Georgia State Adds New IBM Supercomputer to Keep Pace With Demand

Georgia State University and IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that the university has purchased an IBM System Cluster 1350 supercomputer through a regional partnership program between IBM and the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA). This purchase is the latest addition to the school's expanding inventory of supercomputing resources.

Georgia State is building a diverse and powerful supercomputing center to support a growing body of academic and scientific research. In September 2006 three researchers began working with a new IBM System p5 575 with Power5+ processors running AIX 5.3 -- acquired as part of the IBM-SURA regional partnership. Those three users became a dozen in January 2007 and now include more than 40 faculty from many disciplines as well as from other SURA sites such as Virginia Commonwealth University, Louisiana State University and University of Delaware.

"We're experiencing increasing demand for supercomputer resources," said Art Vandenberg, director of the university's supercomputing center. "Our strategy is to build a center that supports a wide variety of disciplines. So, we're adding the Cluster 1350 to support research that requires commodity level, Linux computing."

The new IBM System Cluster 1350 will help meet this increasing demand. As researchers gain access to more capacity and capability, they naturally are expanding their goals, driving demand. Researchers in chemistry, biology, molecular dynamics, computer science, climate modeling and political science will be among the new machine's first users. The Cluster 1350 will be added to Georgia State's high-end IBM System p5 575 supercomputer to offer scientists a range of in-house computing capabilities.

The 320 Intel® Xeon® Quad-Core processors that make up Georgia State's new Cluster 1350 will also be shared by SURA -- a group of 60 schools that shares supercomputing resources via a grid setup known as SURAgrid. The university's Cluster 1350 configuration runs at approximately three teraflops, or three billion calculations per second.

"Georgia State University has been a long term contributor to the SURAgrid initiative and we are extremely pleased that SURA has been able to assist Georgia State and other SURAgrid participants by providing access to specially discounted hardware and services through our partnership with IBM," said Gary Crane, SURA Director of IT Initiatives.

Parasites & Politics
A partial list of the university's research projects that will benefit from the new IBM supercomputer includes:

Dr. Tarynn Witten, Virginia Commonwealth University, plans to create more complex and biologically realistic models to investigate Chagas' Disease. The long-term goal of this project is to apply novel mathematical and computational modeling technologies to develop new paradigms for understanding the infectious disease process. (http://www.vcu.edu/csbc/vpp)
Maryam Rahimian, PhD student in chemistry at Georgia State University, also plans to study parasitic diseases such as sleeping sickness, malaria and leishmania. The goal is to find new drugs with high efficiency and low cost. The IBM HPC Systems enable Rahimian to run more complex models which can provide valuable information on the influence of solvent and molecular motion in DNA complexes.
Eric Hurst, PhD student in political science, intends to apply the university's additional compute power to one of the first political science studies to run on a supercomputer. Hurst intends to study the complete voting history of independent regulatory commissions, such as the SEC, to help determine how ideology and bureaucracy affect the nation's policies and politics.
The IBM System Cluster 1350 will be configured with additional IBM solutions including: BladeCenter® H technology, HS21 XM Blade servers utilizing two Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, 10G Ethernet backbone, IBM's xCAT and Loadleveler cluster management tools. It will also have access to existing Tivoli Storage Manager and 18 Terabytes of storage that Georgia State has acquired during the past year. This will allow researchers to easily share results from the IBM System p5 with the new IBM System Cluster 1350 -- and vice versa.

Georgia State University
Located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia State University is one of the leading research institutions in an urban setting. The university offers 52 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in 250 fields of study through six college-level units. Preparing students for lifelong learning in a global society, Georgia State's degree programs are relevant to the practical needs of both the student and the community. A member of the University System of Georgia, Georgia State is the USG's most diverse institution, with more than 50,000 students enrolled annually from every county in Georgia, every state in the nation and 159 countries. For more information, visit www.gsu.edu.

The Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) is a consortium of over 60 leading research institutions in the southern United States and the District of Columbia established in 1980 as a non-stock, nonprofit corporation. SURA serves as an entity through which colleges, universities, and other organizations may cooperate with one another, and with government and industry in acquiring, developing, and using laboratories and other research facilities and in furthering knowledge and the application of that knowledge in the physical, biological, and other natural sciences and engineering. For more information, visit www.sura.org.

About SURAgrid
SURAgrid is a consortium of organizations collaborating and combining high performance computing and advanced networking resources to improve the research and learning infrastructure of the SURA region. The vision for SURAgrid is to orchestrate access to a rich set of cyberinfrastructure capabilities to meet diverse needs of university researchers and educators. Capabilities being cultivated include locally contributed high performance computing resources, project-specific tools and environments, shared access to highly specialized high performance computing and cyberinfrastructure resources, and gateways to national and international cyberinfrastructure. For more information on SURAgrid see: www.sura.org/suragrid

IBM System Cluster 1350
The IBM System Cluster 1350 is designed for a broad range of supercomputer application environments, including industrial design and manufacturing, financial services, life sciences, government and education. The IBM System Cluster 1350 leverages IBM's extensive supercomputing experience to help minimize complexity and risk. Using advanced Intel® Xeon®, AMD Opteron™, Cell Broadband Engine and IBM PowerPC® processor-based server nodes, proven cluster management software and optional high-speed interconnects, the Cluster 1350 offers the best of IBM and third-party technology. For more information visit http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/clusters/hardware/1350.html

New 'Adria' Supercomputer Among 250 Most Powerful in the World

Advancing development of hydropower as a green alternative to traditional energy sources, world-renowned hydro-energy research organisation Turboinštitut has turned to IBM (NYSE: IBM) to deliver the most powerful supercomputer in South East Europe.

Named 'Adria' and based at the newly-established Ljubljana Supercomputing Center in Slovenia, the Linux-based system will be used by Turboinštitut to carry out complex water turbine design simulations in fractions of existing timescales. Performing calculations 50 times faster than current systems, Adria will reduce time-to-result from weeks to hours.

"By applying our supercomputer expertise and industry leadership, IBM will be fundamental to advances in Turboinštitut's hydro energy development programmes," said Biljana Weber, Country General Manager, IBM Slovenia. "IBM is increasingly mobilising its research, technology and insight to help clients worldwide address complex energy and environmental challenges."

The system will be instrumental in accelerating Turboinštitut's hydro-power research and development programme, encouraging energy companies worldwide to introduce the energy source as an environmentally friendly alternative.

"We selected IBM because of their expertise and flexibility. They quickly provided reference architecture and actively worked with our experts on specific areas of supercomputing architecture. IBM put in place a local team who will bring Adria to life and also ensured the financing of the investment," explained Dr. Vladimir Kercan, Executive Director, Turboinštitut.

The 2.048-core system uses 256 IBM BladeCenter servers, each carrying two quad-core processors with 4100 GB of RAM, and is expected to become one of the world's fastest Linux clusters (based on Top500.org). 'Adria' utilises the latest IBM solutions that reduce its own energy consumption.

The installation will be performed by IBM Slovenia and business partner SIMT.

For more information about IBM Slovenia, visit http://ibm.com/si

IBM X-Force Security Report: Web Browsers Under Siege From Organized Crime

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today released the findings of the 2007 X-Force Security report, detailing a disturbing rise in the sophistication of attacks by criminals on Web browsers worldwide. According to IBM, by attacking the browsers of computer users, cybercriminals are now stealing the identities and controlling the computers of consumers at a rate never before seen on the Internet.

The study finds that a complex and sophisticated criminal economy has developed to capitalize on Web vulnerabilities. Underground brokers are delivering tools to aid in obfuscation, or camouflaging attacks on browsers, so cybercriminals can avoid detection by security software. In 2006, only a small percentage of attackers employed camouflaging techniques, but this number soared to 80 percent during the first half of 2007, and reached nearly 100 percent by the end of the year. The X-Force believes the criminal element will contribute to a proliferation of attacks in 2008.

Using these techniques, cybercriminals can infiltrate a user's system and steal their IDs and passwords or obtain personal information like National Identification numbers, Social Security numbers and credit card information. When attackers invade an enterprise machine, they could steal sensitive company information or use the compromised machine to gain access to other corporate assets behind the firewall.

