HP Drives High-performance Computing into the Mainstream with Expanded Unified Cluster Portfolio

HP today announced enhancements to its Unified Cluster Portfolio to help simplify and accelerate the configuration, deployment and management of clusters for high-performance computing (HPC).

HP Cluster Platform Express, a pre-configured cluster system that offers shortened delivery times and reduced integration costs, now features HP BladeSystem c-Class servers. The servers are the ideal platform for HPC clusters because of their support for high-performance interconnects, increased processor and node support, simplified management, reduced interconnect and network complexity, high density and efficient power and cooling.

The cluster is available with up to 48 compute nodes, Intel® Xeon™ or AMD Opteron™ processors and a choice of InfiniBand or Gigabit Ethernet cluster interconnects. It also has options for a factory-installed operating system and cluster management software.

In addition, HP Cluster Platform Express provides a faster and easier way to order and configure single-rack HPC cluster systems compared to traditional methods. Customers can select from a menu of popular cluster components tuned for increasingly complex HPC workloads. The components are then factory assembled to speed up delivery.

“Over the past four years, HP has built a cluster ecosystem that brings many of the pieces for a full clustering environment together and is driving HPC cluster computing further into the mainstream, as shown by their growing market share and market leadership in 2006,” said Earl Joseph, program vice president, High Performance Computing, IDC. “Their new additions to the Unified Cluster Portfolio should be useful to HPC buyers that are looking for complete and easy-to-install solutions.”

New tools expand program

To further expand its Unified Cluster Portfolio program, HP has created an extensive set of tools to simplify and automate the configuration, integration and verification of clusters. The tools will be offered to customers, certified channel partners and independent software vendors so they can benefit from HP’s investments and experience to quickly deliver and support high-quality cluster systems.

“For years, Matrix Integration has been using HP Cluster Platform Express for configuring and ordering cluster systems,” said Chad Williams, public sector manager, Matrix Integration. “HP enables us to deliver the most accurate, current and best possible solutions in a timely manner. The addition of HP BladeSystem c-Class servers to the program is ideal for our HPC customers.”

In support of the expanded HP Cluster Platform Express program, Platform Computing is extending its offer for a free 90-day trial of LSF CAE Edition to customers purchasing a cluster through the program.

Launched in 2004, the HP Unified Cluster Portfolio includes a broad set of industry-standard hardware and software that helps HP and its partners address virtually any HPC problem, large or small. These building blocks are part of the HP Cluster Platform architecture that includes simplified packaging and wiring, compatibility matrices and automated verification and configuration tools.

The architecture includes HP ProLiant and Integrity servers based on AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon and Itanium® 2 processors. It offers a wide variety of cluster interconnects, including Ethernet and InfiniBand, and support for Microsoft Windows®, Linux and UNIX® operating systems. It also offers a broad selection of cluster management and grid software products.

More information on HP Cluster Platform Express and the HP Unified Cluster Portfolio is available at www.hp.com/go/cp-express and www.hp.com/go/clusters.

Cell Broadband Engine Project Aims to Supercharge IBM Mainframe for Virtual Worlds

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today disclosed a cross-company project to integrate the Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.) with the IBM mainframe for the purpose of creating a hybrid that is blazingly fast and powerful, with security features designed to handle a new generation of "virtual world" applications, such as the 3D Internet.

The project capitalizes on the mainframe's ability to accelerate work via "specialty processors," as well as its unique networking architecture, which enables the kind of ultra-fast communication needed to create virtual worlds with large numbers of simultaneous users sharing a single environment.

Drawing on IBM's research, software and hardware expertise, the project is being undertaken in cooperation with with Hoplon Infotainment, a Brazilian online game company whose software is a key component of testing the capabilities of the new environment.

"As online environments increasingly incorporate aspects of virtual reality -- including 3D graphics and lifelike, real-time interaction among many simultaneous users -- companies of all types will need a computing platform that can handle a broad spectrum of demanding performance and security requirements," said Jim Stallings, general manager, IBM System z. "To serve this market, the Cell/B.E. processor is the perfect complement to the mainframe, the only server designed to handle millions of simultaneous users."

At its heart, the project intends to create an environment that can seamlessly run demanding simulations -- such as massive online virtual reality environments; 3D applications for mapping, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management; 3D virtual stores and meeting rooms; collaboration environments; and new types of data repositories. It plans to achieve this goal by parceling the workload between the mainframe and the Cell/B.E.

Cell/B.E. and Mainframe: A Beautiful Partnership

In the relationship between the mainframe and Cell/B.E. capabilities, Cell/B.E. will handle the complex simulation associated with operating in virtual worlds -- for example, a ball thrown in a virtual reality world must obey the laws of gravity.

To that end, IBM and Hoplon are porting Hoplon software to the Cell/B.E. to handle message passing and physics simulation. The companies have already created a programming model and messaging architecture that separates the application running on the system.

For its part, the mainframe will run Hoplon's industry-specific middleware for virtual worlds, called bitVerse, currently under development using WebSphere XD as the underlying runtime environment, along with DB2.

In addition, the mainframe will run the administrative tasks for middleware and applications. It will also handle logistics (billing, etc.), and connectivity to third parties as well as to multiple clients, which might include PCs, game systems, mobile phones, music players, TVs, and other devices.

The Mainframe: It Contains Multitudes

Unique among servers, the mainframe was designed from the beginning to incorporate processors that handle a variety of specialized tasks. For example, so-called "specialty processors" are designed for processing eligible Linux, Java and data workloads as well as encrypting and decrypting certain data. In addition, the mainframe can include up to 336 RISC processors to assist I/O. It is anticipated that this powerful design point will help the system to integrate seamlessly with the Cell/B.E.

Just as important, the mainframe's Hipersockets technology provides fast communication between all the virtual servers contained in a single machine. As a result, it is believed the mainframe may be the ideal platform for large virtual worlds, which often require a technology platform that can handle many simultaneous transactions spread out among several hundred servers. The mainframe's Hipersockets enable users residing on different virtual servers to interact with each other with minimal lag time. By contrast, in a distributed environment, where many physical servers are connected by networking cables, lag time may be greater.

Other mainframe attributes -- its leadership in security capabilities, for example -- also lend themselves to virtual reality applications. In the security certification known as the Common Criteria's Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL), the IBM mainframe achieved one of the highest levels of certification -- Level 5 -- for logical partitioning, IBM's premier virtualization technology.

And it is able to handle massive workloads. For example, the mainframe recently achieved the world's largest core banking benchmark result delivering a record 9,445 business transactions per second (tps) in real-time based on more than 380 million accounts with three billion transaction histories.(1)

The revolutionary Cell/B.E. -- jointly developed by IBM, Sony Corporation, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and Toshiba -- is a breakthrough design featuring a central processing core based on IBM's industry-leading Power Architecture™ technology and eight synergistic processing elements (SPE). Cell/B.E. "supercharges" compute-intensive applications, offering fast performance for computer entertainment and handhelds, virtual reality, wireless downloads, real-time video chat, interactive TV shows and other "image-hungry" computing environments. The groundbreaking Cell/B.E. processor appears in products such as SCE's PLAYSTATION®3 and Toshiba's Cell/B.E. Reference Set, a development tool for Cell/B.E. applications, as well as the IBM BladeCenter QS20. It is also embedded in custom Cell/B.E. based offerings from IBM Global Engineering Solutions.

Founded in 2000, Hoplon Infotainment is dedicated to multiplayer online games and complex simulations, as well as related online entertainment and business training ventures based on advanced information systems. Hoplon is located in Florianopolis, Brazil, and on the Web at http://www.hoplon.com.

For more information, please visit www.ibm.com.

RBS group unveils $98 bln rival bid plan for ABN Amro

ABN AMRO invited Fortis, RBS and Santander (collectively, the "Banks") to a meeting on Monday 23 April 2007 to discuss their proposals in relation to a potential transaction with ABN AMRO. On that day ABN AMRO announced a recommended offer by Barclays and the sale of LaSalle Bank to Bank of America.

The Banks have now had the opportunity of considering their position and examining the offer made by Barclays. The Banks are of the clear view that their proposals are superior for ABN AMRO's shareholders and are straightforward from a shareholder, regulatory and execution perspective. These proposals are contingent on LaSalle Bank remaining within the ABN AMRO group and due diligence.

Last night the Banks received a letter from ABN AMRO seeking further details of their proposals and a meeting to discuss them. The Banks have accepted this invitation and summarise their proposals below. In addition, the Banks have requested that the Supervisory and Managing Boards of ABN AMRO take such steps as may be required to ensure that LaSalle Bank remains within the ABN AMRO group and provide limited due diligence information so that the Banks' proposals can be brought forward as an offer.

