IBM researchers in New York have set up a lab where executives can talk over business problems with a Watson supercomputer. According to a report on the MIT Technology Review website this week, the prototype meeting area has a giant display on one wall and microphones in the ceiling. The souped-up Power System listens out […]
Latest Power figures: reasons to be cheerful?
IBM reported its figures for the second quarter of 2014 in July and, once again, revenue from Power Systems was down. Its Systems and Technology division’s $3.3bn takings fell 11% year over year. Revenue from Power Systems fell 28%. In the previous couple of quarters, Power Systems revenues were down 22% and 31%. Such numbers […]
Non-IBM Power iron to hit streets early next year
A report by New York-based IDG journalist Agam Shah claims that the first third-party servers licensed to use IBM’s Power architecture will be on the market early next year. Shah quoted Ken King, general manager, OpenPower alliances, at IBM’s Systems and Technology Group as saying that the first non-IBM Power servers will be used for […]
A message from our new AIX expert, Anthony English
When I saw that PowerWire had hit the virtual newsstands, I naturally wondered whether it was short on material about AIX. As it turns out, the editor was more than happy to add some antipodean Unix articles to the mix. As an AIX techie from way back (I worked on the first commercial release, AIX […]
IBM’s processor sell-off may have stalled
IBM may not be selling its processor businesses to GlobalFoundries after all, according to a Bloomberg report. On Friday, the American news agency posted a story that said IBM had walked away from the negotiating table because GlobalFoundries’ offer for its chip operation was too small. Neither party had been willing to comment either way. […]
User group gets lowdown on LX roadmap
Attendees at the inaugural meeting of a new LX/BPCS user group got the lowdown earlier this month on the application’s future. The meeting was held at the UK’s National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham on July 9. LX fans heard from Nigel Barker, an Infor senior business consultant, about the ERP giant’s strategic plans and roadmap […]
PowerLinux: Everything you needed to know about little endian…
If, like me, you’ve been scratching your head a little about recent changes to the PowerLinux landscape, then IBM’s Jeff Scheel has all the lowdown you need. Looking around the Power Systems blogoshpere, it would seem that I’m not the only one who has found recent discussions about big endian and little endian Linux slightly […]
Bluemix offers a glimpse of the future
IBM’s new cloud-based developer sandbox Bluemix offers a fascinating insight into the future. Or, at least, the future according to IBM. Launched last week, the emergence of this cloud development platform as a service (PaaS) may not seem immediately compelling to Power Systems users. But Power-based development options will be available in the near future, […]
HelpSystems buys RODIN and RJS
Midrange powerhouse HelpSystems added two more solutions to its already considerable armoury last week when it acquired RJS Software Systems and bought the RODIN data warehousing portfolio. It bought RODIN from Coglin Mill, originally formed by Allen Perry in 1984 in Adelaide, Australia, to serve the S/38 market. RODIN features powerful change data capture, ETL […]
IBM’s Power processor sell-off “imminent”
IBM is rumoured to be on the brink of selling its Power processor manufacturing business. According to reports in American media outlets, Big Blue is going to offload its entire chip-making arm to California-headquartered GlobalFoundries. GlobalFoundries was spun out of AMD in 2009 and is owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The company may […]