Dell Updates Sony Battery Recall Information

Dell announced today that additional information was received regarding affected battery packs containing cells manufactured by Sony, which has led to an increase in the number of recalled batteries from 4.1 million units to approximately 4.2 million units.

To ensure that all potentially affected batteries are identified and returned to Dell, the company is requesting that customers recheck their batteries if they have not ordered or received a replacement battery. To determine whether their batteries are affected, customers should go to Dell’s Web site at www.dellbatteryprogram.com Customers can also write to: Dell Inc., Attn: Battery Recall, 9701 Metric Blvd., Austin, Texas 78758.

Dell began shipping replacement batteries to customers on the first day of the recall (Aug. 15). Since the announcement, Dell has received almost 200 million hits to its Web site, www.dellbatteryprogram.com

ERIC: Ericsson signs major deal with TelstraClear to build 3G/HSPA network in New Zealand

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has been chosen as the sole supplier to build and integrate TelstraClear's 3G/WCDMA/HSPA high-speed mobile broadband network in Tauranga, New Zealand.

Under the agreement Ericsson will have turnkey responsibility for building the network, providing network design, deployment and integration services, including packet core, radio network and service layer.

The network will use 3G/WCDMA and HSPA technology. HSPA enables TelstraClear to deliver true broadband speeds to laptops and PCs and introduces its customers to a new generation of mobile broadband services, including mobile TV and video, and music-related services, with true mobility. Ericsson's service aware packet core solution assures delivery of telecom-quality broadband services that will help TelstraClear to increase ARPU (average revenue per user) and reduce churn.

TelstraClear Chief Executive Dr Allan Freeth says appointing a vendor is a critical milestone for the development of the service. "Ericsson's appointment ensures we have a world leading provider of proven mobile technology and we can leverage off its comprehensive work with our shareholder Telstra in Australia".

General Manager for Ericsson New Zealand Steve Inglis says Ericsson is delighted to be extending an already long standing-relationship with TelstraClear, and drive industry growth.

"Ericsson has been the prime integrator and business partner for TelstraClear's world-class IP network for some years. This new, exclusive contract and the work we are doing with Telstra in Australia are a reflection of the strength of Ericsson's capabilities and global leadership in mobile technology, broadband offerings and services."
The network will be launched in mid-2007 in Tauranga.

In December 2004, Ericsson was selected by Telstra in Australia as its exclusive 3G/WCDMA partner for the next five years.

Ericsson's HSPA solution will in the future let operators more than double their system capacity and cuts response times for interactive services. On average, users will be able to download up to four-times faster than with current 3G connections, and 20-times faster than a GSM/GPRS connection.

HPQ: HP Extends Tender Offer for Mercury Interactive

HP today extended its previously announced tender offer for all of the common stock of Mercury Interactive Corporation until midnight, New York City time, on October 13, 2006.

The tender offer was previously set to expire at midnight, New York City time, on September 28, 2006.

As of midnight, New York City time, on September 28, 2006, approximately 71.8 million shares had been tendered in and not withdrawn from the offer.

HPQ: HP to Acquire VoodooPC

HP announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire VoodooPC, a leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance and personalized gaming computer systems.

Following the close of the transaction, HP will form a separate business unit within its Personal Systems Group focused on the gaming industry. VoodooPC co-owner Rahul Sood will become chief technologist for the unit and co-owner Ravi Sood will become the unit's director of strategy.

Both executives will report to Phil McKinney, who will become general manager of the gaming business unit while maintaining his current role as chief technology officer of HP's Personal Systems Group. This operational model will align the gaming business with HP's research and development organization by providing access to the latest technologies and innovation.

Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, VoodooPC has been dedicated to delivering leading-edge performance, style and craftsmanship to discerning PC enthusiasts. This acquisition, once closed, will extend HP's presence into the high-performance gaming market and globally expand the reach of the VoodooPC brand.

"HP is already a market leader in two of the three major segments in the gaming market by providing industry-leading workstation solutions for game development and powering the largest online game services," said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. "We're absolutely thrilled to welcome VoodooPC, gaming industry pioneers and the premier name in gaming, to the HP team. Together with VoodooPC's leadership and influence, HP will have the expertise to become the leader in the gaming customer segment."

HP plans to maintain VoodooPC's current distribution model and brand name along with its marketing, sales, support and development operations.

"Our passion at VoodooPC has been to design the highest performance, personalized PCs for our customers' entertainment," said Rahul Sood, founder and president, VoodooPC. "Customers should continue to expect the highest level of personalized configurations, service and quality. The benefits of this acquisition to VoodooPC are immense, not least of which is having a direct conduit to HP's unparalleled innovation and international presence."

The acquisition is expected to close by November 2006. Terms of the deal, which is subject to customary closing conditions, were not disclosed.

About VoodooPC

VoodooPC is one of the world's leading architects of highly personalized, one-of-a-kind, high-performance PCs. Founded on the belief that it could revolutionize the PC world with exotic designs and advanced engineering techniques typically unseen in the computer industry, VoodooPC continues to engineer well-balanced, work-of-art machines that inspire and enable individuals to reach great possibilities. For more information on VoodooPC or to customize a machine, visit http://www.voodoopc.com

IBM and Avokia Set Record for Long-Range Database Clustering

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Avokia Inc., today announced they have developed a long-range database clustering technology, which is the first of its kind to link active data servers located thousands of miles apart.

The technology, called "active-active" database clustering, describes a process by which all of an organization's information management systems are kept online, regardless of their physical location, ensuring continuous availability of critical business information. This solution allows companies to take idle systems traditionally used for backup and devote them to production tasks.

IBM and Avokia created the record-setting, high availability data solution for Espressocode, a leading software provider for the freight and customs industries. The installation combines IBM's new DB2 9 "Viper" data server, Avokia's apLive database clustering software and Espressocode's Exdocs logistics management software to continuously synchronize databases located roughly 2,500 miles apart in Toronto and San Francisco. This advanced level of protection provides Espressocode clients with uninterrupted access to, and availability of, essential business information.

"Shipping is a 24/7 business and access to information can mean the difference between a smooth running operation and a logistical nightmare," said Sean Pulins, president, Espressocode. "By working with Avokia and IBM, we have put in place a system that guarantees our clients will have access to the information they need to confidently conduct business anywhere in the world."

Avokia apLive delivers continuous availability by making it possible for companies to run a cluster of DB2 databases, wherein each server is a replica of the others, and all servers are active and load balanced, in a single or multi-site (LAN/WAN) environment. With extremely low bandwidth usage and multiple active, redundant servers in operation, zero downtime is experienced even if servers come off-line due to a catastrophic event, power failure or for routine maintenance.

"The shipping industry typifies what a truly global economy is all about and access to information is at the heart of it," said Alan McMillan, CEO of Avokia. "In this business there is no such thing as a day off or slow time. With Avokia apLive and IBM DB2, we are delivering 'always on' capabilities for Espressocode's 'always on' business."

DB2 9 marks the culmination of a five-year IBM development project that transformed traditional, static database technology into an interactive, vibrant data server that enables clients to improve their ability to manage all types of information, such as documents, audio and video files, images, Web pages, and digitally signed XML transactions. IBM's new data server provides the industry's first seamless and simultaneous information flow of XML and relational data, regardless of format, platform or location.

"Just a few months after DB2 9 began shipping to clients, it is delivering on the promise of providing the most robust and versatile data server environment for backup and recovery operations," says Arvind Krishna, vice president, Data Servers, IBM. "Our partnership with Avokia is enabling Espressocode to reap the benefits of the highest performing and most reliable data server platform available, a critical factor to consider when the operational databases are thousands of miles apart."


About Avokia
Avokia is the leading provider of patented database middleware software that provides companies with continuous availability for their applications by offering a horizontally scalable, highly flexible, high performance database platform. The company's transaction replication and load balancing technology virtualizes the database layer, enabling fully synchronized and geographically dispersed database clusters. Avokia eliminates the need for idle hardware as part of an availability or business continuity plan -- rather, with everything in production, a more resilient, lower risk, and lower cost infrastructure is an achievable goal for business applications. Avokia is ensuring that our customers' applications are always fast and always on. For more information please see www.avokia.com


About Espressocode
Espressocode is a software developer and vendor, solving distributed workflow problems for the customs and logistics industries. Espressocode's software products and services are primarily sold under the Exdocs (www.exdocs.com ) brand, directly to end customers as well as through a growing partner network.

HPQ: HP General Counsel Ann Baskins Resigns

HP today announced that Ann Baskins, HP general counsel, has resigned from the company, with immediate effect.