The following is a summary of the key aspects of the potential transaction:

A price indication of €39 per share*, subject to due diligence (see below). This would be 13% higher than the value of the Barclays offer as of the market close yesterday.
Approximately 70% of the consideration payable in cash, 30% in RBS shares.
The Banks believe that execution risk would be lower than in a transaction with Barclays. The Banks already have significant presence and experience in all of ABN AMRO's main markets, and also have proven capabilities in delivering transaction benefits from large-scale integrations and IT conversions, underpinning their ability to manage and integrate ABN AMRO's operations.
The Banks believe that the potential transaction will create stronger businesses with enhanced market positions and growth prospects in each of ABN AMRO's main markets. This together with the greater combined scale of the Banks and their proven track records of growing businesses can deliver concrete benefits to ABN AMRO's shareholders, customers and employees.
RBS will lead the Banks' orderly reorganisation of ABN AMRO and will take on the primary responsibility of ensuring that ABN AMRO meets its regulatory requirements from completion of a transaction.
* Including the ABN AMRO 2006 final dividend of €0.60 per share

These proposals are subject to certain pre-conditions, including:

ABN AMRO having taken such steps as may be required to ensure that LaSalle Bank remains within the ABN AMRO group. The Banks will work with ABN AMRO to facilitate this.
Limited due diligence on no more information than received by Barclays and Bank of America. The Banks would be able to complete this due diligence within a very short period of time.
The Banks are confident that a transaction based on the above proposals would create value for their own shareholders.

In summary, the Banks believe that, because of the materially higher value available for shareholders and the benefits to customers and employees compared with the recommended offer from Barclays, it is in ABN AMRO's stakeholders' interests for the Supervisory and Management Boards to:

Take such steps as may be required to ensure that LaSalle Bank remains within the ABN AMRO group
Provide limited due diligence
Co-operate with the Banks so that they can develop their proposals into a formal offer
Important Information
This announcement is made pursuant to article 9b(1) of the Dutch Decree on the Supervision of the Securities Trade 1995 (the "Decree"). It does not constitute an announcement pursuant to article 9(b)(2)(b) of the Decree, as no letter as referred to in article 9(d)(2) has been filed. Any possible transaction would be subject to approval of competent regulatory authorities in relevant jurisdictions.

In connection with a potential transaction involving ABN AMRO, the Banks may be required to file relevant documents with the SEC. Such documents, however, are not currently available. INVESTORS ARE URGED TO READ ANY DOCUMENTS REGARDING THE POTENTIAL TRANSACTION IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Investors will be able to obtain a free copy of such documents without charge, at the SEC's website (http://www.sec.gov) once such documents are filed with the SEC. Copies of such documents may also be obtained from each Bank, without charge, once they are filed with the SEC.

This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made in the United States except pursuant to registration under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or an exemption therefrom.

Intel Unveils Virtual Marketing Storefront And Google Advertising Program For Reseller Channel

Intel Corporation today announced a new program that will help resellers worldwide market innovative Intel-based products in a more quick and cost-effective manner. The company has created a new virtual marketing storefront for its reseller channel and has also collaborated with Google to create an advertising program where resellers can place online ads.

The new initiative will provide qualified members of Intel's reseller channel network the resources and support to plan and execute marketing campaigns for their businesses. The online marketing storefront allows select resellers to place print ads, order merchandise and services, and easily customize collateral with their company information or logo. There will also be a suite of tools to support online advertising with Google, allowing reseller customers to go online and order ads by filing out a simple order form. Intel and Google will then facilitate the production and execution to simplify the process for the customer.

"We are listening to our customers who have asked for the ability to use online resources such as those offered by Google, in creative ways to help grow their business," said Steve Dallman, general manager, Intel Worldwide Reseller Channel Organization. "Many resellers are small businesses that have limited resources and expertise in marketing. Intel's virtual storefront will help customers overcome this challenge and equip them with the tools to be innovative in reaching and communicating to their customers."

The new virtual marketing storefront is being offered to Track Two licensees of the Intel® Inside program. It eliminates out-of-pocket expenses for Intel's channel customers through Intel Inside co-marketing funds. It also eliminates administration costs that were previously incurred by customers when applying for co-marketing reimbursements.

"We are excited about working together with Intel to bring the scale, relevancy and measurability of online advertising to Intel's small- to medium-sized channel partners around the globe," said John Topping, director, Technology BtoB Vertical, Google. "In leveraging Intel’s co-op marketing expertise, we have built tools and services to help Intel's channel partners more effectively manage their online advertising programs and generate better results from their marketing dollars."

Established in 1991, the Intel Inside program has always been a core element of Intel's worldwide marketing programs. The program has continued to evolve to better serve Intel's customers. The online advertising program established with Google reflects the growing importance of online ads in the marketing mix, especially for businesses customers.

The Intel Inside program is one of the world's largest co-operative marketing programs, supported by thousands of PC makers who are licensed to use the Intel Inside logos. The Intel brand is one of the top ten known-brands in the world, in a class with Coke*, Disney* and McDonalds*, according to various rankings.

The virtual marketing storefront and Google program will go into effect April 29. For more information resellers can contact their local Intel Reseller Channel Organization representative.

IBM Extends Enterprise-Level Encryption to Midmarket Customers

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new tape storage offerings based on the Linear Tape Open™ (LTO™) Generation 4 standard, offering new levels of capacity, performance, and function, with an ideal pricing structure for mid-size customers. IBM's enterprise-class tape encryption functionality is now incorporated into several LTO 4 tape storage products. IBM today builds on its rich history in tape storage innovation to bring its outstanding encryption technology to LTO tape storage systems.

As archived data becomes a larger percentage of overall enterprise data, the ability to archive and retrieve this data dependably, consistently, inexpensively and efficiently is of critical importance to businesses. The IBM tape encryption technology -- combined with implementation services for architecture, design, set-up and configuration from IBM Global Services and an enhanced encryption key manager software package -- help address these key customer issues.

IBM's new tape systems offer improved performance of up to 240MB per second data rate, which is 50% faster than LTO Generation 3, and increased cartridge capacity up to 1.6TB, double the capacity of LTO 3. These new tape systems also offer improved management functions, reduced space consumption, improved storage consolidation and enhanced library utilization, over LTO 3. IBM's LTO 4 tape drive encryption also helps address data security needs with rapid drive-level encryption for high backup performance; data compression and encryption for high cartridge capacities; and reduced need for additional encryption appliances or the drain on server resources.

The industry-leading innovation behind IBM's encrypted System Storage TS1120 tape drive has been inherited by IBM's LTO 4 systems, setting them apart from competitive offerings. Using the same technology as the TS1120, IBM's LTO 4 tape systems are able to compress and encrypt data with virtually no drive performance impact, and they are able to perform on-the-fly checking of encrypted data.

IBM will also announce enhancements to its existing Encryption Key Manager (EKM) software to support LTO encryption. Developed on the Java™ platform, and first introduced in September 2006 in conjunction with the TS1120 tape drive, the EKM is highly portable and supported on many different operating systems, providing for flexible implementation. The IBM EKM is being enhanced to support encryption key generation, distribution and storage for the IBM LTO 4 tape drive. The EKM will also support encryption features on IBM LTO tape libraries, which is designed to allow customers to implement encryption without changing their applications.

New and enhanced IBM System Storage tape storage products, based on the LTO 4 standard are:

• IBM System Storage TS2340 Tape Drive: IBM LTO 4 Drive with up to 120 MB/sec native data transfer rate and up to 800 GB native physical capacity (1.6 TB with 2:1 compression) using an LTO 4 cartridge.


• IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape Library: Tape storage library available with one LTO 4 drive with either Low Voltage Differential (LVD) SCSI, 4Gbps Fibre Drive, or new 3Gbps dual port Serial-attached SCSI (SAS).


• IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library: Tape storage library available with up to two LTO 4 drives with either LVD SCSI, 4Gbps Fibre, or 3Gbps dual port SAS.


• IBM System Storage TS3310 Tape Library: Tape storage library with modular, scalable design available with up to 316.8 TB native physical storage slot capacity (30 to 396 LTO storage slots) and up to 18 LTO 4 4Gbps Fibre or 3Gbps dual port SAS hot-swappable tape drives.


• IBM System Storage TS3500 Tape Library: Tape storage library with linear scalable design features and Multi-Path architecture; scales up to 16 frames, 192 tape drives, and over 6,000 cartridge slots for up to 10PB of physical capacity.

IBM will also offer enhanced data security services for tape encryption and key management through IBM Global Services. These new offerings will include implementation services for architecture and design, setup and configuration, procedure development, and training and skills transfer. Additionally, customers will be offered security-consulting services for compliance assessment, policy definition, process assessment and development, and information classification of data.
"With significant growth in business data, fixed content, and replicated data, customers need to secure their critical information with technologies like encryption, while reducing operation costs, controlling energy costs and lowering TCO," said Cindy Grossman, vice president, IBM tape storage systems. "With the introduction of the industry's first fully encrypting tape drive -- the TS1120 -- IBM set the gold standard for tape encryption, which we continue today with LTO 4. As businesses continue to look at storage as a vital part of their infrastructures, IBM is able to offer a complete solution with disk, tape, software and services, to make that solution a secure reality."