"Never before have such aggressive measures been sustained by Internet attackers towards infection, propagation and security evasion. While computer security professionals can claim some victories, attackers are adapting their approaches and continuing to have an impact on users' experiences," said Kris Lamb, operations manager, X-Force Research and Development for IBM Internet Security Systems. "The Storm Worm provides a microcosm of the kinds of threats users faced in 2007. All in all, the exploits used to spread Storm Worm are a blend of the various threats tracked by X-Force, including spam, phishing and drive-by-downloads by way of Web browser exploitation."

The Storm Worm, the most pervasive Internet attack last year, continues to infect computers around the world through a culmination of the threats the X-Force tracks, including malicious software (malware), spam and phishing. Last year, delivery of malware was at an all time high, as X-Force reported a 30 percent rise in the number of malcode samples identified. The Storm Worm comprised around 13 percent of the entire malcode set collected in 2007.

In other findings, for the first time ever, the size of spam emails decreased sharply to pre-2005 levels. X-Force believes the decrease is linked to the drop off of image-based spam. This decrease can be counted as a win for the security industry -- as anti-spam technologies became more efficient at detecting image-based spam, spammers were forced to turn to new techniques.

The X-Force has been cataloguing, analyzing and researching vulnerability disclosures since 1997. With more than 33,000 security vulnerabilities catalogued, it has the largest vulnerability database in the world. This unique database helps X-Force researchers to understand the dynamics that make up vulnerability discovery and disclosure.

The new X-Force report from IBM also reveals that:

The number of critical computer security vulnerabilities disclosed increased by 28 percent, a substantial upswing from years past.
The overall number of vulnerabilities reported for the year went down for the first time in 10 years.
Out of all the vulnerabilities disclosed last year, only 50 percent can be corrected through vendor patches.
Nearly 90 percent of 2007 disclosed vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable.

IBM is the world's leading provider of risk and security solutions. Clients around the world partner with IBM to help reduce the complexities of security and strategically manage risk. IBM's experience and range of risk and security solutions are unsurpassed -- from dedicated research, software, hardware, services and global business partner value -- helping clients secure business operations and implement company-wide, integrated risk management programs.

For more security trends and predictions from IBM, including graphical representations of security statistics, please access the full "2007 X-Force Trends Statistics" at: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/offerfamily/iss/a1029112

Google,IBM,Microsoft,Verisign and Yahoo Join OpenID

The OpenID Foundation today announced that Google (Nasdaq:GOOG), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), Verisign (Nasdaq:VRSN) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) have joined as its first corporate board members.

With these companies’ deep expertise in Internet and security technology, the OpenID Foundation strengthens the industrywide effort to empower users with portable Web identities, or OpenIDs. This effort helps ensure the evolution of an open and interoperable Internet that helps people take control of how their personal information is used online and helps online businesses attract and retain more users by simplifying and securing the management of digital identities.

The OpenID Foundation was formed in June 2007 to support and promote the technology developed by the OpenID community. Members include individuals, students, nonprofits, startups and industry giants that have come together to develop and promote open identity management on the Web.

OpenID is free technology that simplifies the online user experience by eliminating the need for multiple user names across Internet sites, enabling individuals to take more control and ownership of their digital identities. This user-centric digital identity technology helps users reduce the pain of managing dozens, even hundreds, of user names and passwords, and gives users more control over what personal information they share with Web sites when they sign in using an OpenID.

Today more than 10,000 Web sites support OpenID log-ins, and an estimated 350 million OpenID-enabled URLs exist.

“With this support from these new company board members, the OpenID Foundation will be able to continue to promote and protect the technology and its community moving forward,” said Bill Washburn, executive director, OpenID Foundation. “The community has expanded quickly since the inception of the foundation, and these companies will help bring OpenID into the mainstream markets.”

The industry collaboration supporting OpenID extends not only to the technology itself, but also to the establishment of the OpenID Foundation as an open forum to promote, protect and enable the OpenID technologies and community. The OpenID community has matured rapidly from its inception as a loose coalition of volunteers to the establishment of the OpenID Foundation with a strong mission and intellectual property structure that enables all to participate in developing and implementing OpenID technology. This progress has been made with donations of legal resources by Microsoft and various contributions from Google, IBM, VeriSign and Yahoo!.

“Google shares the OpenID Foundation’s vision of a Web that’s easy to use and built on open standards available to everyone,” said Brad Fitzpatrick, a software engineer at Google. “OpenID was always intended to be a decentralized sign-on system, so it’s fantastic to join a foundation committed to keeping it free and unencumbered by proprietary extensions.”

“Privacy concerns have been escalating rapidly because of repeated incidents involving unexpected personal information loss and user identity theft,” said Anthony Nadalin, IBM Distinguished Engineer and chief security architect, IBM Tivoli software. “As a leader in identity, access and federated identity management and open standards-based software, this is an important step in IBM’s collaboration with other industry leaders to continuously enhance open source projects for user-centric identity management. This effort is intended to provide users with more control and help them to better manage and protect their digital identities.”

“The OpenID community is a key constituency in solving the digital identity problems Internet users face, and will benefit from being represented by the OpenID Foundation,” said Kim Cameron, chief identity architect, Microsoft. “Since Bill Gates and Craig Mundie announced our collaboration with the OpenID community last February at RSA, Microsoft has played a leading role in establishing the foundation’s open policy framework that allows everyone to participate in the development and use of OpenID specifications. Now we look forward to working with the community to refine and drive adoption of the specifications.”

“OpenID enables consumers to take control of their online identity, which in turn will drive trust, privacy and security on the Internet,” said Nico Popp, vice president of Innovation at VeriSign Inc. “Networked identity and authentication services are core elements of VeriSign’s current and future service offerings. Because of this, we applaud the creation of the OpenID foundation and we look forward to contributing to its mission.”

“Yahoo! believes that a truly open Web is the key to the next generation of Internet experiences; OpenID furthers this cause by delivering a free, standards-based solution that the entire industry can embrace,” said Ash Patel, executive vice president of platforms and infrastructure at Yahoo!. “Over the last year we have worked closely with the OpenID Foundation to develop the organization’s intellectual property framework, finalize the OpenID 2.0 specification and adopt OpenID for all 248 million active registered Yahoo! users worldwide. We look forward to collaborating with the OpenID Foundation, its board and community to further simplify the consumer experience of the Web and empower users to take control of their online identity with OpenID.”

OpenID Technology

With the increased use of the Internet to conduct business and the rise of new types of online interactions, such as social networking and user-generated content, innovative kinds of digital identifier technologies are necessary to sustain the “open Web.” OpenID enables individuals to convert one of their already existing digital identifiers — such as their personal blog’s URL — into an OpenID account, which then can be used as a login at any Web site supporting OpenID.

Wide adoption of OpenID reduces the frustration of repeatedly having to register username/password accounts and then later recalling login information for an ever-increasing array of Web sites. For online businesses, these efforts can lower password and account management costs, help reduce the overall risks of security breaches by limiting the amount of customer personal information businesses need to store and protect, and increase both new and return user traffic by lowering the barriers to Web site entry and reentry.

To learn more about the OpenID Foundation, please visit http://openid.net/foundation.

To learn more about the OpenID, please visit http://openid.net.

IBM Teams With METRO Group to Improve Customer Service and Efficiency With RFID

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has worked with METRO Group to implement Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to improve the availability of products in its stores, enhance consumers' shopping experience, and boost supply chain performance. The companies are successfully using RFID in a system which tracks shipments from suppliers to warehouses, distribution centers and stores. The companies are also teaming on an innovative customer focused RFID project in one of METRO Group's Galeria Kaufhof department stores.

Retailers worldwide are focused on deploying strategies aimed at meeting the needs of today's increasingly connected and information hungry customers. METRO Group and IBM have been working together since 2003 on projects aimed at improving operational efficiencies with RFID and ultimately improving customers' shopping experience. As part of the relationship, METRO Group has leveraged IBM's retail expertise, industry leading software products and RFID solutions.

"Our relationship with IBM has been a strategic component of our RFID programs," said Dr. Gerd Wolfram, managing director, MGI METRO Group Information Technology GmbH. "Innovation is at the heart of our strategy. Our use of RFID is improving our operational effectiveness as well as the experience of our customers."

Eye on the Supply Chain

IBM and METRO Group recently completed the rollout of Europe's largest RFID project. The system allows METRO Group to track shipments from suppliers to its warehouses and distribution centers to around 200 supermarkets and stores across Germany. It has enabled METRO Group to improve product availability and ensure that customers' expectations are met.