“I want to thank Ann for 24 years of outstanding service and devotion to HP,” said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and chief executive officer. “She began her career here shortly after law school and worked her way up to serve as the company’s top lawyer, earning along the way a reputation for hard work and integrity. She has admirably supported our business needs across the globe and will be missed. Stepping down was a very hard decision for her, but by doing so she has put the interests of HP above her own and that is to be commended.”

AMD Announces Strategic Agreement with Founder Technology, Second Largest PC Provider in China

AMD (NYSE: AMD) and Founder Technology today announced an agreement to offer Founder customers a range of systems based on AMD64 processors, which are recognized for their innovation and performance-per-watt leadership.

Founder, China’s second largest PC provider and the seventh largest global desktop PC provider, expects to launch AMD64 processor-based desktop PCs throughout China in early October 2006. The sales agreement will begin with desktop systems and expand to cover both the notebook and the server markets in the near future.

Attending a news conference in Beijing today were Qi Dongfeng, president of Founder Technology; Henri Richard, AMD executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer; and Karen Guo, AMD corporate vice president and president of AMD Greater China.

“As a premier technology brand in China, Founder Technology shares AMD’s passion for delivering exceptional innovation to its customers,” Guo said. “Through this strategic agreement, we can continue increasing innovation and customer choice by providing compelling options that help contribute to the healthy, robust development of the information technology industry in China.”

“Founder Technology’s collaboration with AMD is based on our shared understanding of the market. As a leading innovator of microprocessors, AMD has been providing PC users a viable choice through its consistent execution and top-of-the-line processors,” said Qi Dongfeng. “Founder Technology is one of the leaders in China’s PC market, and is committed to responding to customer needs with our high-quality products and dedicated services.”

According to IDC, Founder sold 2.5 million PCs in 2005, solidifying its market position as China’s second-largest PC maker.

DELL: Quintet of New Dell Servers Designed for Growing Businesses

Dell today announced five server models engineered to deliver increased performance, reduced complexity and business-ready solutions for businesses of all sizes.

The Dell PowerEdge 1900, 860 and 840 and Dell PowerEdge SC1430 and SC440 servers are designed to help small businesses grow and large businesses that need remote office support. These servers -- combined with the availability of Microsoft® Small Business Server (SBS) R2, Dell OpenManageTM systems management software and Dell services -- reduce complexity and simplify IT operations, allowing customers more time to manage and grow their business.

"Dell is committed to understanding the unique technology challenges our customers face and responding with products and services that specifically meet their needs," said Frank Muehleman, vice president of Dell’s U.S. Small Business division. "Developed with feedback from fast-growing customers like Sew What?, winner of the 2006 Dell/NFIB Small Business Excellence Award, *1, our complete line of small-business servers is another milestone in our continued goal of reducing complexity and simplifying IT management for our customers so they can get back to business."

Higher Performance Means Increased Efficiency, Room to Grow
The Dell PowerEdge 1900, 840 and 860 servers and Dell PowerEdge SC1430 and SC440 servers feature dual-core Intel® Xeon® processors for dramatic increases in performance, scalability and power efficiency, especially when running multiple applications such as file serving, email, and databases.

"Our Web site helped our business grow nearly 45 percent last year and managing all of the business it generates requires a lot of storage – from global customer information to thousands of drapery and fabric images to QuickBooks files," said beta customer Megan Duckett, a small-business owner and founder of custom theatrical drapery manufacturer Sew What? Inc. "With the power and scalability of the PowerEdge 860, we still have plenty of room to grow and soon will be able to host our Web site in-house."

PowerEdge 1900, a dual-socket tower server featuring dual-core Intel Xeon 5100 series processors, delivers: A platform optimized for database, messaging, file and print sharing as well as remote location deployments
Up to 211 percent increase in performance than previous generation *2
Up to 16GB fully buffered DIMMs for up to three-times theoretical throughput compared with DDR-2 memory
Embedded NIC featuring TOE (TCP/IP Offload Engine) designed for improved performance
DRAC5 (Dell Remote Access Controller) for improved performance in secure remote management
IMPI 2.0 and SMASH, which deliver simplified management capabilities today and in the future via a standardized management infrastructure



PowerEdge 840, a general-purpose tower server featuring dual-core Intel Xeon 3000 series processors, delivers: An ideal platform for remote offices, retail POS and small businesses
Up to 66 percent increase in performance than previous generation 3
SAS and SATA hot-pluggable storage technology
Available with Microsoft Windows Storage Server R2 for file serving
Optional TOE-capable NIC



PowerEdge 860, a 1U rack-mountable server featuring dual-core Intel Xeon 3000 series processors, delivers: Simplified enterprise-class server capabilities that maximize data center density and performance while reducing power consumption
A platform for edge-of-the-network, infrastructure or Web applications for organizations of all sizes
Up to 66 percent increase in performance than previous generation *3
Up to 146 percent improvement in performance per watt *4
SAS and SATA storage technology
Optional TOE-capable NIC



PowerEdge SC440, an entry-level tower server featuring dual-core Intel Xeon 3000 series processors, delivers: Small-business capabilities for file and print sharing, small workgroup, e-mail, Web or dedicated applications
Up to 40 percent increase in performance than previous generation *5
SAS and SATA storage technology
Optional internal backup tape
Easily accessible and serviceable tower chassis



PowerEdge SC1430, featuring dual-core Intel Xeon 5100 series processors, delivers: One of the industry’s smallest design for file and print sharing, dedicated workgroup, e-mail messaging and small Web server applications
Up to 155 percent increase in performance than previous generation *6
Up to 8GB fully buffered DIMMs for improved theoretical throughput compared with DDR-2 memory
SAS and SATA storage technology



Complete Business-Ready Solutions and Reduced Complexity for Customers of all Sizes
Dell makes it easier than ever for small- and medium-sized businesses to have large application capabilities with factory installed and fully tested Microsoft SBS (Small Business Server) R2 available on Dell PowerEdge and PowerEdge SC servers.

Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 (SBS) R2 running on Dell PowerEdge servers gives small businesses an affordable server and operating system designed to boost productivity right out of the box. This network solution can increase productivity, protect data and improve communications for customers. Most importantly, it can expand with their businesses, providing a comprehensive range of essential business capabilities for up to 75 employees, including: File and printer sharing
Increased e-mail limits and shared calendaring
Desktop faxing
Internet and intranet access
Improved multi-level firewall security
Simplified management
Flexibility to add additional servers



Dell’s enhanced management offerings provide a wide selection of deployment, monitoring and support tools for Dell servers. Dell Server Assistant ships with every PowerEdge server as a bootable, stand-alone CD-ROM, providing the tools to set up and configure the PowerEdge system components and software. These include: Setup and configuration – This tool provides all the necessary means for setting up and configuring new PowerEdge systems and software, and configures Dell-provided RAID controllers with a consistent interface
Utilities, drivers and diagnostics – These provide users with a "System Tools" utility to view and create Dell software diskettes, and deliver Dell optimized and tested drivers, diagnostics and utilities.



"We know that it can be daunting to move to a server-based environment, but we are working to change that." said Muehleman. Dell has launched a site providing self-guided tutorials to first time server buyers – complementing the installation services Dell offers to customers today. The new Dell Networking Basics site explains the advantages of a server-based environment and the basics of networking – simplifying the hardware purchasing and implementation process.

Dell also offers a wide range of flexible storage offerings bringing simplicity, affordability and balanced scalability to IT environments of any size. Dell’s PowerVaultTM portfolio of disk, autoloaders and libraries offers a range of options that let organizations choose the type and number of tape drives along with the most appropriate amount of storage based on IT policies and requirements. Additionally, Dell/EMC SAN arrays provide highly scalable networked storage for environments of all sizes.

Pricing and Availability
The Dell PowerEdge 1900, 840 and 860 servers and Dell PowerEdge SC1430 and SC440 servers are available today worldwide. Prices start at $1,399, $749, $949, $1,049 and $599, respectively. Additional product information is available at http://www.dell.com/poweredge Product photography is available at http://www.dell.com/photos More information on Sew What? And the Dell/NFIB Excellence in Small Business Award can be found at: http://www.dell.com/ceaward



1 For more information, visit DELL

2 Based on the SPECjbb2005 benchmark test performed by Dell Labs in Aug 2006 on a PE1900 with two Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5160 (3.0Ghz Woodcrest) processors, 8GB 667Mhz FBD memory, 1x SAS 36GB/15k rpm HDD, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS as compared to a PE1800 with two single core Intel Xeon 3.8Ghz (Irwindale) processors, 4GB 400Mhz DDR2 memory, 1x SCSI 36GB/15K rpm HD, and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.