The IBM System Storage LTO 4 tape storage systems will be available starting on April 27, 2007 with starting prices of $5,170 for the IBM System Storage TS2340 Tape Drive LVD SCSI version, $5,681 for the IBM System Storage TS2340 Tape Drive SAS version, $5770 for the IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape Library and the IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library, $16,530 for the IBM System Storage TS3310 Tape Library, and $22,800 for the IBM System Storage TS3500 Tape Library. The enhanced IBM Encryption Key Manager will be available on June 15, 2007.

New IBM Virtualization Engine for Open Systems

IBM today is also announcing the newest member of its tape virtualization family, the IBM Virtualization Engine TS7520 Solution. Designed to enhance information lifecycle management by improving utilization of tape resources, the TS7520 combines hardware and software into an integrated solution enabling tape virtualization for open systems servers connected over Fiber Channel.

With this new solution, IBM furthers its lead in open systems virtualization by meeting the capacity and performance requirements for customers today. The TS7520 utilizes IBM technology and software to emulate IBM tape libraries, drives and media. The solution allows users to take advantage of disk-based caching of data to help reduce backup windows and time to restore, to improve sharing of tape libraries across applications and servers, and to improve operational efficiencies.

The TS7520 is a follow on to the IBM System Storage TS7510. Enhanced functions offered by the IBM System Storage TS7520 include: improved caching; encryption capabilities to protect sensitive customer information; hardware assisted compression designed to help improve system performance with replication and encryption; Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) designed to provide Network Attached Storage (NAS) connections for data movement over the network; Control Path Failover and Data Path Failover to help provide higher availability of data over the Storage Area Network (SAN); iSCSI connections for the latest in open systems standards; and hosted backup offerings allow clients to run supported backup applications. Additionally, the TS7520 allows for growth up to 512 virtual libraries, 4,096 virtual drives and 128,000 virtual volumes.

The IBM Virtualization Engine TS7500 will be available June 8, 2007. For pricing, please see your IBM Marketing Representative or IBM Business Partner, or contact IBM directly.

Further Momentum in Midrange Tape Storage Systems

Building on its momentum in midrange tape storage, IBM is today announcing that IBM System Storage TS3100 and TS3200 Tape Libraries will support IBM LTO 3 Half Height Tape Drives. This new offering brings to mid-sized customers LTO 3 tape drive capacity, but with slightly lower performance that allows for a low cost solution.

The TS3100 and TS3200 now incorporate the new LTO IBM 3 Half Height Tape Drive, in a shorter form factor height, with a native data transfer rate of up to 60 MB/sec and 400 GB of native physical capacity with an LTO 3 cartridge. IBM is also announcing a SAS interface for IBM LTO 3 Half Height Tape Drives with the option of Ultra160 LVD SCSI or 3Gbps SAS. These offerings for midrange open systems customers for whom low cost and space savings are priorities.

The IBM LTO 3 Half Height Tape Drives will be available June 2007 with a starting price of $4,800 for LVD SCSI and $5,000 with SAS attachment.

Enhancement of IBM's Archive and Retention Solutions

Building on its leadership in archiving and retention, IBM today announced enhancements to the IBM System Storage DR550 and DR550 Express, introducing the new IBM System Storage DR550 File System Gateway, which is designed to provide broad application coverage, tape encryption support and data shredding -- secure data deletion in an archive solution -- to further protect critical business information from inadvertent loss or improper access.

The IBM System Storage DR550 and DR550 Express are designed to provide a secure, scalable, and cost-effective information retention solution for small, medium, and large enterprises and to support archiving of a broad range of information including files, e-mail, digital images, database applications, and instant messages. The new DR550 File System Gateway offers file archiving capability without requiring any application-based enablement, and provides Network File System (NFS) and Common Internet File System (CIFS) access to applications that support those standards. This will allow customers to extend the reach of the DR550 archiving solution to a broader range of archiving applications.

Additionally, IBM System Storage DR550 and DR550 Express now support key management for the latest tape encryption capabilities offered with the IBM System Storage TS1120 Tape Drive to provide enhanced information protection. The TS1120 allows for encryption within the tape drive and encryption key management independent of the application without using host resources.

Furthermore, the DR550 and DR550 Express also support data shredding of sensitive information to overwrite sensitive data which has been deleted to protect against unauthorized reconstruction.

The award-winning, industry-proven IBM DR550 and DR550 Express are designed to offer advanced archival and retention capabilities to clients whether they want to better manage information growth, control costs or preserve information for data governance or compliance reasons.

The IBM System Storage DR550 Express Version 4.0 will be available June 8, 2007 with a starting price of $24,000, plus $15,000 for an accompanying IBM System Storage DR550 File System Gateway. The IBM System Storage DR550 Version 4.0 will also be available June 8, 2007 with a starting price of $94,500, plus $20,000 for an accompanying IBM System Storage DR550 File System Gateway.

IBM System Storage Multilevel Grid Access Manager Software

Additionally, IBM today is announcing that through an agreement with Bycast, Inc., IBM will offer the IBM System Storage Multilevel Grid Access Manager; a software solution that enables geographically dispersed customer sites with reference data storage requirements to help improve storage utilization across sites.

Grid Access Manager Software is designed to enable new solutions for geographically dispersed customer sites with reference data storage requirements, through an enterprise-wide, fault-tolerant storage grid that includes disaster recovery capabilities. Grid Access Manager Software can extend access to remotely created reference data on heterogeneous distributed storage devices and computing resources, and can help protect data integrity via digital signature validation of managed data. Grid Access Manager software is designed to scale to help address a wide range of performance, cost, management, and data retention requirements. GAM Software enables grid-powered information lifecycle management solution, such as Grid Medical Archive Solution, to create virtual, shared storage pool for medical images and research data.

The IBM System Storage Multilevel Grid Access Manager will be available June 1, 2007 with a starting price of $6,000.

IBM Briefs Invited Business Partners in Second Life

Additionally, IBM will be briefing invited business partners on all of today's System Storage news in Second Life, a 3D online digital world. This marks the launch of an alternative new method for IBM Systems Storage to collaborate with IBM Business Partners "in person" without having to ask them to leave their desks.

For more information about IBM and IBM storage, visit http://www.ibm.com/storage

IBM Board Approves 33 Percent Increase in Quarterly Cash Dividend

The IBM board of directors today declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.40 per common share, payable June 9, 2007 to stockholders of record May 10, 2007.

Today’s dividend declaration represents an increase of $0.10, or 33 percent more than the prior quarterly dividend of $0.30 per common share. In the last two years IBM has doubled its quarterly dividend.

This is the 12th year in a row that IBM has increased its quarterly cash dividend, representing a total increase of 540 percent since 1996.

With the payment of the June 9 dividend, IBM will have paid 366 consecutive quarterly dividends, starting in 1916.

The board also authorized $15 billion in additional funds for use in the company’s stock repurchase program. This amount is in addition to approximately $1.4 billion for stock repurchase remaining at the end of March from a prior authorization. With this new approval, IBM now has approximately $16.4 billion for its stock repurchase program. IBM may repurchase shares on the open market or in private transactions, including structured or accelerated transactions, depending on market conditions.

"These announcements underscore the strength of IBM's business model and our strategy. Over the past several years we have taken strategic actions to capture our industry's profitable growth opportunities and to globally integrate IBM," said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. "This gives us significant financial flexibility to use our capital to drive growth through investments in acquisitions and capital expenditures, and to increase returns to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchase, as we are doing today."

IBM said it may complete a substantial portion of the repurchases during the next several months. The company said that, as a result of the increased share repurchase, 2007 earnings per share growth -- excluding any gain from the recently-announced sale of its printer business -- could be 12 to 14 percent, which is one to three points more than its previous estimates. At this time, IBM does not anticipate requesting board approval for additional funds for stock repurchases within the next 12 months.

Additional information about this share repurchase activity, including the associated financial leverage, is available on IBM’s investor web site at http://www.ibm.com/investor/viewpoint/ircorner/2007/07-04-24-1.phtml

GE Receives Nearly $2.5 Million from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for Advanced Nuclear Detection Technology Research

GE Global Research, the centralized research organization of the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced it has received approximately $2.5 million in initial funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) for two programs to perform exploratory research in advanced nuclear detection technology. The goal of the projects is to deliver transformational technology solutions to enhance nuclear threat detection in various applications.

Researchers at Global Research’s Niskayuna headquarters will leverage GE-invented digital X-Ray panels used for medical imaging, with a focus on reconfiguring and adapting them for large area X-Ray detectors. Researchers also will leverage capabilities from prior work in advanced materials to enable new applications in nuclear threat detection.

“GE is in a unique position to leverage decades of experience and research expertise in x-ray applications to develop next generation technology solutions for nuclear threat detection,” said Joe Krisciunas, Business Programs Manager, Security Technologies. ”It turns out that the same panels that enabled GE to bring X-Ray into the digital age have great potential for delivering the technology needed to improve the detection of nuclear materials for homeland security.”

This funding is part of approximately $8.8 million in funding recently awarded through the DNDO to support various programs engaged in nuclear detection technology research.