Pallets of goods destined for a METRO Cash & Carry or Real store contain an RFID tag when they leave the supplier or the group's distribution centers. The tags are scanned by RFID readers on delivery at a store location. The data captured by the readers is provided in real-time to METRO's merchandise information systems using the IBM WebSphere Premises Server, software which aggregates and analyzes RFID information.

Smarter Shopping with RFID

Galeria Kaufhof, a division of METRO Group, has teamed with IBM to develop and install a first of a kind system to enhance customer service in one of its department stores in Essen, Germany. As part of a pilot program, approximately 30,000 articles in the men's fashion department have been equipped with ultra high frequency second generation RFID tags.

Employees are using the system to find articles that shoppers are looking for and to monitor stock to ensure that popular items are always available. The store also features devices in the store's fitting rooms which recognize the tagged garments and display customer information such as price, fabric and care instructions.

A team of experts from IBM Global Business Services designed the system's software architecture and conducted an in-depth analysis of how to best execute the project. IBM also developed Galeria Kaufhof's Store Information System, which provides real-time information on inventory based on readouts of RFID tags. The system puts comprehensive reports on business-related performance indicators into the hands of store employees and managers.

The Galeria Kaufhof project is one of the first to use the EPCglobal architecture framework, which sets communication standards between hardware and software components while also defining data interfaces. Galeria Kaufhof can use the captured data to make better informed decisions on products it will sell in the future.

"Using RFID and Information on Demand software from IBM, METRO Group has enhanced the efficiency of its operations," said Martin Wildberger, vice president, RFID solutions, IBM. "With this project, METRO Group has proven that RFID technology is mature and reliable for use across a chain of retail stores at a reasonable cost, and with minimal effort for suppliers."

METRO Group began its move toward RFID in 2003 when it opened its "Future Store." In 2004, a first RFID pilot was run in 20 wholesale outlets. When the results proved the technology was reliable and easy to use, the company decided in 2007 to extend its use of RFID to all its Cash & Carry and Real stores.

Report: Worldwide, IBM Is Well Ahead of Traditional Competitors in SOA Consulting Services

A recent spending survey of companies with active service oriented architecture (SOA) projects conducted by AMR Research shows IBM (NYSE: IBM) "is well ahead of its traditional competitors" doing SOA-related client work.

According to the AMR Research report, "SOA: The State of the Market" by research director Ian Finley, more than 67 percent of companies surveyed indicated they were either currently using or considering using IBM SOA consulting services. This figure was 40 percent higher than the results for the next-closest firm, which was named by fewer than half of respondents.

According to the AMR Research report, IBM's SOA-related software products -- based on its WebSphere portfolio -- were being used or considered by 63 percent of companies with active SOA projects.

Just more than half of the companies surveyed by AMR Research said they are currently working with IBM on SOA consulting engagements. The report also noted that, "While IBM's leadership is understandable, given its leading SOA product suite and concerted marketing efforts; its degree of penetration in companies with active SOA projects is impressive."
IBM offers the most comprehensive portfolio of software, services and hardware for building, maintaining and extending SOA environments. IBM has the largest number of SOA clients, with more than 5,700 SOA engagements all over the world.

"IBM's ability to deliver both the services and products that clients require to help them to realize the business value a true SOA environment sets us apart from any other company in the marketplace," said Robert LeBlanc, General Manager, Global Consulting Services and SOA, IBM Global Business Services. "Our market leadership shows that IBM is listening to clients' needs and responding with the capabilities to help them attain new levels of business value."
SOA is among the fastest-growing segments of the information technology industry.

For more information on IBM's SOA capabilities, visit www.ibm.com/soa
Source: AMR Research, Inc. report: "SOA: The State of the Market," by Ian Finley, Tuesday, December 18, 2007.

IBM Launches Center for CIO Leadership

To address the increasing role that Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are playing in developing and executing business strategies, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today the creation of the Center for CIO Leadership. The Center will bring together executive leaders, academics and other experts from around the world to build practical research and executive development initiatives focused on advancing the CIO profession.

The Center for CIO Leadership will serve as a global community for CIOs through which they can collaborate and learn in order to uncover opportunities where Information Technology will drive business value. The Center -- led by Executive Director, Harvey Koeppel -- will be governed by an advisory council comprised of leading CIOs as well as professors from some of the world's most prestigious universities, including Harvard Business School, MIT and INSEAD.

In addition to creating unique research aimed at the concerns of today's CIOs, the Center will also provide new leadership development and other educational programs. Content for these online and classroom-based education programs will be based on CIO feedback, ongoing research, and outreach to executives with whom CIOs interact, such as CEOs, line-of-business leaders, boards of directors, and government leaders.

"The new Center for CIO Leadership will enable CIOs to share and learn in a community environment in a way that will enhance the profession," said Linda Sanford, senior vice president, IBM enterprise on demand transformation. "Our survey research indicates that CIOs and their teams are looking to break out and create new value and long term growth for their companies, and the education, learning and collaboration provided by the Center for CIO Leadership will help accomplish this."

As part of the opening of the Center, IBM launched the global 2007 CIO Leadership Survey. The Survey, conducted in collaboration with Harvard Business School and MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), included more than 175 CIOs from leading companies around the world.

"Practical research that addresses the needs of today's CIOs is a key pillar of the Center's mission. Understanding from CIOs themselves where they think the gaps are provides an excellent starting point to effect change," said Harvey Koeppel, the Center's executive director.

The Survey reveals that CIOs are increasingly becoming trusted members of the executive business team. Eighty percent of CIOs responded that they are a valued member of the senior leadership team, with 69 percent indicating significant involvement in strategic decision-making. Further, organizations whose CIOs have high levels of strategic involvement demonstrate higher levels of business model and product and service innovation, as well as shared, centralized IT services.

However, critical gaps remain. CIOs believe there are significant opportunities to further apply IT for competitive advantage in the areas of external partnering and reaching new markets. In addition, CIOs are also frustrated at their own skills in managing their career development, with only 37 percent considering themselves highly or exceptionally skilled in this regard. They also see a need to develop change management skills and political savvy in order to be more successful. Furthermore, they feel that the value of their work is not fully recognized from a business perspective. Only 35 percent of respondents felt that the value of IT was adequately measured within the enterprise.

IBM Introduces New Version of IMS Software

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled Information Management System (IMS) 10, a new hierarchical database management and transaction system that delivers enhanced XML and Web services capabilities, making easier for customers to better use information as a strategic asset by evolving existing business critical applications to Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) .

Initially developed to power the Apollo space program, IMS is recognized as the industry's first modern database and transaction management software. Over the past three decades, the reliability, security and performance of IMS has led it to become the backbone for much of the world's corporate data. In fact, almost ninety five percent of Fortune 1000 companies use IMS for their most critical IBM System z data management needs with more than 50 billion transactions running through IMS databases on a daily basis.
Today's announcement supports IBM's cross-company Information on Demand initiative which is helping global organizations use information for a competitive advantage. Specifically, IMS 10 features a range of new technologies and enhancements that will alter and improve the way information is stored, managed and accessed in mainframe computing environments.

"With IMS 10, standard XML Query language will be available to hierarchically structured data for the first time, delivering unprecedented versatility and information management options to IBM System z customers," said Arvind Krishna, vice president IBM data servers. "This will help customers simplify their development environments while continuing to realize the proven performance benefits and data integrity of IMS."

Early customer and partner tests and evaluations of IMS 10 have prompted overwhelmingly positive responses.

"A major part of Wachovia's SOA environment is supported by IMS, IBM WebSphere software and IBM eServer zSeries hardware," said Keith Harris, Manager of Architecture at Wachovia. "Wachovia has built a set of foundational and business services that it needs to support its delivery channels, such as its online banking, call center and interactive voice response channels. With the IMS Connect solution, users can access all of the client's core business applications -- such as its retail banking, customer information, and relationship and deposit systems -- on the IMS system. Currently, the SOA environment supporting the OLB channel supports over four million users."

The introduction of IMS 10 completes an upgrade of the entire IBM data server portfolio, including the new DB2 9 "Viper" and Informix (IDS) 11 "Cheetah" data servers, as well as new versions of the UniVerse and UniData (U2) data servers. During the first half of 2007, IBM outpaced its competitors in the database software industry -- generating double-digit revenue growth in consecutive quarters and gaining share.