3 Based on the SPECjbb2005 benchmark test performed by Dell Labs in April 2006 and Aug 2006 on a PowerEdge 860 with a Dual-Core Intel Xeon 3070 (2.66Ghz Conroe) processor, 4GB 667Mhz DDR2 memory, 1x SAS 73GB/10K rpm HDD, and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS as compared to the PowerEdge 850 with a dual core Intel Pentium D 950 (Presler) processor, 8GB 533MHz DDR2 memory, 1x 80GB SATA HDD, and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.


4 Based on the SPECjbb2005 benchmark test and power measurements performed by Dell Labs in Sept 2006 on a PowerEdge 860 with a Dual-Core Intel Xeon 3070 (2.66Ghz Conroe) processor, 4GB 667Mhz DDR2 memory, 1x SAS 73GB/10K rpm HDD, and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS as compared to the PowerEdge 850 with a dual core Intel Pentium D 950 (3.4Ghz Presler) processor, 4GB 533MHz DDR2 memory, 1x 36GB/15K SCSI HDD, and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS. Actual performance and power consumption will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.


5 Based on the SPECint_rate benchmark test performed by Dell Labs in Mar 2006 and Aug 2006 on a PowerEdge SC440 with a Dual-Core Intel Xeon 3060 (2.4Ghz Conroe) processor, 4GB 667Mhz DDR2 memory, 1x SATA 80GB/7.2K rpm HDD, and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS as compared to a PowerEdge SC430 with a dual core Intel Pentium D 950 3.4GHz (Presler) processor, 2GB 533MHz DDR2 memory, 1x SCSI 36GB/15K rpm HDD, and Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition OS. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.


6 Based on the SPECjbb2005 benchmark test performed by Dell Labs in Aug 2006 on a PowerEdge SC1430 with two Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5140 (2.33Ghz Woodcrest) processors, 4GB 667Mhz FBD memory, 1x SAS 36GB/15k rpm HDD, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS as compared to a PowerEdge SC1420 with two single core Intel Xeon 3.8Ghz (Irwindale) processors, 4GB 400Mhz DDR2 memory, 1x SCSI 36GB/15K rpm HD, and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.

INTC: Intel Extends Embedded Offerings With Intel Core2 Duo Processors

Intel Corporation today announced expanded life cycle support for the Intel® Core™2 Duo E6400 and T7400 processors for embedded applications, ranging from bank ATMs to point-of-sale cash registers.

Based on the revolutionary Intel® Core™ microarchitecture, these two Intel dual-core processors expand the portfolio of high-performance, power efficient solutions with long life cycle support for 5 to 7 years for its embedded customers.

The Intel Core 2 Duo embedded processors meet the demands of a wide range of performance-intensive, low-power embedded applications that require smaller form factors. Beyond ATMs and point-of-sale terminals, the processors are ideal for interactive computers such as gaming platforms, industrial control and automation, digital security surveillance, medical imaging and communications applications.

The Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 and T7400 processors offer a range of performance and performance-per-watt capabilities to provide embedded customers with the design flexibility to create new solutions and to solve small form factor design challenges typical of embedded market segments. Taking advantage of the Intel Core microarchitecture, these new products offer a power-sensitive blueprint design providing enhanced energy-efficient performance to help equipment manufacturers balance processing capabilities within power and space constraints.

System-enhancing hardware innovations such as Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) are also supported in the E6400 and T7400 processors. With Intel VT, embedded applications running on separate platforms can be consolidated onto a single platform, helping to fuel cost savings and improve reliability and manageability.

“For decades Intel has been a leader in embedded products, and today we have raised the bar for embedded performance while maintaining the low thermals and long life cycle support that are critical to embedded applications,” said Joe Jensen, general manager, Marketing and Platform Programs, Intel Communications Infrastructure Group. “The remarkable performance and energy efficiency that Intel Core 2 Duo processors offer desktop and laptop PCs are significant benefits now available to our embedded customers.”

Intel is also announcing extended lifecycle support for the latest chipset to pair with the Core 2 Duo E6400, the Intel® Q965 Express chipset. This innovative chipset provides Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) capabilities, which allows for remote management and minimizes productivity loss due to system down-time. The Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 processor has been validated with the Intel® Q945 Express chipset, an extended lifecycle chipset announced earlier this year.

“Intel’s continued innovation in multi-core processors delivers the increased performance and capabilities needed by our customers for distributed real-time systems,” said Dr. James Truchard, president, co-founder and CEO of National Instruments. “With the new Core 2 Duo processor platform, Intel has taken another step forward in delivering high performance, while also providing a platform for our customers to quickly design, prototype and deploy systems that are critical to the digital factory.”

The Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 and T7400 processors are currently available and priced at $224 and $423 respectively, in 1,000-unit quantities.

The Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 and T7400 processors for embedded applications will be demonstrated at Intel’s booth (#801) at the Embedded Systems Conference, Sept. 25-28, at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

INTC: Intel Develops Tera-Scale Research Chips

Intel Corporation today described the significant technical challenges that need to be addressed if computing, from personal devices to giant data centers, is to keep up with increasing demand by consumers and businesses for Internet-based software, services and media-rich experiences.

In a speech today at the
Intel Developer Forum, Intel Senior Fellow and Chief Technology Officer
Justin Rattner said that during the next decade online software services,
hosted by mega data centers with more than a million servers, will allow
people to access personal data, media and applications from any
high-performance device to play photo-realistic games, share real-time video
and do multimedia data mining. This new usage model will challenge the
industry to deliver the one trillion floating-point operations-per-second (teraFLOPs)
of performance and terabytes of bandwidth.

“The rise of mega data
centers and the need for high-performance personal devices will require the
industry to innovate at every level, from many-core processors to
higher-speed communications between systems, while delivering better
security and energy efficiency,” said Rattner. “Solving these challenges
will bring benefits to all computing devices while creating new markets and
opportunities for developers and systems designers.”

Tera-Scale Research Prototype Chips

Rattner outlined the importance of three major
silicon breakthroughs. He started by revealing the first details of Intel’s
tera-scale research prototype silicon, the world’s first programmable
TeraFLOP processor. Containing 80 simple cores and operating at 3.1 GHz, the
goal of this experimental chip is to test interconnect strategies for
rapidly moving terabytes of data from core to core and between cores and
memory.

      “When combined with
our recent breakthroughs in silicon photonics, these experimental chips
address the three major requirements for tera-scale computing – teraOPS of
performance, terabytes-per-second of memory bandwidth, and
terabits-per-second of I/O capacity,” said Rattner. “While any commercial
application of these technologies is years away, it is an exciting first
step in bringing tera-scale performance to PCs and servers.”

Unlike existing chip designs
where hundreds of millions of transistors are uniquely arranged, this chip’s
design consists of 80 tiles laid out in an 8x10 block array. Each tile
includes a small core, or compute element, with a simple instruction set for
processing floating-point data, but is not Intel Architecture compatible.
The tile also includes a router connecting the core to an on-chip network
that links all the cores to each other and gives them access to memory.

The second major innovation
is a 20 megabyte SRAM memory chip that is stacked on and bonded to the
processor die. Stacking the die makes possible thousands of interconnects
and provides more than a terabyte-per-second of bandwidth between memory and
the cores.

Rattner demonstrated a third
major innovation, the recently announced Hybrid Silicon Laser chip developed
in collaboration with researchers at University of California, Santa
Barbara. With this breakthrough, dozens or maybe hundreds of Hybrid Silicon
Lasers could be integrated with other silicon photonic components onto a
single silicon chip. This could lead to a terabit-per-second optical link
capable of speeding terabytes of data between chips inside computers,
between PCs, and between servers inside data centers.

Intel will
work closely with the industry – original equipment manufacturers,
independent software vendors and developers – on a number of fronts to make
this vision of tera-scale computing a reality and to bring better, more
intelligent products to people around the world that are useful to them
where they live. More information on these developments and tera-scale
computing research can be found at

www.intel.com/go/terascale.

About the Intel Developer Forum

IDF, now in its 10^th
year, is the premier global technology forum for hardware and software
developers to confer on Intel-based platforms, technologies and solutions,
and the new usage models they enable. Visit
www.intel.com/idf
for more information.

INTC: Intel CEO: Silicon Advances Usher in new era of energy efficient performance

Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini outlined the company’s plan to accelerate its technology leadership and told thousands of developers and engineers gathered here that advances in silicon technology will deliver new performance breakthroughs in an era of energy-efficient computing. Otellini also disclosed that Intel will ship the world’s first quad-core processors for PCs and high-volume servers in November and provided new details related to Intel’s industry-leading 65nm and 45nm manufacturing technologies.