About GE Global Research

GE Global Research is one of the world's most diversified industrial research organizations, providing innovative technology for all of GE's businesses. Global Research has been the cornerstone of GE technology for more than 100 years, and is now focused on developing breakthrough innovations in areas such as molecular medicine, energy conversion, nanotechnology, advanced propulsion, and security technologies. GE Global Research is headquartered in Niskayuna, New York and has facilities in Bangalore, India; Shanghai, China; and Munich, Germany. Visit GE Global Research at www.ge.com/research

HP, Microsoft and SAP Deliver Appliance for Duet Software

HP, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today unveiled a new appliance that allows access to SAP® business processes and data via Microsoft® Office applications on high-performance HP servers.

The result of a collaborative effort, “Duet™ by SAP and Microsoft, powered by HP” is an HP ProLiant server that has been pre-installed with Duet software, a joint solution from Microsoft and SAP that gives information workers seamless access to select SAP business processes and data through Microsoft Office applications.

Duet by SAP and Microsoft, powered by HP acts as an appliance that allows customers to easily create a “proof of concept,” enabling them to more quickly and easily evaluate Duet’s business benefits using customer-specific data. Pre-loaded scripts have been engineered to help customers to jumpstart the Duet proof-of-concept and production implementations.

The Duet appliance speeds up deployment by shortening implementation time from setup to configuration, which both increases return on investment and enables customers to realize business benefits from Duet more quickly.

The Duet appliance also can be expanded to include additional HP ProLiant or HP Integrity servers that can fully integrate with a business’s live Microsoft and SAP applications. The industry-leading HP ProLiant and Integrity server technology behind the Duet appliance will give customers the scalability they need to handle the most demanding workloads with high levels of performance.
“Because of our alliances with both Microsoft and SAP, HP is in a leading position to package the benefits of Duet in a flexible and adaptable solution for rapid deployment,” said Chuck Smith, vice president, Enterprise Servers and Storage, Technology Solutions Group – Americas, HP. “HP Integrity and ProLiant servers provide high performance and superior flexibility for instant query execution and very fast response times – even for complex and non-routine queries. The Duet appliance offers flexibility that optimally adapts to business needs.”

“Just a year after launching Duet, a groundbreaking solution that connects SAP software to the Microsoft Office tools people use every day, we are pleased to announce another landmark initiative to accelerate the deployment of Duet,” said Lewis Levin, corporate vice president, Microsoft Office. “Duet by SAP and Microsoft, powered by HP empowers IT organizations with a plug-and-play solution that rapidly delivers the benefits of Duet to their information workers so they can drive more value, faster.”

“We already have tremendous customer and partner momentum with Duet – since last year’s announcement we have sold to more than 250 customers and 400,000 licenses,” said Doug Merritt, executive vice president of Business User Development and corporate officer, SAP Group. “Our appliance strategy with HP and Microsoft is one more example of SAP’s continuing tradition of co-innovation with partners to bring flexibility and innovation to our customers. Duet by SAP and Microsoft, powered by HP helps customers extend the reach of SAP solutions and improve overall productivity. Since the appliance is based on enterprise service-oriented architecture, customers can get their Duet deployment up and running quickly.”

Duet by SAP and Microsoft, powered by HP is available for customers to order starting June in North America. Additional information on Duet by SAP and Microsoft, powered by HP and the broad range of HP server, software and services solutions for SAP customers is available at www.hp.com/go/sap

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About SAP

SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software*. Today, more than 39,400 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP® applications -- from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small businesses and midsize companies to suite offerings for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver® platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP software helps enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP solution portfolios support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including high tech, retail, financial services, healthcare and the public sector. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol “SAP.” (Additional information at www.sap.com.)

* SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.

About HP

HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $94.1 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended Jan. 31, 2007. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

AMD Marks AMD64 Anniversary With Widespread Availability Of New Highest-Performing AMD Opteron Processor

Marking with the fourth anniversary of the launch of the AMD Opteron™ processor and AMD64 technology, AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced widespread availability and pricing for the performance-leading AMD Opteron Model 2222 and 8222 SE x86 dual-core server processors. The new processor, which is available in several platform configurations today from tier one OEMs, is designed to deliver performance leadership in the most critical server functions including Web serving, scalability and floating point calculations.

AMD also disclosed updated performance projections for its upcoming native Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processors, code-named ‘Barcelona.’ The new Barcelona projections are based on the latest SPECcpu2006 benchmarks and show that AMD expects to have up to a 50 percent advantage in floating point performance and 20 percent in integer performance over the competition’s highest-performing quad-core processor at the same frequency. These results, as well as the latest benchmark tests, based on AMD Opteron Model 2222 and 8222 SE processors can be found at www.amd.com/opteronperformance

“Today’s announcement further demonstrates AMD’s commitment to delivering excellence and represents continued innovation along the customer-directed path we blazed four years ago; we provide the complete x86 processor architectural standard others in the industry are trying to emulate and we have planned a seamless upgrade path to native quad-core for delivery to the market in mid-year,” said Randy Allen, corporate vice president, Server and Workstation Business, AMD. “With our native quad-core technology, AMD continues to build off of a consistent architecture and will deliver more than just four processing cores. We believe our enhanced architecture will deliver increased performance and performance-per-watt without forcing disruptive platform transitions. Investment protection continues to be a central focus of our customer-centric design principles.”

In commemoration of the four-year anniversary of the AMD Opteron processor, visitors can go to www.amd.com/opteronanniversary for a glimpse of what the world may have looked like had there been no AMD Opteron processors and no x86 server processor choice.

Performance-Per-Watt Leadership
As performance-per-watt also continues to be a critical issue for IT decision-makers in addition to raw performance, AMD recently launched the AMD Platform Power Calculator. By leveraging this tool, customers can compare estimated power consumption of servers based on AMD Opteron processors that span all thermal envelopes, 68, 95 and 120 watt, and similar servers based on dual-core processors from the competition. To learn more about how AMD Opteron processors help you get more performance using less power, visit http://enterprise.amd.com/Flash/PlatformPower.html

x86 Virtualization
This balanced approach to system architecture is why the combination of AMD Virtualization™ technology and Direct Connect Architecture provides enhanced virtualization performance. Multiple operating systems running on a single server compete for physical resources, which can exacerbate the performance bottlenecks inherent in other architectures and slow response time for users. Therefore, legacy processor architectures based on a traditional front-side bus are simply not ideal for today's virtualization needs.

Widespread Hardware Partner Support
Today, the industry’s leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) announced continued support for AMD Opteron processors: “AMD’s focus on stability, longevity and performance delivers value to customers who rely on AMD Opteron processor-based HP ProLiant servers and blades to run their business,” said Paul Miller, vice president, marketing, Industry Standard Servers and BladeSystem Division, HP. “HP’s leadership in delivering a broad portfolio of x86 servers and blades based on the AMD Opteron Model 8222 SE and the upcoming ‘Barcelona’ processor positions customers to achieve maximum performance of their business-critical applications and virtualize their networks.”

“As the first company to embrace AMD Opteron processors in 2003, we are gratified to see the impact AMD has had in the datacenter over the last four years. During that time, IBM and AMD have both benefited from our strong alliance, not only at the system level, but also through our technology partnership that is helping to drive the manufacturing of the next generation of AMD processors,” said Alex Yost, director, IBM System x. “AMD Opteron processors have been integral to some of our most innovative recent product introductions, including our scalable snap-on blades and Xcelerated Memory Technology. We look forward to continuing our track record of collaborative innovation later this year when AMD’s quad-core ‘Barcelona’ processors are introduced.”

“AMD and Sun's partnership has been instrumental in helping Sun continue to build tremendous momentum with its x64 business,” said Lisa Sieker, vice president of marketing, Systems Group, Sun Microsystems. “Through extensive collaboration, we have been able to optimize systems for the AMD Opteron Model 2222 and 8222 SE processors, in addition to systems based on the upcoming launch of Barcelona. We're excited to continue this strategic partnership through our broad line of x64 systems and the Solaris™ 10 Operating System, delivering the breakthrough performance and architecture of AMD Opteron processors.”

“We’re committed to helping customers simplify their IT operations and overcome infrastructure constraints and lifecycle costs so they can focus on what’s important – growing their business,” said Jay Parker, director of PowerEdge Servers, Dell Product Group. “Solutions like the AMD-based PowerEdge 2970 and PowerEdge Energy Smart 2970 servers give customers the performance they need while helping to reduce energy consumption, complexity and overall lifecycle costs through a simplified upgrade path to multi-core platforms.”

Pricing
For pricing information, visit www.amd.com/pricing

Ariba Expands Capabilities of Ariba Supplier Network

Ariba, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA), the leading spend management solutions provider, today announced the release of Ariba Supplier Network™ 44, the latest version of its industry-leading on-demand business collaboration platform. Building on the robust capabilities of previous versions, the release features advanced discount management and RFX functionality that enables buyers and suppliers to enhance their business by better managing trading relationships and working capital.

