AMD Demonstrates World's First Native Quad-Core X86 Server Processor

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today demonstrated the industry’s first native quad-core x86 server processor, achieving four x86 processing cores on a single die of silicon. At the annual AMD Industry Analyst Forum, a server powered by four upcoming Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processors (codenamed Barcelona), manufactured on 65nm silicon-on-insulator process technology, was shown utilizing all 16 cores. By delivering a consistent thermal envelope while adding two more processing cores, along with micro-architectural enhancements, AMD expects to significantly advance the performance-per-watt capabilities* of AMD Opteron processors.

“AMD is guided by an overarching strategy to reduce datacenter complexity and to deliver performance increases without forcing customers to endure disruptive platform transitions,” said Randy Allen, corporate vice president, Server and Workstation Division, AMD. “We discussed quad-core requirements with our customers and their end users, and determined that, as we did with the introduction of dual-core x86 processors in 2005, only a native quad-core x86 server processor would excel in the broad set of dimensions that matter to our customers. With the introduction of native quad-core x86 processors in the second quarter of 2007, AMD plans to again deliver exceptional technology based on the same customer-centric design principles that steered the development of our award-winning AMD dual-core server, workstation, desktop and mobile processors.”

Upgradeability from dual- to quad-core processors is expected to be as straightforward as it was from single- to dual-core with AMD, with unchanged thermal and electrical envelopes. The demonstration today was an example of this. The reference server platform was seamlessly upgraded to quad-core by replacing the server’s existing DDR2-based AMD Opteron processors with the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors and updating the BIOS.

The upcoming AMD Opteron processors are based on AMD’s innovative Direct Connect Architecture, which reduces bottlenecks found in legacy front-side bus x86architectures and includes AMD’s proven Integrated Memory Controller. These processors are designed to enhance I/O throughput and CPU-to-CPU communication, and to deliver increased performance with low power consumption and low memory latency.

As the next innovation on AMD’s consistent roadmap, native Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors continue AMD’s tradition of reducing the total cost of ownership for the enterprise. Current DDR2-based AMD Opteron processor-based platforms should seamlessly upgrade to native quad-core AMD processors without compromising performance, power or heat – helping to meet the changing and escalating demands of the enterprise customer.

Native Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors are also planned to feature enhanced AMD Virtualization™ (AMD-V) technology with nested page tables, delivering world-class performance and advanced leadership in x86 virtualization, as well as energy-efficient DDR2 memory support.

“IT managers require platforms that can help them run their mission-critical business applications reliably and with less infrastructure, power and space,” said Vernon Turner, group vice president and general manager of IDC’s Enterprise Computing. “Because of AMD’s approach to design its multi-core processors from the ground up, AMD has set a new standard for multi-core computing in the enterprise.”

Demonstration Platform
AMD quad-core technology was demonstrated on a reference server platform running 64-bit Windows® Server 2003. The four-processor server was powered by native Quad-Core AMD Opteron 8000 Series processors.

Online Demonstration
To access a videotaped discussion and demonstration of this technology, go to http://www.amd.com/quadcoredemo

Availability
AMD expects to begin shipping native Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors that incorporate four processor cores on a single die of silicon to customers in mid-2007. The first AMD quad-core processor line-up introduced will be for the two- to eight-socket server and workstation market.

About the AMD Opteron™ Processor
Today, more than 90 percent of the top 100 and more than 60 percent of the top 500 of the Forbes Global 2000 companies or their subsidiaries rely on AMD Opteron™ processor-based systems. Single- and Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors deliver exceptional performance and performance-per-watt to the market because they are built on AMD64 technology with Direct Connect Architecture, innovated to reduce bottlenecks inherent in traditional front-side bus architectures and enable a more efficient approach to computing.

INTC: Intel Board Elects William Holt Senior Vice President

Intel Corporation today announced that its board of directors has promoted William M. Holt to serve as senior vice president, and also elected Sohail U. Ahmed, Stacy J. Smith and Richard G.A. Taylor as corporate officers.

“These four individuals who’ve been elected by the board of directors are key to Intel’s success,” said Paul S. Otellini, Intel president and CEO. “They have demonstrated consistent excellence in their areas of expertise and will be instrumental to continuing Intel’s leadership well into the future.”

Holt, 54, is senior vice president and co-general manager of Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group. In this role, he jointly oversees all technology development and manufacturing activities across the company. Holt joined Intel in 1974 and was named a corporate vice president in 2003.

Ahmed, 47, is vice president and director of logic technology development in the Technology and Manufacturing Group. He is responsible for the development and deployment of next-generation silicon logic technologies that will produce future Intel microprocessors. Ahmed joined Intel in 1984.

Smith, 44, is vice president and assistant chief financial officer in the Finance and Enterprise Services organization. As assistant CFO, Smith is responsible for managing Intel’s finance, treasury and internal audit functions. He began his Intel career in 1988 and has held positions in finance, sales and marketing and information technology.

Taylor, 52, is vice president and director of Human Resources in the Finance and Enterprise Services organization where he is responsible for overseeing the company’s HR policies and programs. Taylor joined the company in 1986 and has held a number of finance and HR positions during his tenure.

IBM Tivoli Automated Software Installation Technology Speeds Deployment of Microsoft Windows Vista

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new provisioning software that will help accelerate the deployment time for Microsoft Windows Vista customers. The new IBM software reduces the time it takes to manually deploy or upgrade a computer, including an operating system deployment, to less than a minute.

Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment, based on technology from IBM's acquisition of Rembo, can help organizations automatically install or upgrade operating systems on thousands of servers, laptops and desktop computers simultaneously, eliminating the need for IT specialists to spend days or weeks installing software manually on each physical or virtualized computer.

Installing and configuring an operating system on a single computer can take more than an hour. Installing thousands of systems spread across a globalized IT environment can quickly cause labor costs to spiral out of control. Instead of physically installing the operating system with installation disks at every location, IBM customers can install operating systems from a centralized "dashboard" in a matter of minutes.

"Installing new operating systems is not something organizations do every day, or even every year, so their processes for doing so are likely outdated or nonexistent," said Bob Madey, vice president of strategy, IBM Tivoli Software. "With Tivoli Provisioning Manager, clients can dramatically reduce the time and complexity of installing nearly any operating system, including Windows Vista and Linux."

A company with geographically-dispersed employees can use Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment to conduct a mass installation onto thousands of laptops or desktops, customize the settings for each and ship them to the appropriate locations -- with no involvement required from the end user. The technology can also automatically install the initial set of fixes and patches for the operating system.

The software also includes a Universal Image feature that helps IT organizations create a single, universal image they can deploy on multiple machine types and vendor systems. This feature minimizes the number and complexity of images an organization needs to manage during their Windows Vista deployment. Universal Image lets IT departments modify images on the fly to inject the right information for a specific end user target. For example, an organization may want to deploy Windows Vista to a Dell PC, which requires the right drivers for Dell hardware.

"Windows Vista empowers businesses to work and connect more efficiently and will help drive business success," said Brad Goldberg, general manager for Windows Client Product Management Group at Microsoft Corp. "By working closely with partners like IBM we are helping to provide our mutual customers with a high quality product that improves user experiences. IBM's Tivoli Provisioning Manager complements Windows Vista and aligns with Microsoft's Business Desktop Deployment best practices by providing provisioning capabilities for clients seeking to accelerate their deployment time."

Since adding Rembo technology to its Tivoli software portfolio, customers, including the University of South Australia and Groupe Mutuel, have signed on with IBM for help with the initial provisioning of operating systems, software, and patches.

Other IBM middleware will support Windows Vista in February 2007.

HPQ: HP Introduces Industry’s First Blade Workstation

HP today introduced the industry’s first blade workstation solution which combines the benefits and security of a centralized data center with workstation-class performance.

Based on HP BladeSystem infrastructure, the HP ProLiant Blade Workstation Solution gives users the ability to quickly and seamlessly access workstation compute power from anywhere in the world using thin client devices or Microsoft Windows®-based workstations, PCs and notebooks. This type of solution is ideal for customers in the financial trading, public sector, and manufacturing industries.

London-based Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets recently customized its 255-postion trading floor with 280 HP ProLiant xw25p Blade Workstations. The devices are used by traders in the foreign exchange, derivatives, and global commodities markets, as well as by sales traders in the derivatives and interest rate trading markets.

“We were looking for something that was going to give a market edge to our traders, and for us, the HP Blade Workstation delivered on that,” said Colin Everett, head of IT strategy and infrastructure, Financial Markets, Lloyds TSB. “Having invested substantially in new premises and recruitment within our expanding Corporate Markets division, we needed to ensure our technology and customer delivery was state of the art. We believe the HP blade workstations give us this edge and will translate into better client services – which can only help boost the bottom line.”

Specific workstation features include fully certified and supported HP Remote Graphics software, real-time streaming video, 3D graphics, and multiple display support. The new solution also enables new business workflow models.