New Technologies Strengthen Mainframe SOA Capabilities

The new IMS 10 includes:

New XQuery, Enhanced XML and Web Services Support - Opening up IMS data to off-the-shelf third party tools, such as those for query generation, and offering a standard, shareable integration point between IMS and other industry databases.
Broader XML and Java Tooling - Encourages new application development and expands connectivity by supporting open standards such as Web 2.0, XML, SOAP, Java, and JDBC.
Dynamic Resource Definition - Eases manageability, simplifying installation and operations which reduces total cost of ownership
Enhanced Database Recovery Control, Multiple Systems Coupling and Security - Increases scalability with availability, recovery, performance, security and capacity enhancements
In addition, the IMS SOAP Gateway, which enables as web services IMS transactions for interoperation with client applications independent of location, programming language, and platform, has been enhanced to provide z/OS environment, PL/I applications and Asynchronous Callout support. This is in addition to its earlier support for COBOL applications and for Windows, AIX, and Linux on System z environments. This new support has been well received by IMS customers including automaker Volvo.

"The IMS SOAP gateway enables Volvo to exploit SOA in their development environment," said Anders Ohrnberg, Senior IMS Technical Specialist, Volvo Information Technology. "Because of this, we can inter-operate with applications independent of location, programming language and platform. This enables reuse and maximizes business flexibility."

IMS 10 will begin shipping worldwide on October 26. For more information about IBM, visit http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/ims/v10/launch.html

IBM Completes Acquisition of DataMirror

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has completed its acquisition of DataMirror Corporation (TSX: DMC), a publicly held company based in based in Markham, Ontario, Canada.

IBM announced an agreement to acquire DataMirror on July 16, 2007. DataMirror's operations will be integrated into IBM's Information Management software business.

IBM acquired DataMirror to advance its Information on Demand initiative, IBM's strategy for pursuing the growing market opportunity around helping clients capture insights from information so it can be used as a strategic asset. DataMirror is a provider of technology that identifies and captures data that has been added, updated or deleted and allows the changed data to be delivered in real time to processes, applications and databases. This ensures that continuous, trusted information is available for accurate and timely decision-making.

With today's announcement, IBM has completed 21 strategic acquisitions in support of its cross-company Information on Demand effort. The DataMirror acquisition also furthers two important growth areas for IBM's software business -- information integration and dynamic warehousing -- by delivering new, real-time capabilities to each.

DataMirror has approximately 220 employees and more than 2,200 customers, including Debenhams, FedEx Ground, First American Bank, Priority Health, Tiffany & Co. and Union Pacific Railroad.

For more information, go to http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/.

IBM and TDK Launch Joint Research & Development Project for Advanced MRAM

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and TDK Corporation today announced a joint research and development program to develop high capacity MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory) technology utilizing the spin momentum transfer effect. The companies believe that harnessing the spin momentum transfer effect will allow a much more compact memory cell than is possible with present approaches.

The companies will leverage their respective expertise in areas of fundamental research for new memory technology and magnetic device development to create a high density, high capacity MRAM integrated circuit which can be used as standalone memory or embedded into other IC solutions.
"This collaborative initiative reinforces IBM's commitment to explore new phenomena for memory applications," said Dr. T.C. Chen, vice president, Science and Technology, IBM Research. "The project will focus on creating and demonstrating advanced magnetic materials in demanding memory chip designs."

"This joint research and development will broaden the application of magnetic materials which has been TDK's core technology since 1935," said Mr. Minoru Takahashi, CTO, TDK Corporation.

IBM has been a leader in the development of MRAM memory technology and a pioneer in the fundamental research and development of the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) and in the prediction and study of the spin momentum transfer effect upon which the memory is based. TDK Corporation is the leader in applying MTJ technology into recording heads for Hard Disk Drives. Both companies have extensive research and patents in design and materials for magnetic data recording.

The research work will be conducted at IBM's TJ Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA, IBM's ASIC Design Center in Burlington, VT and TDK's subsidiary R&D Center in Milpitas, CA.

MRAM offers significant advantages over competing memory technologies including low power usage, high speed, unlimited endurance (read and write cycles), and inherent non-volatility (retains data without the need for continued power). Market adoption of MRAM has been limited by the inability to cost effectively increase capacity. Spin momentum transfer technology enables MRAM to significantly reduce cell size and thereby increase capacity cost-effectively while maintaining the low power, endurance and non-volatility advantages, potentially making MRAM a preferred solution for memory applications in the automotive, cell phone, handheld computing, and industrial controls.

For more information about IBM Research, visit http://www.ibm.com/research

For more information about TDK, visit http://www.tdk.co.jp/tetop01/index.htm

IBM Completes Acquisition of Watchfire

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that on July 20, 2007, it completed the acquisition of Watchfire Corporation, a privately held security and compliance testing software company based in Waltham, Massachusetts.



IBM announced a definitive agreement to acquire Watchfire, a leading provider of web application vulnerability assessment and compliance solutions, on June 6, 2007, to help customers guard against online security attacks and compliance breaches.

The acquisition extends the IBM Governance and Risk Management strategy by broadening security and compliance management capabilities in the software development lifecycle. Successfully managing IT governance and risk management as a lifecycle is critical as businesses today are facing increasing globalization, staggering regulatory complexity and an ever-evolving security threat landscape.

Watchfire helps customers manage web application security and web content quality and compliance to help ensure the business integrity of their online businesses. The combination of Watchfire and IBM will help customers integrate web application security and compliance management early on and throughout the software development process -- effectively allowing them to define, test and track the compliance of their applications with security, legal and corporate guidelines.

"For the past 11 years, Watchfire has provided customers with innovative and effective web application security software to help minimize exposure to personal information, customer records and corporate intellectual property," said Dr. Danny Sabbah, general manager, IBM Rational software. "Watchfire technology incorporated into the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform will help our customers address online security and compliance management requirements early in the software development process -- before their applications go live."

IBM is integrating its Rational software quality management solutions with Watchfire's security and compliance testing services to enhance and simplify the web application development process. With the ability to create applications with protective measures against attacks, infringement, and violations of compliance standards, customers will be able to deliver better products to market faster while reducing costs and improving efficiency in the application development process. As part of the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform, Watchfire also complements existing IBM Tivoli identity, access and compliance management software offerings and IBM Internet Security Systems by extending security and compliance testing as an integrated element of the application development lifecycle.

"Watchfire has long been committed to helping customers avoid online security breaches," said Peter McKay, vice president, Watchfire, IBM Rational software and former CEO of Watchfire Corporation. "With the Watchfire technology fully integrated into the Rational portfolio, our customers will be able to guard against online attacks long before they happen. By integrating Watchfire technology early in the software development process, IBM will help customers deliver more secure and compliant applications to the market."

In addition to Watchfire, IBM has added several governance and risk management capabilities through recent acquisitions in its Global Technology Services and Software Group divisions, including Internet Security Systems, Consul, FileNet and Micromuse.

For more information, visit www.ibm.com/rational

IBM to Acquire DataMirror to Deliver Real-Time Information on Demand

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and DataMirror Corporation (TSX: DMC) today announced an agreement for IBM to acquire DataMirror based in Markham, Ontario. Under the Arrangement Agreement, IBM will acquire all of the outstanding DataMirror common shares at a price of C$27.00 per common share payable in cash, amounting to total consideration of approximately C$170 million (approximately $161 million USD).

DataMirror is a provider of technology that identifies and captures data that has been added, updated or deleted and allows the changed data to be delivered in real time to processes, applications and databases, ensuring that continuous, accurate and trusted information is available for decision-making.

"Organizations need the ability to capture and use information in real-time to help them make better business decisions, better serve their customers and increase operational efficiencies," said Ambuj Goyal, general manager, IBM Information Management. "The combination of DataMirror technology and IBM information management software will help customers bring real-time data analysis closer to actual business processes, allowing them to be more competitive and to generate more value from their information."

"IBM's global reach and industry leading integration solutions will rapidly expand the impact of DataMirror software," said Nigel Stokes, chief executive officer and founder, DataMirror. "This transaction represents a validation of the hard work of the DataMirror team over the last ten years, and an opportunity for our customers to continue to leverage our unique solutions."