“The industry is going through the most profound shift in decades, moving to an era where performance and energy efficiency are critical in all market segments and all aspects of computing,” Otellini said. “The solution begins with the transistor and extends to the chip and platform levels.”

Citing recent trends, Otellini showed how processing power is becoming more relevant than ever. The advent of new operating systems, more lifelike games, online video and high- definition video continue to drive the need for more processing power. A single You Tube™ stream today will hobble a PC from just a few years ago, said Otellini. “As we move to high definition video, users will need eight times greater performance just for encoding.”

“More than ever processing power matters, even as the need to reduce heat, extend battery life, and reduce electricity costs in data centers becomes more critical,” said Otellini. “Silicon technology is at the heart of the solution. It is how we get there.”

Intel Core™ Microarchitecture Products

When it comes to performance and energy efficiency, Intel’s new Core micro-architecture and flagship Intel® Core™2 Duo processor have set a new standard for the industry, Otellini said. He showed where Core2 Duo benchmarks led across a wide range of applications and said it was now the fastest-ramping product in the company’s history, with 5 million units shipped since it was introduced less than 60 days ago.

“With Core2 Duo we have the best performance, from the thinnest notebook to dual processor servers, and we are very pleased with the way this product is ramping.”

Otellini went on to discuss new details around the company’s plan for delivering the industry’s first quad core processors for PCs and high-volume servers. The first processor, targeted at gamers and content creators, will be shipped in November and be called the Intel® Core™2 Extreme quad-core processor. It will feature a dramatic 70 percent performance improvement over today’s Intel Core2 Extreme processor.* The company’s mainstream quad-core processor will be shipped in the first quarter of 2007 and will be called the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor. For servers, the Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor 5300 series brand for dual processor servers will be shipped this year, and a new low-power 50-watt Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor L5310 for blade servers that will be shipped in the first quarter of 2007.

Silicon Process and Manufacturing Technology

Performance and energy efficiency “all start with the transistor” he said, describing Intel’s legacy of advancing Moore’s Law and its industry-leading silicon technology and manufacturing capability. Intel was the first to implement advanced 65nm silicon manufacturing technology in 2005, integrating power-saving features into the process that were critical to delivering power-efficiency at the transistor level. Otellini said the company is now officially shipping the majority of its processors on 65nm, before any other company had even shipped a single production unit.

Looking ahead, Intel’s next-generation 45nm technology is on track for production in the second half of 2007 as planned, and Otellini disclosed for the first time that the company has 15 45nm products already in development across desktop, mobile, and enterprise segments. The first of these products is on track to complete its design in the fourth quarter of this year. He described the company’s extensive 45-nm factory network with more than 500,000 square feet of clean room space and more than $9 billion invested.

Sustained Leadership

Otellini estimated that the “cadence” of these manufacturing process technologies which follow Moore’s Law, coupled with Intel’s plans to introduce new micro-architectures about every 2 years, will result in significant performance-per-watt improvement over today’s Core micro-architecture products by 2010. He showed a chart that mapped out new micro-architectures coming in 2008 (code-named Nehalem and targeted at 45nm) followed by another in 2010 (code-named Gesher and targeted at 32nm). These new micro architectures will be developed by separate teams working in parallel, and targeted for intersection with specific future process technologies.

“By the end of the decade we will deliver a 300 percent increase in performance per watt over today’s processors,” he said. “This improved power and performance will enable developers and manufacturers to develop systems with incredibly exciting new capabilities.”

To demonstrate how Moore’s Law will continue well into the future with amazing potential, Otellini showed a new research prototype processor that has 80 floating point cores on a single die. The tiny silicon die on this experimental chip, just 300mm², is capable of achieving a Teraflop of performance, or 1 trillion floating point operations per second. He contrasted this with Intel’s historic breakthrough 11 years ago with the world’s first Teraflop supercomputer, a massive machine powered by nearly 10,000 Pentium Pro processors in more than 85 large cabinets occupying about 2,000 square feet.

Innovation and the Intel® Core™ 2 Challenge

In the first ever appearance of an Apple executive at IDF, Otellini was joined on stage by Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing who discussed how Apple has been able to innovate with sleek form factors and leverage the Intel Core family of processors across their entire computing product line. Rackable Systems CEO Thomas Barton also joined Otellini to talk about how his company is accelerating a significant shift to the Intel Core

Microarchitecture, starting with the Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5100 Series that began shipping in July. Barton also showed a system featuring what he said was a new a record - 320 cores in a single 22 unit high server rack - using the upcoming Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5300 series processors.

On innovation, Otellini challenged the computing and consumer electronics industry to do more, to take advantage of the energy-efficient performance capabilities of Core 2 Duo processors. To do this, Otellini announced the Intel® Core™2 Processor Challenge, a contest that will award up to $1 million in prizes to the PC designer or manufacturer that builds the smallest and most stylish PCs powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor coupled with Intel® Viiv™ technology, Intel’s premium brand for in-home, media-optimized PCs.

New Growth Opportunities

Otellini also summarized the progress the company was seeing on its Intel® Viiv™ technology and Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology platforms, and said the next-generation mobile platform codenamed Santa Rosa is on track to ship next year. He said the next big “inflection point” for the industry is clearly broadband to go or “carrying broadband Internet with you.”

In this regard Intel is making significant progress with its WiMAX effort, he said, bolstered by the recent news that Sprint and Clearwire would deploy the technology. The company is also working on a new category of PCs known as the ultra-mobile PC, which Otellini said could result in devices with 10 times lower power consumption than today’s laptops by 2008.

About the Intel Developer Forum

IDF, now in its 10th year, is the premier global technology forum for hardware and software developers to confer on Intel-based platforms, technologies and solutions, and the new usage models they enable. Visit www.intel.com/idf for more information.

IBM and the Association for Computing Machinery Kick off Worldwide College "Battle of the Brains"

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) today announced the start of international regional competitions leading up to the 31st annual International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).

At universities around the world, teams of three students each will participate in the Contest's regional competitions from September through December, attempting to solve real-world computer programming problems under a grueling five-hour deadline. This year's regional competitions are expected to include more than 6,000 teams from 84 countries on six continents. Eighty-five teams will advance to the World Finals taking place in March 2007.

Also known as the "Battle of the Brains," the ICPC has grown to be the largest and most prestigious computer competition of its kind. Since IBM began sponsorship of the Contest in 1997, participation has grown seven-fold.

The Contest exposes the brightest college and university information technology students around the globe to open source technologies being adopted by innovative businesses and organizations. Contest sponsor, IBM, is at the forefront of driving and using open standards. IBM is continually growing its portfolio of emerging technologies and identifying where tomorrow's technology skills are needed. IBM works with leading academic researchers and talented students internationally, many of whom eventually contribute to IBM research and development solutions. With IT skills shortages around the world and the rapid pace of change in the technology industry, innovation and collaboration at the university level are essential.

"Future innovation and value creation in our industry will come from the creativity of the next generation of engineers and computer scientists," said Douglas Heintzman, Director of Strategy, IBM Software Group and Sponsorship Executive of the ICPC. "It is vital that we promote and focus on the pursuit of excellence in the field of information technology. IBM's commitment to the ICPC is an important investment in the future."

IBM's sponsorship of the ACM-ICPC is just one of the company's many university-facing programs focusing on open standards skills. The IBM Academic Initiative is another, offering colleges and universities a wide range of technology benefits including free access to IBM software, discounted hardware, course materials, training and curriculum development to better educate millions of students for a more competitive IT workforce.

"The ICPC attracts incredibly bright young men and women who will shape the future of computing," said Dr. Bill Poucher, ICPC Executive Director and Baylor University Professor. "The partnership between ACM, IBM and colleges and universities around the world has grown to be a force in advancing education and innovation in computer science and engineering."

The 2006 ACM-ICPC World Finals took place in San Antonio, Texas, last April, where the team from Saratov State University in Russia emerged as the world champion.

For a complete schedule of regional contests worldwide, visit http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/Regionals/UpcomingRegionals.html.

IBM Establishes Worldwide Patent Policy to Promote Innovation

Inspired by a two-month, online forum involving dozens of experts, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today formalized a new, groundbreaking corporate policy governing the creation and management of patents.

The worldwide policy, built on IBM's long-standing practices of high quality patents and transparency of ownership, is designed to foster integrity, a healthier environment for innovation, and mutual respect for intellectual property rights. IBM encouraged others in the patent community to adopt similar policies and practices, more stringent than currently required by law.

The tenets of the new policy, which applies everywhere IBM does business, are: 

• Patent applicants are responsible for the quality and clarity of their patent applications.


• Patent applications should be available for public examination.


