Clearspace Server Syndication Feed

Otra forma de educación con las Classmate PC de Intel

miguelbissone — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:57:31 GMT

La tecnología se ha transformado en los últimos tiempos en un elemento clave de la vida de todos, pero la misma existencia de posibilidades tecnológicas cada vez más promisorias genera una brecha entre los que pueden acceder a los avances y aquellos que no tienen la posibilidad de llegar a esos nuevos productos o servicios. Considerando la educación se podría decir que aquellos que utilizan de manera amigable las nuevas tecnologías para educarse en la actualidad, tienen más posibilidades a futuro.Lo que se torna fundamental es entonces la alfabetización digital de los jóvenes, porque hoy los nuevos excluidos son los analfabetos digitales.

Ante esta problemática Intel ha llevado adelante iniciativas para lograr un achicamiento progresito de la brecha digital. Una de las ideas fuertes de los últimos tiempos en torno a la educación fue el llamado modelo 1 a 1, que cobró notoriedad a partir del proyecto OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) que proponía la fabricación de laptops baratas para los niños de los países emergentes. Coincidiendo con los planteos de la iniciativa OLPC, Intel desarrolló su propia laptop escolar de bajo costo, la classmate PC . Un equipo altamente durable, pequeño y con conexión a Internet, y se unió al proyecto con el fin de trabajar conjuntamente con la organización para explorar formas de colaborar relativas a la tecnología y el contenido educativo, haciendo de la sinergia una forma de llegar a todos los niños del mundo y seguir renovando el compromiso con la educación.

Los Classmate fueron diseñados específicamente por Intel para responder a las necesidades de las aulas en mercados emergentes. El PC asequible y totalmente funcional soporta entornos de aprendizaje colaborativo para escuelas y ya ha empezado a entregarse en volumen a mercados emergentes. La visión de Intel es conectar a las personas con un universo de oportunidades, impulsando la adopción de la tecnología en la educación. Las netbooks classmate PC basadas en tecnología Intel son muy económicas y se han diseñado para satisfacer las necesidades educativas de los alumnos, pero teniendo en cuenta los factores etnográficos y humanos en aulas reales con el fin de generar soluciones específicas y eficaces en esos ámbitos, para que aumente la micromovilidad de los estudiantes que pueden experimentar con su laptop sentados en el piso, solos, en su pupitre o en grupos.

La classmate PC basadas en tecnología Intel están mejorando la enseñanza de más un millón de algunos en 50 países, pero no solo las escuelas sino también las comunidades aprovechan la classmate para generar soluciones innovadoras ante problemas ambientales, agrícolas y de salud.

En Nigeria los chicos descubrieron un mundo nuevo a partir del software de sus classmates y de la posibilidad de interactuar con personas de todo el mundo. La adquisición dinamizó el aula y estimuló el aprendizaje. En Campinas- Brasil, una maestra logró sacarle el máximo provecho a las nuevas classmate al utilizar una aplicación informática en una clase de portugués que permitió a los alumnos crear animaciones y compartirlas con el resto de sus compañeros a través del SmartBoard de la laptop. En un momento determinado se presentaron dificultades técnicas y uno de los alumnos pudo solucionarlas, de esta manera se abrió en el aula un cauce de conocimiento más horizontal diferente al que estamos habituados.

Links

• Intel

• Learning Series

Test Blog Post - IE8

Sridevi_R05 — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:47:44 GMT

Test Blog Post - IE8 - Modified.

Field Image Kit 5.0 is Right Around the Corner

mattwallington — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:51:05 GMT

For the past four years the Field Image Kit has been the primary tool the Intel Field Sales team and partner organizations have used to demonstrate Intel® vPro™ platform features to customers. The Field Image Kit includes the full infrastructure and software required to demonstrate Intel® vPro™ technology across various top tier Intel® vPro™ solution providers. This includes Microsoft, Symantec, and LANDesk.

Field sales teams are able to load the Field Image Kit on two lightweight notebook computers and showcase various Intel® vPro™ technology use case demonstrations. How is this possible? By utilizing virtual machines aided by Intel® Virtualization Technology, we are able to run an infrastructure Virtual Machine which handles all of the back end requirements for Intel® vPro™ to function in a large enterprise. This includes DHCP, DNS, Active Directory, and Certificate Authority. The user can then run another Virtual Machine with the software vendor management console of their choice. With the intuitive documentation, even those with limited to no Intel® vPro™ experience can perform management operations.

