Midrange Boxes, Big Iron Drive Server Growth in Q4 2006
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The server market watchers at IDC have built their models of the business for the final quarter of 2006, and this time around, some interesting things seem to have been a-foot as last year drew to a close. IDC reckons that for the first time in a long time, the midrange and high-end server markets are outgrowing the volume server space (which is mostly X64-based machines these days). Moreover, revenue growth far outpaced shipment growth in the fourth quarter of 2006, which is a reverse of the usual trend. READ MORE >

SCO's Unix Sales Continue to Slide, But Red Ink Is Shallower
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Commercial Unix operating system vendor The SCO Group has announced its financial results for its fiscal 2007 first quarter ended January 31. While the company continues to see its Unix software sales drop--and drop much faster than the decline of the Unix server market at large--SCO's legal fees relating to its lawsuit with IBM have fallen dramatically, which means that the company's losses are smaller than they were a year ago. READ MORE >

HP Unix Behemoth Squeaks By IBM Big Iron on TPC Test
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

It has taken much forging of iron and tweaking of operating systems and database software, but Hewlett-Packard has finally surpassed IBM in taking over the top spot on the TPC-C online transaction processing benchmark test. This is a day that HP and its chip partner, Intel, have been working toward for many years. And, thanks to the delays in the delivery of the dual-core "Montecito" Itanium 9000 processors and the HP-UX 11i v3 operating system, the Superdome server may not hold that top spot for very long. READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: Paved With Good Intentions
by Hesh Wiener

It's a milestone. By midyear, Seagate Technology and Hitachi will offer 3.5-inch disk drives that store a terabyte of data. Other disk makers are right on their heels. Processor makers with multicore offerings will reach other technology milestones, as will network gear providers whose products will foster ever-faster communications. It's hard to think of so many metaphorical milestones without recalling the originals, stone pillars that marked thousand-pace distances on the vast web of Roman Empire roads. These highways linked Rome to the rest of Europe, spanned Britain, and even crossed Asia Minor, producing dramatic consequences, both intended and unintended. READ MORE >