• Patent ownership should be transparent and easily discernable.


• Pure business methods without technical merit should not be patentable.   

Additional detail on the policy can be found below. IBM also announced several actions it will undertake immediately to implement and support this new policy: 

• IBM's technical experts will spend thousands of hours annually
  reviewing published patent applications submitted to patent offices.  For example, they will provide pertinent prior art to assist the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) in verifying the patentability of submissions more rapidly and accurately, as part of the USPTO Community Patent Review pilot.  IBM urges other qualified experts to similarly provide their time and knowledge by participating in this program.


• IBM will make its patent applications open to community review.


• IBM will make available over 100 of its business-method patents -- about 50 percent of IBM's total business method patents -- to the public, where they can be used openly to stimulate innovation.  IBM will focus future business method filings on those with substantial technical content, and as a result, expects to substantially reduce its filing of business method patents.


• IBM will promptly and publicly record, in its name, assignment of all patents and published patent applications it owns.   

"The centerpiece of this policy, and our actions to support it, is based on the principles that patent quality is a responsibility of the applicant," said Dr. John E. Kelly III, IBM senior vice president for Technology and Intellectual Property. "These principles are as relevant in emerging regions of the world as they are in more mature economies. IBM is holding itself to a higher standard than any law requires because it's urgent that patent quality is improved, to both stimulate innovation and provide greater clarity for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights."

The impetus to share this policy and to encourage an open discourse on best practices for patent holders was sparked by a two-month online forum facilitated by IBM (please see below for more detail). The forum brought together dozens of the world's most prominent intellectual property experts from the fields of government, academia and economics. IBM used wiki technology to enable the participants to debate and suggest solutions for pressing intellectual property issues.

"As advances in information technology and basic science transform the nature of innovation and increase the relative value of intellectual property, it is crucial that we modernize the systems for creating and protecting those assets," said Ronald Mann, University of Texas School of Law, and one of the wiki participants. "Until that time, having the community work together to adhere to a set of principles that sets a higher standard for behavior is even more important."

IBM believes that widespread adoption of a more formal code of conduct around patents could ease the burden on legal and government administrative systems. Those systems now deal with growing numbers of questionable patent applications and patent lawsuits.

IBM Patent Policy 

• Patent applicants are responsible for the quality and clarity of their patent applications. Patent applications must be written with clear specifications and claims, and include a thorough review of prior art. This includes performing patentability searches in advance of filing patent applications, and of course providing all of the pertinent prior art documents to the applicable patent offices.


• Patent applications should be available for public examination and comment. Patent applications are generally published automatically 18 months after filing, but where they are not, applicants should request 18-month publication. Applicants should also permit public comment on their published patent applications, so that the best prior art and other pertinent information can be made available to patent offices during the patent examination process.


• Patent ownership should be transparent and easily discernible.  Patent owners should record their ownership in their own name and not in the name of a shell company, and patent applicants should state in their applications who owns those applications.


• Pure business methods without technical merit should not be    patentable. All inventions with technical merit should be patentable, provided they meet all of the requirements of patentability. Applicants should seek to publish, not patent, their pure business method innovations if they wish to prevent others from patenting similar business methods.
     

Intellectual Property Marketplace Wiki

Creating, capitalizing on, and protecting intellectual property have become vital business functions. Firms are increasingly striving to become globally integrated enterprises that collaborate with their extended value chains, and the resulting intellectual property plays a central role in the evolving future of this trend.

These issues were a consistent undercurrent throughout IBM's Global Innovation Outlook, a worldwide conversation with 248 thought leaders from nearly three dozen countries and regions, representing 178 organizations.

IBM assembled a worldwide community of 50 experts in the fields of law, academia, economics, government, technology and others. These experts collaborated with IBMers to discuss the issues, determine the key characteristics of a properly functioning IP marketplace, and establish a blueprint for meaningful change.

Throughout May and June 2006, the group collaborated in the online IP Marketplace wiki. Wikis are a new media Web 2.0 tool that enables documents to be collaboratively written and rewritten through a common Web site.

The wiki was divided into six sections, each of which also contained a corresponding discussion area. These discussion areas were designed to encourage a free and open exchange of ideas, and provoke new approaches and new thinking about the IP marketplace.

The participants debated some of the most significant challenges surrounding intellectual property -- sometimes reaching consensus on the solution and sometimes agreeing to disagree.

The result of the project is a collaboratively written document that establishes the foundation for building a functioning marketplace for the creation, ownership, licensing and equitable exchange of intellectual property. This document has been published and is now available at www.ibm.com/gio/ip.

SAP Unveils Customer Service Capabilities with Third Wave of SAP CRM On-Demand Solutions

Continuing its commitment to providing customer relationship management (CRM) solutions that are simple, flexible and comprehensive, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the availability of the third wave of its SAP® CRM on-demand solutions, successfully meeting its quarterly product roadmap laid out in February of this year (see February 2, 2006 press release, titled “SAP Unveils SAP CRM On-Demand Solution”). With the new SAP® Service on-demand solution, service managers can quickly consolidate and track service tickets, establish rule-based escalations for fast follow-up and better adhere to service-level agreements to help improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. SAP also today unveiled additional capabilities for the existing SAP CRM on-demand solutions, including new sales automation features for product and quotation management. The announcement was made at SaaScon 2006, being held in San Francisco, California, September 25-27, 2006.
The new customer service capabilities in the SAP Service on-demand solution include:

• Service Ticket Management – allowing service agents to manage customer service tickets comprehensively, comply with service-level agreements and increase customer satisfaction. The solution enables multi-level categorization, rule-based service-level determination and due-date calculation, as well as rule-based service ticket distribution to service teams.


• Rule-Based Service Ticket Distribution – enabling service ticket distribution based on priority, status, product and account type.


• Service Level Monitoring – helping agents specify the business time frame of service availability to better track and improve compliance with service level agreements (SLA).

Ongoing improvements to the SAP® Sales on-demand solution include new capabilities that allow sales managers to better identify and price specific product offerings to meet customer requests using:

• Product Support – allows detailed product information to be quickly uploaded from and integrated directly into mySAP™ ERP, enabling product definitions and attributes to be easily accessed and leveraged in all facets of sales, marketing and service processes.


• Quotation Management – empowers sales professionals to quickly assign products to customer quotes, track quotations issued to customers, manage pricing and discounts, and export all quotes to Excel spreadsheets to ease quote management and increase overall order acceptance rates.

The SAP CRM on-demand solutions provide customers with flexible deployment options and a shared code base across on-premise, on-demand and hybrid models, supporting both quick time-to-value and strategic CRM initiatives, and allowing customers to chose the right CRM solution to meet their business needs.British Gas Business (BGB), the leading supplier of energy to businesses in the UK, has made the decision to adopt the SAP CRM on-demand solution.“Our business strategy is to deliver outstanding customer service as a platform for growth,” said Ian Peters, managing director, BGB. “We needed a solution that would help us manage the totality of our customer relationships from prospect onwards. Our people will have full sight of our customer interactions, leading in time to a fully integrated sales and marketing support system. SAP Service on-demand was the clear choice.”

CSCO: Cisco Systems to Invest Up to US $275 Million (TRY 400 Million) in Turkey Over Next Five Years

Cisco Systems® today announced a significant investment initiative in Turkey totaling up to US $275 million (Turkey New Lira 400 million) over five years. This announcement was made by John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems, during his visit to Central and Eastern Europe and highlights the growing importance of Turkey in the global emerging markets.

Chambers discussed Cisco's investment plans in Turkey with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan while in Ankara today. Chambers' meeting with the Prime Minister focused primarily on enabling Turkey to better compete globally through the adoption of information communications technology (ICT) and improved education.

"Technology is able to drive the productivity and standard of living for communities and countries on a global basis, and Turkey understands the critical importance and transformative impact technology can have on businesses, governments, societies and the overall economic growth of the country," said Chambers. "Cisco's announcement today about its investment in Turkey supports the country's entrepreneurial focus and e-transformation initiatives, which are focused on establishing a more connected country and skilled workforce in order to increase productivity and foster innovation, and are vital for Turkey to sustain the same rate of growth it has enjoyed over the past four years."

Cisco Systems' five-year investment plan for Turkey will allocate investments in the following areas:

• Create technology investment initiatives aligned with Turkey's Networked Economic Agenda to help accelerate country transformation and economic growth.



• Support the Turkish Prime Minister's Connected Turkey e-transformation agenda by providing networking technology and prototypes to support pilot programs targeted towards rural broadband for education, as well as connectivity for small and medium businesses, municipalities and local communities.