Our latest feat, Field Image Kit 5.0, releases Monday, November 30, 2009. The 5.0 release includes:

Updated infrastructure VM running Windows Server 2008
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM) SP2
Symantec Altiris Client Management Suite 7.0
LANDesk Real Time System Manager 8.8 SP3
Updated documentation including videos for various use case demonstrations and configuration.
Windows 7 upgrade kit enabling the update of Management Consoles and Clients to Windows 7

The following demonstrations are available in the Field Image Kit:

Windows 7 Deployment Demonstration
Many companies are looking for a secure and reliable method to deploy Windows 7 to their clients. Field Image Kit 5.0 now enables users to demonstrate deployment of Windows 7 to the clients in their enterprise. With the pre-created task sequence, simply advertise the deployment task to a collection of Intel® vPro™ clients and deployment will begin regardless of current power state.

Fast Call for Help – Client Initiated Remote Access Demonstration
Field Image Kit 5.0 now supports Fast Call for Help showcasing initiating a connection to the enterprise for vPro management from the internet cloud. *Note: An external network adapter is required in addition to the internal adapter in the management console.

Customizable Network Filter Demonstration
Demonstrate Symantec’s unique ability to customize system defense filters while isolating the system. Using the standard system defense policy the system cannot communicate on the network with the exception of a secure connection to the management console. With customizable filters, the user can remotely remediate the client by allowing traffic to tools such as Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection.

XP Mode Demonstration
Field Image Kit 5.0 demonstrates the new XP Mode feature in Windows 7. Many older custom applications do not natively run in Windows 7. XP Mode integrates a built-in virtual machine utilizing Intel® Virtualization Technology running Windows XP with the custom applications. The applications are executed directly from the start menu in Windows 7 and run alongside applications running in the host OS to ensure a seamless user interface.

Video Demonstrations
New videos are included in Field Image Kit 5.0 to aid in configuration as well as to expedite showcasing lengthy demonstrations such as the Windows 7 deployment demo.

Intel® vPro™ Technology Information Kiosk
Field Image Kit 5.0 marks the introduction of the Intel® vPro™ Technology Information Kiosk. Kiosk is designed to showcase Intel® vPro™ technology demonstrations and collateral in an easy to use web interface.

‘Drop In’ Use Case Reference Designs
Now introducing ‘Drop In’ Use Case Reference Designs assisting end users in activating Intel® vPro™ features in their enterprise or small/medium business.

Field Image Kit 5.0 releases Monday November 30. Visit the Intel® Demo Kit portal for more information.

Webinar - Dell, Red Hat, and Intel help you plan migration from SPARC/Solaris

mitchk — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:16:44 GMT

It is not late to register for a joint webinar delivered by Red Hat, Intel, and Dell.

This webinar delivers how to plan and execute your migration from SPARC/Solaris to Dell/Intel/Red Hat, a popular content also delivered in seminars the companies did in North America in October.

A clear roadmap showing the estimated timeframe and costs for your migration
Effective training for you and your IT staff
Proven best practices to ensure a smooth implementation
Join Red Hat, Intel, and Dell on December 2 2009 at 2pm ET to see how these open source pioneers can help you move from a RISC/UNIX environment to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Who should start the ‘data security revolution’?

MatthewRosenquist — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:36:30 GMT

After posting the video and opinion paper It is Time for a Data Security Revolution! a reader posed a simple yet deep question. GroogFish, in the YouTube video comments asked ...who is supposed to start this "revolution"? As my response is a bit

Permanent Storage

dougb — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:58:02 GMT

Words mean things. And sometimes multiple words mean the same thing. In our land we use NVM, EEPROM and Flash interchangeably at times. This can be confusing, so this posting is a primer on the what, the why and the how of the storage on the adapters.