“We’re on the cusp of a major change in the way we build, maintain and adapt IT for business, and the HP Blade Workstation Solution is at the forefront of that change,” said Jim Zafarana, vice president, worldwide marketing, Workstations, HP. “The new BladeSystem solution delivers the security, reliability and manageability of a data center infrastructure with high-quality workstation performance.”

Additional benefits of the solution include significant cost savings in move/add/change (MAC) costs, system maintenance, power and cooling, and remote site operation, as well as improved data security, accessibility, work environment, disaster recovery support, and system uptime and availability.

The HP Blade Workstation Solution is available now in North America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. More information is available at www.hp.com/go/workstations

HPQ: HP Offers Enterprise Customers Integrated Products and Support for Upcoming Microsoft Launch

HP today announced a broad portfolio of “Microsoft-Ready” products, services and solutions to help ensure customers experience a seamless transition to Windows Vista™, the 2007 Microsoft® Office system and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

HP will support the latest Microsoft products through interoperability with its enterprise hardware and software offerings – including HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem servers, HP StorageWorks products and HP Software – to improve access to information and tools so customers can more effectively collaborate and be more productive.

Additionally, nearly all HP business notebook, desktop and workstation PCs are available in Windows Vista Premium Ready configurations. In fact, HP was the first computer manufacturer in the industry to receive a Windows Vista Premium logo, for the HP xw9400 Workstation. More than 450 HP imaging and printing products are Windows Vista Ready.

As worldwide prime integrator for Microsoft products and technologies, HP Services will offer planning, design, implementation and support of the new Microsoft technologies and has the ability to integrate them into heterogeneous IT environments.

HP Services’ education team, a worldwide Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for learning solutions, will offer customized training to prepare businesses for the launch of Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Services include traditional classroom or online training that enables businesses to stay up to date while minimizing the time away from core business activities.

“HP has worked extensively with Microsoft to develop complementary products and services across our portfolio that help customers realize the full value of the latest Microsoft offerings,” said David Booth, senior vice president and U.S. country manager, Technology Solutions Group, HP. “With HP and Microsoft technologies, customers can create a more agile, adaptive and successful business.”

To ensure HP business customers receive the best experience from the latest technology advancements from Microsoft, the companies created the Frontline Partnership, which spans hardware, software and services.

“As we launch Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, we recognize HP as a key global partner who our customers can depend on,” said Mike Sievert, vice president, Windows marketing Group, Microsoft Corp. “Together, Microsoft and HP are providing customers high quality products and an unprecedented opportunity to build their People-Ready Business, leveraging their organizations’ greatest asset – their people.”

Improved enterprise data security, access and efficiency

HP engineers have worked intensely to ensure enterprise customers get the most from the built-in capabilities of Windows Vista, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 -- from the protection they demand, to anywhere access capabilities their employees need, to the operational efficiency required by IT administrators.

HP’s enterprise management software will support both the Windows Vista and Exchange Server 2007 environments. As a large number of enterprises upgrade to Windows Vista, HP Software smart plug-ins (SPIs) – including the Exchange Server 2007 SPI – will ensure seamless interoperability with the new platforms.

HP StorageWorks products will provide full support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, while HP ProLiant servers with Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition support 64-bit versions of both Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. In addition, HP BladeSystem c-Class solutions offer scalable performance, as well as a high degree of operational and management efficiencies for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007.

HP’s early installation of beta releases for both Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 provided an opportunity for preliminary performance and scalability testing. HP has deployed both applications in a pilot phase and plans to upgrade to each next year as part of its own IT transformation and data center consolidation.

ActiveAnswers, where HP shares online its experience and best practices for planning, development and operation of solutions based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, provides up-to-date technical information, system configurators as well as storage and performance tools. New whitepapers focusing on HP’s best practices for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 are expected to be available in January 2007.

In addition, new HP End-User Workplace Messaging & Collaboration Solutions for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 provide competitively priced alternatives to building, staffing and managing an infrastructure in-house. HP works with customers to design and deliver the solutions that will help control costs via per-seat pricing and achieve higher levels of performance.

Windows Vista simplifies device deployment, maintenance; Improves security, efficiency

HP engineers have devoted more than 153,000 cumulative hours over the past five years working with Microsoft to ensure that its IT infrastructure products smoothly and simply support and integrate the new Windows Vista operating system into enterprise IT environments.

As the first PC manufacturer to deliver TPM 1.2 embedded security in May 2005, HP desktop PCs were used extensively in the validation of BitLocker, helping to ensure HP business systems deliver a secure experience for Windows Vista enterprise customers. In addition, HP mobility customers can get more done and stay better connected with a variety of advanced Windows Vista networking and mobility features, such as HP Mobile Data Protection 3D and HP Wireless Assistant, that offer improved wireless access management and improved data protection.

To help business customers deploy Windows Vista and to help protect existing technology investments, HP is also providing customers with free or low-cost Windows Vista and 2007 Office upgrades. Additionally, software drivers and explanatory white papers are expected to be available online starting in December for select models.

For example, the HP Universal Print Driver, a single, intelligent print driver that eliminates the need to perform individual driver installations, can help businesses virtually eliminate the need for testing, qualifying and distributing hundreds of different printer drivers when they migrate to Windows Vista.(1)

In fact, many of the core printing architectures native to Microsoft operating systems were developed through a strong collaboration between HP and Microsoft. For instance, HP provided expertise in the development of Microsoft’s Unidrive printing architecture and provided input on the new XPS document format.

Finally, new HP End-User Workplace Desktop Solutions for Windows Vista can help improve security, connectivity and manageability of an end-user computing environment to deliver the full value of a Windows Vista solution. These services help clients transition to Windows Vista by evaluating business requirements and recommending an overall strategy for upgrading, deploying and managing a standardized, highly secure Windows Vista environment.

More information about HP’s support for Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 for business customers is available at www.hp.com/microsoft


(1) HP’s Windows Vista enabled Universal Print Driver is expected to be available in early 2007. Visit www.hp.com/go/windowsvista for the most recent Windows Vista drivers and downloads. HP Universal Print Driver is available as a free download from www.hp.com/go/universalprintdriver or www.hp.com/go/upd.

ADSK: Autodesk Unlocks Design Data for Windows Vista and XPS Users

Autodesk, Inc., announced a collaboration with Microsoft Corp. to seamlessly integrate DWF technology with Windows Vista using the XML Paper Specification (XPS). This initiative will provide users with the ability to view and manage DWF detail-rich design information without requiring additional downloads of plug-ins or special viewing software. The result of the two companies' expanded strategic alliance will simplify and extend project teams' collaboration for greater efficiency and productivity.

DWF files published to the XPS specification can be automatically opened and viewed directly in Windows Vista using the XPS Viewer. Project team members can use Microsoft Corp.'s forthcoming software right out of the box to review designs in digital format. As part of the announcement, Autodesk will incorporate support for publishing DWF files to the XPS specification.

"Together with Autodesk, we are bringing the powerful capabilities of Windows Vista and XPS to the CAD software space, expanding our customers' horizons when it comes to sharing and collaborating on design information," said Sanjay Parthasarathy, corporate vice president, Developer and Platform Evangelism Group at Microsoft. "Today's news is an important milestone in our shared vision for software that works the way people do."

According to Gisela D. Wilson, director of IDC's Product, Project and Portfolio Management Solutions service, "This is a significant development for the manufacturing, engineering and construction industries' supply chains. No doubt, DWF is emerging as an important standard for new product development and introduction workflows. With today's announcement, the DWF platform will become more accessible for secure team collaboration among globally dispersed manufacturers, suppliers and customers."

More Efficient, Productive Collaboration

Windows Vista and XPS will allow CAD users and their teammates to collaborate more easily, work more productively through the operating system's advanced search capabilities, and provide richer, more precise design content for customers. DWF encapsulates the rich details of designs, maps and data in compact, high-fidelity files, so that designers can easily share specific ideas with their suppliers, contractors and customers. The recipient will be able to instantly review designs using built-in Windows Vista tools. Where users once risked loss of detail and communication of design intent to paper and other file formats, they can now know their teams will have specific information, deeper insight and a rich understanding of designs without needing to become expert in design software.

"Working with Microsoft, we're liberating our customers from paper-based sharing and proprietary software that might otherwise limit use and cause costly project or product delays due to lack of clarity or insight," said Amar Hanspal, vice president, Autodesk Collaboration Solutions. "In effect, Windows Vista and XPS's integration in DWF technology democratizes access to CAD data, by making it possible for engineers and designers to share the right information with the right people at the right time."

In addition to automatic DWF file viewing, the Windows Vista desktop search function will make it easier and faster for customers to find relevant design files with Live Icons and Preview Pane features. For example, a product designer can search for files based on specifications, designs, or any piece of related data such as an address or supplier's name. Regardless of where the information is stored, Windows Vista returns Live Icons -- thumbnail images of files retrieved -- that let the designer see files' general content at a glance and choose the right one, without scrolling through a conventional text directory and checking large files that can take as much as several minutes to open. The designer might choose to search for meta-data tags instead, and use the search function's preview pane to confirm which file is the one sought.