"More than simply managing transactions and costs, successful spend management is about responding quickly to changes in business and market conditions to maximize opportunities for growth," said Bob Shecterle, Vice President, Solutions Marketing, Ariba. "With the advanced features in the latest release of Ariba Supplier Network, buyers and suppliers can take advantage of opportunities to access capital, eliminate risk from their supply chain, lower costs, and ultimately, deliver greater results."

Improve Working Capital and Supply Chain Value
To remain competitive, companies must continually look for new ways to cut costs and streamline business processes. With Ariba Discount Management™, organizations of all types and sizes can take advantage of a variety of supply chain financing tools that promote cost savings, including purchasing cards, early payment discounts, dynamic discounting and third-party supplier financing.

A flexible combination of software, services and analysis delivered via Ariba Supplier Network, Ariba Discount Management enables buyers and suppliers to optimize activities throughout the entire procure-to-pay process and realize maximum value from their supply chain.

Buyer Benefits
•Optimize working capital and boost returns on short-term investments through self-funded early payment discounts
•Improve working capital through term extensions with minimal impact on supply base
•Increase days payable outstanding through third-party supply chain financing
•Minimize supply chain risk through more predictable payments

Supplier Benefits
•Maximize working capital through early payments
•Minimize ambiguity in forecasting through more predictable payments
•Leverage buyer’s cost of capital
•Shorten order-to-cash cycle

Identify New Trading Partners and Business Opportunities
Identifying trading partners and business opportunities can be time consuming and costly, yet nothing is more critical to the success of any business. Through enhanced public RFX functionality embedded in the latest release of Ariba Supplier Network, buyers and suppliers can effectively streamline these tasks and drive process improvements that generate bottom-line results.

Robust technology delivered via the network for use with Ariba Buyer™ or Ariba Sourcing™, the new functionality alllows buyers to publish RFX documents to a public site enabling registered and unregistered suppliers to respond to them in real time. More than 150,000 suppliers registered on Ariba Supplier Network are automatically notified of events that fit their profile, and unregistered suppliers can quickly and easily search postings by commodity type, geographic location and buyer.

Extending the Reach and Value of Spend Management
In addition to Ariba Discount Management and Public RFX capabilities, the latest version of Ariba Supplier Network contains a number of other enhancements designed to strengthen collaboration between buyers and suppliers and extend the value of spend management throughout the supply chain, including:

•Greater integration with ERP systems – Buyers can link multiple ERP systems to a single Ariba Supplier Network account to streamline transaction management.
•Expanded Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) capabilities – Buyers and suppliers can digitally sign invoices and automatically archive them on a weekly or monthly basis.
•Invoice Quick Enablement – Buyers can quickly on-board suppliers who invoice them but do not typically receive a purchase order by automatically enabling them as soon as an invoice is received.

"Spend management involves a community of users that extends beyond buyers and suppliers to include financial organizations and a variety of service providers," Shecterle said. "With the new features we’ve built into Ariba Supplier Network, we are enabling all of them to participate in the spend management process and realize the benefits that it delivers."

Product Availability
The latest version of Ariba Supplier Network is available and in use today by buyers and suppliers around the world.

About Ariba Supplier Network
Ariba Supplier Network is the world’s leading business collaboration platform, which combines technology and services to better match buyers and suppliers, automate transactions and optimize payments. Buyers and suppliers in 115 countries leverage the network to engage in transactions worth more than $95 billion a year and process one purchase order every two seconds.

About Ariba, Inc.
Ariba, Inc. is the leading provider of spend management solutions to help companies realize rapid and sustainable bottom line results. Successful companies around the world in every industry use Ariba Spend Management™ software and services. Ariba can be contacted in the U.S. at 1.650.390.1000 or at www.ariba.com

Oracle Streamlines User Experience With the Latest Release of Siebel CRM On Demand

Extending its leadership in the on demand marketplace, Oracle today will preview the latest version of Oracle's Siebel CRM On Demand, which continues its rapid pace of innovation with 14 releases in just three-and-a-half years. Siebel CRM On Demand Release 14 is the latest release and combines the industry's most comprehensive CRM functionality with next-generation usability, advanced customization capabilities and comprehensive integration to increase end-user productivity and deliver superior business results for organizations of every size.

Siebel CRM On Demand sets a new standard for productivity and user adoption to simplify user tasks, reduce clicks and page refreshes, and provide powerful page customization features to personalize work environments. At the same time, the enhanced customization capabilities should enable business users to tailor the application without IT intervention for optimal business process support and end-user productivity. Siebel CRM On Demand also plans to enable comprehensive integration capabilities so that customers and partners can easily and quickly establish deep integration between Siebel CRM On Demand and other applications. The new release plans significant functionality enhancements across its sales, marketing, services, analytics, built-in call center, and industry edition capabilities.

"This release marks a major milestone bringing together the best in hosted CRM software with the latest in Web 2.0 technologies," said Anthony Lye, Oracle Senior Vice President, CRM On Demand. "Siebel CRM On Demand introduces a new level of ease-of-use in on demand applications while providing powerful configuration and administration capabilities to business users at the point of attack to make organizations more flexible and agile. And being hosted on Oracle's Grid-based on demand infrastructure with an all-Oracle stack, customers should realize the highest levels of scalability, availability, and security at a cost we don't think any of our competitors can match."

Planned capabilities in Siebel CRM On Demand include the following:

* Next-generation Usability: Leveraging the latest in browser technologies such as Ajax, in-line edit, and Web 2.0 constructs, Siebel CRM On Demand simplifies user tasks, minimizing navigation steps, mouse clicks, and page refreshes. Additionally, Siebel CRM On Demand plans to add powerful homepage customization so users can arrange elements on the page, including lists, history, favorites to suit the way they like to work.

* Advanced Customization Capabilities: Comprehensive process, data and UI customization enables business users to easily tailor the application to support their unique business processes. Organizations can embed best practices, streamline data entry and configure different layouts for different types of records. Includes support for complex, cross-matrixed organizations with features that make it easier to setup the system to model their organizational structure and provide access to the appropriate information.

* Comprehensive Integration: Capabilities provide the ability to easily and quickly establish deep integration between Siebel CRM On Demand with other applications and systems at all levels -- data, UI, and process. Because the solution leverages Oracle Fusion Middleware technology, customers can either use the pre-built integration solutions out-of-the-box or easily extend it to meet their unique requirements.

* Siebel CRM On Demand is supported by a world-class single vendor infrastructure ? from database to UI to hosting data center -- all developed and managed by Oracle to deliver the highest levels of operational excellence. Oracle continues to invest heavily in its infrastructure and offer higher-level service offerings and options for customers that provide unmatched control and flexibility.

"For UTStarcom, it is key that our CRM solution provides a strong integration story with our back end system", said Mark Seymour, Senior Director International Sales Operations. "So much of our success is dependent upon getting the right information at the right time, but how do you tie it all together in the customer facing world? Siebel CRM On Demand's integration strategy and enhancements, along with its pre-built integrations and out of the box sales process support, provide UTStarcom with industrial strength integration solutions all in one place. This allows us the flexibility to use as business needs dictate, ultimately giving us a 360 degree view of our customers."

"Siebel CRM On Demand usability enhancements should go a long way in balancing powerful CRM functionality with an elegant and easy-to-use interface," said Courtney Hammerton, Business Operations Manager, Baxter Medication Delivery. "By reducing clicks and streamlining navigation, our sales team should be more productive with a product they can easily learn and integrate into their everyday work."

"The book of business hierarchies capability in Siebel CRM On Demand dramatically simplifies the administration of data access in an organization as diverse as LexisNexis," said Andrew Haffke, Director of Sales Operations, LexisNexis Risk and Information Analytics Group. "There are so many dependencies on who needs to see what data and where, being able to model our organization quickly and efficiently dramatically expands the scope of Siebel CRM On Demand as a driver for business results."

Siebel CRM On Demand delivers the most comprehensive set of sales, marketing and service automation capabilities with virtually no up-front IT investment at a predictable cost. Siebel CRM On Demand provides unique features and functionality, including embedded analytics and a pre-built data warehouse to drive real-time decision making; a built-in virtual call center to support call agents without the need for telephony infrastructure; and industry editions that help further reduce the time, labor and costs associated with configuration and accelerate time to value.

About Siebel CRM On Demand
The Company's comprehensive, Software-as-a Service (SaaS) CRM solution, Siebel CRM On Demand delivers low-risk, hosted customer relationship management that can help customers accelerate sales, improve marketing and deliver consistent customer service. With customers that include leading SMB and Enterprise organizations globally, Siebel CRM On Demand is the most complete hosted CRM solution for accelerating business results.