First let’s break up the acronym soup. NVM is Non-Volatile Memory. It is memory that can survive power being gone for a long time. EEPROM is electrically erasable programmable Read Only Memory. Flash is based off the Fowler–Nordheim tunneling effect. In "ye olde" days, an EEPROM and a Flash were very different inside and out. Now days only the size seems to make a difference. Both use the same HW principle. EEPROMs can be erased and written one word at a time. Flash are erased in sector or whole chip erase, and can be written one word at a time.

A quick aside on erasing: Flash have an unusual feature. You can change a 1 bit to a 0 bit with a write command, but you can only change a 0 to 1 via erasing the word/image. This makes a big difference since having to erase then write can add to the programming time. EEPROM parts can write 0 to 1 via a single write command. The software does not need to execute an erase command before writing an EEPROM word. One reason the largest Flash parts are bigger than the largest EEPROM parts is that there is an extra transistor on each bit cell, allowing each bit to be changed in either direction. Flash parts share this transistor and therefore must be erased in sector blocks. It’s a little backwards to most people that "blank" is all 1s, but that's the way the electricals works. Back to our show!

As you probably see, an EEPROM is a NVM as is a Flash. So why use the less precision term NVM over EEPROM? Again history points the way. Back before the rise of Wired for Management spec and its inclusion into WHQL (Windows* Hardware Qualification Labs) certifications, Flash was rarely included on an implementation. But the silicon would need a storage site for things like MAC address, Wake on LAN settings and other things. This required us to put storage on the card. We elected to use EEPROMs. Small, simple and cheap and able to hold enough data for our needs, it was a perfect match. Then as the need for pre-boot technologies (like PXE, which is a whole 'nother post) started to rise, WFM put the requirement that every card brought its option ROM with it. At the time the only a Flash was big enough so that led to the dual approach, requiring both Flash and EEPROM. Flash forward (pardon the pun) a decade and EEPROMs are almost the same size as the Flash of the earlier period. At this point our team elected to use just one part, but segment it virtually to have a part that functions in the role of the EEPROM and part functions as the Flash. Now we had products that you could use either a Flash or an EEPROM in this role and this is when we started calling either NVM. And since terms seem to leak backwards, some people use it apply to EEPROM and Flash as separate items. We have products that use a Flash in the role of the EEPROM and they call it NVM as well. When somebody says NVM, just think storage of configuration data and option ROMs. Be sure to check the datasheet and other documentation to make sure which storage family, EEPROM or Flash, is appropriate for your design. Then you can call it NVM.

That was a bunch of stuff at once, so let’s end it on a review:

1) NVM is EEPROM and/or Flash

2) NVM/EEPROM/Flash will have device configuration information in it and is required for normal operation

3) Thanks for using Intel(R) Ethernet products.

La seguridad de la laptop ultrafina de Martin

laptop — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:29:27 GMT

Esta semana pasó algo que me dio tanta confianza que creo que debería dejar de escribir, tal vez esta sea la última anécdota que vierta en palabras. Fue el viernes, ya durante la madrugada el cielo dio unos alaridos desesperados, las nubes explotaron en cascadas durante toda la mañana. Los ruidos de la tormenta me tranquilizaban, era como sentir el carácter de la naturaleza. La mala noticia llegó cuando Martín se levantó con un llamado telefónico, un compañero debía entrevistar a alguien en otro país pero justo su esposa dio a luz a su primer hijo, por lo que no podría realizar el viaje.

Martín se vistió rápidamente y me puso en el bolso, creo que él no había escuchado la ruidosa tormenta de la noche, porque no tomó un paraguas. Eso no importó, consiguió un taxi y llegamos al aeropuerto. El problema comenzó allí, ya que la tormenta había obligado a cancelar los vuelos. Martín estaba desesperado, la entrevista era en unas horas y no podría realizarla, y el cielo no tenía muchas intensiones de teñirse de azul. Luego de esperar un rato en el aeropuerto, realizar llamadas a sus jefes, a su familia, desganado fue hacia su casa creyendo que había perdido esa oportunidad de entrevistar a ese importante personaje.

Por la tarde mientras miraba cómo las agujas del reloj corrían irremediablemente hacia un dead line que no cumpliría, miró mi web cam, casi escondida en la parte superior del monitor, sus ojos brillaron por un momento, y una mueca de satisfacción apareció en su rostro. Tomó el teléfono y se comunicó con su jefe, le planteo su idea, pero creo que este no estaba muy convencido porque Martín tuvo que asegurarle que podría entrevistar perfectamente a esa personalidad, utilizándome como vehículo.