MSFT: Steve Ballmer Kicks Off Most Significant Product Launch in Microsoft’s History

At a press conference at NASDAQ MarketSite in Times Square, Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer announced the business availability of the Windows Vista™ operating system, the 2007 release of Microsoft® Office, and a host of other new product offerings designed to enable businesses to thrive in a world of instant communication, expanding information and constant change.

Today’s announcement that Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office release are available to volume licensing customers marks the beginning of the most significant product launch in company history and the first simultaneous release of Microsoft’s flagship products since the joint launch of the Windows® 95 operating system and Office 95 more than a decade ago. Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system will be available to consumers and organizations without volume license agreements on Jan. 30. In addition to Windows Vista and the 2007 release of Office, Ballmer discussed more than 30 new offerings for business customers.


According to Ballmer, the new versions of Windows, Office and Exchange Server 2007 are the result of an unprecedented collaboration between Microsoft and its customers. Real-life scenarios guided product development through feedback from customers who volunteered to let Microsoft watch them work in more than 1 billion user sessions. During testing, customers from around the world downloaded more than 5 million beta versions of the products and provided valuable feedback and suggestions.

“These are game-changing products,” Ballmer said. “It’s an incredible step forward for business computing in a year of unprecedented innovation from Microsoft. We expect that more than 200 million people will be using at least one of these products by the end of 2007.”

Early Adopters See Clear Business Value

Joining Ballmer at NASDAQ MarketSite was Michael Wolf, president and chief operating officer of MTV Networks.

“In the highly competitive and fast-moving media and entertainment industry, our advantage comes from our people,” Wolf said. “These new products provide rich collaboration tools and powerful information-discovery capabilities that will help our employees be more productive and more creative. This will strengthen our competitive edge, and that’s why we’ll deploy the new products to 3,000 desktops in the coming six months.”

According to a Capgemini study commissioned by Microsoft, early adopters expect dramatic gains in productivity through capabilities that address core business issues in new ways.

“Companies we’ve talked to are looking at driving major revenue increases, improved responsiveness to customers, and improved sales team win rates with the 2007 Microsoft Office system,” said Ken Edwards, vice president of Capgemini. “The early adopters have realized cost savings through process workflow automation, easier access to information, improved collaboration with colleagues, and lower costs of compliance. It’s all about creating better customer connections and empowering your people at less cost and with greater effectiveness.”

Industry Poised to Take Advantage of New Opportunities

Since the release of Windows 95 and Office 95, Microsoft has delivered critical platform advances with each major release of its two flagship products: TCP/IP in Windows 95 helped pave the way for the popularization of the Internet, for example, while wireless capabilities in Windows XP made mobile computing commonplace. New capabilities in Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system such as significant advances in graphics and pervasive support for XML and other technologies provide the framework for creating new experiences for end users. Significant server investments make the 2007 Office system a powerful platform for developing business applications that will eliminate the barriers between organizations, systems, processes and information.

During the press conference, Ballmer applauded the 640,000-strong worldwide partner ecosystem that has worked closely with Microsoft to prepare for today’s launch. More than 1,000 of the industry’s largest independent software vendors have been developing and testing solutions for the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and approximately 3,000 partner solutions are in the final stages of development. In addition, more than 100,000 partner professionals in the United States have already completed training on these products, and this number is expected to grow to more than 1 million trained product experts worldwide within eight months.

“Industry analysts expect these products to represent more than $250 billion in partner revenue opportunity in the next 12 months,” Ballmer said. “No set of product releases in history has ever offered this level of opportunity for the industry as a whole.”

“Our clients are enthusiastic about these new products,” said Don Rippert, chief technology officer of Accenture. “They recognize that the new capabilities in Windows Vista, the 2007 Office system and Exchange Server 2007 have the potential to reshape the workplace and deliver dramatic benefits to the enterprise.”

Delivering the Promise of the People-Ready Business

According to Ballmer, the starting point for the new capabilities in Windows Vista, the 2007 Office release and the more than 30 products discussed today is Microsoft’s belief that people are the driving force behind business success.

“These products will enable companies to unleash the full potential of their people to build profitable relationships with customers, spearhead new innovations and drive business success,” Ballmer said. “Although many customers will deploy these products separately, together they will fundamentally change the way companies get value from business information.”

Together, these products focus on four critical areas:

• Simplifying how people work together. From new Windows capabilities designed for mobile workers and unified messaging enabled by Exchange Server 2007 to workflow and collaboration tools in Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007, the new products revolutionize the way people work in teams and on the go.

• Finding information and improving business insight.Deep platform integration and availability of new search technologies and powerful, easy-to-use business intelligence tools will help enable employees to find and use information more easily, streamlining the path from idea to execution.

• Helping protect and manage content.Advanced content management and document retention tools combined with features to better protect data confidentiality make content authoring the starting point for automated business processes and regulatory compliance.

• Increasing security and helping reduce IT costs. With enhanced security by design and by default, the new versions of Windows, the 2007 Office release and Exchange Server 2007 deliver breakthrough security features. They streamline deployment and management, helping reduce costs and enabling IT departments to focus on providing new capabilities to deliver strategic advantage.



Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system also provide the core platform that will enable businesses to take advantage of the benefits of Internet-based software services. These products incorporate key XML and Web services technologies that will help companies tap into online services and select the mix of on-premise and hosted applications to deliver the right balance of control, convenience, cost-effectiveness, and security while helping increase productivity.

“During the last decade, Windows 95 and Office 95 transformed the way people work,” Ballmer said. “These new products announced today are the most advanced work that Microsoft has ever done, and I believe they signal the beginning of a new wave of innovation that will have an even more profound impact during the next decade.”




Products Released
An * below indicates the product is available now.


Client upgrades

• Windows Vista Business *

• Office Professional 2007 *

• Office Project Professional 2007 *

• Office Visio Professional 2007 *

• Office InfoPath 2007 *

• Office OneNote 2007 *

• Office Communicator 2007



Client enterprise editions

• Windows Vista Enterprise *

• Office Enterprise 2007 *



Server upgrades

• Exchange Server 2007 *

• Office SharePoint Server 2007*

• Office Project Server 2007 *

• Forefront Security for Exchange Server *

• Forefront Security for SharePoint *

• System Center Configuration Manager 2007



Server Enterprise editions

• Windows Rights Management Services *

• System Center Operations Manager Enterprise 2007

• Unified Messaging Services for Exchange *

• Excel and Forms Services for SharePoint *



New products

• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance

• Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 *

• Office Forms Server 2007 *

• Office SharePoint Designer 2007*

• Office Communications Server 2007

• “Voice Call Management" for Office Communication Server 2007

• Office PerformancePoint Server 2007

• Forefront Client Security

• Office Sharepoint Server for Search 2007 *

• SQL Server 2005 Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2007

• System Center “Desktop”

• Office Groove Server 2007*

• Office Groove 2007 *

• Exchange Hosted Services*

Dell Ready For Microsoft Windows Vista, Office 2007 And Exchange Server 2007

Dell today announced it is ready to help business customers adopt Microsoft® Windows Vista™, Office 2007™ and Exchange Server 2007™, based on a software migration strategy designed to reduce the time and complexity of managing the change.

Dell's latest server and storage products, desktops and notebooks are designed and optimized for the unique requirements of Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007. Microsoft’s new software products are designed to help people work together, garner better business insights, protect customer environments and increase business productivity.

Dell has laid the foundation for an easy and fast transition to Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 through engineering expertise, customer tools and tailored services. For example beginning tomorrow, a customer with a volume licensing agreement from Microsoft can send Dell its Windows Vista image and have Dell factory-install it through its standard imaging service.

Dell's people, processes and tools are in place to help customers successfully complete the transition. For example Dell engineers have invested more than 100,000 man-hours during the past two years testing and validating Windows Vista to help ensure that customers’ customized hardware works as soon as they power up systems with the new operating system.

"This high degree of diligence exemplifies our commitment to put our engineering expertise to work for customers,” said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Dell Product Group. “Dell is taking the guesswork out of software transitions to help customers take back control of their information technology environments".


Tools Customers Need to Deploy Business-Critical Applications


With Windows Vista availability, Dell is enhancing its tool chest to help customers assess, upgrade and deploy desktops and notebooks in their networked environments.

Those tools include: The Windows Vista ROI Tool, gives customers quantifiable information that helps them plan and budget around their Windows Vista migration—customers can track their TCO for up to 3 years
Exchange Advisor Tool, a blueprint to optimize and simplify customers email environments including system sizing, availability, data security, backup and recovery, and archiving



Many Dell customers who have been testing Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 are seeing positive results. Esporte Clube Pinheiros, a network of athletic clubs in Brazil, needed tools to better manage its e-mail environment. It chose to migrate to Exchange Server 2007 to handle archiving, manage folders and maintain compliance.

