AMD announced that its quad-core Opteron server processors, known also by the codename of "Barcelona," will be shipping later this summer, finally ending rumors of delay. The chips, which are the company's first quad-cores, could help AMD regain its financial footing and help it compete more effectively against archrival Intel.

The company pointed out that Barcelona is "the world's first x86 CPU to integrate four processing cores on a single die of silicon," and will be available at launch in a range of frequencies up to 2 GHz, scaling to higher frequencies in the fourth quarter.

AMD also said that Barcelona will work "within the same thermal envelopes as current generation AMD Opteron processors," which could mean better performance per watt.

Going from Two- to Four-Core

There have been many rumors about Barcelona shipping late, said Martin Reynolds, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner, but in his estimation, the August ship date is reasonably close to the original target of "mid-year." Some observers had taken "mid-year" to mean June.

AMD is shipping the chip at a lower clock speed than the expected speed of 2.5 GHz, he said, noting that the company was able to make the launch date by lowering that target. "Originally, they were going to exceed the clock speed of Intel's competing processor, the 'Clovertown,'" he noted, which has a frequency of 2.6 to 3 GHz.

The difference, he said, is not a huge deal. "AMD didn't get that leader position back, but its chips are generally more efficient at lower speeds." The big deal, he noted, is that "AMD is going from two-core to four-core. That keeps them in the game."

Boosted Performance

AMD has estimated that the Barcelona processors can provide a performance boost of up to 70 percent for some database applications and up to 40 percent for certain. Date Now Set for AMD's Four-Core 'Barcelona'

The worldwide software-as-a-service (SaaS) market reached $6.3 billion in 2006 and is forecast to grow to $19.3 billion by year-end 2011, according to Gartner.

SaaS is hosted software based on a single set of common code and data definitions that are consumed in a one-to-many model by all contracted customers, at any time, on a pay-for-use basis, or as a subscription based on usage metrics.

The SaaS model is popular for CRM and other technologies such as human resources. Why such success? "The dysfunction of the client/server era is driving alternative approaches to IT development, delivery and management, which SaaS is the most apparent version of," said Ben Pring, research vice president for Gartner.

SaaS adoption is broadening out from CRM and HR into new areas such as procurement and compliance management, Gartner has found.

However, the scale of change involved in moving to a SaaS approach is proving hard for many vendors to manage. "Due to the law of large numbers, traditional IT product models are becoming victims of their own success, while the relative smallness of new approaches facilitates growth much more easily," said Pring.

Although the SaaS market is still small, Gartner analysts said the scale of change that SaaS will produce requires providers to keep ahead of the SaaS wave.

To do this, they recommend, among other options, to use products built on next-generation Web services, SOAs and highly automated server farms to produce "multitenant, mass-customizable products that facilitate agility while sustaining uniqueness at a reduced cost." Gartner: SaaS Market To Hit $19.3 Billion by 2011

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have made a yarn out of nanofibres that produce a charge when rubbed against one another. Materials woven from these yarns could be used for self-powering clothes, shoes or biological implants such as pacemakers. (Source: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080213/full/news.2008.572.html) Fabric may make the first real power suit

Pioneer High School Theatre GuildAnn Arbor elementary student actors can still audition to play either Charlie or an Oompa Loompa in our spring production of "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory"

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