With No Power6 QCMs, IBM Waits for Power7
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Prior to the launch--or rather, relaunch--of the Power6+ processors in selected entry and midrange Power Systems iron at the end of April, I was suggesting that given the competitive pressure that was being brought to bear by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices with their latest X64 chips, now might be a good time to take a play out of the summer 2006 System p playbook and create quad-core modules (QCMs) for using the Power6+ chips and thereby take the fight to Intel and AMD. READ MORE >

Gartner Confirms Server Sales Were Awful in Q1
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

If you were hoping that the market researchers at Gartner would somehow have a rosier opinion of how the server market did in the first quarter of 2009--or would somehow forecast that the year would get better than its rival IDC said it would do in last week's issue--well, you can just forget it. Gartner has been tracking the server racket for longer than IDC, and said the first quarter was the worst one in the history of the business. READ MORE >

Manufacturers to ERP Vendors: Give Us More Functionality
by Dan Burger

When it comes to making ERP software decisions, the choices are: increase the functionality, lower the cost, and improve the integration with applications and data that reside outside the ERP system. You can hope for all three, but your luck probably won't be that good. Given one choice, the winner is functionality. That's part of what I learned from the Aberdeen ERP in Manufacturing 2009 report that I peeked at in advance of its release on June 30. READ MORE >

As I See It: Smarten Up
by Victor Rozek

IBM is worried about the world. Like a parent with an underachieving child, IBM thinks it's time to sit the world down and have a serious conversation. So listen up world, the computer maker wants you to get smarter, because apparently you're none too bright at the moment. In contrast to the fried philosopher Timothy Leary, however, who memorably urged the world to 'turn on, tune in, and drop out,' the great thinkers at IBM have come up with a slightly less catchy dictum. They're calling on the world to get 'instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent.' Keep still my beating heart. READ MORE >