"Dell Services got everything up and running so quickly," said Mario Cesar Corniani, supervisor of IT support at Esporte Clube Pinheiros. "Dell Services did an excellent job of deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and we hope to collaborate with Dell again on future projects."

The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) is transitioning to Office 2007 and so far users are impressed with how the enhanced features like faster email work on Dell products. The LACOE also is moving from Exchange Server 2000 to Exchange Server 2007.

"Transitioning from Exchange 2000 Server to Exchange Server 2007 has been seamless,” said Robert Dotson, Senior Network Engineer, LACOE. “When we fully deploy the solution, I think it is going to be extremely well received."


Focused Infrastructure Services Based on Operational Excellence


Dell can help customers deploy Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 in complex IT environments with capabilities that span assessment, design and implementation services.

The company's unique approach to services capabilities is differentiated by a focused portfolio, operational excellence and single point of accountability. Dell offers training services to help customers plan, implement and manage Windows Vista, Office and Exchange environments. For more information, visit www.dell.com/vista

HPQ: HP Drives Customer Agility Up, Costs Down with Latest Identity Management Software

HP today announced enhancements to its identity and access management software suite to help customers increase agility, reduce risk and cut costs in the area of security and compliance management.

Introduced at the Gartner Identity and Access Management Summit, the new integration initiatives and improved features of the HP Identity and Access Management (IdM) portfolio better automate changes to users’ rights, their access to services and the enforcement of business policies. This allows organizations to better align security policies with business goals.

HP IdM addresses an array of challenges, including the increasing numbers and types of users requiring access to internal resources, stringent regulatory demands for accurate reporting of user identities and access, and the constant flow of changes in user access.

Pay By Touch, the world leader in integrated biometric authentication, personalized marketing and payment solutions, uses the HP IdM solutions as a foundation for deploying its federated online authentication system called TrueMe™.

“Pay By Touch prides itself on offering the strongest, most secure and most convenient authentication services on the market, all of which are enabled by the underlying foundation of HP Identity and Access Management solutions,” said Jon Siegal, executive vice president, Pay By Touch. “We selected the HP Identity Management portfolio for the superior technologies, ease of deployment, compelling return on investment and unparalleled value it will continue to deliver.”

Within the enhanced HP IdM suite, HP Select Identity Software, HP Select Federation Software and HP Select Access Software have been seamlessly integrated with HP Select Audit Software to provide consolidated audit, attestation, monitoring, alerting, reporting and archiving capabilities. By centralizing and automating the entire audit lifecycle for both internal policies and regulations, the enhanced HP IdM portfolio enables customers to streamline, better automate and speed their ability to ensure compliance.

HP Select Identity has also been integrated with HP Service Desk Software to automate, monitor and track the process of resetting user passwords in heterogeneous IT environments. When these requests are handled from within the Service Desk, customers will realize significant benefits such as enhanced security, reduced costs through automated password reset and self-service, and simplified compliance through automated control over configuration changes.

“Individually, these IdM offerings enable more efficient management of IT services and the users who rely on them; when combined into a seamlessly integrated solution, they enable organizations to optimize the business outcome of their identity and access management initiatives,” said Deborah Traub, vice president, Product Strategy – Management Products, Software, HP.

For organizations that have adopted IT service management (ITSM) as a strategic direction, HP has integrated IdM user change processes with ITSM processes to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

Commenting on the integral relationship between business processes and IdM, a recent report by Gartner noted that, “Understanding that IAM (Identity Access Management) processes are driven by information security, operational and, above all, business needs rather than dictated by the functionality of a particular IAM product, allows much-more-effective use of such a product.”(1)

The HP IdM suite also has been enhanced to better integrate with customers’ existing IT environments. The new policy management application interface for HP Select Access will enable easy integration with custom applications by providing program developers open access to the interface. Additionally, HP Select Federation will provide WS-Federation support for Microsoft® Active Directory Federation Services integration.

HP also announced that HP Select Access will now be bundled with HP-UX 11i, simplifying user management with improved provisioning and manageability. This tool enables a single click to define and apply high-level security policies that accompany a specific role within an organization. For example, the tool automatically assigns system backup and restore rights when an employee joins the operations team and withdraws these privileges when the employee leaves.

The enhanced HP IdM products, offered as a full suite or sold individually, are expected to be available by the end of the year. More information on the portfolio is available at www.hp.com/go/software

SUNW: Sun Microsystems Teams with Ericsson and Nokia to Form the "Telecommunications Platform Initiative"

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) today announced a new global cooperation with Ericsson and Nokia that aims to unite the Network Equipment Provider (NEP) community and assist telecommunications operators and service providers. Coming together as the Telecommunications Platform Initiative, members are jointly developing the requirements for a standardized, integrated telecommunications technology platform to simplify technology integration by enabling design, development and supply chain efficiencies.


"Ericsson is pleased to be a part of this collaborative community which is bringing us together to advance the industry as a whole," said Torbjorn Lundahl, Vice President of Ericsson Multimedia Systems. "With the backing of key NEPs and the advantage of Sun's community-building experience and in-depth understanding of open technologies, I am confident that this effort will lead to a much stronger industry alignment and bring major benefits to our customers."

Jyrki Holmala, Vice President, OSS Software, Networks, Nokia said: "The Telecommunications Platform Initiative recognizes that technology integration is a common challenge for all NEPs and shows our willingness to work together to find cost-efficient and open standards-based solutions for the industry. There is an excellent fit with Nokia's Operations Support Systems (OSS) middleware strategy and our Open EMS Suite platform product roadmaps."

Sun, Ericsson and Nokia Step Up to Benefit Industry

To succeed in today's competitive telecommunications market, operators must constantly find new ways to bring services to market more quickly while simultaneously boosting subscriber revenues. Sun, Ericsson and Nokia jointly recognized the industry need for a common platform infrastructure that would provide a uniform foundation to help address these market pressures. By collaborating on a series of publicly available requirements documents for the Operations, Administration and Management Layer (OA&M) and Service Layer environments, the members of this Initiative will provide the broader telecommunications industry with new alternatives to improve time to service, time to market and ultimately, time to revenues.

"We are faced with huge integration issues today when we purchase solutions from multiple NEPs," said Javier Gutierrez, Enablers Development Senior Manager of Telefónica Moviles España. "The results of the newly formed Telecommunications Platform Initiative will help us simplify platform management, allowing us to focus more on rapidly launching innovative services for our customers."

NEP Community Backs Initiative

By coming together to jointly define industry platform requirements, the NEPs benefit from greater freedom to focus more resources on their core competencies. The members of the Telecommunications Platform Initiative are defining and developing an architecture that will be easily adaptable to a wide range of applications.

"The feedback from our telecommunications customers on this new initiative has been extremely positive," said Peter Ewens, Vice President, OEM Business, Sun Microsystems. "Leading OEMs like Nokia and Ericsson are excited to see Sun step up and engage in a collaborative community effort to relieve some of their platform development and integration challenges through technology standardization across the industry."

Sun and the members of this Initiative will continue to be actively involved with other standardization and specification bodies such as PICMG (www.picmg.org ) and SCOPE (http://www.scope-alliance.org ).

About Ericsson
Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world. For more information: http://www.ericsson.com

About Nokia
Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations. www.nokia.com

About Telefonica Moviles Espana
Telefonica Moviles Espana (www.empresa.movistar.es ) is the mobile operator of Telefonica in the Spanish market. As of September 2006, Telefonica Moviles Espana had most than 21 million customers and a wide catalogue of services and applications with the latest mobile technology, such as UMTS. Movistar is the brand for the mobile companies of Telefonica Group in Spain and Latin America with exception of Brazil.

AMD Quad FX Platform with Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture Redefines High-End Computing for Megatasking Enthusiasts

Charting another industry first for computing enthusiasts, AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the AMD Quad FX Platform with Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) Architecture, the first dual-socket, multi-core desktop PC platform designed to take advantage of the latest enhancements in Windows® Vista™ Ultimate. As the supreme AMD platform for megatasking enthusiasts, the AMD Quad FX Platform is designed to redefine performance on the latest generation of multi-threaded applications.

The AMD Quad FX Platform is powered by pairs of the AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-70 series dual-core processors, the newest additions to the award-winning AMD Athlon 64 FX processor family. The new platform takes enthusiasts on a megatasking thrill ride, allowing them to make the most of their overall computing experience while gaming, editing audio/video and streaming high-definition content.

As consumers look forward to enhanced PC experiences made possible by Microsoft® Windows Vista, and the software industry moves to a multi-threading environment, the AMD Quad FX Platform is poised to meet the needs of enthusiasts who “megatask” - running multiple, demanding applications and multi-threaded games. With the introduction of Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture, consumers can count on a platform that scales with their compute-intensive applications today and tomorrow given that the platform is designed for a seamless upgrade path to a total of eight processing cores with planned AMD native quad-core processors in 2007.