Pricing and Availability
Siebel CRM On Demand Release 14 is expected to be available within the next 12 months, starting at $70 per user per month. Terms, conditions and restrictions apply. For further information, please visit www.oracle.com/crmondemand

Fujitsu And Sun Microsystems Set The Standard For Open Systems Computing With Fastest, Most Reliable Solaris/SPARC Servers

Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) and Sun Microsystems, Inc., (Nasdaq: SUNW - News) today unveiled a new line-up of co-developed servers that hold the promise of dramatically reshaping the computing market by delivering mainframe-class reliability with open systems advantages. The new servers, based on the SPARC architecture and running the Solaris 10 operating system (OS), are the fastest SPARC servers ever, and will be marketed by both companies and affiliates under the "SPARC Enterprise" product brand. The systems are ideal for customers requiring highly scaleable, reliable servers, and needing to achieve increased system utilization and performance through virtualization. The servers leverage the powerful combination of Fujitsu's expertise in mission-critical computing technologies and high-performance processor design, and Sun's expertise in open, scaleable, network computing.


The SPARC Enterprise server line-up is the culmination of over two years of joint development between Fujitsu and Sun, building on their 20-year strategic relationship. The new servers address the growing customer need to maximize system utilization by offering an array of highly granular partitioning and domaining technologies. The SPARC Enterprise servers are also designed to ensure minimal downtime. They contain mainframe-class RAS (Reliability, Availability, Serviceability) features such as hot-swappable components (which includes memory and processors) redundant hardware, instruction retry, memory mirroring and extensive diagnostic and healing capabilities.

To protect customers' existing datacenter investments, Sun guarantees 100% Solaris binary compatibility. This means Fujitsu's PRIMEPOWER or Sun's Sun Fire server customers can adopt the new SPARC Enterprise platform with ease and confidence, enabling them to continue to use the broad range of proven Solaris applications (the No. 1 share in the UNIX market) from the world's top ISV/IHV providers.

"These new systems help customers tackle the world's most challenging computing problems, whether in the back office or in high-performance computing," said John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun's Systems group. "And they achieve this performance while delivering mainframe reliability with the unmatched virtualization capabilities that Solaris customers expect."

"The combination of Fujitsu's mission-critical computing technology and Sun's Solaris in the new SPARC Enterprise server line-up, enables us to deliver maximum business value to our customers, "said Chiaki Ito, Corporate Senior Executive Vice President, Fujitsu Limited. "Not only will they see outstanding performance, smarter resource management and reduced administrative intervention, but unparalleled levels of quality and scalability, that mean increased longevity of use and improved business growth potential."

The new servers are already demonstrating their performance leadership. The SPARC Enterprise M8000 (16 processors, 32 cores, 64 threads) with SPARC64 VI 2.4 GHz processor running SAP ERP 2005, Oracle Database 10g and Solaris 10 set a new world-record for the SAP SD 2-tier standard application benchmark for systems with 16 processors as of 04/17/07, achieving 7,300 SD benchmark users.*

New SPARC Enterprise Servers

The new SPARC Enterprise servers will include six models. Entry models use the UltraSPARC T1 processor developed by Sun Microsystems. Mid-range and high-end models use the SPARC64 VI processor developed by Fujitsu. These systems deliver up to 50 percent more performance than current SPARC-based servers. All the new servers run the Solaris 10 operating system.

Both Fujitsu branded and Sun branded SPARC Enterprise servers will be marketed worldwide. All other features are identical. The systems are available today.

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace. Pace-setting device technologies, highly reliable computing and communications products, and a worldwide corps of systems and services experts uniquely position Fujitsu to deliver comprehensive solutions that open up infinite possibilities for its customers' success. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of about 4.8 trillion yen (US$40.6 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006. See http://www.fujitsu.com for further information.


*The SAP SD standard SAP ERP 2005 application benchmark performed on March 28, 2007 by Fujitsu and Sun Microsystems in Walldorf, Germany has been certified with the following data:

Number of benchmark users & comp.: 7,300 SD (Sales & Distribution)
Average dialog response time: 1.98 seconds
Throughput:
Fully Processed Order Line items/hour: 731,330
Dialog steps/hour: 2,194,000
SAPS: 36,570
Average DB request time (dia/upd): 0.018 sec / 0.041 sec
CPU utilization of central server: 99%
Operating System central server: Solaris 10
RDBMS: Oracle 10g
SAP ECC Release: 6.0

Configuration:
Central server: SPARC Enterprise Server Model M8000, 16 processors / 32 cores / 64 threads,
SPARC64 VI, 2.4 GHz, 256 KB L1 cache per core, 6 MB L2 cache per processor, 256 GB main memory

The SAP certification number was not available at press time and can be found at the following web page: www.sap.com/benchmark.

Sun Microsystems Expands Leading Storage Portfolio with New World-Record Setting Modular Disk Low-Cost Array (LCA)

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced it has expanded its leading storage portfolio to include the Sun StorageTek ST2500 Low Cost Array (LCA), Sun's first serial-attached SCSI (SAS) storage array and newest member of the modular disk storage family that works with the Solaris Operating System (OS) and other heterogeneous data center environments. Sun also announced next-generation data management capabilities for its industry-standard storage portfolio that include the addition of partitioning functionality to its StorageTek SL8500 enterprise tape library and secure encryption to its Sun StorageTek T10000 FICON tape drive.


As more Web 2.0 companies and existing enterprises like Elektrofilm, Rhythm and Hues, and Thought Equity Motion move their growing core businesses to the Internet, the way the world manages data is changing to support this resulting data growth. Sun recently became the first major vendor to begin to open source its software stack through the OpenSolaris community (http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2007-04/sunflash.20070410.1.xml) and today's product portfolio enhancements reaffirm the company's commitment to deliver end-to-end open storage solutions that better protect, archive and retrieve customer data, their most important asset.

"Sun is using innovation and open standards to reach out to new customers in the explosive Web 2.0 market that require applications that work with low-cost storage and which horizontally scale," said Nigel Dessau, senior vice president of storage marketing and business operations, Sun Microsystems. "Starting at less than $10,000, the new ST2500 array line provides the perfect entry point for these customers to use industry standard platforms to support their growing businesses."

Sun's Entry Point SAS Storage Array: Three Times Better Performance at Less than One-Half the Cost

Sun continues to enhance its strong storage infrastructure portfolio with its first SAS storage array: the world-record-setting Sun StorageTek ST2500 Low Cost Array (LCA) that is priced under $10,000 and which was designed as a data access and protection tier for emerging and established mid-tier customers and enterprises. Setting a new world record for price/performance, the ST2500 demonstrated 3x better performance at less than 1/2 the cost of HP storage and other competing solutions.(1)

The 2500 series arrays join five other storage products that are available as Sun Systems Packs, which make it easier for Sun customers to acquire the right level of support with their hardware.

Product features include: Application-oriented provisioning using Sun's StorageTek Common Array Manager (CAM); support for either FC or SAS host interfaces; small footprint at six drives-per rack unit; reliable data protection with a fully redundant RAID; and remote connection to Sun Service. The iSCSI version of ST2500 is expected to be available later in CY'07. This Tier 2 storage product includes a common set of management tools that allows customers to simply scale their data requirements to Tier 1 (fast access) data devices - all under the same management module - and then scale to the ST6140 or ST6540.

Sun Announces Support for LTO 4 Generation Tape Drives to Address Growing Data Storage Needs

Sun is pleased to announce the addition of the fourth generation of LTO drive technology in its tape portfolio, an open standard LTO consortium that Sun has supported from the beginning. The LTO 4 FC Tape Drive delivers high capacity (800 GB/cartridge native) and increased performance (120MB/sec) for customers' open systems environments to improve storage density in new or existing libraries and allow for easy upgrades to newer technology in the same automation footprint. LTO 4 FC drives will initially be available in Sun's tape automation products, including the StorageTek SL8500, L1400 and SL500, later this quarter and additional interfaces and support are expected to follow in the next quarter.

Other Sun end-to-end storage product enhancements announced at Storage Networking World include:

• SL8500 partitioning – a new feature of the award winning SL8500 tape library to further enable secure data archiving: Partitioning will help allow customers to keep separate open systems and mainframe functions within the same library. The partitioning capability in the SL8500 enables seamless consolidation of both open systems and mainframe environments, further enhancing simplicity and cost savings in the data center;


• T10000 FICON tape drive is now available "crypto-ready": When purchased in conjunction with Sun StorageTek Crypto Key Management Station, this drive allows customers to implement Sun's encryption solution in the mainframe environment. The T10000 FICON Crypto-Ready tape drive is available behind VSM as well, enabling the premier mainframe virtual solution secure data protection capabilities. T10000 drives are supported with essential services like Encryption, Implementation, and Sun Migration Services for the ESCON to FICON Technology, which include three key steps that are tailored to customer requirements — the migration workshop, architecture assessment, and implementation service;


• The availability of the Sun StorageTek Storage Archive Manager 4.6 and Sun StorageTek QFS 4.6 software: Saves customers money by providing automated storage tiering and archiving. The 4.6 release significantly improves management and monitoring, availability, scalability, performance, and data validation;


• The availability of the Sun Virtual Tape Library Plus (VTL+): Bridges the gap between disk and tape – offering a performance and cost effective solution for business to create copies of their data for quick and simple access, while leveraging all the cost benefits of tiered tape storage behind disk;


• Serial attached-SCSI host bus adapters (HBAs) are also being announced to support the ST2500 array; includes both PCI-X and PCI-E SAS HBAs.