The acquisition of DataMirror will further IBM's cross-company Information on Demand business initiative, aimed at capturing the growing market opportunity for enabling customers to use information as a competitive and strategic business asset. IBM's strategy is to provide customers with the data they need -- when they need it -- to help them quickly respond to changing market demands, rapidly identify new business opportunities, and improve business results.

For example, with DataMirror technology, a retailer can incorporate information from point of sale systems into a data warehouse in real-time and automatically trigger important business decisions and events, such as replenishing low stock based on current sales and inventory figures. Likewise, a telecommunications company's billing system information can be integrated into customer resource management systems for a near real-time view of customers.

Following completion of the acquisition, IBM intends to:

Integrate DataMirror with IBM's Information Management Software unit led by General Manager Ambuj Goyal.
Employ DataMirror software to support IBM Information Server, IBM's first-of-a-kind information integration platform, making it easier for clients to apply real-time data integration techniques from a single platform across their businesses.
Utilize DataMirror technology to bring heterogeneous real time change data capture to clients.

DataMirror has approximately 220 employees and more than 2,200 customers including Debenhams, FedEx Ground, First American Bank, Priority Health, Tiffany & Co., and Union Pacific Railroad.

The acquisition is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. It is anticipated to close in the third calendar quarter of 2007.

The desire by businesses to access, manage and deliver information more efficiently is driving rapid change in the information technology marketplace. Companies grappling with business demands are striving to capture and integrate information in a more seamless, real-time fashion across their enterprises. The combination of IBM and DataMirror allows both sets of customers to utilize DataMirror's industry leading data-change event capture technology together with the industry's most powerful information integration platform, IBM Information Server, delivering more value to customers by allowing information integration to be driven at the speed of business.

About IBM

For more information about IBM, go to http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/

About DataMirror

DataMirror, a leading provider of real-time data integration and data protection solutions, improves the integrity and reliability of information across all of the systems that create and store data. DataMirror's flexible and innovative integration solutions allow customers to easily and continuously detect, translate, and communicate all information changes throughout the enterprise. DataMirror helps customers make better decisions by providing access to the continuous, accurate information they need to take timely action and move forward faster. More than 2,200 companies have gained tangible competitive advantage from DataMirror software. DataMirror is headquartered in Markham, Canada, and has offices around the globe. For more information, visit www.datamirror.com

Information About the Transaction

This transaction reflects significant value for DataMirror shareholders, representing a premium of 19.42 percent over the twenty-day volume weighted average trading price of C$22.61 for DataMirror common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The Arrangement Agreement has been reviewed by a Special Committee of the Board of Directors of DataMirror and has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of DataMirror following the unanimous recommendation of the Special Committee. The Board of Directors of DataMirror unanimously recommends that the shareholders vote in favour of the transaction. PageMill Partners, LLC acted as financial advisor to DataMirror, and the Special Committee and the Board of Directors have received an opinion from Orion Securities Inc. that the consideration offered under the transaction is fair, from a financial point of view, to DataMirror shareholders. The fairness opinion of Orion Securities Inc. will be included in the meeting materials to be sent to DataMirror shareholders. Holders of 2,543,669 DataMirror common shares, representing approximately 40.3% of DataMirror's outstanding common shares, have agreed to vote in favour of the transaction.

The transaction will be carried out by way of a statutory plan of arrangement. Subject to court approval, the transaction must be approved by not less than two-thirds of the votes cast by DataMirror shareholders at a special meeting of shareholders expected to be held on or about August 24, 2007. Closing is subject to certain other conditions, including receipt of applicable regulatory approvals.

Shareholders may obtain a copy of the Arrangement Agreement, management information circular, and other meeting materials when they become available at www.sedar.com.

IBM and APC Partner to Create Energy Efficient Green Data Center for Bryant University

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it has implemented the IBM Scalable Modular Data Center at Bryant University, in order to meet the school's technology requirements of its growing enrollment while simultaneously being energy conscious by implementing a "green data center." The IBM Scalable Modular Data Center is a cost saving, energy efficient solution that was rapidly deployed as a pre-engineered data center, using IBM Global Services' capabilities, coupled with APC's InfraStruXure® data center architecture.

In addition to these services, Bryant replaced their Sun Microsystems hardware infrastructure with IBM Power processor-based BladeCenter servers running Linux and IBM virtualization software technology, driving higher utilization rates and helping save energy costs. These technologies are part of Project Big Green, a plan which IBM recently announced to help clients sharply reduce data center energy consumption.

Founded in 1863, Smithfield, R.I.-based Bryant University has a history of excellence and innovation, both academically and technologically. The university prides itself on being wired with "one port per pillow" in each of its dorm rooms, but as the university was growing, its three data centers were not able to handle enterprise information technology (IT) for either communication or computing. After years of working with both IBM and APC, Bryant University learned about their alliance and turned to them to create this new solution.

"In the past 10 years, Bryant University has added 144,000 square feet of new facilities and has experienced a 300 percent rise in applications," said Arthur Gloster, CIO of Bryant University. "We were not properly set up to handle this growth and it was time for Bryant University to make a cost-saving and energy efficient change. The IBM Scalable Modular Data Center solution allows us to concentrate on continuing to provide the student body, faculty and staff with the tools necessary to succeed."

The Scalable Modular Data Center service product is available from IBM's Site and Facilities Services business unit. IBM's data center design and build experience and services expertise are utilized to bring the solution to clients. Scalable Modular Data Center services include data center strategy, data center design, server and storage integration, relocation planning, project management, infrastructure equipment sourcing, installation services and management, data center testing and start-up management. The entire solution can be implemented in eight to 12 weeks and is 15 percent less expensive than traditional data center builds.

"IBM's long history and expertise with data center implementations enabled us to create a solution to save energy and ensure efficient server performance for Bryant University," said Steven Sams, vice president of IBM Global Site and Facilities Services. "IT departments won't be as concerned with growing energy costs when selecting the IBM Scalable Modular Data Center solution, which provides an efficient, reliable and secure data center."

The IBM Scalable Modular Data Center solution uses the APC InfraStruXure design, which integrates power, cooling, rack, management, services and security, allowing for selection of standardized components to create a solution through modular configurations. By using standardized components, the architecture easily scales to meet the evolving needs of the university.

"Bryant University is the beneficiary of what happens when two leading companies combine to create the best of both worlds," said Dave Johnson, senior vice president and chief sales officer at APC-MGE. "IBM and APC have created an energy efficient solution that addresses Bryant's current and future IT needs. By adopting a scalable, modular approach to building its new data center, the university also realized increased speed in system design and deployment. This enabled the university to move quickly from design to commissioning the system."

About Bryant University

More information about Bryant University is available at www.bryant.edu

About IBM

More information about IBM Site and Facilities Services and IBM Scalable Modular Data Center is available at www.ibm.com/services/siteandfacilities, and more information about IBM's Project Big Green and efforts around the green data center is available at www.ibm.com/press/greendatacenter.

About APC-MGE

APC and MGE UPS Systems recently combined to form a $3 billion (EUR 2.4 billion) Critical Power & Cooling Services business unit of Schneider Electric. Together, APC and MGE offer the industry's most comprehensive product and solution range for critical IT and process applications in industrial, enterprise, small and medium business and home environments. APC and MGE solutions include uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), precision cooling units, racks, and design and management software, including APC's InfraStruXure architecture the industry's only integrated power, cooling, and management solution. Backed by the industry's broadest service organization and an industry leading R&D investment, the combined company's 12,000 employees help customers confront today's unprecedented power, cooling and management challenges. Schneider Electric, with 112,000 employees and operations in 190 countries, had 2006 annual sales of $18 billion (EUR 13.7 billion). For more information on APC and MGE, please visit www.apc-mge.com. All trademarks are the property of their owners.

IBM Brings Collaboration and Search Together to Enhance Enterprise Information Access

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today introduced enhanced enterprise search software designed to allow users to quickly and securely search intranet portals, databases, public Web sites and file systems to obtain results highly-relevant to their individual needs.

The new version of IBM's OmniFind Enterprise Edition search software provides a single interface for enterprise search, discovery and analysis for IBM Lotus Domino environments. The new software also delivers an unprecedented view into the rich content that can be exposed when the Lotus software platform is mined from a seamless enterprise search interface. Also announced today are new security and search capabilities for WebSphere clients.