“The emergence of a dual-socket consumer platform is critical for enthusiasts who demand systems that offer the sheer power and system headroom to let the enthusiast configure this system to his or her heart’s content, and launch a fleet of entertainment and productivity applications at once,” said Bob Brewer, corporate vice president, Desktop Division, AMD. “AMD is redefining performance by enabling our customers to take advantage of the amazing megatasking capability of two AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 series processors in the AMD Quad FX Platform.”

With AMD64 technology and Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture, the new AMD Quad FX Platform offers scaleable performance enhancements on a personal workstation powered by AMD Athlon 64 FX processors. In addition, this consumer powerhouse platform is designed with next-generation platform innovations such as high-performance, low-latency unbuffered DDR2 memory and for Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) support with compatible operating systems.

“Windows Vista Ultimate is designed to take advantage of next-generation technology like AMD’s Quad FX Platform to provide amazing experiences for computer enthusiasts,” said Mike Sievert, corporate vice president, Windows, Microsoft. “With support for multi-core platforms growing in the industry, customers can look forward to more innovation from Microsoft and technology partners like AMD—innovation that provides truly immersive experiences in gaming and other high-performance applications.”

“Alienware and AMD have worked together for years to ensure the enthusiast community receives the best possible products and we were excited to showcase AMD’s megatasking powerhouse, the AMD Quad FX Platform at DigitalLife in New York last October,” said Mark Vena, Alienware’s Vice President of Marketing. “Alienware believes that the AMD Quad FX Platform is going to enable new levels of digital content and immersive entertainment applications with consumers and business professionals while our long-time relationship with AMD signifies exciting things to come in the future.”

NVIDIA, the chipset and multi-GPU launch partner for the AMD Quad FX platform, is excited about the potential of an enthusiast AMD dual-socket platform. “NVIDIA is pleased to be the launch partner for the launch of the new AMD Quad FX multi-GPU Platforms," said Drew Henry, general manager of MCP business at NVIDIA. "Our GeForce® 8 series of graphics processing units and the NVIDIA nForce® 680a media and communications processor deliver an ideal solution for megatasking enthusiasts who look to AMD and NVIDIA to provide the best products for multi-threaded games and applications.”

“VoodooPC shares AMD’s commitment to drive cool technologies that deliver more exciting, immersive and personalized entertainment experiences to our customers,” said Rahul Sood, chief technologist, Global Gaming business unit, HP. “The AMD Quad FX Platform could very well open a new world of significant possibilities to address the insane demands of enthusiasts.”

With the flexibility of the AMD Quad FX Platform, systems can be configured to support a variety of enthusiast needs, including those of aspiring audio/video content creators.

Dan Gregoire is a digital artist who counts many of the world’s top movie and advertising studios among his satisfied customers. As an innovator of the digital 3-D story-boarding technique called “pre-visualization” that is sweeping the film industry, he clearly understands the need for speed, performance and the all important upgrade path offered by AMD multi-core technology.

“We’ve been able to consistently increase the value we deliver to our customers simply by following AMD’s roadmap -- 64-bit addressability, adding more cores,” said Dan Gregoire, CEO of Halon Entertainment. “AMD’s technology helps us create amazing cinematic effects, but even more exciting to me is that it is available to everyone.”

“Audio loves more cores. More cores and AMD’s balanced architecture means I never have to make artistic compromises due to technology limitations,” said Elliot Scheiner, Grammy and Emmy-winning audio producer/engineer who puts his trust in AMD to help deliver pristine sonic quality to please his professional clientele.

Unprecedented Capabilities with the AMD Quad FX Platform The AMD Quad FX Platform offers enthusiasts absolute performance, flexibility, and customization by including outrageous features like twelve SATA controllers designed to enable up to nine (9) terabytes of storage using currently available drive technologies (for over 450 high-definition movies), and increased spacing between PCI-E slots to accommodate up to four high-performance graphics cards.

The AMD Quad FX Platform is designed to enable infinite options for demanding enthusiasts to tweak their custom systems, including the ability to drive four or even eight monitors at the same time when using up to four PCI-E graphics cards.

Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture
Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) Architecture enables high-bandwidth communication between matched pairs of AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-70, AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-72, and AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-74 dual-core processors. DSDC Architecture is designed for the multi-core, multi-threaded future with planned platform upgradeability to eight cores.

Enthusiasts can benefit from having twice the number of processor cores due to a dual-socket configuration.

Availability and Pricing
Pricing for pairs of the new AMD Athlon 64 FX-70, FX-72 and FX-74 dual-core processors is $599, $799 and $999, respectively for PIB. For pricing details, please visit: www.amd.com/pricing

AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 series dual-core processors are expected to be available from NewEgg throughout North America on November 30. Worldwide product availability is expected by early 2007. AMD Quad FX Platform systems are expected to be available from Vigor, Cyber Power and IBUYPOWER and other major system builders are expected to offer systems in the near future.



AMD Quad FX Platform Customer and Technology Partner Support Addendum“We are excited to be working with AMD to introduce a powerful new platform that offers amazing megatasking performance capabilities for our common customers," said Raymond Chen, Vice President of Marketing for ASUS Computer International. "AMD’s culture of path-breaking innovation makes it possible for users to enjoy a superb gaming experience and we share their mission of pushing the limits of performance computing."

“As we continue to raise the performance bar on next generation memory capabilities, we are proud to have our new high-frequency DOMINATOR memory solution turbo-charge AMD’s Quad FX Platform,” said John Beekley, VP of Applications Engineering of Corsair. “With AMD’s processors, our market-leading memory modules are able to attain outstanding speed and latency performance, and our common customers, computer hardware enthusiasts and gamers, greatly benefit from these advances in memory performance.”

“Users can get the most out of their systems by loading up AMD’s Quad FX Platform with high-quality Crucial memory," said Mike Sanor, Crucial technical support manager. “Whether they’re using standard or high-performance Ballistix™ memory, enthusiasts continue to push their systems to the limit by combining Crucial memory with AMD’s cutting-edge processors.”

“AMD’s products have consistently exceeded our expectations as well as those of our customers, and our expectation for the AMD Quad FX Platform is that enthusiasts will benefit tremendously from the platform’s performance enhancements and enjoy an immersive computing experience,” said Eric Cheung, CEO, CyberPower PC. “Gamers are always looking for the most cinematic computing experience and we applaud AMD for responding to these growing demands by pushing the boundaries of innovation with the AMD Quad FX Platform.”

"Based on the dual-socket Direct Connect Architecture, AMD Quad FX platform is an epoch-making innovation and ultimate platform in the personal computing area, delivering super megatasking performance and extreme computing experience to enthusiasts", said Ms. Bai Xiangchun, General Manager of Product Center, Founder Technology. "As a leading Chinese PC provider, Founder Technology has successfully launched a broad range of AMD processor-based PCs, the launch of AMD Quad FX platform is expected to set off a wave of new computing applications in the industry."

“Multi-core applications and high-performance, high-capacity hard drives are the future of performance gaming. Through our work with AMD to ensure product compatibility, we remain at the forefront of this computing innovation,” said Marcia Bencala, vice president, Corporate Strategy and Product Planning, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “AMD’s Quad FX Enthusiast platform combined with Hitachi’s Deskstar hard drives bring the capacity and performance required for a superior gaming experience.”

“The new AMD Quad FX platform will undoubtedly be a win with performance-hungry enthusiasts and iBUYPOWER is proud to offer our customers this superior computing experience,” said Darren Su, Executive Vice President, iBUYPOWER. “Enthusiasts demand the highest possible processor performance for a truly turbo-charged computing experience - a demand that the AMD has fulfilled with its latest platform innovation.”

"Kingston has collaborated with AMD in the gaming market since the initial launch of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 and applauds AMD's advancements in gaming CPU technology," said Mark Tekunoff, Senior Technology Manager, Kingston. "With Quad FX and Kingston's HyperX DDR2 memory products, our mutual customers can receive the best gaming experience available," continued Tekunoff.

“We are excited about Maingear’s upcoming products based on the AMD Quad FX Platform”, said Wallace Santos, President of Maingear. “AMD understands the needs and desires of Maingear’s customers and by delivering products to the market that are capable of supporting games that are becoming more and more demanding, AMD and Maingear will revolutionize the way enthusiasts use their PCs.”

“Mushkin applauds the exceptional performance that AMD’s Quad FX Enthusiast Platform will offer to even the most demanding PC enthusiast and we are proud to support this next-generation technology with our performance-enhanced memory modules,” said Brian Flood, Product Development Manager, Mushkin. “The introduction of multi-core processors has revolutionized PC gaming and AMD has been at the forefront of this technology revolution with their next-generation platform innovations that combine the best in processors and performance memory.”

“We are proud to be supporting the release of AMD’s Quad FX Platform in our capacity as a premier online retailer of leading edge technology products and are excited to play a part in making this technology available for gamers and enthusiasts seeking ultimate megatasking performance,” said Chad Chen, V.P. of Marketing, Newegg.com. “As a customer-focused company, which ships 98% of all customer orders within 1 business day, we remain committed to offering the most innovative technology today.”