Pricing and Availability

The ST2500 Lost Cost Array (LCA) starts at less than $10,000 and is available immediately. The Sun T10000 FICON tape drive available crypto-ready starts at $44,000 and the Sun Virtual Tape Library Plus (VTL+) begins at $135,000 highly configured.

For more information for all product families can be found online at http://www.sun.com/storage



(1) New arrays deliver the first SPC-2 SAS results of RAID 5 at 735.62 SPC-2 MBPS @ $45.91 $/SPC-2 MBPS, ASU Capacity 2,177.548GB, Protection Level RAID 5, Total Price $33,772, Identifier# B00021and Mirroring at 730.04 SPC-2 MBPS @ $46.26 $/SPC-2 MBPS, ASU Capacity 1,282.048GB, Protection Level Mirroring, Total Price $33,772, Identifier# B00022 (www.storageperformance.org/results) with 2.5x better performance at almost half the price than HP's StorageWorks 1000 of Mirroring at 285.39 SPC-2 MBPS @ $73.12 $/SPC-2 MBPS, ASU Capacity 362.925, Protection Level Mirroring, Total Price $20,868 Identifier# B00020; Sun StorageTek 2540 array sets new world records for SPC-2 price/performance and delivers best SPC-2 throughput performance in its class.

IBM Helps Clients Deploy "Low Carb" IT

BLADE SYSTEMS INSIGHT -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced additions to its line of energy-efficient BladeCenter and System x servers that will help clients reduce energy usage and associated CO2 emissions. The new systems feature the latest in low-voltage microprocessor technologies from AMD and Intel, and industry-first innovation for blade server computing with energy-smart flash-based storage.

Microprocessors can account for a sizable portion of the power used by a server. The new systems introduced by IBM today are based on low-voltage industry standard processors that provide the same application performance as their higher wattage cousins, but in some cases consume less power.

To put this in perspective, consider that for every kilowatt of electricity consumed, on average over a pound of CO2 is released into the environment. For example, with the new low-voltage, quad-core Intel-based blades introduced today, businesses can save up to 60 watts of energy per two-socket blade server and in an enterprise environment with 1000 blade servers can prevent the release of nearly 20,000 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere over a year. That is the equivalent of the amount of CO2 produced by an air-traveler flying in a passenger jet round-trip from New York to London seven times.

"As the thirst for speed and capacity drives demand for more systems with faster processors, more memory, and more storage, thermostats and power meters in data centers are hitting a new high," said Dr. Tom Bradicich, IBM fellow and vice president, Systems and Technology Group. "IBM understands the critical need for increased performance without increased power consumption or increased physical footprint, and continues to drive innovation in energy-efficient systems design and proactive energy management solutions for customers."

To stretch energy-efficiency further, BladeCenter and System x servers also feature unique innovation from IBM, such as: Calibrated Vectored Cooling which manages air intake, fan placement and zone cooling technologies to maximize the air flow inside the blade and rack server for optimal cooling efficiency; and PowerExecutive which can help customers meter, control and cap power consumption across systems.

The systems also utilize energy-efficient power supplies. IBM first introduced the unique supplies in 2002 as part of BladeCenter and continues to lead the way with ever more energy efficient designs that deliver up to 85 percent efficiency in power supplies for the rack server line and as much as 90 percent power supply efficiency in the BladeCenter line. In addition to directly saving energy, low-voltage processors also enable the speed of fans used for cooling within the system to be decreased, which in turn further reduces power consumption and helps reduce noise levels.

Industry-First Energy-Efficient Storage Innovation for Blade Servers

As multi-core processors become mainstream, the performance, memory and storage capacity required to run applications will also significantly increase. Customers can choose to house more disk capacity locally or completely remove local storage from the blade servers by utilizing a 'diskless blade' strategy and consolidating the storage externally. A diskless approach will increase the reliability of a blade, by removing the only moving part on the blade; improve management to easily respond to fluctuations in capacity needs among a family of blades; and eliminate the cost of local drives per blade and the power consumed to run them.

Because all components of the flash card are solid state, the energy consumption of the IBM 4GB Modular Flash Drive is as much as 95 percent less than a traditional spinning hard drive. For a datacenter manager this means that the heat reduction inside each IBM BladeCenter can be up to 50 percent on storage components alone, which can result in reduced energy costs. Additionally, while average spin-up and seek time for conventional hard disk drives is around 15 milliseconds, that of a flash device is a mere 0.1 milliseconds.

The flash memory option can be used as a Linux boot device and as a storage device for lower bandwidth applications to complement shared storage architectures such as Network Attached Storage (NAS) or Storage Area Networks (SAN). Once the flash device helps a system boot, BladeCenter clients can utilize any fabric within IBM Virtual Fabric Architecture such as -- Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or 10G Ethernet -- to connect to the storage network.

Design innovation at the switch level can also drive further energy efficiency with blade systems. IBM is the only blade server vendor in the industry that has brought 10G Ethernet connectivity inside a blade system, directly to a blade server through collaboration with Blade.org members BLADE Network Technologies, Broadcom and NetXen. The 10G Ethernet switch from BLADE integrated into IBM BladeCenter provides optimal throughput between each BladeCenter server in a system and to the network core, and can be up to 95 percent more energy efficient than external switch offerings.

The new System x and BladeCenter servers available today include:

Quad Core Intel Xeon systems utilizing a 50 watt quad-core processor: BladeCenter HS21, System x3550 and System x3650.

Dual Core AMD Opteron systems utilizing a 68 watt dual core processor: BladeCenter LS21, BladeCenter LS41 and System x3655.

Dual Core Intel Xeon systems utilizing 35 and 40 watt processors: Select models of the BladeCenter HS21.


The IBM 4GB Modular Flash Drive option is available today for BladeCenter HS21 XM, a blade server that features higher processing performance at lower power levels, and is packed with up to 32GB of internal memory and up to eight I/O ports.
For more information on IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com

Comcast Reaches Agreement to Acquire Fandango and Announces Plan to Launch Fancast.com, New National Online Destination

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), the nation's leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Fandango, the nation's premier destination for movie information, showtimes and ticketing, and one of the Web's top entertainment sites. The company also announced plans to launch Fancast.com, a new national online destination that will enable consumers to search, discover, manage and enjoy their entertainment experience across many devices and channels, including television, computers, DVDs and wireless services.

Comcast has a major Internet presence, through Comcast.net, which is now a top 10 site with more than 2.5 billion page views, more than 80 million videos viewed and 15 million unique visitors per month. Comcast will leverage its experience as the nation's largest buyer of video content, serving nearly 25 million cable customers and 11.5 million broadband customers, to expand its existing video-centric websites and create a new online destination, Fancast.com.

Fandango, which is a top online brand and destination where millions of people visit every month to learn about movies and purchase theater tickets, will be an integral component of the Fancast user experience. Fandango.com is already a top entertainment site and one of the nation's largest movie sites with between 4 and 5 million unique visitors each month. Fandango has long- term, exclusive relationships with many national theater chains that provide it a consistent, unique and dedicated audience of entertainment-oriented consumers. Working closely with these exhibitor partners, Fandango will continue to pursue its core mission of being the leading online destination for movie theater information, showtimes and ticketing at Fandango.com.

Fancast, which will launch this summer, will be a national entertainment site where people can search and discover television and movie content, while managing their viewing experience across multiple devices. With Fancast, consumers will be able to search for their favorite shows, movies, actors and actresses, or simply enjoy the video content on the site. Fancast will provide consumers with a place to discover when their favorite shows or movies are "on," and where they can view them via television, video-on-demand, online or on other devices.

Both Fandango and Fancast will be managed by Comcast Interactive Media (CIM), a division of Comcast which develops and operates Internet businesses focused on entertainment, information and communication. Fandango will provide key commerce capabilities for CIM sites and will be an additional source of traffic and revenue. CIM sites, including Comcast.net and Fancast.com, will prominently feature Fandango, which will significantly expand Fandango's current audience.

"Fandango is one of the strongest entertainment brands online as well as a dynamic, profitable business with a superb management team and rapidly growing advertising revenue," said Amy Banse, President of Comcast Interactive Media. "Adding Fandango to Comcast Interactive Media and creating Fancast.com will enable us to leverage our combined assets to offer consumers an outstanding entertainment experience."

"Comcast will enable us to expand our reach with moviegoers, enhance our product, and grow Fandango into an even bigger brand and stronger business," said Chuck Davis, Chairman and CEO of Fandango. "Fandango is all about helping consumers with their entertainment decisions - and we're excited that Comcast will enable us to deliver our content and services to an even wider audience."

Fandango will continue to be led by CEO Chuck Davis who will work with Comcast Interactive Media to grow Fandango's online entertainment and ticketing business and expand the Fandango e-commerce experience across platforms and brands. Fandango will remain headquartered in Los Angeles.