• Develop a Cisco Systems Technology Innovation Center to demonstrate the impact technology has on productivity across the different market segments and foster closer collaboration with local companies and partners to accelerate partner testing as well as customer pilot projects. As part of this, Cisco will provide a lab platform for testing complex new technologies for the Turkish marketplace with local partners and entrepreneurs and increase the number of CCIE engineers in the country to a minimum of 100.



• Establish the Cisco Entrepreneurship Institute, an initiative between Cisco, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) and the Turkish government, to teach skills for opening and running small businesses. The education partner in the program is the University of Economics and Technology. As part of this initiative Turkish entrepreneurs and small businesses will be eligible for equity and project financing, supporting information and communications technology development in Turkey.



• Support the establishment of 200 new Networking Academies in the country over the next five years to provide enhanced technical programs in concert with leading local universities. There are currently 47 Networking Academies across Turkey.



• Offer localized products as well as customer service and support for the technical needs and requirements of local service provider customers.



• Increase overall headcount of Cisco employees in Turkey from 80 to 400 employees and expand office space to accommodate employee growth.

Cisco first established operations in Turkey in 1996 and today maintains offices in Istanbul and Ankara.

CSCO: Cisco Enables Business-Class Video with New Digital Media System

Cisco Systems® Inc., today announced the Cisco® Digital Media System, a new emerging technology that will enable organizations to use business-quality, dynamic video and audio to easily connect customers, employees, partners or students anywhere, anytime. Solutions in this new digital media systems technology category will extend digital media into new markets and compelling applications for real-time and on-demand broadcasting, to enable organizational transformation by putting the human face back into business.

The Cisco Digital Media System quickly and easily allows users to create, manage and deliver live and on-demand digital media in various formats to multiple wired or wireless connected devices. The solution utilizes the power of an Internet Protocol (IP) network as the platform to enhance productivity and business operations by improving communications and collaboration capabilities. The Digital Media System was developed in Cisco's Emerging Markets Technology Group, an internal venture team that focuses on innovation in adjacent markets beyond Cisco's traditional networking audience.


"While the digital media explosion has taken off in the consumer world, businesses are just beginning to realize the potential of video. The Cisco Digital Media System, combined with the power of the IP network as the platform, allows organizations to move to a business environment where compelling interactions and experiences are created and shared," said Marthin De Beer, vice president of Cisco's Emerging Markets Technology Group. "As the worldwide leader in networking, Cisco is making significant investments in new markets like business video, enabling new ways for organizations to connect and collaborate.

"I'm pleased to see Cisco enter the digital media market," said Ira Weinstein, Senior Analyst and Partner for Wainhouse Research. "Cisco's strong reputation within the enterprise, combined with its ability to address the entire digital media value chain from content creation to delivery, should help pave the way for the adoption of digital media communications within many organizations."

Wide Variety of Customer Applications

Taking advantage of the network as the platform for digital media delivery provides customers in many industries with the latest tools for communication, collaboration, marketing, sales, education and information retention. For example, an organization can easily broadcast a CEO keynote to a widely dispersed audience and make the event immediately available for on-demand viewing. Other potential applications include:

• Financial Services: Training remote customer service representatives without taking employees away from essential customer-facing roles.



• Retail: Communicating with customers quickly and easily via the Internet or in stores about new offerings and changing specials; offering broadcasts of live promotional events.



• Government: Enabling live and on-demand Web-based access to city council meetings; providing access to digital media-based information on relevant regulations and laws.



• Education: Extending the classroom to include remote broadcast and viewing of lectures, as well as on-demand materials.



• Health Care: Alleviating staff and resource shortages by providing patients, family and friends with digital media-based informational materials.



• Safety and Security: Providing the public with important up-to-the-minute information about changing conditions in airports, stadiums, train stations and auto routes.

"As one of the most ambitious and forward-thinking universities in the United Kingdom, we needed to provide our student body with access to rich media," said Simon Furber, network manager of Brunel University. "Because our students use, live and breathe digital media every day, the university sought a solid platform that could support the creation and delivery of this capability, The Cisco Digital Media System was just the right solution we've been looking for. It is incredibly scalable, with a great user interface and is simple to use."

Cisco Digital Media System Components

The innovative Web-based Cisco Digital Media System takes advantage of Cisco's Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA), an architectural framework that helps enterprises evolve existing infrastructure into an Intelligent Information Network that supports new IP strategies, including service-oriented architecture (SOA), Web services and virtualization. The Cisco Digital Media System comprises three product lines:

• Cisco Digital Media Encoders: The Cisco Digital Media Encoder 2000 is a studio-level appliance with multiple channel support. The Cisco Digital Media Encoder 1000 is a portable encoder that can be used wirelessly for single-channel encoding. Both encoders support live and on-demand encoding in many formats.



• Cisco Digital Media Manager: The Cisco Digital Media Manager manages and publishes digital media and provides tools for users to add and archive media; assign metadata and keywords; preview content and manage workflow; and schedule instant and future deployments. Cisco Digital Media Manager integrates with Cisco Application Networking Services technologies, including Cisco's Application and Content Networking System and wide-area content engines, for business-class digital media deployment across the network.



• Cisco Video Portal: The portal allows users to browse, search and view digital media content. It features a customizable program guide and search functions; personalized playlists and featured lineups; advanced player controls, full-screen playback; and a usage reporting system. It is also fully integrated with the Cisco Digital Media Manager and supports Windows Media, RealPlayer and Flash file formats initially, with QuickTime and MPEG4 following later this year.

The Cisco Digital Media System is available now and is list priced starting at $133,000 USD. For more information on the solutions, please visit http://www.cisco.com/go/dms. Cisco and its partners provide a lifecycle services approach to deploy and support the Cisco Digital Media System, along with end-user and partner financing packages. For additional information on partner programs, please visit http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/index.html.

CSCO: Cisco Systems Teams with ASSA ABLOY to Harness the Power of the IP Network To Enhance Physical Security

Cisco Systems® announced a technology collaboration with the leading supplier of locking solutions, ASSA ABLOY, intended to deliver physical security solutions that closely integrate with Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This relationship extends Cisco's vision of the Intelligent Converged Environment (ICE), a framework in which the network is the intelligent foundation for new security applications. This innovative collaboration will allow customers to enhance safety and security of people, property and assets, while also reducing cost of deployment and ownership.

The two companies are unveiling a converged access-control technology at the ASIS show, which opened today in San Diego, Calif. Cisco and ASSA ABLOY will jointly demonstrate a "networked door" that combines new Cisco patent-pending IP-based converged access-control technology with ASSA ABLOY'S door lock components featuring the Highly Intelligent Operation or Hi-O lock-technology standard. This combined solution simplifies the installation and operation of badge readers, electromechanical locks and other door security components while enabling the creation and enforcement of integrated network and physical security policies. Intelligent network services from Cisco speed the deployment of a converged physical security and network infrastructure. At the same time, it provides real-time system status updates, and creates best practices that can help address compliance verification requirements.

Both doors and networks provide access to resources and assets, whether they are material, intellectual or financial. Historically, physical and network security systems have been independent and isolated from each other. The theft of money or intellectual property can be carried out physically or electronically. Cisco and ASSA ABLOY see the value of enabling security applications to operate on a converged physical security and IP-based infrastructure.

At the ASIS show, Cisco will preview its patent-pending IP gateway technology that links ASSA ABLOY'S badge readers to the IP network, extending Cisco's Self-Defending Network to include physical security policies. The new technology will provide IT and safety and security managers with tools to control movement into and within a facility as well as control network resource access. As a result, organizations can achieve higher compliance with physical access and security polices and can enhance network resource security by verifying an individual's physical presence. In addition, the demonstration will showcase the networked door system integrated with Cisco's ICE Video Surveillance solution which offers access to video at any time from any place, enabling real-time incident response, investigation and resolution. Cisco's video surveillance offering is available now and is a component of the company's expanding physical security portfolio.

The solution is completed using ASSA ABLOY'S Hi-O system, including badge reader, locking system, and door. ASSA ABLOY'S badge readers identify user credentials at the door entry and allow access to highly secure locations via communication with Cisco's prototype physical security gateway connected to the IP network.

"The safety and security of people, property and assets is a top-of-mind concern for businesses and government alike," said Mark Farino, general manager of Cisco's Converged Secure Infrastructure Business Unit. "Through the power of the network and utilizing the IT infrastructure, Cisco and ASSA ABLOY will enhance security integration and drive new applications. The concept of employees using their badge or other credentials to gain entry into buildings while also establishing physical presence to access certain network resources will generate tremendous attention from many customers in a variety of vertical markets. Cisco and ASSA ABLOY have partnered to show how a converged solution brings network intelligence to the door, and together lead the industry in integrated physical and network security solutions."

