By Andy Patrizio November 17, 2008
In the cartoons, the Road Runner always managed to fend off the Coyote. On the latest Top 500 supercomputer list, the Roadrunner managed to hold off a Jaguar. Roadrunner, the Los Alamos National Laboratory supercomputer and the first to break the petaflop (define) barrier, held on to the top spot of the Top 500 list of supercomputers, just ahead of a Cray XT5 supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory called Jaguar. While IBM built Roadrunner and Cray built Jaguar, AMD powers both. The company's long-delayed Barcelona processors run the two fastest computers in the world and seven of the top 10. Two of the top 10 supercomputers use IBM POWER processors, and only one, the new Pleiades system built by NASA, SGI and Intel, uses Xeon. The rankings are maintained by the TOP500 project at its Top500.org, and are compiled twice a year by computer researchers in the U.S. and Europe.
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Microsoft Co-Prez Warned Colleagues 'Vista Capable' Was Misleading
Senior executives inside the software maker questioned a decision to lower hardware specs for Vista PCs, e-mails show.
By Paul McDougall November 18, 2008
Former Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin called the company's decision to allow PC manufacturers to label machines not capable of running all of Windows Vista's features as Vista Capable "terrible" and "misleading," according to new e-mails unearthed Monday as part of a consumer fraud suit against the company. "I believe we are going to be misleading customers with the Capable program," Allchin wrote in an e-mail to a group of Microsoft product executives. PC makers "will say a machine is Capable and customers will believe that it will run all the core Vista features," wrote Allchin, in the April, 2006 message. Other e-mails entered earlier as evidence in the case show that Microsoft had previously lowered the specifications for a Vista Capable PC in order to appease Intel, whose 915 graphics chipset was not capable of running Vista's slick, 3-D Aero interface. "The fact that Aero won't be there EVER for many of these machines is misleading to customers," wrote Allchin, who retired from Microsoft as soon as Vista debuted in January of 2007. He added that he felt the Vista Capable program was "wrong for customers." The e-mails have been entered into evidence in a class action lawsuit that accuses Microsoft of deceptive marketing practices. The plaintiffs contend that Microsoft intentionally duped customers by advertising as Vista Capable computers that lacked the horsepower to fully support Vista.
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By Paul McDougall November 18, 2008
Former Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin called the company's decision to allow PC manufacturers to label machines not capable of running all of Windows Vista's features as Vista Capable "terrible" and "misleading," according to new e-mails unearthed Monday as part of a consumer fraud suit against the company. "I believe we are going to be misleading customers with the Capable program," Allchin wrote in an e-mail to a group of Microsoft product executives. PC makers "will say a machine is Capable and customers will believe that it will run all the core Vista features," wrote Allchin, in the April, 2006 message. Other e-mails entered earlier as evidence in the case show that Microsoft had previously lowered the specifications for a Vista Capable PC in order to appease Intel, whose 915 graphics chipset was not capable of running Vista's slick, 3-D Aero interface. "The fact that Aero won't be there EVER for many of these machines is misleading to customers," wrote Allchin, who retired from Microsoft as soon as Vista debuted in January of 2007. He added that he felt the Vista Capable program was "wrong for customers." The e-mails have been entered into evidence in a class action lawsuit that accuses Microsoft of deceptive marketing practices. The plaintiffs contend that Microsoft intentionally duped customers by advertising as Vista Capable computers that lacked the horsepower to fully support Vista.
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Microsoft chopping Zune prices
by Ina Fried November 18, 2008
With the economy tanking and the holidays looming, Microsoft is hoping to salvage some Zune sales by chopping prices. The software maker plans to announce on Wednesday a price cut for its flash-based models. The 4GB version will drop to $99, the 8GB model will drop by $10 to $139, and the 16GB model will sell for $179, down from $199. Microsoft is also cutting prices for several of its Zune accessories. The cuts take effect on Wednesday in the U.S. and on Friday in Canada. Zune marketing director Adam Sohn said in an interview on Tuesday that the moves were being made to "ensure hopefully we have a good holiday season." The prices put Zune's flash players cheaper than a similar capacity iPod Nano, though Sohn said that wasn't the explicit goal of the price cuts.
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With the economy tanking and the holidays looming, Microsoft is hoping to salvage some Zune sales by chopping prices. The software maker plans to announce on Wednesday a price cut for its flash-based models. The 4GB version will drop to $99, the 8GB model will drop by $10 to $139, and the 16GB model will sell for $179, down from $199. Microsoft is also cutting prices for several of its Zune accessories. The cuts take effect on Wednesday in the U.S. and on Friday in Canada. Zune marketing director Adam Sohn said in an interview on Tuesday that the moves were being made to "ensure hopefully we have a good holiday season." The prices put Zune's flash players cheaper than a similar capacity iPod Nano, though Sohn said that wasn't the explicit goal of the price cuts.
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AMD's Dragon platform 40% better than Spider?
By Cameron Wilmot 18th November 2008
More leaked AMD documents recently surfaced online and this time we get our first look at the upcoming AMD Dragon platform, which is set to replace the Spider platform. The Spider platform was a marketing initiative created by AMD to generate interest towards its original Phenom processor, 790FX motherboard and Radeon HD3800 series graphics cards. AMD’s Dragon platform, clearly more powerful than a mere spider, is set to become the new gaming platform for AMD in 2009, if leaked documents seen by our editors are to believed. The Dragon platform includes the Phenom II processor, new and revamped 790 series motherboards and Radeon HD4800 series graphics hardware. AMD is claiming in internal documents that its upcoming Dragon platform will be up to 40% faster in gaming than the previous Spider systems.
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More leaked AMD documents recently surfaced online and this time we get our first look at the upcoming AMD Dragon platform, which is set to replace the Spider platform. The Spider platform was a marketing initiative created by AMD to generate interest towards its original Phenom processor, 790FX motherboard and Radeon HD3800 series graphics cards. AMD’s Dragon platform, clearly more powerful than a mere spider, is set to become the new gaming platform for AMD in 2009, if leaked documents seen by our editors are to believed. The Dragon platform includes the Phenom II processor, new and revamped 790 series motherboards and Radeon HD4800 series graphics hardware. AMD is claiming in internal documents that its upcoming Dragon platform will be up to 40% faster in gaming than the previous Spider systems.
Read more here -->Link
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