Windows Server 2008 to the first quarter of next year, Viridian's release is nearly a year away. The company also decided earlier this year to pull out some originally planned features of Viridian due to timing concerns.

In the meantime, customers can use a combination of Microsoft's stand-alone Virtual Server and its System Center products to install and manage both virtual and physical machines in the data center. Microsoft also is planning a mid-market version of Virtual Machine Manager, called Workgroup edition, for release in January. The software will cost $499 per host server.

Microsoft also plans to extend the capabilities of the next version of Virtual Machine Manager so that it not only supports Windows Server virtualization technologies but also third-party virtualization from VMware and XenSource Inc., O'Rourke said. A beta of that software is expected to be available around the same time as Windows Server 2008, and Microsoft plans to update its roadmap then as well.


source:pcworld.com
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HP Picks Intel Chip for Quad-core Servers

HP's new server is based on Intel's Tigerton quad-core Xeon processor.
Ben Ames, IDG News Service
Hewlett-Packard Co. launched a server based on Intel Corp.'s new Tigerton quad-core Xeon processor Thursday, battling IBM Corp. for customers who run data-intensive business applications like enterprise resource planning and virtualization software.

HP announced the rack-based ProLiant DL580 G5 and the blade-shaped ProLiant BL680c G5, each using four of Intel's Xeon 7300-series chips.

Compared to HP's current ProLiant servers with dual-core versions of the Xeon or Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s Opteron chips, both new servers are designed to better support virtualization, allowing users to handle their applications with a smaller number of servers than they need today, the company said.

The announcement comes less than a week before AMD is expected to launch its own quad-core server chip, called Barcelona. HP, Sun Microsystems Inc. and other vendors are expected to use that processor in a range of new platforms for similar markets.

In the meantime, Intel is enjoying increased popularity for its Tigerton chip. IBM also chose the Xeon 7300 chip to upgrade its server lineup, combining the processor with its own X4 chipset instead of Intel's Clarksboro chipset. IBM announced the System x3950 M2 server on Wednesday, also touting its virtualization abilities.

IBM designed the server for fast-growing businesses, so it can easily scale up for larger deployments such as data centers and ERP or customer relationship management applications from providers like SAP and Oracle, said Jay Bretzmann, manager of product marketing for IBM. Compared to systems based on its X3 chipset, IBM will add memory and an internal USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface for loading embedded virtualization software.

"As cores started multiplying, the need for memory started growing, particularly in the virtualization space. So we offered a low entry price point and head room to grow," Bretzmann said. Together those improvements will allow users to get greater utilization out of their servers, instead of having the computers sit idle while waiting for new jobs, he said.

"There are so many applications that really scale; databases are the flagship; if you write a database that doesn't scale well you're not going to be in business for long. But virtualization allows you to load multiple OSes, and achieve the flexibility and utilization that are key for quad-core technology," he said.

IBM intends to keep its X4 chipset in the market through 2009, then offer a fifth-generation version by 2010, he said. IBM plans to launch the System x3950 M2 server at high volume in the fourth quarter.

HP is selling the DL580 for US$9,219 and the BL680c for $9,669. IBM will announce pricing for the System x3950 M2 when it is shipped, in the fourth quarter.


source:pcworld.com
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HP Announces Multimedia and Gaming Powerhouse PCs

The company has unveiled two powerful new desktop PCs, and a high-performance multimedia monitor to match.
HP has announced two new high-end desktop PC systems and one new multimedia-oriented monitor. The new PCs include the HP Blackbird 002, a joint venture between HP and its recently acquired Voodoo PC gaming division. There's also a new high-end multimedia PC in the HP Pavilion Elite m900n series, and the multimedia-oriented HP w2408 24-inch widescreen LCD monitor.

The HP Blackbird 002 is an overclocked gaming PC built into a sculpted aluminum chassis, and is the newest addition to "The $5K Club" with price tags in the $5,000 range, depending on your configuration.

The second PC introduced today is the HP Pavilion Elite m9000n series high-end multimedia PCs. The first system, a Pavilion Elite m9040n, comes with a quad-core Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor, NTSC/ATSC (HDTV) tuner, 3GB of system memory and 640GB of speedy hard drive space. The m9040n includes bays for both of HP's removable hard drive technologies, the aptly named HP Pocket Media Drive and the larger, higher capacity HP Personal Media Drive. While having both may be overkill for some, early adopters and removable hard drive fans will enjoy this option.

HP's w2408 widescreen monitor is the company's answer to mid-to-high-end 24-inch widescreen monitors like Gateway's FPD2485W and Dell's 2407WFP. The w2408 is a 1,920-by-1,200, 16:10 widescreen like the others, and pivots from portrait to landscape mode, so you can read vertically and horizontally optimized programs or Web pages. The w2408 is HDCP compliant, so you can watch HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs on your PC. Notable innovations include a keyboard storage area under the monitor, and rear-firing speakers (the competition requires external speakers or a speaker bar).

