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Otra forma de educación con las Classmate PC de Intel

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:00:25 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

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:51:31 GMT

Test Blog Post - IE8 - Modified.

Field Image Kit 5.0 is Right Around the Corner

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:51:19 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

michihiro.koyama@intel.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:29:46 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’?

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:02:18 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 lengthy for the comments section of YouTube, I am posting here.

I believe everyone has a role to play and a responsibility to support steps for securing data. It is, after all, OUR information. To succeed, a data security revolution must be a community effort resulting in the development of an entire ecosystem, with standards, communication, and an open architecture.

Consumer demands bring attention to the problem and ultimately will drive features. Regulatory bodies, dare I submit, can enact requirements which mandate changes to technology capabilities. Hardware and firmware vendors are important in order to support new architectures. Data management and processing organizations must be on-board to insure interfaces and storage formats of data are compatible. Operating system and application writers are key players to utilize and enforce such controls at the host system and repository levels. They develop the products which engage the user.

The information security communities are the expert advocates. They must analyze the situation, stimulate conversations, guide changes, and engage in value assessment discussions to become the sharpened spearhead which leads the charge forward. Traditional and social news media should also contribute to overall education and public awareness. They must go beyond just reporting the breaches, failures, and losses. We are at risk of becoming numb at all the stories, without a meaningful reference point or perspectives of significance which show how the situation can change. The public must be better informed to the root problem, the industry opportunities, and the dark truth of where apathy will lead.

I would like to see a consortium formed with major players and international standards bodies to establish a framework for development. Government, privacy, commercial, academia, technology, and security representatives should be represented at the very least. Critical mass with the aforementioned groups must be established before enough traction motivates a commitment on behalf of lead players to allocate initial resources. Alternatively, assertive academic bodies could work together and take a first step by developing recommended standards, architectures, and proof-of-concept systems.

Although some pieces to the puzzle are out there, we don’t even know what the picture is supposed to look like and no guarantees the available parts will or should be brought together. Boldly, I believe we must enforce a tabula rasa to nurture a fresh start, otherwise risk poisoning from our natural presumptions of what we believe we know. It may not be the most popular sentiment, but adopting refined solutions and attempting to bolt them together is a mistake. Instead, we take the learned and proven principles of those solutions and integrate them at a strategic level to eventually lead us to workable end solutions.

Opinion paper: It is Time for a Data Security Revolution!

Permanent Storage

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:10:11 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

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:33:57 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

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:45:21 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 ?

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:34:49 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 demand now - see "Animoto's Facebook scale-up" as an example.

We've looked into applicability of such Infrastructure-as-a-Service solution for Intel Silicon design environment, and I may blog in the future on some of the findings from this study.

At Intel, we utilize internal distributed grid of over 60,000 compute servers to run various jobs at over 80% utilization. The idea was to consider an external IaaS capacity as an extension to accommodate possible peak demands.

We've built a proof-of-concept environment using one of the major IaaS clouds. The applications we are interested in are mostly single-threaded, and are CPU bounded. We found that per-core performance of the external cloud instances is significantly lower compared to our internal compute servers. As a result, we'd need 3x-4x more instances in the cloud as opposed to the internal deployment to achieve the same throughput. The TCO for such use (calculated based on July'2009 pricing) would be significantly higher in the cloud, this is one of the reasons for us stepping back at this point in time.

I'll talk more about this study on the Cloud Computing Summit in Israel next week.

Cloud vendors - bring the performance up and the cost down, and we may come back!

Are you already leveraging external cloud capabilities to complement your computing infrastructure? What is your experience?

Till the next post,

Gregory Touretsky

Intel Virtualisatie Technology (VT) uitgelegd (vervolg)

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:11:41 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.