IBM Archive

IBM Germany Refutes Linux Migration Story

  Submitted by Richard Kottmeyer IBM 46 Comments
IBM Germany has refuted a Groklaw report that the division has decided to migrate Windows desktops to Linux rather than upgrade them to Vista. Groklaw's story was based on statements reportedly made by an IBM sales executive in a presentation at LinuxForum 2006. This morning, Hans Rehm, of IBM Germany's Press Relations department, emailed DesktopLinux.com the following, somewhat ambiguous, statement.
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IBM Not To Use Vista – But Will Move to Linux Desktops

  Submitted by John Mills IBM 81 Comments
During a presentation on IBM's involvement with Open Source, Andreas Pleschek from IBM in Stuttgart, Germany, who heads open source and Linux technical sales across North East Europe for IBM made a very interesting statement. "Andreas Pleschek also told that IBM has cancelled their contract with Microsoft as of October this year. That means that IBM will not use Windows Vista for their desktops. Beginning from July, IBM employees will begin using IBM Workplace on their new, Red Hat-based platform. Not all at once - some will keep using their present Windows versions for a while. But none will upgrade to Vista."
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IBM POWER6 Sub Torpedoes Itanium Montvale Cruiser

IBM 1 Comment
"Since its ISSCC talk early this month, IBM POWER6 did capture the imagination of quite a few processor buffs around there - not me, yet, as I'm used to see great CPUs failing since the Moto 68K and Alpha days - and also raise debates on several tech forums. While IBM still keeps most of the official POWER6 data closely guarded - I'd expect more during Hot Chips or Fall Processor Forum some six months from now - there is enough right now to assemble a rough picture of what may be in for the users of the new chip."
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IBM Scientists Claim Chip Breakthrough

  Submitted by Adurbe IBM 14 Comments
Scientists at IBM say they have figured out how to produce smaller and more powerful microchips than previously thought possible. It is hoped IBM's announcement at San Jose on Monday will mean the creation of miniscule microprocessors which will save the IT manufacturing sector billions of dollars. The breakthrough revolves around the distance between the circuit-lines chip makers must 'draw' onto the surface of a computer processor. IBM scientists declared they can now draw lines on silicon much closer together than ever before.
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IBM Releases PowerPC Linux/AIX Workstation

  Submitted by Wes Felter IBM 24 Comments
IBM released a new PowerPC 970 workstation: the System p5 185. A 2-way 2.5GHz system with 2GB of RAM and two SCSI drives will set you back $4000 without any OS licenses. "The new System p5 185 Express server is our lowest priced system based on the IBM Power Architecture with features designed for excellent and secure performance whether running AIX 5L or Linux applications.
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IBM Thumbs Nose at Heat Concerns, Kicks Power6 to 6GHz

IBM 27 Comments
IBM has carved out a renegade path for the upcoming Power6 processor, opting to crank the chip's GHz much higher while rivals shy away from major clock speed boosts with their products. The Power6 chip will run between 4GHz and 5GHz and has been shown to hum away at 6GHz in the lab. IBM reckons that some process technology breakthroughs have allowed it to kick GHz higher while still keeping heat and power consumption issues under control. All told, IBM claims that Power6 will be twice as fast as competing server processors from Intel, AMD and Sun.
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IBM Brings Power5+ to iSeries Servers

IBM No Comments
IBM is outfitting its line of System i5 servers with the new Power5+ processor and is introducing the newest version of its i5/OS operating system. The enhancements are designed to improve the performance and reach of the systems - which are targeted at SMBs - while upgrading the flexibility, security and disaster recovery capabilities in the operating system, according to Ian Jarmen, product manager for IBM's iSeries platform.
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IBM Delivers Free Version of Database