“OCZ is excited to work closely with AMD on the AMD Quad FX Platform, an innovative platform that ensures the ultimate level of stability, performance and scalability to give gamers that extra edge,” said Alex Mei, VP of Marketing, OCZ Technology. “With AMD’s multi-core processors, users are able to run multimedia applications with enhanced performance results backed by OCZ’s memory capabilities, which fully support this optimum PC experience at every level.”

“Thermaltake’s main business model has always been to deliver the most compelling and technologically advanced product to our customers,” said Joseph Lin, Director of Global Strategic Marketing Group at Thermaltake. “With Armor Extreme Edition chassis, we’ve re-engineered the world’s best-selling gaming chassis specifically for the AMD Quad FX platform. The AMD Quad FX platform along with Thermaltake Armor Extreme Edition is able to take advantage of the latest enhancements in the upcoming Windows Vista™ Ultimate and for megatasking PC enthusiasts and power-users who run the most demanding tasks simultaneously.”

“Our Prime Series PCs will be able to exceed today's limits by utilizing platforms like the AMD Quad FX Platform, said Mr. Takayuki Miyazaki, manager, planning dev., Third Wave Corporation. “We will be able to provide our customers not just high performance, but a platform with planned upgradeability to 8 cores. We believe that this ultimate platform will meet the needs of the enthusiasts with multi-threaded Operating Systems and applications.”

“Customers who buy products at TigerDirect expect a great experience from their purchases,” said Carl Fiorentino, president, TigerDirect. “The AMD Quad FX Platform will present customers with an ultimate megatasking PC and offer them personal workstation-type performance.”

"We are happy with AMD's continuous innovations in the multi-core computing area. Based on Dual-Socket Direct Connect Architecture, the AMD Quad FX platform is an epoch-making multi-core computing solution designed for enthusiasts who crave super megatasking performance and an extreme computing experience", said Mr. Xing Maowei, General Manager of Desktop Product Division, Tongfang Computer System Business Group. "It is an ultimate personal computing platform. It will definitely stage a new round of platform revolution in the processor industry, facilitating the competition for new technologies in multi-core computing. Based on AMD's ongoing leadership in multi-core computing technologies, the AMD Quad FX platform is expected to bring a brand-new computing experience to enthusiasts."

“At Vigor, our aim is to provide the ultimate experience to our customers and AMD’s Quad FX Platform will help our customers realize yet another significant performance gain in megatasking,” said Aaron Chen, Chief Executive Officer at Vigor. “By building products that deliver the kind of performance that enthusiasts crave, AMD has been a valuable partner in our ongoing endeavor to combine innovation and artistry, helping us stay true to our mission of linking cutting-edge technologies with ultimate customer expectations.”

“As a market leader in high performance hard drives, Western Digital knows that customers operating graphically intense games and applications with enhanced performance capabilities require high performance systems such as AMD’s Quad FX Platform to realize the potential of those applications,” said Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of Enterprise Storage for Western Digital. “Much like the WD Raptor X, which combines amazing performance and reliability from a 10,000 RPM enterprise-class platform, AMD’s new platform represents the latest innovation in next-generation gaming platforms.”

CSCO: SingTel To Deploy Cisco Wireless Mesh Network in the North Region of Singapore

Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) will be deploying a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) mesh network from Cisco® in the North region of Singapore. SingTel's proposal to deliver seamless public-access wireless broadband services was accepted by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). The project is part of the Singapore government's Wireless@SG initiative to extend the broadband experience for its citizens outside of homes and offices to virtually every part of the country. SingTel's wholly owned subsidiary NCS, a Cisco Certified Gold Partner, is managing the implementation of the network.

SingTel aims to deploy more than 2,400 hotspots by May 2007. In Wi-Fi mesh networks, many of the access points are not physically connected to a wired network. The access points create a mesh that routes back to the network. This configuration enables SingTel to provide broadband-based services to a large area where no wired network is available. With the Cisco Unified Wireless Network, which includes a broad range of wireless devices and centralized management components, SingTel can also manage both their indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi hotspots centrally, reducing management costs and complexities.

"The SingTel, NCS and Cisco collaboration will draw on the strengths of each of the parties. SingTel's experience and commitment, NCS' expertise and Cisco's technology leadership are a strong combination that will help enable high-quality Wi-Fi services for our customers," said Allen Lew, CEO of SingTel (Singapore). "We selected Cisco's Wi-Fi mesh technology because it delivers performance and reliability while being highly scalable and easy to deploy. The solution uses well-established standards and offers a substantially reduced risk, cost and time to market."

In the first phase of the Wi-Fi network rollout, Cisco Aironet® 1500 Series lightweight outdoor mesh access points will be attached to city buildings and streetlights to provide four square miles of coverage. To reduce management costs and centralize network monitoring, SingTel will use Cisco 4400 Series Wireless LAN Controllers and the Cisco Wireless Control System.

The unique Cisco Adaptive Wireless Path Protocol provides the key intelligence for effectively running Cisco Wi-Fi mesh networks. Just as routers serve as traffic-management systems for wired networks, so the Cisco Aironet 1500 Series access points use sophisticated mathematical algorithms to decide the optimal ways to route traffic from access point to access point and back to the main wired network. The protocol helps traffic avoid congested nodes, offering Wi-Fi networks a "self-healing" capability. This is where Cisco's routing expertise comes into play. Just as with wired networks, the quality of a Wi-Fi mesh network boils down to the ability of the equipment to route traffic intelligently, efficiently and dependably.

"This project further deepens Cisco's relationship with SingTel and gives us an opportunity to continue to develop our contribution to the Singapore government's iN2015 (Intelligent Nation 2015) masterplan. Wi-Fi mesh networks are ideal for Wireless@SG deployments because they are easy to deploy and maintain. Many of our municipality and city council customers from around the world cite low costs, central management, multiband wireless device support, security and breadth of service as the main benefits of Wi-Fi mesh networks. This enables them to provide their citizens with the platform to extend their life's experience on the human network anytime, anywhere," said Craig Gledhill, Cisco's managing director for Singapore and Brunei.

About SingTel
SingTel is Asia's leading communications company with operations and investments in more than 20 countries and territories around the world. Serving both the corporate and consumer markets, it is committed to bringing the best of global communications to customers in the Asia Pacific and beyond. For more information, visit www.singtel.com

About NCS Group
NCS Group is a leading information technology (IT) and communications engineering services provider with about 4,000 staff located in 10 countries across the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. With proven expertise in consulting, development, systems integration and infrastructure management and solutions, gained while serving government and commercial organisations across the region, NCS delivers end-to-end support for every organisation's technology needs. NCS is headquartered in Singapore and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SingTel Group. For more information, please visit http://www.ncs.com.sg

BRCM: Broadcom to Acquire LVL7 Systems, Inc., a Developer of Networking Software

Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire LVL7 Systems, Inc., a privately-held developer of production-ready networking software that enables networking original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) to reduce development expenses and compress development timelines.

"By combining LVL7's software expertise with Broadcom® networking products, we are addressing our customers' growing demand for integrated hardware and software solutions," said Ford Tamer, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Enterprise Networking Group. "Additionally, the software offerings will enable Broadcom customers to address new and emerging markets -- such as wireless LAN switching or voice over IP -- more quickly, increasing the value of their current platforms."

LVL7's FASTPATH® family of software will enable Broadcom to enhance its existing product offering in the small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) market segment. OEMs targeting the SMB market will benefit from the additional software capability that Broadcom is adding to its existing platforms because a complete software solution enables those customers to get new systems to market quickly and cost effectively.

"Broadcom has been a premier partner of LVL7 for several years, and the company's established presence in the network silicon market makes a long-term partnership ideal," said Erik Dixon, CEO of LVL7 Systems. "Our software integrated with Broadcom's industry-leading Ethernet silicon will enable customers to accelerate time to market and reduce system cost."

At closing of the acquisition, Broadcom expects to pay approximately $62 million in cash to acquire outstanding shares of capital stock and vested stock options of LVL7 and liquidate outstanding LVL7 debt. A portion of the cash consideration payable to the stockholders will be placed into escrow pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement. The boards of directors of the two companies and the stockholders of LVL7 have approved the merger. The closing, which is expected to occur during Broadcom's fourth quarter ending December 31, remains subject to customary closing conditions. Broadcom may record a one-time charge for purchased in-process research and development expenses related to the acquisition in its fourth quarter. The amount of that charge, if any, has not yet been determined.

About LVL7 Systems

LVL7 creates production-ready networking software that enables communication system manufacturers to reduce development costs and deliver IP/Ethernet products to market faster. Integrated with the industry's leading silicon and embedded operating systems, the company's FASTPATH® software portfolio spans the small-medium-sized business, enterprise, wireless LAN, and telecom access marketplaces. LVL7 is a privately-held company located near Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. For more information, visit www.LVL7.com

HPQ: HP Helps CIOs Optimize Business Outcomes of IT with New Project and Portfolio Management Software

HP today unveiled new project and portfolio management software that gives customers real-time visibility and control over the entire IT portfolio to help reduce the business risk of IT project failure.

