IBM and Texas Instruments join layoff list

IBM and Texas Instruments (TI) have become the latest technology firms to announce mass job cuts.BM, meanwhile, has yet to issue any official total, but the layoffs are believed to be in the thousands. The Wall Street Journal put the figure at 2,800, while Associated Press cited labour unions as estimating the total at more than 4,000.

The company estimates that the cuts will amount to $700m (£491m) in annual savings. TI expects to pay out roughly $300m (£210m) in severance and other charges relating to the cuts.

TI revealed in its latest earnings call that slowing demand linked to the economic crisis will force the company to cut roughly 12 per cent of its staff, 3,400 jobs in total. Around 1,600 employees will take voluntary retirement and departure deals, and 1,800 will be laid off.

IBM advances research through Cloud Computing to help solve real-world problems

The Qatar Cloud Computing Initiative, driven by three universities, will open up its cloud infrastructure to local businesses and industries to test applications and complete various projects, including seismic modeling and the exploration for oil and gas. The development of this cloud computing center will be based on a phased approach. Initially, the universities will collaborate with IBM on building the infrastructure. Next, they will collaborate on developing applications that will leverage the Hadoop programming model as a first step in improving the local knowledge of this new programming model.

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Qatar University, Texas A&M University at Qatar One of the first projects to bring cloud computing to the Middle East, the Qatar Cloud Computing Initiative, is operational and initially located at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Qatar University, and Texas A&M University at Qatar will collaborate on this environment, along with a community of industry experts, researchers and clients, to develop a cloud solution to help solve industry problems.

Idea to Integrate Spice's IT Ops

The migration and integration will be carried out by IBM. As part of the deal, IBM will manage all IT operations and services for IDEA s business in Punjab and Karnataka. In addition, IBM will migrate the IT help desk services to its centralized helpdesk in Pune.

After completing the transition, IBM will manage IT operations in the two service areas, under the existing outsourcing services contract with IDEA as per revenue sharing model.

The deal builds on the existing 10-year business transformation pact that IBM had signed with IDEA Cellular in March 2007 to integrate, innovate and transform Idea's business processes and IT infrastructure. The complete integration, transition and migration of the IT operations and business processes of Spice Communications with Idea is expected to be completed within 27 months and is valued at approx US$19.2 million (Rs. 86 crores).

AMD unleashes triple-core, 5 new quad-cores Processors

The TDP for both models is 95W. We are still waiting on pricing information, but it looks like they will be a bit over US$150.The next piece of news dropped concerned new quad-core processors, including the Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition and Phenom X4 9750. These are additions to AMD’s quad-core lineup that will run at 2.5GHz and 2.4GHz, with TDP ratings of 125W. The new in the 95W TDP are the 9650 and the 9550, which will come in at 2.3GHz and 2.2GHz. So, nothing groundbreaking, but the larger point is that AMD is aiming to make quad-core accessible, while maintaining it as the company’s high-end offering. A quad-core Phemon matched with the 790 chipset is the companies top-shelf offering for gaming, supposing you also pony up the dough for a competitive video card. These are bug-free B3 revision processors.

Everything hasn’t exactly been great for AMD lately, but the plucky chip maker has some news for us today. Despite the tough times, the company earned a number of positive reactions from the recent 780G announcement, and it is following that up with three announcement today.First, triple-core is finally here. We have been hearing about this for months, and after all complaints about triple-core being nothing more than failed quad-core processors, consumers will be able to find out for themselves. The triple core Phenoms will launch as mainstream processors, aimed at users who are interested in additional performance relative to dual-core offerings, without having to substantially increase the amount they are spending. AMD says that triple-core Phenoms will be ideal for budget-minded users who have high-definition content in mind, and that the processor will be a great match for 780G.So far, we know about the Phenom 8600 (2.3GHz) and 8400 (2.1GHz). They will have L1 cache sizes of 64K of instruction and 64K of data cache per core (512KB total L1) and L2 will hold 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor). These are 65 nm processors that are backwards compatible with AM2 motherboards.

