IBM Doubles the Cores on Midrange Power Systems
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Well, the rumor going around that IBM is doubling up the processor core counts on its Power Systems servers, which are based on the company's dual-core Power6 processors, turns out to be true. Last Tuesday, IBM announced that it has doubled up the cores in the Power 570 to a maximum of 32, and now is also offering a 16-core box called the Power 560 that slides in underneath it in the product line. As expected, IBM also doubled the core count on entry Power 520 and midrange Power 550 machines when running the i 6.1 (formerly OS/400 and i5/OS) operating system to four and eight cores, respectively, bringing the i variants to parity with AIX and Linux boxes that shipped in April. READ MORE >

Sundry October Power Systems Announcements
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Last week's announcements for the Power Systems product line did not just have to do with the doubling up of core counts on Power 520, 550, and 570 servers plus the debut of the new Power 560 box. (See IBM Doubles the Cores on Midrange Power Systems also in this issue for more on that.) There were a bunch of other hardware and software announcements that are interesting to i shops. READ MORE >

SMB Manufacturers Testing PLM Integration Possibilities
by Dan Burger

Breaking down boundaries is maybe the most worthwhile goal an IT department can under take. The IT industry that helped build all the walls--we like to call them silos these days--is helping to eliminate those obstacles, and this is to the credit of those companies that are wholeheartedly participating. Also deserving of some credit are the companies that have gotten past platform bigotry to pursue business interests. They all deserve a pat on the back, if you can find any of them. READ MORE >

As I See It: What's Old is New
by Victor Rozek

The economy may be in shambles, but the surge appears to be working. No, not that surge, the IT Surge. At least that's what Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson call it. The silly war metaphor (silly, because the similarity between business and war ends when the first shot is fired) is used to describe the period between 1995 and 2005 when investment in all things IT jumped from about $3,500 per worker to around $8,000. READ MORE >