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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Breaking News -
Platforms:
IBM Plans First Openly
Customizable Microprocessor
IBM outlined plans to openly collaborate and build a community of
innovation
around its Power microprocessor architecture used in a vast range of products
from the world's most powerful enterprise systems and supercomputers to games
and embedded devices. The move could have major implications for computers and
the electronics industry at large.
This unprecedented step by IBM is designed to create a platform for
innovation
that enables researchers and electronics makers to add the features and
capabilities that will drive new devices and applications. The move recognizes
the fact that it is the final chip designs -- more than the underlying
architecture -- where innovation is taking place to create entire systems in
silicon, not just electronics components.
Web services, utility computing, .NET, CPU harvesting and distributed
computing are just a few of the technologies that fall under the Grid
computing umbrella. Gt04 -- a premiere enterprise Grid computing conference
targeting industrial and commercial users -- will gather experts, and outline
strategies and road maps for Grid deployment. For more information, visit
www.gt04.com.
Grid computing is here!
Also, for the first time, IBM demonstrated its upcoming POWER5
microprocessor
running multiple operating systems in virtual micropartitions. POWER5, which
is IBM's own high-end design using the Power Architecture, will drive future
versions of IBM's industry-leading server and storage systems. The PowerPC
implementation of Power Architecture will continue to serve the OEM
community.
At an event called Power Everywhere, IBM described how the Power
Architecture
is gaining momentum, including several major new licensing agreements,
customers, products and technology demonstrations. Most notable were new IBM
programs that incent other companies, business partners and university
researchers to use the technology to create a wide variety of chips that can
power a diverse set of electronics products.
Those steps include:
Broadening access: through expanded licensing, with Sony announced as
the
newest Power licensee. Encouraging innovation: jump starting a new open community with new
services centers and new, no-charge design tools. Opening development input: by exploring an open governance model to
guide
the future of Power Architecture. Expanding manufacturing options: enabling chip foundries to manufacture
Power chips.
"Power is the leading architecture for silicon innovation," said Nick
Donofrio, IBM senior vice president of technology and manufacturing. "In fact,
Power was designed from the ground up for massive scalability and is the most
customized processor in the world. The time is right to establish it as a more
open, modular and pervasive platform, accelerating the creation of next
generation devices, systems and applications."
New Licensee
New Customers
L-3 Communications announced it has signed an agreement with IBM that
could
be worth as much as $80M over the next five years. L-3 said it is working with
IBM on several fronts, including custom chips and other ways to leverage Power
Architecture designs in defense, aerospace and homeland security
applications. The Global Brands Manufacture Group, based in China, announced a
multi-million dollar agreement with IBM to explore using Power Architecture
technology in its consumer products, including desktop and notebook computers,
DVD players and digital cameras. GBM Group will work with IBM Engineering &
Technology Services to create these consumer solutions. Three customers -- Memory Experts International, Block/Goldring and
Christie Digital -- are replacing HP servers with Power-based eServer iSeries
systems to simplify their IT infrastructure and help lower costs. Princeton University announced it is installing a new Power-based
system
to
support research into areas such as Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury,
diabetes, strokes and heart disease. The results will be shared with more than
two dozen institutions worldwide.
New Product And Demonstration
Power Blade -- the IBM eServer BladeCenter JS20 -- the industry's first
blade system based on Power Architecture. The Medical College of Wisconsin
plans to implement the JS20 BladeCenter as the heart of the new computing
infrastructure for proteomics research. Researchers at the University of
Oregon Neuroinformatics Center will use the JS20 as part of an advanced Grid
computing infrastructure to apply high-performance computing to diagnosing and
treating brain-related conditions. Providing a peek at the coming era of "personal supercomputing," IBM
Research demonstrated a compact Power-based "BlueGene" supercomputer with 64
processors. The system provides a concept of the power of integration and
density, offering the potential for a world where enterprises and scientists
can easily and affordably access significant computing power to enable a new
generation of innovators.
New Community Support For Users
A portal for the Power Architecture community. This portal is the first
step in building a broader community around the Power Architecture, providing
a place to gather, find resources and begin establishing a governance model to
help guide future directions for innovation and collaboration. IBM introduced the Power Architecture Pack. The pack is a no-charge
evaluation kit that lets designers create custom Power chips in a simulation
environment. It can be downloaded at no charge from an IBM Web site and allows
engineers to simulate a system-on-chip design based on their own intellectual
property coupled with a Power processor. IBM will establish worldwide Power Architecture Centers to provide
customer
design assistance for Power chips, cards and systems. (Initially this support
will be available from IBM design engineers with an intent to add third party
expertise through a certification process.) IBM is also introducing an innovative software technology -- the first
of
its kind -- to help customers integrate custom chip and packaging design
technology. This "tool kit" will be available to IBM customers at no charge
and consists of three main elements: a graphical interface for chip designers,
an optimized package design tool and a verification tool to help ensure that
the final package design matches the chip designers specifications.
A New, Open Hardware Era
For years, individual computer chip and system suppliers have pursued their
own processor architectures, using the technical merits of one or another to
differentiate their products. But these differences have slowed innovation as
users of the technology have had to help manage inconsistencies and
incompatibilities that resulted and wait for innovation to take place at the
discretion of the technology's owner.
Now, with electronics-makers looking to add computer intelligence to a wide
array of products, a new chip design model is called for -- one that combines
the broad availability and low cost of a standard processor, yet provides the
freedom to modify and adapt it to the exact form needed. With this
announcement, IBM is creating the best of both worlds: a more open, standard
processor architecture from which customers can build exactly the chip they
need.
IBM also will explore the notion of opening up our community and
collaboration
around Power Architecture. We will look at new governance models that will
allow us to involve the community in Power Architecture's future and to help
set the stage for further innovation
The Power Architecture has already been used to create chips for everything
from game systems to PCs to servers to supercomputers. IBM has been the
leading producer of custom chips for five consecutive years, with Power cores
at the heart of nearly half the designs. Now, with more than half the world's
foundry capacity able to build chips based on Power Architecture, knowledge
centers around the world, a set of reference designs, a broad ecosystem of
partners, and widespread availability of tools, the adoption of Power is
expected to accelerate, in turn driving further software development and
continued advancement of the architecture.
Morphing Chips
In a presentation at Power Everywhere, Bernard Meyerson, chief technologist
of
IBM Systems & Technology Group disclosed that IBM is working on future Power
chips that can physically reconfigure themselves -- adding memory or
accelerators, for example -- to optimize performance or power utilization for
a specific application.
"In the future, the chip you have may not be the chip you bought," said
Meyerson.
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