Emerging Markets and Virtualization Drive Q3 Server Sales
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Server lines, perhaps with the exception of IBM's System z and System i servers, did pretty well in the third quarter, according to the latest market share statistics from Gartner. The upgrade cycle in data centers and departments for 64-bit, energy-efficient, and virtualization-capable servers, coupled with raw growth in processing capacity in emerging markets like China, India, and Russia, boosted both server shipments and revenues in the third quarter on a global basis. READ MORE >

Novell Swaps the Kernel Guts in Real-Time Linux
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Commercial Linux distributor Novell last week announced a new version of its real-time variant of Linux, called SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 10, or SLERT 10 for short. While the prior two releases of SLERT were based on Linux kernel tweaks provided by real-time operating system expert Concurrent Computer, the latest SLERT uses real-time extensions to the Linux 2.6.22 kernel that were developed by key members of the Linux and real-time operating system communities and put together with the attractive name of CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT patch set. READ MORE >

IBM Readies Power Management for Power Servers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

It used to be called PowerExecutive, but the power consumption monitoring and management software that IBM created for X64, Power, and at some point in the future System z mainframes is now called Systems Director Active Energy Manager. Starting on December 14, AEM for Power V3.1, is an update to the March PowerExecutive V2.0 release, which was the first to support Power-based systems. The V3.1 update includes new features, many of them in particular to exploit power saving and power management features in the Power6 processors that will be spread across the System i and System p server lines in 2008. READ MORE >

As I See It: The Sick Guys in Your Wallet
by Victor Rozek

If you've been employed for the past six years, without being officially notified you have been given a 30 percent pay cut. That's what happens when the dollar drops by nearly one-third of its value. What also happens is that your $300,000 home loses $90,000 of its value; your savings are worth 30 percent less, and your groceries cost 30 percent more. As any driver knows, the price of a barrel of oil is over five times what it was just six years ago. One sure sign that the guys pictured on our currency are in poor health is how little coffee they're drinking. READ MORE >