Finalmente logró su cometido y se comunicó a la hora pactada, pero por medio de Internet, con aquel que debía entrevistar. Aunque estaban separados por más de mil km, eso no importó. Mi cámara, el micrófono, la misma conexión, todo funcionó de maravilla, ambos estuvieran juntos charlando, frente a frente aunque en remoto.

Me sentí por fin necesitada, totalmente necesitada. Fue por la noche cuando comencé a leer las páginas de este diario, recordé uno a uno los hechos que había contado. Desde la llegada, feliz pero también melancólica, con los nuevos rostros, la nueva casa, el dueño desconocido hasta el último viaje frustrado por la tormenta. Encontré un gran cambio en mí, la inseguridad ya no me persigue, soy feliz, tal vez porque poco a poco he ido superando todos mis miedos y hoy me siento completamente segura frente a lo que pueda presentarse Por eso me despido y rememorando a un poeta digo, “estos serán los últimos versos que yo le escribo”.

Links

• Intel.

Award winning IT Manager Game launches the animation-light mode

kt — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:36:19 GMT

We have recently released the animation-light mode of the IT Manager III: Unseen Forces for the improved performance, check it out here http://itmanager3.intel.com/en-gb/default.aspx?iid=ENGSHORT+unseenforces&. You will need to select the animation mode from the options menu once you log in the game.

We are planning quite a few updates to the game in 2010 so stay tuned!

And what I mean by award winning? Check this out http://www.bima.co.uk/bima-award/030F131702/bima-awards-2009/awards-winners/

Will keep you posted with all the news about the game.

Keti

Is Cloud computing really cheap ?

gtouret — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:26:53 GMT

Cloud computing buzz is on the raise. Cost reduction is one of the perceived benefits of this capability. But is it really that cheap? Yes, it's a great solution for small companies with Web-based operations, which don't have to plan for peak

Intel Virtualisatie Technology (VT) uitgelegd (vervolg)

MrIntel — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:27:51 GMT

Deze blog post is een vervolg op een eerdere blog post die verder ingaat op Intel Virtualisatie Technology (VT). Het eerste deel is hier terug te vinden.

VT-d Virtualisation technology for directed I/O

Een direct gevolg van virtualisatie is dat het I/O verkeer binnen het systeem, maar ook (naar) buiten het systeem, toeneemt. Er zijn immers meerdere guest o/s’en actief op het system die elk data verwerken, versturen en ontvangen. De VMM wordt bij al deze I/O transacties betrokken, wat een extra belasting creëert voor de processor en waardoor het dataverkeer vertraagt. Er is dus sprake van overhead. VT-d adresseert dit probleem door de VMM in staat te stellen I/O kaarten toe te wijzen aan een individueel guest o/s. Een I/O apparaat of kaart wordt een gedeelte van het geheugen toegewezen waar alleen het toegewezen guest o/s ook direct toegang tot krijgt. De VMM blijft nog steeds betrokken bij de transacties maar in (veel) mindere mate.

VMDq en VMDc vallen onder de VT-C paraplu benaming. VT-C bevat alle VT technologieen die betrekking hebben op netwerk verbindingen (connectivity)

Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq)

Het afhandelen van netwerkverkeer is een taak waar de VMM ook de regie op zich neemt. Alle pakketen die verzonden worden of in een guest o/s ontvangen, moeten door de VMM gesorteerd worden en ook weer van of naar het desbetreffende guest o/s of netwerkadapter gerouteerd worden. Dit is wederom een proces dat een belasting creëert voor de processor. Door middel van VMDq kan het sorteren plaats vinden op de Intel netwerkadapter in plaats dat de VMM de processor ermee belast. De VMM hoeft met behulp van VMDq alleen de routering van de pakketten nog af te handelen. Dit resulteert in een sneller afhandeling van het netwerkverkeer wat zich vertaalt in een lagere latency.