AMD Duron 650 MHz

AMD presents Duron processor, once again setting the standard for business and home users in the value PC space. Optimized for the value-conscious user, the AMD Duron processor reinforces AMD's leadership position in delivering better computing solutions to the value PC space?The AMD Duron processor offers value conscious buyers access to technology and performance that stands out among other processors in its class. Employing an innovative design, the AMD Duron processor features sophisticated cache architecture, a high-speed front-side bus, and a super-scalar floating-point unit with enhanced 3DNow! technology.

Designed to help prolong the life of a buyer's investment, the AMD Duron processor provides the capability and flexibility to meet the computing needs of value conscious users today and tomorrow. AMD Duron processor-based systems are ideal for applications typically employed by such users, including surfing the Internet, business and personal productivity suites.

IBM Introduces Low Cost Mainframes

The IBM System z9 Business Class (z9 BC) advances the innovation of the System z9 platform and brings value to a wider audience, both midrange and small enterprise businesses. The z9 BC offers a low cost of entry, granular growth, flexible configurations, subcapacity pricing and On/Off Capacity on Demand to meet growing and changing demands for traditional and new workloads.There are servers, and then there are what IT folks call mainframes. Generally speaking, most companies don't have a real need for mainframes because up front costs are usually in the six and seven digit range. Most companies tend to buy as their needs increase and would rather not spend up front for the future.There are servers, and then there are what IT folks call mainframes. Generally speaking, most companies don't have a real need for mainframes because up front costs are usually in the six and seven digit range. Most companies tend to buy as their needs increase and would rather not spend up front for the future.

But for the medium and large businesses that have invested a large amount in many small servers but are looking for a way to reduce environmental costs and consolidate, IBM is announcing a new series in its z9 mainframe family that is priced affordably. Called the z9 BC or Business Class family, IBM has made mainframe performance and expandability for small to medium enterprises. Starting at $100,000, the new z9 family raises the bar in terms of bringing large enterprise performance down to scale. IBM's regular z9 family can exceed $1 million per mainframe and for most companies, is out of reach. IBM's press release claims:

Recently, condensed servers such as blades have gained popularity due to the compact size and low power. All tier one manufacturers are offering blade solutions, even IBM. However, IBM claims that there are considerable margins in mainframes, and being a prolific advocator of Big Iron, the company is trying to maintain mainframe popularity. Bringing prices down is definitely one way to do it.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E4600

The Simple facts are, All Core 2 Duo Processors are Dual Core Processors. All Pentium D Processors are Dual Core Processors. All Intel Dual Core Processors are Dual Core Processors…Pentium D is nothing but 2 Prescott Processors side by side… runs very hot, not a good Over Clocker…Intel Core 2 Duo processors are next gen processors from Intel on 65 nm platform… developed from Ground up with new Architecture called Core… so they are whole new Processors just Jump like Pentium 2 to Pentium 3 or Pentium 4… Expect one Core 2 Duo Lowest End Processors like E4400/E4300 taking up and beating Intel Pentium D 3.8 GHz ones with ease … runs damn cool and super over clocker…Intel Dual Core Processors are just launched striped down version of Core 2 Duos.. there are 2 in Market for Desktop range, E2140 runs at 1.6 GHz with 1 MB L2 and 800 MHz FSB and E2160 with 1.8 GHz with same specs of E2140…. these are not Pentium D rather they are same batch like Core 2 Duo based on the new Core Technology…. they perform same like Core 2 Duos but they were launched with a very low price to counter the market of super low cost but high performer AMD X2 range line up to AMD X2 4000.

Intel core 2 duo vs Intel dual core vs Intel Pentium DMany people are confused what exactly the difference between Intel Core 2 Duo Processors and Between Intel Pentium D or Intel Dual Core processors….I would try to explain from a END user point a view rather not going in to details architecture over view…