IBM 11 Comments
IBM is set to deliver a free version of its enterprise DB2 database software on Monday, following in the footsteps of competitors Oracle and Microsoft as they fend off the adoption of open source offerings MySQL and PostgreSQL. IBM DB2 Express-C only limits the hardware that the database can run on, but is otherwise identical to the full-fledged DB2 release. The software can be installed on machines with up to two AMD/Intel processors, and utilizes up to 4GB RAM. There is no limit to the size a database.
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Building a PC to Defeat IBM’s Chess Supercomputer

  Submitted by Jeremy IBM 14 Comments
"In the 1990s, world chess champion Gary Kasparov played two historic matches against IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer. He won the first match but lost the second by just a single point. As a graduate student at Stanford writing a thesis on artificial intelligence at that time, I was fascinated by the match. I'd been a computer hobbyist since the 1980s as well as a chess buff. Over the years I've tried practically every commercially available chess program on every platform, including Sargon, Socrates, Chessmaster, and others. I used TRS 80 and Apple II computers, and then IBM PCs running DOS, followed by Macintosh and Windows systems. Since that time I've wanted a chess computer as powerful as Deep Blue - my own world-champion-level sparring partner."
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IBMs Renewed Cell Collaboration with Sony Pressures Intel

  Submitted by sean batten IBM 32 Comments
"While the press brouhaha happily follows Apple about and co-conspirator Intel looks on, smugly hoping its tie-up with the much-loved computer maker will bring it some added kudos in its assault on the consumer electronics market, IBM, the giant ousted from the party, is getting on with business. Big Blue may have been dumped by Apple but its compensation is plentiful. Its Power chips form the heart of upcoming console offerings from Sony and Nintendo as well as the XBox from Microsoft. And let's face it, the press might like Apple and the kids might dig iTunes but sales of a million or so computers annually is pretty small beer in the grand scheme of things."
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The Vision and History of Notes and Domino

IBM 10 Comments
"As you might expect of such complex and successful software, Lotus Notes and Domino share a long and rich history. In some respects, this history mirrors the evolution of the computing industry itself-the development and widespread adoption of PCs, networks, graphical user interfaces, communication and collaboration software, and the Web. Notes and Domino have been there nearly every step of the way, influencing (and being influenced by) all these critical developments. This article briefly retraces the history of Notes and Domino, starting with the earliest conceptual and development stages and continuing through major feature releases."
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An eCLipz Looms on the Horizon

  Submitted by David Kanter IBM 1 Comment
David Kanter has just written an article on IBM's eCLipz project, the upcoming POWER6 MPU and its performance characteristics. The eCLipz project is aimed at sharing hardware between IBM's UNIX, OS/400 and mainframe servers; the POWER6 is just one element of this project. The article discusses the microarchitecture of IBM's POWER6 which is due out in 2007, and provides performance estimates for SPEC CPU 2000.
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2005 – Best Power Architecture Year Ever

  Submitted by anonymous IBM 23 Comments
"The year 2005 has been chock full of Power Architecture news - from Apple's departure from the Power Architecture family to the up and coming Cell Broadband Engine processor; from Blade.org to Power.org; and from being named fastest growing semiconductor supplier of 2005 to being named 2005 Top Fab, find out why Power Architecture technology is having the best year ever."
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IBM Goes Open with Office Suite

IBM 70 Comments
IBM is adopting OpenDocument Format for the first generally available release of its network-based collaboration and office productivity suite. IBM said Sunday its Workplace Managed Client 2.6, due in early 2006, would adopt ODF so users could easily share files and information. The Workplace Managed Client is currently available on a limited capacity, with more than one million deployed seats.
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IBM Could Offer Free DB2 Next Year

  Submitted by Fletcher IBM 7 Comments
Teo Wan Ping, IBM Singapore's brand manager for information management, said that IBM could "potentially offer" a free starter edition of DB2, as part of the company's strategy to gain mindshare for its database product. IBM currently does not have a free version of its DB2 product, unlike free competing products like Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and Oracle's Database XE released recently.
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