Virtual Machine Direct Connect (VMDc)

Door middel van VMDc wordt het mogelijk om een fysieke netwerkadapter onder te verdelen in meerdere virtuele adapters voor verschillende gues o/s’en. Een praktisch voorbeeld: er zijn 10 guest o/s’en actief op een server die elk een 1 Gb/s verbinding krijgen toegewezen op een fysieke 10 gb/s netwerkadapter. VMDc maakt gebruik van meerdere technologieën om dit voor elkaar te krijgen. VT-d wordt gebruikt om een netwerkpoort op de netwerkadapter toe te wijzen aan een specifiek guest o/s. Met behulp van Single Root I/O virtualisatie (SR-IOV) worden de fysieke poorten virtueel beschikbaar gemaakt voor meerdere guest o/s’en (dit wordt ook wel een Virtual Function (VF) genoemd). Omdat VT-d gebruikt wordt voor de directe adressering van guest o/s’en en de I/O hardware, wordt de VMM en dus ook de processor minder belast en de netwerk bandbreedte efficiënter gebruikt. Anders vertaald kan je dus stellen dat door middel van VMDc de consolidatie- ratio van guest o/s’en op een server verder omhoog gedreven wordt.

Ik hoopt dat de voordelen van Intel virtualisatie-technologie na het lezen van deze post wat inzichtelijker zijn geworden. VT is zoals gezegd eigenlijk een paraplubenaming voor een aantal specifieke technologieën die zijn ondergebracht in onze platformen. In de toekomst zullen bovenstaande zaken zeker aangevuld worden met nieuwe technologieën en mogelijkheden waar ik dan zekere weer een post aan zal wijden.

Onderstaand nog wat links naar webpagina's waar meer informatie over dit onderwerp te vinden is:

http://www.intel.com/technology/virtualization/server/

http://www.intel.com/technology/virtualization/resources.htm?iid=tech_vt_server%20down_rsrc

En als afsluiting een filmpje waarin de geschiedenis en een aantal basis zaken aan het worden uitgelicht.

Do it yourself - Power on, patch, and go back to sleep with 4, free .exes

jake_friz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:54:40 GMT

Having worked with Intel Active Management Technology and Intel vPro Technology since version 1.0, it seems to me that there are a whole host of possibilities for those who are do-it-yourself-ers. One is the ability to programmatically wake a system, remotely trigger a process such as a software patch, and then put the system back to sleep. As it turns out, this is not so hard, even for me who has a limited scripting (read batch file) capability. The video chronicles the results of my effort.

Disclaimer: this is not meant as a how-to or best method. Rather, it is an exploration of what’s possible, meant to educate and stimulate conversation. With that out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff.

To accomplish this goal I knew I'd need some help via command line tools. I did an Internet search and found these 4 freely downloadable tools that made it all possible. They are;

Remote Control Util - to determine the current power state and turn the system on.

PsService - to start a process remotely

PsShutdown - to put the system back to sleep

sleep.exe - so the batch file can sleep while an event takes place.

The setup is simple; 2 systems. One is the console that executes the batch file and these commands. The other is my vPro system. I setup and configured my it using this Use Case Reference design (another of my batch file creations). That is to say, there's no TLS and I'm using only the admin account. I then ran the batch file on the console system which triggered the whole process. The process is as follows:

1. Remote control util gets vPro's original power state via AMT (on, sleep, hibernate, or off)

2. Remote control util power's on vPro via AMT

3. Remote control util get's vPro's new power state to verify it has turned on

4. ping vpro and check the TTL. Once it changes to <=128 the OS has booted. For more info

5. PsService starts a process on vPro. I used notepad but it could be anything, including triggering a download and run of software patch

6. PsService exits when the process finishes

7. PsShutdown gracefully places vPro back to it's original sleep state

8. Remote control util get's vPro's new power state to verify it has returned to it's original power state

Couple of notes.

· I set an auto login on my vPro so I could see the process. However, PsService will work without a user being logged in. Also, it can run processes in the back ground so an end user would not be able to interact.

· I used Notepad as my remote process since it made it easy to see success. However, any process can be started. In fact, PsService supports downloading the executable to run. As such, it may be possible to download and then run a patch or batch file as part of this whole process

· I used a single vPro system. But, with a simple loop the same core batch file could trigger this action on many vPro systems.