By providing full-text indexing and search of Domino databases, users can find and access information stored in IBM Lotus Document Manager, IBM Lotus Quickr and in IBM Lotus QuickPlace documents, as well as other enterprise information from applications, repositories and shared files from across an organization. New Web 2.0 features in the OmniFind Enterprise Edition administrative console make it easy to customize the search application and preview changes immediately.

With extensive server-side support for Lotus Domino, the new software enhances search and sharing of business-critical information like collaborative documents, presentations, specifications and other files, improving productivity and knowledge sharing. OmniFind Enterprise Edition also provides an ideal foundation for enterprise search and text analytics strategies for organizations that need to easily access all their information.

CB&I, a global engineering, procurement and construction company specializing in large-scale, turnkey projects, relies on IBM OmniFind Enterprise Edition to manage the challenge of sharing knowledge and expertise of the company's 13,000 employees spread across 60 locations. With information stored in more than 50 project-specific databases along with myriad other sources -- customer account and contact applications, document distribution and project control systems, Lotus Domino files and even local file servers in each office -- employees can now use a single search interface to access project-related information, knowledge and specialized expertise spread across the enterprise.

"With OmniFind software, we can now provide our staff with fast access to documents that they might not have even known existed," said John Shaull, senior technical analyst, CB&I. "Employees have told us that this is making their jobs easier, which, in turn, is increasing staff productivity and efficiency. The OmniFind implementation beat our expectations and was in place well ahead of schedule. Additionally, the administration and maintenance of the software is much easier than we had anticipated."

IBM OmniFind Enterprise Edition delivers rich indexing of all Lotus Domino fields including attachments, as well as fielded search. It also understands the structure of Lotus Notes databases and comes with pre-built support for Lotus Quickr, Lotus QuickPlace and Domino.Doc databases, Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Exchange as well as the ability to crawl IBM Workplace Web Content Management.

Additionally, the software provides scalable and secure enterprise search directly from within IBM WebSphere Portal. This provides WebSphere Portal clients the ability to scale to millions of documents and provides secure search of non-Web enterprise content sources. It also allows WebSphere Portal clients to conduct searches through the familiar WebSphere Search Center portlet or the OmniFind portlet directly through WebSphere Portal using native security.

OmniFind Enterprise Edition has the ability to bring conceptual understanding to keyword search through semantic interpretation and can also serve as a platform for text analytics applications. Using the advanced information extraction capabilities through the Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA), an open source framework for building advanced search and text analytics applications, OmniFind Enterprise Edition enables users to search for facts and concepts within the underlying content. It also includes a sample text analytics configuration to detect phone numbers, URLs and e-mail addresses included together with a matching synonym dictionary.

The new version of IBM OmniFind Enterprise Edition optimized for Lotus Domino and WebSphere Portal supports Lotus Domino on Linux, Windows, and System i platforms. It comes with pre-built crawlers for WebSphere Portal Document Manager, WebSphere Portal Web pages and Workplace Web Content Management. The software is currently available from IBM and IBM Business Partners.

For more information visit: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/enterprise-search/omnifind-enterprise/

IBM Expands High Performance Computing Capabilities for Clusters

IBM Introduces Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 for IBM Clusters; Microsoft Deploys IBM System Cluster 1350 for AIDS Research
IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today the availability of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 for the IBM System Cluster 1350, to help enable more mid-market and enterprise clients -- including those in life sciences, computer-aided engineering (CAE) and financial services -- to take advantage of high-performance cluster computing. IBM also announced today expanded server, storage and networking options for the cluster solution, to help provide unprecedented levels of speed, choice and flexibility for high performance computing environments.


"IBM has successfully enabled clients to leverage clusters for high-end supercomputing work for over six years," said Wendy McGee, director, IBM Cluster Solutions. "Today by combining leading IBM systems and storage along with the familiar computing interface from Microsoft and new networking offerings from Cisco, IBM has extended high performance computing capabilities to a broader client base."

Microsoft Research is using the IBM System Cluster 1350 to aid in HIV vaccine research. To run simulations of how the HIV virus mutates in response to attacks by the immune system, Microsoft researchers required a system that could manage massive amounts of computation with a technology interface that was easy to use. Using Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (CCS) on the IBM cluster has enabled researchers to achieve at least 100 CPU years of results in less than two years, and run simulations 50 percent faster than before.

"Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 running on the IBM System Cluster 1350 has allowed us to dramatically increase the speed at which we process calculations critical to HIV vaccine research," said David Heckerman, lead researcher of Microsoft Research's Machine Learning and Applied Statistics Group. "We have been able to provide relevant solutions for our client base and leverage the same leading technology solutions for our own efforts to advance AIDS Research."

High performance computing clusters can range from as few as two to thousands of servers woven together to deliver high-speed performance demanded by a broad range of applications. IBM hardware offerings in this space include the IBM System Cluster 1350, an integrated, factory built and tested cluster with networking from leading vendors, as well as System x, System p and BladeCenter servers and IBM System Storage. For customers interested in running Microsoft Windows CCS along with IBM's latest cluster technology, the IBM benchmarking center at the IBM Customer Center in Montpellier, France just added a new program on customer benchmarking around Microsoft-based clusters.

Product Details and Availability

Today IBM updated the System Cluster 1350 to include IBM multi-core processor-based BladeCenter and System x servers, IBM System Storage and networking technologies from Cisco, SMC and Voltaire. The new systems include Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor technology to enhance high performance computing with more capability. The clustered system is also designed to leverage Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), and now supports the SLES10 operating system.

Products available in the new IBM System Cluster 1350 portfolio today include:

IBM BladeCenter and System x servers featuring multi-core and dual-core processors from AMD and Intel, including: BladeCenter HS21-XM, HS21, LS21, LS41; and System x3550, x3650, x3455, x3655, x3755
New storage options, including: IBM System Storage DS3400 SAS/SATA Fiber Channel Host Interface, DS3200 SAS Host Interface, EXP 3000 (SAS/SATA)
New networking options, including a range of both Ethernet and InfiniBand switches from Cisco, SMC and Voltaire.
IBM System Cluster 1350 pricing will vary depending upon specific configuration.

For more information about IBM, go to: www.ibm.com

IBM Blue Genes Dominate List of Fastest Supercomputers

IBM's (NYSE: IBM) Blue Gene®/L supercomputer continued its four-year reign atop the TOP500 Supercomputer Sites list announced today. IBM systems account for 42% of the combined computational might of the planet's most powerful computers -- more than any other supercomputer vendor, according to the list.

In addition, the development version of IBM's newest Blue Gene/P solution(1) burst onto the list at number 30. Launched yesterday, the two-rack test system delivers 20.86 teraflops in a space the size of two refrigerator-sized racks. When it is fully scaled out, Blue Gene/P can be configured to reach up to three petaflops -- or three thousand trillion calculations per second.

IBM dominates the Top 10 with a total of six systems -- four of them Blue Gene supercomputers. The number one Blue Gene/L system, installed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, delivers a sustained performance of 280.6 trillion operations per second or teraflops.

IBM systems account for 46 of the Top 100. Thirty-nine of them are built on IBM's POWER® architecture hardware running versions of Unix (AIX) and Linux software.

This year, two new IBM Blue Gene supercomputers entered into the Top 10. "New York Blue," at the New York Center for Computational Science in Stony Brook, N.Y., and the Blue Gene system at the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

Joining the Blue Gene/L system at Lawrence Livermore in the TOP500 list's Top 10 are IBM Watson Research Lab's own Blue Gene system at 91.29 teraflops. In addition to Blue Gene systems, IBM's POWER-based ASC Purple supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is number six.

IBM's MareNostrum supercomputer, built on IBM BladeCenter JS21 blade servers and located at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, retained its position as the most powerful supercomputer in Europe, ranking number 9 on the overall list. IBM also has the biggest system in China, a BladeCenter cluster at Sinopec ShengLI Oilfield Branch Company, Geophysical Research Institute.

Based on IBM's POWER Architecture, the IBM System Blue Gene Solution is optimized for bandwidth, scalability and the ability to handle large amounts of data while consuming a fraction of the power and floor space required by today's fastest systems. A variety of industries are using Blue Gene systems to advance their research capabilities for life sciences, financial modeling, hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, astronomy and space research and climate modeling.