Fandango's major investors include Accretive Technology Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures and the nation's leading theater chains. Banc of America Securities LLC acted as financial advisor to Fandango in connection with this transaction. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

About Comcast

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA; CMCSK) (http://www.comcast.com) is the nation's leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services. With 24.2 million video customers, 11.5 million high-speed Internet customers, and 2.5 million phone customers, Comcast is principally involved in the development, management and operation of broadband cable systems and in the delivery of programming content.

Comcast's content networks and investments include E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, The Golf Channel, VERSUS, G4, AZN Television, PBS KIDS Sprout, TV One, four regional Comcast SportsNets and Comcast Interactive Media, which develops and operates Comcast's Internet business. Comcast also has a majority ownership in Comcast-Spectacor, whose major holdings include the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team, the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team and two large multipurpose arenas in Philadelphia.

About Fandango:

One of the Web's top movie and entertainment destinations, Fandango sells tickets to more than 15,000 screens. Fandango entertains and informs consumers with reviews, commentary and trailers, and offers the ability to quickly select a film, plan where and when to see it, and conveniently buy tickets in advance. Fandango is available at www.fandango.com, 1-800-FANDANGO and via your wireless mobile device at mobile.fandango.com. Fandango theater partners include the nation's leading exhibitors: AMC Theatres, Carmike Cinemas, Century Theatres, Cinemark Theatres, Edwards Theatres, Regal Cinemas and United Artists Theatres, as well as American Cinematheque, Brenden Theatres, Bow Tie Cinemas, CineArts Theatres, Cineplex Galaxy Cinemas, Cobb Theatres, Colorado Cinemas, Hollywood Theaters, Kerasotes Theatres, IMAX, Majestic Crest Theatre, Premiere Theatres, R/C Theatres, and Wehrenberg Theatres.

About Comcast Interactive Media:

Comcast Interactive Media (CIM), a division of Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), develops and operates Internet businesses focused on entertainment, information and communication, including Comcast.net. CIM builds upon Comcast's extensive assets and experience as the country's largest video and broadband service provider and leverages Comcast's advanced broadband network, technology, and content relationships to build innovative new online services. In addition to comcast.net, CIM's products include Ziddio.com, a national multi-platform user-generated site bringing together premium networks and partners to host co-branded contests with unique prizes; GameInvasion.net, a national online site offering a rich entertainment experience for hardcore gaming enthusiasts; and thePlatform, the industry- leading provider of digital media publishing solutions enabling major content owners and service providers to manage and publish media over broadband and wireless networks to multiple devices. CIM will continue to roll-out new national online sites in 2007.

Pearson Selects IBM for IT Infrastructure Services

Pearson, plc, and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a five year, $128 million Information Technology (IT) infrastructure services agreement to continue to help Pearson provide new services and reduce costs for its publishing, information and education businesses.

The agreement -- which includes The Penguin Group and Pearson Education -- covers U.S. operations across thirty locations in eleven states, and is an extension of a seven-year contract signed in September 2002.

IBM will continue to manage key systems for Pearson, including critical business applications for billing, inventory control, order entry, product distribution, inventory, payroll, human resources and sales reporting. IBM will also continue to provide business resiliency services to help ensure that its computer systems can continue to perform vital business functions in the event of a business disruption.

Under the agreement, IBM will provide Pearson with a usage-based billing methodology that allows Pearson to manage its costs through a pay-as-you-go system. This unique model will give Pearson more control and insight into how they utilize their IT resources.

"Since the beginning of our partnership in 2002, IBM has brought Pearson economies of scale while maintaining the flexibility of our operating units," said Atish Banerjea, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Pearson plc. "IBM is also helping Pearson innovate by creating new services, which improve our interactions with customers."

"Through this agreement, Pearson continues to be a leader in the publishing industry by providing advanced IT and industry-leading services," said Norman Korey, Vice President IBM Global Technology Services. "With extensive experience in the publishing industry, IBM is ideally-suited to help Pearson continue to innovate and grow."

Signed in January 2007, the new contract extends the original agreement to 2014.

About Pearson

Pearson plc (NYSE: PSO) is an international media company. Its major business operations are: The Financial Times Group, which has an international network of business and financial newspapers and online services that are read by millions of business executives and investors every day; Pearson Education, the world's leading education business, which helps teachers teach and students learn at every stage and in every part of the world; and Penguin Group, which is one of the pre-eminent names in consumer publishing, with an unrivalled range of fiction and non-fiction, bestsellers, and classic titles. For more information, visit http://www.pearson.com

Continental to Acquire 51 Percent of Matador Rubber Group

Continental AG, Hanover, is set to acquire a 51 percent stake in the rubber and conveyor belt business of Matador Group, Puchov, Slovakia, subject to the ap­proval of antitrust authorities. "With this move we are strengthening our ties to our highly successful joint venture partner. At the same time we are expanding our operational base in Eastern Europe markets as well as our production capacities for PLT in low-cost countries," said Continental’s Executive Board chairman Manfred Wennemer on April 11 in Hanover. Continental (76 percent) and Matador (24 percent) have been aligned in a joint venture for the production of truck tires in Puchov since 1998. The two parties agreed not to disclose the details of the agreement, including the financial volume.

In 2006 Matador Group had 4,770 employees and posted sales of approx. €450 million. “With this strategic alliance we will further improve the quality and volume of Matador tire production, open new markets and increase the value of the Matador brand. After excellent experiences with our truck tire joint venture, we are sure that this partnership will be the best solution for the future of Matador and also for our employees. We are, moreover, also strengthening our position in Automotive - our second strategic business,” said Štefan Rosina, CEO of the Matador Group.

“In combining forces and experience, we will improve our market positions in Central and Eastern Europe and get additional sales opportunities in Russia, Ukraine and the Stan States. Especially our position in Russia will be expanded, as we are not only improving our access to the market but getting a production facility in Omsk as well,” Wennemer empha­sized. “Operationally we intend to integrate Matador into our brand portfolio and invest in expanding annual production capacities for PLT from 5.5 to more than 7 million. This gives us a highly efficient tool to be used against low-cost competition,” Wennemer added. The Matador ma­chinery factory in Puchov will be integrated into the machinery factory in Hanover-Stöcken as a second pillar. On top of that, Continental gets additional capacities for research and devel­opment.

The ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group also stands to benefit from the acquisition. “Adding Matador’s business to ours makes sense strategically,” said Gerhard Lerch, member of Con­tinental’s Executive Board and responsible for the ContiTech division. “The company is very well-positioned in the Eastern Europe.” With a workforce of 160, Matador manufactures a wide range of textile belts in Slovakia. The ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group has eight loca­tions in Chile, China, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, and Mexico. With its approximately 2,700 employees, it posted sales of €379 million in 2006.

IBM Cools the Data Center at W3i and Freeze.com With Bladed Infrastructure

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that W3i, a downloadable content solutions company that runs Freeze.com, has streamlined and simplified its entire IT infrastructure and eliminated the expense of additional power and cooling equipment for its data center by migrating to IBM BladeCenter servers.

Launched in 2001, the Minnesota-based company offers screensavers and graphics through its websites, Freeze.com, ScreenSaver.com, Wallpapers.com and Ringtone.com, as well as thousands of sites throughout the Internet. It prides itself in delivering a high-quality on-line experience to nearly 85 million users. To improve its service to its customers, W3i wanted to build a more efficient computing infrastructure that could handle spikes in demand without adding more servers or sacrificing IT staff time.

The company turned to IBM, the industry's leading blade vendor, to help overhaul its infrastructure by deploying 85 Intel Xeon-based IBM BladeCenter servers, replacing all Dell servers deployed within the environment. With a diskless blade solution, money is saved on power and cooling by removing the only moving part on the blade. W3i's blade solution does not have any local hard drives, meaning much less power is consumed to get their work done. The company is also able to fully leverage their current storage infrastructure for the blades to support SQL and collaboration services.

"With Dell, we had boxes upon boxes of memory and a stockpiled mess of equipment. I used to get pages in the middle of the night just to replace a cooling fan," said Kyle Ohme, Director of IT for W3i. "We needed an efficient solution that would provide a responsive and reliable infrastructure that could quickly adapt to demand and traffic shifts without requiring more space, servers and staff. We found what we needed with IBM BladeCenter."

W3i's IT operations have changed dramatically as the time to provision its servers came down from "five hours to just five minutes." The company can now meet frequent spikes in server utilization demand. In addition, the IT staff has increased its productivity tremendously with four times the management capacity it had before the new solution allowing the growing company to spend time on solving business issues rather than hardware issues.

For more information about IBM BladeCenter, please visit: www.ibm.com/bladecenter

About W3i

W3i delivers proven downloadable content solutions. With over 15 million unique users each month, W3i provides a receptive consumer base for customized, targeted marketing programs including software marketing, lead generation, display advertising, product placement and paid subscriptions. W3i is a recent winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2006 Award in the Minnesota and Dakotas region.

W3i, owner of Freeze.com, Ringtone.com, ScreenSaver.com and Wallpapers.com, was established in January 2007 to unite all its business entities including Freeze.com, which was founded in 2000. Today it employs more than 50 Internet professionals. To learn more about W3i, visit www.w3i.com