Hope you found this post enjoyable and thought provoking. If you have your own do-it-yourself vPro ideas, or want to recreate this one, please share. And, hey, who says batch files are dead?

Fotos del Intel Press Summit Tigre 2009

staffargentina — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:27 GMT

Hola! Tenemos un montón de fotos del encuentro que organizamos en Buenos Aires, en una isla de Tigre, donde pudimos pasar un día excelente y compartir un análisis de lo que hicimos hasta ahora, y lo que pensamos hacer en los próximos meses. Para no extenderme en este post (lo dejo para alguno posterior) les muestro esta galería de fotos para que compartan, comenten, se reconozcan, vuelvan a disfrutar y alimenten la ansiedad, pensando que aunque todavía falte, el próximo Intel Press Summit, va a estar buenísimo.

PC Refresh Cycles and Windows 7 … what’s the financial connection?

jawhitcraft — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:23:28 GMT

It’s understandable that in today’s economy that you might consider pushing out your PC refresh cycle to save cash today. This is an area of cost cutting that many companies consider so you’re not alone. But if you have considered, or are considering, pushing out your PC refresh cycle, have you factored in all of the costs that impact that decision? These costs include the unexpected costs of supporting older machines once the warranty has expired, higher energy costs compared to new machines, and more. The total cost of ownership starts to increase out in time and will eventually reach a point where it makes more sense to replace your PCs versus continuing to maintain them. But how do you know what the optimal replacement time is? And is delaying your refresh really the best financial decision?

There are strong financial reasons to refresh PCs now and, with the Windows 7 operating system, there are even stronger reasons to do so with PCs powered by Intel® Core™ 2 processors with vPro™ technology. Join me for a webcast on Tuesday, December 1^st, where I’ll walk through our analysis on the PC refresh cycle and the framework we use, discuss the true cost of older PCs and how to assess your own PC refresh cycle, and share our experience with Windows 7 as part of the Technical Adopter Program (TAP). I’ll also be joined by Amy Stephan from Microsoft who will provide more insight into why it makes sense to refresh now and why Windows* 7 and New PCs with Intel® vPro™ Technology are better together.

Nehalem-EX for High Performance Computing

Matt_K — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:50:34 GMT

Nehalem-EX: Big Memory for Big Science

I was at SuperComputing’09 last week in Portland, Oregon. I talked with some brilliant people, and saw some fantastic stuff.

It was good timing on my part because last week Intel also announced that it would offer a 6-core, frequency-optimized version of its Nehalem-EX product due out next year. This part is intended for use in tackling some of the types of high performance computing (HPC) workloads prominently displayed at SC’09.

Most people know that the majority of HPC workloads today are based on clusters of relatively small-memory, 2-socket systems. That is because most HPC workloads may be broken into smaller, discrete units of work that can be efficiently processed using such clusters. For these workloads the primary hardware capability selection criterion is typically a balance of both memory bandwidth and compute FLOPs (floating point operations per second).

But there are other types of HPC workloads. Specifically, those that deal with very large datasets (some as large as a terabyte) or those that have to deal with non-sequential memory access. This means the workloads simply aren’t easily divisible--or it is inefficient to do so-- into the relatively small memory footprints used in traditional clustered 2-socket HPC solutions. Examples of these types of bigger memory applications can be found in a variety of fields such as weather prediction, manufacturing structure analysis, and financial services.

The high-speed processing requirements and size of these workloads put a greater premium on system memory capacity/bandwidth than on compute FLOPs.

If the larger dataset won’t fit into available memory, and dividing up the dataset to spread across multiple nodes cannot easily be done, then data has to be moved in and out memory to hard disk. But using hard disk drives (which are many times slower than RAM memory) can drastically impair performance.

There are now two better alternatives to the use of hard drivers. One is SSDs and the other is having a larger memory footprint. Solid State Drives have fairly high data density vs RAM, but much faster access than hard-disk drives--albeit still markedly slower than RAM. Another solution is to simply have more capacity of the faster RAM. This last one is what the Nehalem-EX HPC part is aimed at.

Nehalem-EX is the Expandable Class of Nehalem. The Expandable Class brings all the goodness of the Nehalem architecture (Xeon 5500 product line) to the HPC market, but in the form of a “super node” that has greater: a) core/thread count, b) socket scaling (up to 256), c) I/O and memory capacity (up to 1 terabyte in a 4 socket system) and bandwidth at capacity, d) reliability features, e) and other features.