The "TOP500 Supercomputer Sites" is compiled and published by supercomputing experts Jack Dongarra from the University of Tennessee, Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim (Germany). The entire list can be viewed at www.top500.org

IBM Triples Performance of World's Fastest, Most Energy-Efficient Supercomputer: New Blue Gene/P Designed to Break the Quadrillion Barrier

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced Blue Gene/P, the second generation of the world's most powerful supercomputer. Blue Gene/P nearly triples the performance of its predecessor, Blue Gene/L -- currently the world's fastest computer -- while remaining the most energy-efficient and space-saving computing package ever built.

The result is a machine that towers over other systems. It enables science and commercial supercomputing to attack vital problems in ways never before possible -- modeling an entire human organ to determine drug interactions, for example. Drug researchers could run simulated clinical trials on 27 million patients in one afternoon using just a sliver of the machine's full power.

The IBM® System Blue Gene®/P Solution scales to operate continuously at speeds exceeding one "petaflop" -- or one-quadrillion operations per second. The system is 100,000 times more powerful than a home PC and can process more operations in one second than the combined power of a stack of laptop computers nearly 1.5 miles high. The Blue Gene/P supercomputer can be configured to reach speeds in excess of three petaflops, a performance level that many thought unattainable only a few short years ago.


"Blue Gene/P marks the evolution of the most powerful supercomputing platform the world has ever known," said Dave Turek, vice president of deep computing, IBM. "A new group of commercial users will be able to take advantage of its new, simplified programming environment and unrivaled energy efficiency. We see commercial interest in the Blue Gene supercomputer developing now in energy and finance, for example. This is on course with an adoption cycle -- from government labs to leading enterprises -- that we've seen before in the high-performance computing market."

A Green Design Ahead of its Time

The Blue Gene® supercomputer line was born from a visionary IBM initiative to develop a hugely scalable and highly reliable scientific computing platform. With Blue Gene, designers sidestepped two key constraints on state-of-the-art supercomputing -- power usage and space requirements. The Blue Gene supercomputer was purpose-built to fit in smaller spaces and use less electricity compared to other commercially available designs. Today, the Blue Gene/P supercomputer is at least seven times more energy efficient than any other supercomputer.

The influence of the Blue Gene supercomputer's energy-efficient design and computing model -- once considered exotic -- can be seen everywhere in the industry where people have attempted to lower energy use and get performance without traditional reliance on chip frequency. The breakthrough BlueGene supercomputer design uses many small, low-power embedded chips each connected through five specialized networks inside the system.

Some of the world's leading research laboratories and universities have already placed orders for Blue Gene/P supercomputers. The U.S. Dept. of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ill., will deploy the first Blue Gene/P supercomputer in the U.S. beginning later this year. In Germany, the Max Planck Society and Forschungszentrum Julich also plan to begin installing Blue Gene/P systems in late 2007. Additional Blue Gene/P system rollouts are being planned by Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, England.

"We view the installation of the Blue Gene/P system as the next phase of a strategic partnership furthering advances in computation in support of breakthrough science," said Robert Rosner, director, Argonne National Laboratory.

At FZ Julich, where researchers have been using a Blue Gene/L machine for two years, a Blue Gene/P system will allow for more breakthrough science -- in such areas as particle physics and nanotech, for example -- while keeping the research facility within acceptable power budgets. "The big computing power at low electricity rates allows us to boost the performance of very complex and computationally intensive algorithms," said Thomas Lippert, director of the supercomputing center at FZ Julich.

Inside the Fastest Computer Ever Built

Like its predecessor, the Blue Gene/P supercomputer is a modular design, composed of "racks" that can be added as requirements grow.

Four IBM® (850 MHz) PowerPC® 450 processors are integrated on a single Blue Gene/P chip. Each chip is capable of 13.6 billion operations per second. A two-foot-by-two-foot board containing 32 of these chips churns out 435 billion operations every second, making it more powerful than a typical, 40-node cluster based on two-core commodity processors. Thirty-two of the compact boards comprise the 6-foot-high racks. Each rack runs at 13.9 trillion operations per second, 1,300 times faster than today's fastest home PC.

The one-petaflop Blue Gene/P supercomputer configuration is a 294,912-processor, 72-rack system harnessed to a high-speed, optical network. The Blue Gene/P system can be scaled to an 884,736-processor, 216-rack cluster to achieve three-petaflop performance. A standard Blue Gene/P supercomputer configuration will house 4,096 processors per rack.

For Programmers, Friendlier Interfaces & Application Compatibility Speed Productivity

There are some key differences between Blue Gene/L and Blue Gene/P supercomputers. In hardware, the Blue Gene/P supercomputer moves to more (four vs two) and speedier (850 MHz vs 700 MHz) processors per chip; more memory and an SMP mode to support multi-threaded applications. This new SMP mode moves the Blue Gene/P system to a programming environment similar to that found in commercial clusters. The Blue Gene/P supercomputer dramatically scales up collective network performance to minimize common bottlenecks inherent in large parallel-computing systems. Software marks the third key upgrade for the Blue Gene/P solution -- system management, programming environment and applications support have all been refined in Blue Gene/P.

In Germany, a Blue Gene/P supercomputer will become the platform for new applications scaled for petaflop-level performance at the Max Planck society. "The next-generation Blue Gene system will improve our capacity to prepare, develop and optimize applications from the Max Planck Society for future peta-scale computing," said Hermann Lederer, head of application support at Max Planck's RZG/Garching Computing Center.

The Blue Gene supercomputer operating system is based on the open-source Linux operating system. Applications are written in common languages such as Fortran, C and C++ using standards-based MPI communications protocols. The Blue Gene/P supercomputer is compatible with the diverse applications currently running on the Blue Gene/L supercomputer, including leading research in physics, chemistry, biology, aerospace, astrophysics, genetics, materials science, cosmology and seismology.

A variety of independent software vendors have plans to port existing tools and applications to the Blue Gene/P supercomputer. These include Gene Network Sciences, TotalView Technologies, Inc., Tsunami Development LLC and Visual Numerics, developers of IMSL.

For more information, go to: http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/deepcomputing/bluegene.html

Broadcast-quality video clips of Blue Gene systems, and of IBM Vice President David Turek discussing Blue Gene/P are available for download by journalists at http://www.thenewsmarket.com/ibm

IBM and OECD to Focus on Global Collaboration for Innovation

IBM (NYSE: IBM) has contributed a new social computing software called 'Many Eyes' for use during the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) World Forum on Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies, this week in Istanbul. The innovative technology allows for the democratization of complex data by enabling users to upload any type of data and collaborate on the analysis of that information.

For example, Many Eyes users are currently uploading publicly available or personally gathered data regarding local or global issues -- such as tax rates, crime statistics, global warming, water safety, and healthcare -- and are offering opinions and insights on these topics. The information is displayed in a dynamic, easy to understand format that allows for real-time knowledge sharing.

IBM and OECD representatives believe that social computing software will help people from all over the world make more informed decisions and create a new level of civic dialogue about the issues affecting them in their communities, their countries and at a global level.

Nick Donofrio, IBM's executive vice president, Innovation and Technology, and a keynote speaker at the OECD World Forum, will address the issue of collaboration on a global level. "Nations, institutions and enterprises must work together to create a climate and culture for innovation; one that embraces cross-border, cross-organizational and cross-disciplinary collaboration," said Donofrio. "Innovation is more than just the availability and accessibility of information technology; it is fostered when information technology combines with deep insight to create new value for business, government, academia and our global society."

"Global discussion based on solid statistics allows society to understand its current state and provides a base from which to make progress and innovate," said Enrico Giovannini, Director of Statistics and Chief Statistician of OECD. "Providing OECD's 2007 Factbook data to the public offers citizens around the world an opportunity to collectively explore, discuss and tackle the societal challenges of our time."

IBM's Many Eyes enables users to upload and view large amounts of complex scientific data or playful, social content. Communities of people can then explore, discuss, and collaborate on visual content. Current data sets and visualizations reflect a diverse range of interests, including scientific (temperature and CO2 levels over time), political (U.S. political party affiliation over time), global (fertility rates around the world), and financial (venture capital investment in Europe). The addition of OECD 2007 Factbook data to Many Eyes will enable an even broader range of discussion, as data on health, science and technology, trade, GDP, energy use, education, and other globally relevant topics will now be available.

