Peter Sayer

Author Archives: Peter Sayer

IBM ends China’s 5-year reign atop supercomputer rankings

There’s a shake-up – and a scandal – in the Top500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.The U.S. has retaken first place in the Top500 list after five years of dominance by China. Computers built by IBM for the U.S. Department of Energy have pushed the previous two record-holders, both Chinese, into second and fourth place.[ Now see who's developing quantum computers.] But the previous fourth placeholder, Japan’s Gyoukou, is nowhere to be found, after one of its creators was arrested on suspicion of fraud.To read this article in full, please click here

IBM ends China’s 5-year reign atop supercomputer rankings

There’s a shake-up – and a scandal – in the Top500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.The U.S. has retaken first place in the Top500 list after five years of dominance by China. Computers built by IBM for the U.S. Department of Energy have pushed the previous two record-holders, both Chinese, into second and fourth place.[ Now see who's developing quantum computers.] But the previous fourth placeholder, Japan’s Gyoukou, is nowhere to be found, after one of its creators was arrested on suspicion of fraud.To read this article in full, please click here

Summit: How IBM and Oak Ridge laboratory are changing supercomputing

The team designing Oak Ridge National Laboratory's new Summit supercomputer correctly predicted the rise of data-centric computing – but its builders couldn't forecast how bad weather would disrupt the delivery of key components.Nevertheless, almost four years after IBM won the contract to build it, Summit is up and running on schedule. Jack Wells, Director of Science for Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), expects the 200-petaflop machine to be fully operational by early next year.[ Now see who's developing quantum computers.] "It's the world's most powerful and largest supercomputer for science," he said.To read this article in full, please click here

Summit: How IBM and Oak Ridge laboratory are changing supercomputing

The team designing Oak Ridge National Laboratory's new Summit supercomputer correctly predicted the rise of data-centric computing – but its builders couldn't forecast how bad weather would disrupt the delivery of key components.Nevertheless, almost four years after IBM won the contract to build it, Summit is up and running on schedule. Jack Wells, Director of Science for Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), expects the 200-petaflop machine to be fully operational by early next year.[ Now see who's developing quantum computers.] "It's the world's most powerful and largest supercomputer for science," he said.To read this article in full, please click here

Internet exchange points team up to bring better MANRS to the internet

Spreading bad routing information to your neighbors on the internet isn’t just bad manners, it could be bad for business.That, at least, is the message that the Internet Society (ISOC) wants to spread, as it calls on internet exchange points (IXPs) to help eliminate the most common threats to the internet’s routing system.[ Don’t miss customer reviews of top remote access tools and see the most powerful IoT companies . | Get daily insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ] If they do so, then it’s good news for their members, the ISPs that interconnect there, and for those ISPs’ customers, who will benefit from more secure and robust internet access.To read this article in full, please click here

Internet exchange points team up to bring better MANRS to the internet

Spreading bad routing information to your neighbors on the internet isn’t just bad manners, it could be bad for business.That, at least, is the message that the Internet Society (ISOC) wants to spread, as it calls on internet exchange points (IXPs) to help eliminate the most common threats to the internet’s routing system.[ Don’t miss customer reviews of top remote access tools and see the most powerful IoT companies . | Get daily insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ] If they do so, then it’s good news for their members, the ISPs that interconnect there, and for those ISPs’ customers, who will benefit from more secure and robust internet access.To read this article in full, please click here

Internet exchange points team up to bring better MANRS to the internet

Spreading bad routing information to your neighbors on the internet isn’t just bad manners, it could be bad for business.That, at least, is the message that the Internet Society (ISOC) wants to spread, as it calls on internet exchange points (IXPs) to help eliminate the most common threats to the internet’s routing system.[ Don’t miss customer reviews of top remote access tools and see the most powerful IoT companies . | Get daily insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ] If they do so, then it’s good news for their members, the ISPs that interconnect there, and for those ISPs’ customers, who will benefit from more secure and robust internet access.To read this article in full, please click here

IBM tweaks its z14 mainframe to make it a better physical fit for the data center