The 6-core frequency-optimized Nehalem-EX part has also been tuned to offer the highest core frequency possible for this chip. In creating this part, Intel is meeting the needs of the HPC community that want higher scalar performance along with the benefit of large memory capacity and bandwidth per core.

Of course the 8-core version of NHM-EX is still an option for those HPC workloads that scale well with more cores while still looking for the high memory capacity of the expandable class.

By having both 8-core and frequency optimized 6-core versions of the NHM-EX class of processors means HPC researchers have greater choice in selecting the processor best suited for their specific workloads.

After talking with some of the researchers at SC’09 last week I’m really excited to see how the Nehalem-EX “super node” will deliver the necessary compute and memory capabilities to help those researchers solve some of their biggest challenges.

'You are not Alone' - When it comes to moving from RISC

EMcConnell — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:15:31 GMT

Change is hard, but it can be done and the benefits of change usually outweigh the concerns which were on our minds before we made the change.

When making the change from running your solution on a RISC architecture to running that solution on a Xeon architecture, the biggest concern usually relates to whether that solution will run at the same level as on the previous architecture. I'm not talking about performance specifically, but usually the question is around whether operating systems like Linux, Windows, and Solaris on Xeon will meet your business needs for yourmission critical solutions.

Like the underlying improvements in the microprocessor, I believe that there have also been major fundamental improvements in the operating systems that run on both today's and the soon to come next generation microprocessors (sorry, my obligatory Nehalem-EX advertisement... coming soon in 2010). A decision made many years ago to run your solution on Unix/RISC was made based on comparing all the different variables at that time to pick what was right for your business. At that time you likely decided that your solution would not run on these operating systems, these operating systems were not suitable for your mission critical workloads etc. Probably right decision at that point, but like everything else decisions get revisited based upon the here and now and what may have been the right solution in the past (and right decision) may not be the right solution for your needs now.

I wanted to share some thoughts specifically on Redhat Linux today. Lets take a little look at Redhat Enterprise Linux. Current versions of Redhat can deliver what is required for your critical solutions. RHEL is ready and here are some of the reasons cited by Redhat in recent webinars on this topic and my interpretation of their comments

Hosts real-time global mission-critical infrastructures and operations 24 X 7 - its tried and tested by other Enterprises
Enables 5x9s availability in highly secure environments - pretty important to most critical solutions
Contributes measurable reductions to TCO and enables, agile, standardized, and virtualized infrastructures - TCO benefits through standardization
Has major ISVs on-board with the majority of 3rd party Unix applications have Linux and/or Windows versions available - the ISVs that traditionally delivered applications to you based on Unix, also have versions supported on Linux/Windows
Many customer unique applications are developed with programming languages such as C, C++, JAVA, or J2EE and can be migrated to Linux and / or Windows - your applications can be moved
Hosts most major database systems standard for your infrastructure - all the major databases run and run well on Linux

One of the other things we encounter a lot is around whether the technical considerations to move from one operating system environment are too high to overcome and outweigh the benefits of moving. There are always technical considerations and things that you need to know to move from one environment to another. However you are not alone in trying to understand these technical considerations. Redhat have done a phenomenal job of documenting the challenges of moving from say Solaris to Linux and have developed a great Strategic Migration Planning Guide. This is available on request. In recent webinars Redhat outline some of the things that you need to consider for the following technical categories

- Development Environment; Kernel tuning; Security; Filesystems; Debugging, tracing, Profiling; Command Differences; Deployment methods; Software Management; Virtualization; Application considerations

In addition to the current versions of Redhat running on Intel architecture, we are also working very closely on future versions that will take advantage of the 20+ new RAS features that are planned for Nehalem-EX - more on that in a future blog

You are not alone, resources, tools and expertize exist to help you make that move and reap the business benefits while still delivering to the requirements of your business. Check out Redhat online tools for more information that dives deeper into all the areas for consideration http://www.redhat.com/migrate/solaris_to_linux/

We think Redhat Linux and Xeon are ready to run your mission critical workloads and solutions...What do you think?