IBM and OECD will demonstrate the innovative technology during the conference by providing access to the OECD 2007 Factbook information guide to the general public. The data can be accessed by visiting http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes and searching for OECD Factbook. The Factbook includes information on a variety of issues such as the environment, individual country economies, and healthcare. Concerned citizens, leaders, and institutions all over the world are invited to upload other sources of data they think are relevant to major world issues and to engage in debate and discussion using the technology.

The OECD World Forum (June 27-30, 2007) will bring together representatives from public and private sectors, and developed, developing and emerging countries for discussions on "Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies" (see www.oecd.org/oecdworldforum). Key world issues, such as changes in climate, health, and economic globalisation, are among the topics that more than 900 ministers, parliamentarians, academicians, business executives, and non-governmental organizations from over 100 countries will explore.

For more information on IBM, please visit www.ibm.com and for more information on OECD, please visit www.oecd.org

IBM Data Center Technology Helps Solar-Powered Web Hosting Firm AISO.Net Build on Its 'Green' Commitment to Customers

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that AISO.Net, the world's first and only 100 percent solar-powered Web hosting company, has completed a massive data center consolidation initiative using IBM technology, resulting in a 60 percent reduction in overall power and cooling costs associated with the company's IT operations.

Romoland, Calif.-based AISO.Net worked with IBM and IBM Business Partner Sirius Computer Solutions to overhaul its data center and implement a high-end, scalable technology infrastructure solution based on the IBM Cool Blue portfolio that will help the company better serve its dedicated and shared hosting clients. IBM's Cool Blue portfolio is a gathering of IBM hardware and software technologies that allow customers to increase their energy efficiency in the data center.

"For the past decade, AISO.Net has used solar power to power our data center and network, providing customers with environmentally friendly Web hosting," said Phil Nail, technology manager, AISO.Net. "As a result of the tremendous growth in Web hosting and dedicated server client demand, we were faced with the dilemma of how to remain true to our commitment to the environment and continue to see rapid, top-line growth."

Faced with the challenges of rising hardware costs and maxed-out capacity within its data center, AISO.Net initiated a strategy to gain greater control over computing resources, while continuing to deliver high-quality performance to its customer base. After a four-month planning process and three months of implementation, AISO.Net was able to meet its efficiency goals. Data center consolidation through virtualization eased the strain on AISO.Net's solar panel system and helped ensure the company's 100 percent commitment to solar power. This was a significant accomplishment for AISO.Net, which had already eliminated nearly 10 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year from its operations by relying solely on 120 solar panels to generate power.

AISO.Net, by filling their data center with IBM System x3650 servers and introducing IBM Virtualization and IBM partner technologies, has achieved its goal of dramatically improving its internal energy efficiency while also continuing to reduce its environmental impact.

"AISO.Net's success in optimizing its data center is an excellent example of the work we are doing with clients through IBM's recently announced Energy Efficiency Initiative, called Project Big Green," said Rich Lechner, vice president of IT Optimization, IBM. "The $1 billion industry commitment that we launched in May 2007 to help our customers become more energy efficient, combined with our ongoing drive to help clients virtualize more and manage less, is resulting in outstanding, real-world examples like AISO.Net."

In addition to the immediate reduction in data center energy demands, the technology solution delivered by IBM Business Partner Sirius Computer Solutions also freed up space on AISO.Net's existing servers, eliminated the need to budget for new servers and solar panels for the foreseeable future and guaranteed 99.9% availability of data to customers, while also increasing the company's server utilization rate by more than 50%.

"We are finding that customers of all sizes and scopes are interested in more energy efficient computing," said Chris Lusk, VP of Systems and Storage at Sirius Computer Solutions. "Technologies like virtualization are helping them reduce their energy consumption. It is great to be able to offer companies like AISO.Net with solutions that advance green computing."

Nail, of AISO.Net, was recently named one of InfoWorld Magazine's top CTOs of 2007. The annual list honors 25 innovative senior IT executives who've demonstrated leadership within their companies and the IT community. Nail was commended for AISO.Net's commitment to "green" technologies in the data center and as an overall business practice.

About AISO.Net

AISO.Net has been a trusted name in environmentally friendly web hosting since 1997, providing a level of service that is unmatched in the industry. All network and server hardware is fully redundant with 24x7-automated systems monitoring to ensure the highest possible uptime. Using solar panels to power its data center and network, AISO.Net is the first and only 100% completely solar powered web hosting company in the world. Customers as far away as Kenya, East Africa rely on the service and reliability offered by AISO.Net.

About Sirius Computer Solutions

Sirius (www.siriuscom.com) is a national IT solution provider and IBM Premier Business Partner dedicated to helping customers implement advanced infrastructure solutions that provide a competitive advantage and a positive return on their investment. Backed by 26 years of IT experience, Sirius has a certified team of sales and technical professionals with the skills, product knowledge and commitment to help customers develop and implement the right solution to solve their business needs.

CSCO: Cisco and IBM Expand Alliance to Centralize Service Management for Service Providers

Cisco® and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an expansion of their existing strategic alliance to deliver new standards-based telecommunications service assurance and fault-management solutions. Next month, Cisco will introduce a service-management solution that combines Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA) technology with the industry-leading IBM Tivoli software to help service providers centrally manage new services. The new offering, Cisco Assurance Management Solution, will provide network fault monitoring, trouble isolation, and real-time service-level event management for large multi-vendor networks on a next-generation mediation platform.

Using the Cisco ANA platform mediation capabilities and IBM Tivoli technology, the Cisco Assurance Management Solution will help service provider customers change and evolve network devices and configurations without having to change their service management and operations support systems applications. This solution will enable service providers to more effectively manage Internet Protocol (IP)-based services and help dramatically reduce implementation and maintenance costs.

"Cisco and IBM have a long history of working together to improve the competitiveness of our joint service provider customers," said Al Zollar, general manager of Tivoli Software for IBM. "This new agreement gives service providers the combined benefits of proven IBM Tivoli technology together with Cisco's breakthrough approach to network mediation with an open, standards-based solution. As IBM looks to help our service provider customers deliver higher return on their network and IT investments, Cisco is a natural partner."

The initial version of the Cisco Assurance Management Solution will include IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus and Netcool/Precision technology. Cisco is also able to incorporate other Tivoli technologies in future versions of assurance solutions. Cisco will offer professional services to help ensure rapid implementation by its customers.

"Cisco Active Network Abstraction is the basis of future solutions being delivered to our service provider customers. This expanded collaboration with IBM provides customers with the confidence that Cisco's new device management and mediation products will work with IBM software," said Cliff Meltzer, senior vice president of the Network Management Technology Group at Cisco. "The commitment from IBM demonstrates the unique capabilities of Cisco ANA and will provide our joint customers with a platform that transforms their network into a strategic business asset."

The Cisco ANA is designed to be interoperable with IBM Tivoli software, including Tivoli Netcool/Impact and Tivoli Business Service Manager. This expanded alliance will help enable both new and existing Tivoli Netcool and Cisco Info Center customers to effectively take advantage of the benefits of Cisco's ANA platform. Cisco Info Center is the Cisco-branded version of Tivoli Netcool which is used by more than 500 of Cisco's largest customers. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Since 1999, IBM and Cisco have forged a unique, broad-reaching strategic alliance to better enable their customers' ability to innovate. The IBM and Cisco strategic alliance has more than 25,000 joint customers. The companies are a proven resource for the seamless and rapid integration of business processes, industry knowledge, information technologies, and the intelligence of the network, maximizing their customers' ability to envision, design, and innovate to exceed business objectives.

For more information about Cisco Assurance Management Solution, Cisco ANA, and the collaboration, visit www.cisco.com/go/ana

IBM Tivoli Netcool software has been selected by more than 1,000 service providers globally, including all of the top 20 carriers. The software helps service providers ensure quality, reduce operational costs and speed time to market. IBM's recent acquisition of Vallent further extends IBM's ability to help service providers address emerging opportunities in next-generation network transformation, fixed/mobile convergence, and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) deployment.

For more information about IBM Tivoli and Tivoli Netcool software, visit www-306.ibm.com/software/tivoli/solutions/service-provider/ .