Available immediately, Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Center 7.0 provides chief information officers and other IT executives with sophisticated project, demand and portfolio management as well as an integrated approach to managing projects across their lifecycles.

The software addresses some of the biggest challenges of delivering clear and measurable business results from IT by helping to avoid the stalled or failed projects, and the waste of time, budget and resources, that can come with the use of rudimentary project management tools and manual processes.

“To prioritize how they’ll support business goals, senior IT and business executives need visibility into all the demand for IT, and they need to match that to resource supply, including both budget and skilled staff,” said Matt Light, research director, Gartner Inc. “Today, these executives can more strategically select an ideal project portfolio using solutions that help compute alternate scenarios of proposed projects, given resource capacity forecast from in-flight projects and other work commitments, and factoring in risks and expected returns.”

“Operating more than 1,200 supermarkets in the southeastern and mid-Atlantic United States, Food Lion relies on portfolio management to help deliver the freshest and best quality products to its customers,” said Pat Tagnani, director, Project Management Office, Food Lion, LLC. “Using Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Center provides us with real-time visibility into all of our strategic initiatives; we can quickly identify the right projects and staff them with the right people.”

New and enhanced functionality in Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Center 7.0 helps IT organizations:

• Govern IT by managing strategic projects and operational activities and aggregating operational demand and proposal requests through a single user interface;


• Improve efficiency by automatically optimizing the selection of projects and operational activities through the new portfolio optimization engine, based on user-defined criteria such as budget allocation to certain corporate initiatives;


• Achieve and maintain regulatory compliance across field-level audit trails to track all changes to projects and critical applications;


• Aggregate legacy desktop data, such as Microsoft® Project and other project data sources, to create a unified view across both strategic projects and operational activities; and


• Adopt either top-down or bottom-up project planning and execution with a flexible approach to portfolio management.

“This new software from HP helps our customers address their most challenging IT governance problems and maximize the returns from their IT portfolio,” said Deborah Traub, vice president, Product Strategy, Management Products, Software, HP. “Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Center is a key part of our strategy to help our customers optimize the business outcomes of IT.”

In fact, HP Consulting & Integration is standardizing on Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Center for its Architecture & Governance Practice as well as being integrated as a strategic element of HP Services’ solution for IT Shared Services Centers.

“As a leading e-commerce company in South Korea, IT is the business for INTERPARK Corporation,” said Jeong Won El, director, IT Supporting Division/Technology Division, INTERPARK Corporation. “Rather than looking at portfolio management as an annual exercise, Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Center lets us evaluate new proposals against in-flight projects without having to do a lot of detail work. This helps us make smart decisions about how to deploy our resources in real-time.”

Product availability

Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Center may be delivered as an in-house deployment or through Mercury Managed Services, which enables customers to access Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Center software as a hosted service over the Internet and leverage an expert team of service professionals.

This product is also available through HP’s network of partner companies, including India-based Wipro.

“Wipro is pleased to be a preferred HP partner for helping customers upgrade to Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Center 7.0. Wipro has a very strong relationship with HP in providing value-based governance solutions using this product,” said Suraj Prakash, vice president, Quality Consulting Group, Wipro. “We have leveraged our patented PMO solution, Process Packs®, built on Mercury Project and Portfolio Management Center, to deliver best practices and accelerated results to our customers.”

HPQ: HP Bridges Gap Between Facilities and IT to Solve Data Center Power and Cooling Challenges

HP today announced a new energy management system and key initiatives to bridge the gap between facilities and IT to help customers dramatically reduce data center operating costs.

Based on work from the past four years by HP Labs, the new energy management system, called HP Dynamic Smart Cooling, is designed to deliver 20 to 45 percent savings in cooling energy costs or allow additional equipment to be added to the data center while keeping net power costs constant.

The HP system uses advanced software residing in an intelligent control node to continuously adjust air conditioning settings based on real-time air-temperature measurements from a network of sensors deployed on IT racks. Dynamic Smart Cooling actively manages the environment to deliver cooling where it is needed most, enabling essential cost savings to end users.

Due to its positive impact on the bottom line and the environment, Dynamic Smart Cooling will be adopted by HP’s own IT organization for its six new consolidated data centers in three geographic zones in the United States. It also is an important addition to HP’s Adaptive Infrastructure offering, which is the foundation for building next-generation data centers.

“By bringing facilities and IT together, HP customers can now change energy from a fixed cost to a variable cost within the data center,” said Paul Perez, vice president, Storage, Networks and Infrastructure, Enterprise Servers and Storage, HP. “HP’s holistic approach breaks tradition to solve the conflict between energy efficiency and IT scalability. Customers can now treat data centers as systems to be as carefully managed as the hardware running within them.”

Centered on Dynamic Smart Cooling, HP is creating a new partner program through which the company will work with leading architecture, engineering, equipment, technology, utility, real estate and service companies to accelerate adoption of energy efficiency solutions for next-generation data centers. The Data Center Solution Builder program will be managed under Perez and will feature EYP Mission Critical Facilities as its premiere partner.

“DSC solves a big problem the IT industry has been struggling with for quite some time,” said Peter Gross, chief executive officer and chief technology officer, EYP Mission Critical Facilities, Inc. “DSC not only dramatically improves the energy performance of cooling systems in data centers but also delivers improvements in overall data center reliability. It is the first step toward the ultimate goal of this industry – fully integrated and optimized data centers that bridge the gap between facilities and IT domains.”

HP also has formed an internal Smart Data Center design team that leverages some of the best minds across the company focused on lowering total cost of ownership through flexible power and cooling management products and services. The effort is backed by an investment of more than $10 million per year and is based on a portfolio of 100s of existing patents.

Expanded portfolio of power and cooling solutions

Dynamic Smart Cooling integrates well with existing HP innovations in power and cooling such as HP Thermal Logic, a key component of the HP BladeSystem c-Class architecture. Together, the technologies deliver significant savings to customers while reducing a data center’s overall environmental footprint. Dynamic Smart Cooling also can be used with any standard IT equipment rack and incorporates standard interfaces to most air conditioning and building management systems, making it ideal for new construction and retrofit projects.

HP also announced a 3-Phase Power portfolio, enabling facilities deployments to match the rapid evolution of IT equipment governed by “Moore’s Law.” By allowing power distribution and protection to be deployed in a modular fashion, customers have the flexibility to use what they need when they need it – while taking advantage of generational improvements over time. This yields higher density deployments with investment protection against unpredictable growth.

Bringing an IT solutions approach to increasingly demanding data center power requirements, the HP 3-Phase Power portfolio includes a modular three-phase Uninterruptible Power System and 100KVA Power Distribution Rack. When used with HP standard racks, these two offerings allow customers to deploy redundant power grids to support cost-effective, site-level power distribution and remote site monitoring, resulting in significant data center space savings.

Environmental commitment at Gartner event

Dynamic Smart Cooling is one of the many energy efficiency initiatives at HP that help the company and its customers reduce overall environmental impact. In support of this announcement, made at the Gartner 25th Annual Data Center conference, HP is reinforcing its environmental commitment by making the event CarbonNeutral® – emissions of the global warming gas carbon dioxide (CO2) generated by the event have been anticipated and all related CO2 emissions will be offset by HP’s purchase of credits. These credits are an investment in climate-friendly technologies like solar and wind power generation.

Pricing and availability

HP Dynamic Smart Cooling and the HP 3-Phase Power portfolio is expected to be available worldwide in the third calendar quarter of 2007. Pricing for the solutions will be released upon availability.

More information on the announcements above is available in an online press kit at www.hp.com/go/nextgenpowerandcooling. More information on HP Power and Cooling technologies and the Data Center Solution Builder program is available at www.hp.com/go/powerandcooling and www.hp.com/go/dcsb, respectively.

IBM Highlights The Science Behind The Latest Videogames

IBM (NYSE: IBM) highlighted the deep science behind the latest video games and encouraged middle school students to pursue careers in math and science at an open house at the company’s $3 billion East Fishkill, New York, microchip manufacturing center, which produces the chips that power the latest systems from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

IBM will distribute an education package, including print, video and other multi-media materials, to members of IBM’s On Demand Community, IBM’s global volunteer initiative with nearly 80,000 employees and retirees, highlighting the technology behind the latest video game systems and encouraging students to embrace math and science education at an early age.

Educational sessions at East Fishkill were led by Dr. Michael Nelson, IBM’s director of Internet Technology and Strategy. “The introduction of next generation systems from the leaders in video gaming offers a unique opportunity to reinforce the importance of math and science education at the earliest possible age,” said Nelson. “Kids love gaming, and math and science make games possible.”

IBM has a strong history of encouraging students to study math and science so that they are prepared for future technical careers. Through numerous programs beginning in the pre-Kindergarten years through high school, IBM is reaching out to students and teachers to introduce math and science, support interest in these subjects, and encourage students to continue their studies.