HP Launches Budget Business Laptops

HP is attempting to keep pace with Dell's Vostro laptop line by launching its own budget laptops tailored to small businesses

With Dell having recently launched its small-business Vostro line of desktops and laptops, it's only fitting that HP should have similar offerings tailored to its small-business customers. The HP Compaq 6820S and Compaq 6720S are business laptops that cater to professionals on a tight budget. You don't get the tough metals, the security features, and fast processing parts that are found on HP's enterprise laptops, but you do get a set of laptops that will get the basic stuff done

Starting at $649, you can get an Intel Celeron processor, 512MB RAM, and an 80GB hard drive with either the Compaq 6720S or the Compaq 6820S. The 6720S is the smaller of the two, integrating a 15.4-inch widescreen and weighing 5.5 pounds. The 6820S brings the weight up to 6.5 pounds, but you also have 17 inches worth of screen real estate. Both laptops have three USB ports, ExpressCard slots, and an SD/MMC card slot, and the base optical drive is a DVD-ROM/CD-RW. The only real sore spot is that neither of these systems will have options for Windows XP Pro—they're Windows Vista only.

source:pcmag.com

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Intel Ships Quad-Core Tigerton

The showdown is set for AMD's Barcelona with Intel's release today of Xeon 7300 chips.
Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service

Intel Corp. plans to unveil today a version of its Xeon processor that's designed for high-end servers with multiple processors -- setting the stage for a showdown with rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s upcoming quad-core Barcelona chip.

The Xeon 7300 chips, called Tigerton, are the first quad-core processors from Intel designed to be used in servers with four or more processors, a relatively small but lucrative segment of the server market. Previously, the Xeon processor for this segment of the market had two cores, despite the availability of quad-core Xeon chips for single-processor and two-way servers.

The new chips offer significantly better performance compared to their predecessors, Intel's Xeon 5300 chips, said Adesh Gupta, regional platform architecture manager at Intel Asia-Pacific's Server Platforms Group.

"Across the spectrum of different applications, we're seeing really, really good performance," Gupta said.

Benchmarks run by Intel showed significant gains for many enterprise applications, including SAP AG's ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, Gupta said. The 7300 series chips can handle roughly 82 percent more ERP users and 92 percent more database transactions than the 5300 chips, he said.

The 7300 is part of the Caneland chip package, which also includes Intel's 7300 chipset, known as Clarksboro. The new chipset has four 1,066MHz interconnects that are linked to an individual processor, helping reduce latency between the processors and main memory.

Caneland is the last release expected from Intel before AMD announces the availability of its Barcelona server chips on Sept. 10. Barcelona is widely expected to offer significant performance increases over AMD's existing dual-core server chips, and should mean tighter competition with Intel in the server space.

Intel will initially offer six versions of Tigerton. At the top of the range is the X7350, a 2.93GHz chip designed with 8M bytes of shared on-chip cache and a thermal design power (TDP) of 130 watts. TDP is the highest sustainable level of power for applications that Intel expects to be run on the chip, and the number describes how much heat a system must be able to dissipate from the chip.

Intel is also offering several Xeon 7300 chips with a TDP of 80 watts. The E7340 runs at 2.4GHz and offers 8M bytes of shared on-chip cache. The E7330 also runs at 2.4GHz, but has 6M bytes of cache. The E7320 and E7310 both have 4M bytes of shared cache and run at clock speeds of 2.13GHz and 1.6GHz, respectively.

Intel will also release a 50-watt version that runs at 1.86GHz. The L7345 has 8M bytes of shared on-chip cache and is designed for blade servers and high-density rack servers.

Two dual-core versions of the Tigerton chip, the E7220 and E7210, will also be available, running at speeds of 2.93GHz and 2.4GHz with a TDP of 80 watts. Both chips have a shared on-chip cache of 8M bytes and are designed for high-performance computing applications.

Tigerton's improved performance doesn't come cheap. The processors are priced from US$856 to $2,301 per chip in 1,000-unit quantities, a standard measure of processor pricing.

The 7300 will also be the last server chip announced by Intel, before its upcoming Penryn chips are made available later this year. Made using a 45-nanometer process that will allow more cache to be put on each chip, the first Penryn server chips are expected to be released in November.

Those chips are intended for use in single-processor and two-way servers. The Penryn server chip for multiple-processor servers is called Dunnington and will not be available until late 2008, Gupta said


SOURCE:pcworld.com
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HP Announces 3 AMD Powered Laptops

HP has announced three new laptops that are based on AMD processors. The new models that have been introduced are the Pavilion dv9500z ($1000), dv6500z ($750) and Compaq Presario v6500z ($500). While the first two models are aimed at multimedia desktop replacements, the final one is an entry level machine. The AMD processors that are on offer on these machines are variations of the Turion 64 X2 58/60/62/64 chips.


The 17-inch dv9500z is a desktop replacement machine with Nvidia GeForce Go 7150M or 8400M GS graphics chipset, comes with max up to 4GB of RAM, up to 500 of HDD storage, HD DVD drive, 17.1 inch LCD panel with 1680 x 1050 resolution, fingerprint reader, webcam, microphone, a/b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth, Verizon Wireless V740 ExpressCard, digital TV Tuner, and Windows Vista. The same specifications are applicable for the dv6500z except max storage is reduced to 250GB.The 15.4-inch Presario v6500z provides up to 2GB RAM, max 160GB hard drive, dual layer DVD burner, GeForce Go 7150M graphics, a/b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth, ExpressCard, TV Tuner, and Windows Vista.


source:tech2.com



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