IBM is widening its mainframe range with some narrower models – ZR1 and Rockhopper II – that are skinny enough to fit in a standard 19-inch rack, which will answer criticisms of potential customers that the hulking z14 introduced in July 2017 too big to fit in their data centers (see photo above).In addition to new, smaller, packaging for its z14 hardware, IBM is also introducing Secure Service Container technology. This makes use of the z14's encryption accelerator and other security capabilities to protect containerized applications from unwanted interference.[ Check out REVIEW: VMware’s vSAN 6.6 and hear IDC’s top 10 data center predictions . | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ] When IBM introduced the z14 last July, with an accelerator to make encrypting information standard practice in the data center, there was one problem: The mainframe's two-door cabinet was far too deep and too wide to fit in standard data center aisles.To read this article in full, please click here

IBM tweaks its z14 mainframe to make it a better physical fit for the data center

IBM is widening its mainframe range with some narrower models – ZR1 and Rockhopper II – that are skinny enough to fit in a standard 19-inch rack, which will answer criticisms of potential customers that the hulking z14 introduced in July 2017 too big to fit in their data centers (see photo above).In addition to new, smaller, packaging for its z14 hardware, IBM is also introducing Secure Service Container technology. This makes use of the z14's encryption accelerator and other security capabilities to protect containerized applications from unwanted interference.[ Check out REVIEW: VMware’s vSAN 6.6 and hear IDC’s top 10 data center predictions . | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ] When IBM introduced the z14 last July, with an accelerator to make encrypting information standard practice in the data center, there was one problem: The mainframe's two-door cabinet was far too deep and too wide to fit in standard data center aisles.To read this article in full, please click here

IBM tweaks its z14 mainframe to make it a better physical fit for the data center

IBM is widening its mainframe range with some narrower models – ZR1 and Rockhopper II – that are skinny enough to fit in a standard 19-inch rack, which will answer criticisms of potential customers that the hulking z14 introduced in July 2017 too big to fit in their data centers (see photo above).In addition to new, smaller, packaging for its z14 hardware, IBM is also introducing Secure Service Container technology. This makes use of the z14's encryption accelerator and other security capabilities to protect containerized applications from unwanted interference.[ Check out REVIEW: VMware’s vSAN 6.6 and hear IDC’s top 10 data center predictions . | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ] When IBM introduced the z14 last July, with an accelerator to make encrypting information standard practice in the data center, there was one problem: The mainframe's two-door cabinet was far too deep and too wide to fit in standard data center aisles.To read this article in full, please click here

Five servers that exist thanks to the Open Compute Project

Five servers that exist thanks to the Open Compute ProjectImage by IDG News ServiceThe Open Compute Project began life when Facebook asked the question, “What if we could design our own servers, rather than having to take what vendors offer?”The answer was a series of designs for servers that would be cheaper to build and operate. Facebook decided that it stood a better chance of finding a manufacturer for its designs if others wanted to buy them too, so with the support of Intel and Rackspace, it opened up its designs and invited others to build and build on them too.To read this article in full, please click here

Five servers that exist thanks to the Open Compute Project

Five servers that exist thanks to the Open Compute ProjectImage by IDG News ServiceThe Open Compute Project began life when Facebook asked the question, “What if we could design our own servers, rather than having to take what vendors offer?”The answer was a series of designs for servers that would be cheaper to build and operate. Facebook decided that it stood a better chance of finding a manufacturer for its designs if others wanted to buy them too, so with the support of Intel and Rackspace, it opened up its designs and invited others to build and build on them too.To read this article in full, please click here

What is the Open Compute Project?

The Open Compute Project began in 2011 when Facebook published the designs of some homebrew servers it had built to make its data centers run more efficiently.Facebook hoped that other companies would adopt and adapt its initial designs, pushing down costs and improving quality – and they have: Sales of hardware built to Open Compute Project designs topped $1.2 billion in 2017, double the previous year, and are expected to reach $6 billion by 2021.[ Don’t miss customer reviews of top remote access tools and see the most powerful internet of things companies . | Get weekly insights by signing up for our CIO Leader newsletter. ] Those figures, from IHS Markit, exclude hardware spending by OCP board members Facebook, Intel, Rackspace, Microsoft and Goldman Sachs, which all use OCP to some degree. The spend is still a small part of the overall market for data-center systems, which Gartner estimated was worth $178 billion in 2017, but IHS expects OCP’s part to grow 59 percent annually, while Gartner forecasts that the overall market will stagnate, at least through 2019.To read this article in full, please click here

What is the Open Compute Project?