“There is so much opportunity for students in the technical fields, and gaming is opening many new and exciting options,” said Robin Willner, vice president of IBM Global Community Initiatives. “But in order for students to play in the future of gaming, they need to be prepared academically. Today we’re trying to make that connection for the students in a fun, interactive way.”

At the open house, students from Bronx and Dutchess counties attended a presentation about gaming technology and how it is changing education, health care, energy exploration and other industries. Students saw applications such as a 3-D rendering of the human heart and met Jai, IBM’s gaming representative in the digital world. In addition, students had the opportunity to experience first hand the next generation of gaming consoles and meet some of the IBM employees responsible for developing the chips that power them.

“An important factor in keeping kids engaged in math and science is making the subjects interesting and relevant to them,” said Willner. “Gaming technology is fun and helps us demonstrate that science and technology careers are fun and full of opportunities, too. Taking gaming technology to students is the perfect next step in IBM’s work to encourage students to stick with their math and science studies.”

According to Willner, “It’s never too early to start learning about the science behind gaming.” Starting with pre-K students, IBM’s KidSmart Early Learning Program introduces children to math and science through its Young Explorer computers equipped with early-learning educational software housed in colorful children’s desk furniture.

IBM keeps students’ interest up in the middle school years through IBM's TryScience Web site, the first online, global science museum, makes it easy and fun for children, teachers and parents to explore the world of science and engineering. In addition, IBM EX.I.T.E. Camps, week-long, summer day camps for middle school girls held at IBM facilities, show girls exciting career opportunities in technology and engineering, introduce them to female role models, and provide hands-on experiences in technical activities that are fun, challenging and educational. Through IBM MentorPlace, IBM employees mentor students online providing academic assistance and career counseling, while letting them know that adults do care about their issues and concerns.


In 2006, IBM and the Computer Science Teachers Association introduced free access to computer science resources for high school teachers. With just a few clicks, teachers can access a series of lesson plans, guidebooks and topic overviews to incorporate concepts of computer programming and Web design into everyday computer science, math and science classes.

Rhodia (RHA), IBM and ADP Sign Strategic Agreement to Optimize Rhodia's Human Resources Organization

Rhodia (NYSE: RHA), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and ADP (NYSE: ADP) today signed a 7-year strategic worldwide agreement to optimize Rhodia's Human Resources organization by outsourcing the administrative and support areas of key HR processes

The partnership with IBM and with ADP will allow Rhodia to focus on strategic HR issues, while increasing the flexibility of the organization to better manage variations in its business scope and development in fast growing regions. The agreement is expected to reduce costs of the related HR processes by 30%.

IBM will provide Rhodia with support for HR processes such as recruitment, training, compensation and benefits, workforce administration and analysis, as well as specialized technology, including Global Human Resources Information Systems to improve process standardization.

ADP's expertise in personnel administration processes and the global coverage of its operations will allow Rhodia to take advantage of global comprehensive outsourcing payroll services on ADP's GlobalView(SM) platform.

The implementation of this innovative approach in Rhodia's operations in Europe, Asia, North and Latin America during 2007 and 2008 is expected to significantly improve Rhodia's HR processes and will represent a new stage in the Group's strategy of optimizing the costs of its support functions.

"Partnering with IBM and with ADP will be a major driver in building a leaner, faster and more strategic human resources organization," said Bernard Chambon, Rhodia's Group Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Communications and Sustainable Development. "Our HR teams will thus be able to concentrate on key tasks such as change management, competency and career development and social relations, and to support the growth of our businesses.

Simon Free, Vice President, Managed Business Process Services IBM France and North West Africa, added: "Rhodia is a global company, headquartered in France, and the agreement with IBM for business transformation allows them to become more flexible and adaptive while focusing employees on the company's core competencies. IBM's extensive experience in human resources services and the chemical industry will bring innovation and new efficiencies to Rhodia and its employees."

"We're pleased to help Rhodia uphold its commitment to delivering quality services to all of its employees worldwide," said George Stoeckert, President of the Employer Services International Division of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. "Rhodia's selection of ADP underscores the momentum of our global offering. It also demonstrates the confidence companies are placing in GlobalView as the global outsourcing service of choice for multinational corporations that want to ensure consistent service and regulatory compliance worldwide."

Rhodia is a global specialty chemicals company recognized for its strong technology positions in Performance Materials, Functional Chemicals and the Organics and Services clusters. Partnering with major players in the automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, consumer care, tires, and paints and coatings markets, Rhodia offers tailor-made solutions combining original molecules and technologies to respond to customers' needs. Rhodia subscribes to the principles of Sustainable Development communicating its commitments and performance openly with stakeholders. Rhodia generated sales of EUR 5 billion in 2005 and employs around 19,500 people worldwide. Rhodia is listed on Euronext Paris and the New York Stock Exchange. For more information, please visit our global website at www.rhodia.com


ADP -- Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE: ADP), with nearly $9 billion in revenues and more than 570,000 clients worldwide, is one of the largest providers of a broad range of premier, mission-critical, cost-effective transaction processing and information-based business solutions. Employer Services (ES), a division of ADP, offers the widest range of HR, payroll, and benefits administration solutions from a single source, to meet the extensive business needs of employers worldwide. Built with more than 50 years of industry experience, ADP ES' cost-effective, easy-to-use solutions provide superior value to companies of all sizes. Approximately 540,000 companies rely on ADP ES for unparalleled service and compliance expertise, allowing them to focus on other core activities. For more information about ADP ES or to contact a local ADP sales office, reach us at 1.800.225.5237 or visit the company's Web site at www.ADP.com

ADP Employer Services International, part of the Employer Services division, offers GlobalView in more than 30 countries worldwide, expanding to 50 countries by 2008. More than 50 multinational companies representing more than 460,000 employees globally have selected GlobalView for human resource outsourcing service worldwide. For more information about GlobalView, please visit www.globalview.adp.com

Texas DIR Awards IBM a Contract for State Data Center Services That Offers Significant Benefits to the State

A newly signed agreement between the Texas Department of Information Resources and IBM (NYSE: IBM) delivers expanded services and lower costs for data center services. The seven-year contract is valued at $863 million with three optional one-year extensions. After taking all new and retained costs into account this will save Texas $25 million in 2008-2009 and $159 million over the base contract period. The contract leverages the buying power of the state to modernize the technology infrastructure, enhance information security and disaster recovery capabilities, and provide flexibility to meet changing business requirements.

I'm committed to making Texas the leader in technology advances while ensuring our citizens receive the best value for their tax dollars. Data center consolidation accomplishes both and is just good business," said Texas Governor Rick Perry.
"This contract replaces and expands an existing contract for data center services that has been in effect since 1996. It is an important ingredient in our commitment to the shared technology infrastructure envisioned in House Bill 1516 that I authored last session," said State Representative Carl Isett.

"This agreement leverages our existing assets at the state data center in San Angelo and ensures continued physical and technical upgrades will be made to that facility," said State Senator Robert Duncan, HB 1516 sponsor.

The contract includes over 20 percent historically underutilized business (HUB) participation, performance metrics, extensive reporting, and collaborative governance with participation by all 27 agencies. With the new agreement come increased security levels for assets and information not currently seen in state government. As part of the agreement, IBM, working through sub-contractor Unisys, will establish a new data center in Austin.

The contract also addresses career opportunities for state employees who currently perform data center services. Specifically, each affected employee will receive a job offer from IBM or one of three subcontractors -- Unisys, Xerox or Pitney Bowes -- with at least a 5 percent increase over their current salaries. No relocation will be required.

"Eighteen months ago we established specific milestones to complete by this year-end. I am proud that we met all the milestones and now have a solid contract in place with meaningful performance requirements," said William Transier, DIR Board Chair.

"We designed this process to be highly inclusive. Hundreds of employees at all levels of government worked together on the scope, the request for offer, and the evaluation on this contract to ensure it meets the needs of each agency," said Larry Olson, Chief Technology Officer for the State of Texas. "I want to publicly acknowledge the hard work and the deep commitment to this project that we received from staff in all 27 agencies."

"This initiative demonstrates the State of Texas' commitment to the strategic use of Information Technology across its government agencies," said David Liederbach, General Manager, IBM Global Technology Services, Public Sector. "Ultimately, the taxpayer benefits from more effective technology spending. IBM will help the state deliver the latest technology capabilities to a broader group of Texas agencies to ensure consistent access to information, improved disaster recovery and data security, and most importantly, better overall service to its citizens."

This contract follows industry best practices and was developed with support from Technology Partners International, Inc. (TPI) and Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP, two premier outsourcing advisory firms.

The contract becomes effective immediately, providing sufficient time for a smooth transition of staff and services before the current contract expires on August 31, 2007.

The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) promotes a shared vision for Texas that maximizes the value of the State's technology investment by identifying common areas of interest, using technology to advance agency missions, and preserving flexibility to innovate. Visit DIR at www.dir.state.tx.us