"Thanks to the open standard-based 'plug and play' HI-O technology, installers and integrators of locks can quickly and automatically connect together all the units in an electromechanical locking system, regardless of vendor," said Ulf Södergren, chief technology officer, ASSA ABLOY. "Functions such as identity control, code reading, locking, door opening, intruder alarm and fire alarm can easily be installed without configuration. Our technology demonstration with Cisco showcases how organizations will be able to reduce costs by linking their physical security system into an IP network."

Cisco and ASSA ABLOY will jointly test and market interoperable "networked door" solutions as a result of their collaboration. ASSA ABLOY will join the new Physical Security Cisco Technology Developer Program, which focuses on providing comprehensive and interoperable solutions for customers and resellers.

About ASSA ABLOY AB
ASSA ABLOY is the world's leading manufacturer and supplier of locking solutions, meeting tough end-user demands for safety, security and user friendliness. The Group has some 30,000 employees and annual sales of about EUR 3 billion.
www.assaabloy.com

CSCO: Cisco Systems Announces Networked Physical Security Ecosystem

Cisco Systems® announced the creation of a physical security partner and technology ecosystem to help accelerate the development and adoption of physical security solutions that run over Internet Protocol networks. Cisco unveiled two new ecosystem partner programs: the Cisco Physical Security Consultant Liaison Program, and the Physical Security Cisco Technology Developer Program.

Cisco's Consultant Liaison Program is adding a new focus area designed to provide members with easy access to the information they need to make informed recommendations to clients about Cisco physical security solutions. It will offer independent consultants with opportunities to understand the value of Cisco's Intelligent Converged Environment (ICE) and share how Cisco's IP security and networking solutions can be used in new physical security applications.

The Cisco Technology Developer Program focuses on building relationships with other technology companies as a means of providing comprehensive tested solutions to customers. Joint physical security solutions will span a variety of technology and vertical market applications including video analytics, IP cameras, display systems, video storage solutions, sensor technologies and access control.

"Cisco is looking to engage other physical security technology developers to work collaboratively in developing value-added solutions for customers and resellers," said Steve Collen, Marketing Director at Cisco Systems. "The physical security market is often best addressed with a combination of integrated, innovative technologies. Our goal with Cisco's Technology Developer Partner Program is to build an ecosystem of companies with complementary technologies to address customers and partners' security requirements."

The new programs represent a key part of Cisco's physical security initiative, and will help to generate greater awareness and expertise around IP-networked physical security systems - all in an effort to improve operational efficiency among security teams and enhance protection of people, and assets.

"Cisco's Physical Security Consultant Liaison Program is designed to help the physical security consulting community expand their scope and business opportunities," said Ray Coulombe, business development manager for Cisco Systems' Converged Security Infrastructure Business Unit. "As consultants become more familiar with IP networking technology and Cisco's expertise and information resources, they gain greater credibility with their clients by offering more progressive, business-savvy solution strategies. They will be better able to design and specify products for network-based physical security systems that provide greater control and protection."

The Cisco Physical Security Consultant Liaison Program offers qualified consultants a number of exclusive benefits, including:

• Web Portal access to product information, design guides, pricing, and specification material.


• Technical training programs


• Informational Webinars and regional meetings


• Access to partner-level product information and other resources on the Cisco.com (http://www.cisco.com)


• Opportunities to interact with knowledgeable Cisco personnel and technical partners


• Monthly newsletter

"Physical security consultants are continually looking to broaden their knowledge base and stay on the leading edge of innovative technology," said David Nelson, Senior Security Engineer, at Black & Veatch, a leading global engineering, consulting and construction company. "Our clients will ultimately reap the benefits of vendor information and programs such as Cisco's that provide insights into how IP networking can integrate with physical security."

For more information on Cisco's Physical Security Technology Developer Program, please visit: http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/pr46/tdp/solutions_security_and_vpn.html

Cisco's physical security strategy is based on the Cisco Integrated Convergence Environment (ICE), an architectural framework for video surveillance and other physical security applications to work over a Cisco intelligent information network. ICE solutions and supporting technologies will help enable the deployment and control of new security applications.

CSCO: Cisco Builds on Data Center Switching Leadership

Cisco Systems ® addressed key customer trends that are driving change in the data center with new products and offerings for its Cisco® Catalyst® switching portfolio that help enable more scalable architectures, easier operational manageability, and comprehensive resilience.

The new offerings further build out the Cisco Service Oriented Network Architecture (SONA)-based data center framework, which defines how customers can effectively deploy and manage server, storage, computing, and networking resources across their company. Among the introductions today include:

A data center-optimized 8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet module for the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches, designed to be able to deliver up to a 60 percent increase in local switching performance while lowering 10GbE price-per-port by approximately 30 percent;


The Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3040 for the Fujitsu Siemens Computers PRIMERGYTM Series Blade Server chassis, adding to Cisco's portfolio of blade switch solutions already available through IBM, HP, and Dell;


An online scripting community called Cisco Beyond, which will enable customers to share event-driven scripts and device-management best practices, resulting in increased manageability, control, and resiliency for Cisco switches and routers that support the Cisco IOS Embedded Event Manager (EEM) technology.

"The data center is the consolidation point for provisioning multiple services that drive an enterprise's business," said Zeus Kerravala, vice president of Enterprise Enabling Technologies at the Yankee Group. "Ethernet switching is the foundation for many of those services. And with today's announcements, Cisco continues to extend its leadership in delivering Ethernet switching-based solutions."

Cisco Extends 10 Gigabit Ethernet Leadership

Cisco expanded the high-end of its switching portfolio with the introduction of an 8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet module for its Catalyst 6500 Series switches. The new module increases the architectural scalability of the Catalyst 6500 and complements the platform's innovative operational manageability and comprehensive resilience capabilities. Because the Catalyst 6500 continues to deliver the most value behind each switch port, Cisco continues to be the market share leader in high-end switching markets such as 10 Gigabit Ethernet, which the research firm, the Dell'Oro Group, recently confirmed in its latest available report ("Ethernet Vendor Total Table 2Q06").

The Catalyst 6500 Series 8-port and 4-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet modules are typically deployed in the data center, distribution, and core layers of a customer's network. The 8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet module will help enable high-performance server aggregation, LAN access uplink aggregation, and connectivity within the core where higher-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet is required.

Orbitz Worldwide, a brand of Travelport, Inc., is a leading online travel company offering leisure and business travelers a wide selection of low airfare from more than 400 airlines, deals at more than 65,000 lodging properties, car rental, cruise and vacation packages. Orbitz Worldwide includes consumer travel web site brands such as Orbitz® and CheapTickets® in the Americas, ebookers® and OctopusTravel.com® in EMEA and HotelClub.com® and RatesToGo.com® globally.

Orbitz Worldwide deployed a Cisco Catalyst-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure to address the company's steady growth, supporting a significant technology project for the brand's multiple web site operations globally. The Catalyst 10 Gigabit Ethernet network replaced a legacy one, which the company cited for not only constraining growth, but for causing significant network outages.

"Since its deployment, the Cisco network has shown that we can easily support our company's business growth objectives, as well as provide the 24x7 uptime required for worldwide business operations," said Bahman Koohestani, Chief Information Officer for Orbitz Worldwide. "Cisco's balanced approach to network performance and reliability is crucial for an online business where literally, every minute, every second counts."

Reuters is a global information company, providing indispensable information tailored for professionals in the financial services, media, and corporate markets. In 2005, Reuters, the last remaining media giant to leave London's historic Fleet Street, moved its headquarters to a new 280,000-square-foot, 10-story office building in the Canary Wharf, Docklands.

"Reuters new showcase network is built on Catalyst 6500 Series switches, chosen for their converged network capabilities and high performance," said Chris Birch, Regional Head Service Delivery, EMEA for Reuters. "The Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 720 switch engines create a 720 Gbps backplane to support 10 Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth down to the wiring closets."

Cisco's Newest Blade Switch

As a solution to address scalability and consolidation requirements within the data center, many enterprise customers are increasingly turning to blade servers, a server architecture that houses multiple server modules, or "blades", in a single chassis. To help ensure consistent network security, high availability, and quality of service with Gigabit Ethernet performance, blade server vendors rely on integrated blade switches, which provide network services from the server edge out to the clients at the network edge.

Cisco today added to its industry-leading portfolio of blade switches with the Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3040 for the Fujitsu Siemens Computers PRIMERGY Blade Server Series chassis, which will help these customers reduce operational complexities and costs. The new solution expands Cisco's architectural scalability for blade switches by adding to an already rich portfolio. Cisco currently offers the Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3000 Series for Dell, HP, and now Fujitsu Siemens Computers blade server chassis, as well as the Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module for the HP p-Class BladeSystem and the Intelligent Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module for IBM e-Server BladeCenter.

