Fujitsu and Sun Flex Their Quads with New Sparc Server Lineup
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Well, customers who were expecting to be using Sun Microsystems' Rock UltraSparc-RK processors inside new Supernova servers within a few months have not been left empty handed by Sun and its server and processor partner, Fujitsu. The Rock chips and their related servers have been pushed out until the second half of 2009--if not later, given the history of Sparc delays--but in the meantime, Sun and Fujitsu are giving customers a new upgrade to quad-core Jupiter Sparc64 VII processors inside the Sparc Enterprise line. READ MORE >

HP Jumps Into Containerized Data Centers, Too
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

When Sun Microsystems debuted the idea of putting working data centers inside standard shipping containers in October 2006, it was not intuitively obvious that this idea would take off in the market. Sun, and then Rackable Systems and Verari Systems, who both jumped in an offered their own data centers in containers last year, believe enough in the idea to put engineering and sales resources into the concept. And now HP is following suit. READ MORE >

HP-UX Shops Not Strongly Interested in HP-UX on X64
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The minute that Hewlett-Packard bought Compaq and its vast ProLiant product line and pretty loyal customer base, one of the first questions anyone wanted to get an answer to was whether HP would consider porting its HP-UX variant of Unix to X86 and then X64 servers, thereby merging its high-end operating system with its high-volume server line. For years, HP demurred on the issue, and said that it was sticking with Itanium. READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: Mission Possible
by Hesh Wiener

Commercial trends in every productive society sometimes run to excess. Information technology may be reaching such an apogee, getting just a little too complicated for its own good, and for the good of everyone it touches. It's starting to look like computing needs to get back to basics and, if possible, to do so in good taste. There's plenty of precedent: When Victorian Britain became overwhelmed by industrialization, it spawned the Arts and Crafts design movement. Reformist ideas subsequently crossed the Atlantic to inspire Frank Lloyd Wright and foster Mission-style furniture. It's a notion that bears repeating. READ MORE >