Sun Adds Rev F Opterons to More Galaxy Servers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Server maker and Opteron enthusiast Sun Microsystems continues to tweak its "Galaxy" line of Sun Fire Opteron-based servers so they can support the new "Santa Rosa" Rev F Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices. Sun launched the initial machines in its much-awaited Galaxy line in September 2005, and these servers, along with its "Niagara" Sparc T1-based T1000 and T2000 machines, have been instrumental in Sun's turnaround in the server market. READ MORE >

Software, Unix and Mainframe Servers Boost IBM's Profits in Q3
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The effect of changes in its hardware, software, and services product lines in the past year and layoffs last summer helped IT juggernaut IBM post a 5 percent increase in sales in the third quarter, hitting $22.6 billion in sales, and pumping up profits by 46.5 percent to $2.2 billion. Sales of software across its brands, exploding growth in emerging markets, and a resurgent market for mainframes and Unix servers were the key drivers in the quarter. READ MORE >

Sun Readies LDom Partitioning for Sparc T1 Servers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

As part of its server announcements this week in San Francisco, executives at the Systems Group of Sun Microsystems talked about the holistic approach to server virtualization that the company is taking across its various platforms. The company also pre-announced a home-grown logical partitioning technology called Logical Domains, or LDoms, that it created for its Sparc T1-based server products and gave an update on the long-awaited containerized Linux runtime environment, known by the "BrandZ" code name. READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: Blowing Up Buddha
by Hesh Wiener

Beginning in the third century, craftsmen in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan, carved and decorated two giant figures of Buddha. In March 2001, six months before Al Qaeda brought down the World Trade Center, the Taliban razed the statues. Two years later, the United States bombed Baghdad. And looters hit the National Museum . Their acts were so vile that even the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, was moved. He said, "Stuff happens." More recently, the board of the world's second largest computer company was taken over by cannibals. They toppled two of the greatest images in high technology, those of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. READ MORE >