"The Fujitsu Siemens Computers PRIMERGY blade servers offer low power consumption and increased performance for memory-intensive applications for data center applications. The Catalyst Blade Switch 3040 takes advantage of Cisco's undisputed leadership in driving switching innovations and delivering solutions," said Jens-Peter Seick, vice president, Enterprise Server Business at Fujitsu Siemens Computers. "The integration of Cisco switches into our PRIMERGY blade servers enhances our Dynamic Data Center offerings. Customers are asking for more integrated solutions and many see integrated blade servers as a determining step towards dynamic IT. This powerful combination helps our mutual customers realize the full benefits of intelligent networking services to their data center deployments."

Increased Operational Manageability through Cisco Beyond

Cisco IOS Embedded Event Manager, or EEM, is a powerful device and system management technology integrated into specific Cisco switches and routers. EEM helps customers harness the network intelligence intrinsic to Cisco IOS and customize behavior based on network events as they happen. Cisco Beyond is a new scripting community that provides an easy-to-use, web-based file-sharing system where customers, partners, and other users can download and share EEM scripts.

As with similar online communities, Cisco Beyond is intended to benefit users of all knowledge levels. Less experienced EEM users will benefit by taking advantage of best-practice examples available within the community. More experienced users, such as those from consulting and training organizations, can showcase their knowledge capital while learning additional tips and tricks from other experienced users.

Pricing and Availability

The Catalyst 6500 8-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet module with the new Distributed Forwarding Card 3C (DFC-3C) is available now starting at a list price of $37,500. The Catalyst 3040 Blade Switch for the Fujitsu Siemens Computer PRIMERGY blade servers is expected to be available in the next 30 days and is expected with a list price of $4,300. The Cisco Beyond scripting community is targeted to be available in November 2006 at www.cisco.com More information can be found at www.cisco.com/go/dcswitching

SYMC: Symantec Report Demonstrates that Cyber Attacks Increasingly Target Home Users for Financial Gain

The latest Internet Security Threat Report released today by Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) shows that because home users are less likely to have established security measures in place, they are being increasingly targeted by attackers for identity theft, fraud, or other financially motivated crime. Furthermore, attackers are now using a variety of techniques to escape detection and prolong their presence on systems in order to gain more time to steal information, hijack the computer for marketing purposes, provide remote access, or otherwise compromise confidential information for profit.

"Understanding the current threat landscape is critical in helping us protect our citizens' online interactions and ensure the availability of our critical systems," said David Jordan, chief information security and privacy officer for Arlington County, Va. "The current threat intelligence in Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report, combined with our use of leading-edge security technologies, helps us ensure the highest degree of security for our citizens and government agencies."

Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report notes that home users are the most targeted attack sector, accounting for 86 percent of all targeted attacks, followed by financial services businesses. Symantec has identified increased attacks aimed at client-side applications, increased use of evasive tactics to avoid detection, and that large, widespread Internet worms have given way to smaller, more targeted attacks focusing on fraud, data theft, and criminal activity.

"Attackers see end users as the weakest link in the security chain and are constantly targeting them in an effort to profit," said Arthur Wong, senior vice president, Symantec Security Response and Managed Services. "Given the effect this has on our large and growing customer base, Symantec introduced new metrics to further understand how to better protect customers against these security concerns in years to come."

Desktop Attacks on the Rise

As software vendors and enterprises successfully adapt to the changing threat environment by implementing security best practices and defense-in-depth strategies, attackers have begun to adopt new techniques such as targeting malicious code at client-side applications including Web browsers, e-mail clients, and other desktop applications. Vulnerabilities affecting Web applications accounted for 69 percent of all vulnerabilities documented by Symantec in the first half of 2006. Vulnerabilities in Web browsers have also become increasingly prominent, with 47 vulnerabilities documented in Mozilla browsers (compared to 17 in the last reporting period), 38 in Microsoft Internet Explorer (compared to 25), and 12 in Apple Safari (compared to six).

Evasive Techniques on the Rise

During this reporting period, 18 percent of all distinct malicious code samples detected by Symantec had not been seen before, indicating that attackers are more actively attempting to evade detection by signature-based antivirus and intrusion detection/prevention systems.

Phishers are also attempting to bypass filtering technologies by creating multiple randomized messages and distributing those messages in a broad uncontrolled fashion. During the first six months of 2006, 157,477 unique phishing messages were detected, marking an increase of 81 percent over the previous period. At the same time, spam made up 54 percent of all monitored e-mail traffic, a slight increase from 50 percent the previous period. Most spammers are opting to exclude malicious code with their spam to decrease the chances of being blocked and instead include links to Web sites hosting malicious code.

Financial Gain Drives Malicious Activity

Financial gain remains the motivation behind many of the threats during the reporting period. For example, bot networks can be used not only to spread malicious code, but to send spam or phishing messages, download adware and spyware, attack an organization, and harvest confidential information. Symantec identified more than 4.6 million distinct, active bot network computers and observed an average of 57,717 active bot network computers per day during this period. Bot networks are also commonly used in denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, a major threat to organizations as these attacks can result in disrupted communication, loss of revenue, damage to brand and reputation, and exposure to criminal extortion schemes. During the first half of 2006, Symantec observed an average of 6,110 DoS attacks per day.

Other financially motivated attacks use modular malicious code, malware that updates itself or downloads a more aggressive threat upon establishing a foothold on the victim host, to expose sensitive information. During the first half of 2006, modular malicious code accounted for 79 percent of the top 50 malicious code reported to Symantec. Additionally, malicious code threats that expose confidential data represented 30 of the top 50 samples submitted to Symantec.

For the first time, Symantec tracked the sectors of brands being targeted by phishing attacks – another means to monetary gain. Not surprisingly, the financial services sector was the most heavily phished, accounting for 84 percent of phishing sites tracked by the Symantec Phish Report Network and Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam this period.

Additional Key Findings

Vulnerabilities: Symantec documented 2,249 new vulnerabilities in the first half of 2006, an increase of 18 percent over the previous period and the highest volume of vulnerabilities recorded for any reporting period. Window of Exposure and Time-to-Patch: The window of exposure for enterprise vendors and Web browsers was 28 days, down from 50 days in the previous period. Microsoft Internet Explorer had an average window of exposure of nine days (down from 25), Apple Safari at five days (up from zero), Opera at two days (down from 18), and Mozilla at one day (up from negative two). For the first time, Symantec tracked the average time it takes operating system vendors to release a patch for a vulnerability. Sun had the longest patch release time with 89 days followed by HP with 53 days. Apple took an average of 37 days while Microsoft and Red Hat had the lowest average patch release times with 13 days.
Misleading Applications: Three of the top 10 new security risks were misleading applications that give false or exaggerated reports of security threats on a user's system in order to persuade the user to pay money to upgrade to another version of the software that will "remove the threats" that were found.
Denial-of-Service Attacks: The United States was the location of the most denial of service (DoS) targets, accounting for 54 percent of the worldwide total, and the Internet service provider (ISP) sector was the sector most targeted by DoS attacks. The United States also had the highest percentage of bot command-and-control servers, with 42 percent of the total, while China had the highest number of bot-infected computers, with 20 percent of the worldwide total.
Future Threats: Among the trends Symantec expects to see in the future are a resurgence of polymorphism and other evasion techniques in Win32 malicious code; an increase in threats which exploit "Web 2.0" concepts such as user-based publishing and technologies like AJAX; security concerns associated with the release of Windows Vista; and an increase in the number of vulnerabilities reported due to the use of fuzzers which are programs or scripts designed to find vulnerabilities in software code.


About the Symantec Internet Security Threat Report

The tenth volume of the semiannual Symantec Internet Security Threat Report covers the six-month period from Jan. 1, 2006, through June 30, 2006. It is based on Symantec data collected from more than 40,000 sensors deployed in more than 180 countries in addition to a database covering more than 18,000 vulnerabilities affecting more than 30,000 technologies from more than 4,000 vendors. Symantec also reviews more than 2 million decoy accounts that attract e-mail messages from 20 different countries around the world allowing Symantec to gauge global spam and phishing activity. To provide enhanced insight into the evolving threat landscape, this volume of the report includes several new metrics, such as the window of exposure for Web browsers and the proportion of previously unseen malicious code.

The full Internet Security Threat Report includes additional statistics and detail and is available for download at www.symantec.com/threatreport/ Broadcast media can download multimedia at www.thenewsmarket.com/symantec