The Open Compute Project began in 2011 when Facebook published the designs of some homebrew servers it had built to make its data centers run more efficiently.Facebook hoped that other companies would adopt and adapt its initial designs, pushing down costs and improving quality – and they have: Sales of hardware built to Open Compute Project designs topped $1.2 billion in 2017, double the previous year, and are expected to reach $6 billion by 2021.[ Don’t miss customer reviews of top remote access tools and see the most powerful internet of things companies . | Get weekly insights by signing up for our CIO Leader newsletter. ] Those figures, from IHS Markit, exclude hardware spending by OCP board members Facebook, Intel, Rackspace, Microsoft and Goldman Sachs, which all use OCP to some degree. The spend is still a small part of the overall market for data-center systems, which Gartner estimated was worth $178 billion in 2017, but IHS expects OCP’s part to grow 59 percent annually, while Gartner forecasts that the overall market will stagnate, at least through 2019.To read this article in full, please click here

The internet of useful things

The industrial internet of things is growingImage by Peter Sayer/IDGWhen we talk about the internet of things, consumer applications too often get the lion’s share of the attention. But there are also a growing number of industrial applications for IoT technologies, from building better mousetraps to preventing theft of manhole covers.To read this article in full, please click here

The internet of useful things

The industrial internet of things is growingImage by Peter Sayer/IDGWhen we talk about the internet of things, consumer applications too often get the lion’s share of the attention. But there are also a growing number of industrial applications for IoT technologies, from building better mousetraps to preventing theft of manhole covers.To read this article in full, please click here

Supercomputing is becoming super-efficient, Top500 list shows

Supercomputing is becoming super-efficient. The highest climber in the latest Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers is also one of the highest scorers on the Green500 ranking of the world's most efficient.But the November 2017 edition of the Top500 and Green500 is also remarkable in other ways, as it marks a tipping point in U.S. dominance of the list.[ See these top supercomputers at our slideshow 10 of the world’s fastest supercomputers. ]Chinese systems now outnumber U.S. systems on the list by 202 to 144, a reversal of the situation just six months ago, when the U.S. had 169 systems in the Top500 vs China's 160. It will still be a long while before third-placed Japan overtakes the U.S.: It has 35 systems in the list, followed by Germany with 20, France with 18, and the UK with 15.To read this article in full, please click here

Supercomputing is becoming super-efficient, Top500 list shows

Supercomputing is becoming super-efficient. The highest climber in the latest Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers is also one of the highest scorers on the Green500 ranking of the world's most efficient.But the November 2017 edition of the Top500 and Green500 is also remarkable in other ways, as it marks a tipping point in U.S. dominance of the list.[ See these top supercomputers at our slideshow 10 of the world’s fastest supercomputers. ]Chinese systems now outnumber U.S. systems on the list by 202 to 144, a reversal of the situation just six months ago, when the U.S. had 169 systems in the Top500 vs China's 160. It will still be a long while before third-placed Japan overtakes the U.S.: It has 35 systems in the list, followed by Germany with 20, France with 18, and the UK with 15.To read this article in full, please click here

10 of the world’s fastest supercomputers

10 of the world's fastest supercomputersImage by Henrik5000 / Getty ImagesThe semi-annual Top500 ranking of the world’s fastest supercomputers is in for fall 2018 with China claiming 227 of the 500 spots on the list, although it managed to take just two places in the top 10. The United states took five of the top 10, including first and second place. New to the Top500 rankings at number 205 is Astra, an HPE-built machine at Sandia National Laboratories that is the first powered by ARM chips to make the list. The top 10 highlighted in this slideshow demonstrate what might become available in corporate data centers.To read this article in full, please click here

10 of the world’s fastest supercomputers

10 of the world's fastest supercomputersImage by Henrik5000 / Getty ImagesThe semi-annual Top500 ranking of the world’s fastest supercomputers is in for fall 2018 with China claiming 227 of the 500 spots on the list, although it managed to take just two places in the top 10. The United states took five of the top 10, including first and second place. New to the Top500 rankings at number 205 is Astra, an HPE-built machine at Sandia National Laboratories that is the first powered by ARM chips to make the list. The top 10 highlighted in this slideshow demonstrate what might become available in corporate data centers.To read this article in full, please click here

1 2 3 22