The Register - Hardware

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:18:11 GMT

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:32:37 GMT

An easier route

As network topologies and data access patterns have evolved, load profiles can change so quickly that a completely new approach to networking is required. That approach is OpenFlow.…

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:22:08 GMT

Up from $3.2bn in 2010 ...

How big is the big data business? That depends on how you dice and slice it.…

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:53:29 GMT

Set for a Fantastic Voyage through your veins

ISSCC A research team has developed a swimming microrobot designed to navigate through your bloodstream – all with your best interests at heart. Or at lung. Or at the far-flung islets of Langerhans.…

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:01:27 GMT

AppAssure absorbed into enterprise wing

Dell has acquired its own continuous data protection software by buying AppAssure for an undisclosed amount.…

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:33:26 GMT

Quietly powerful

Review Dell's Latitude E6220 is a typical workhorse, designed to be solid, dependable and ever so slightly boring. However, Dell is aiming this compact model more at small businesses rather than large organisations. And the increasing numbers of people who, like myself, are self-employed. A touch of style and being just 1in thin and with a 12.5in display are the giveaways here.…

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:40:03 GMT

Vendors take up weaving

It is not clear who started it but it is all-out war in the systems business and the battleground is convergence.…

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:12:11 GMT

Planning for bad weather

You the Expert For an IT manager, desktop virtualization is no bad thing, if only because it limits how badly a user can mess up his or her own settings. So if you are thinking that you could slim down your desktop hardware requirements and maybe keep track of everyone’s software upgrades more simply are there any downsides consequences it would pay to be aware of?…

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:12:08 GMT

Your DC's weak link?

On demand We think a lot about the network that connects the client to the server room, but maybe not enough about the network inside the data centre. At least, until now. Our Reg poll shows that the problems of network consolidation, distributed apps and all that spaghetti stuff sticking out the back of your servers is beginning to worry you.…

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:14:48 GMT

Fab trip to Intel Fab

So what do you get when you enter a competition on the Reg? The leftovers from the Cash and Carrion bin? Whatever unboxed review kit we’ve managed to hide from the courier?…

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:30:11 GMT

We're on a road to somewhere

So much been said over the years about desktop virtualisation, so many claims, so much noise, so much clutter.…

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:14:56 GMT

The Register and Intel LIVE 2011

Last week The Register teamed up with Intel to put on an all-day conference in Millbank, central London. We had a great line-up of speakers, which included Professor Brian Cox and security God Bruce Schneier - for me a stand-out.…

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:00:03 GMT

Tokyo Tech nabs Gordon Bell Prize and $10k for metal materials work

SC11 So who cares about dendrites and dendrite solidification? If you’re an auto manufacturer facing a mandate to radically increase the fuel economy of your cars, you care a lot. Or if you’re working on new jet engines and need to cut some pounds while increasing durability. Actually, if you rely on any alloy that has to have those ‘just right’ properties, then dendrite solidification is crucially important to you.…

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:11:08 GMT

Head of IS swoops in to explain how

Interview You think you have a stressful job? Try Gavin Walker. He’s the man in charge of the tech and comms infrastructure (Head of Information Solutions) at NATS, the artist formerly know as National Air Traffic Service Control Services. Yes, the people who know where all the planes are over the Atlantic and the UK.…

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:16:03 GMT

Legal eagles tap into desktop

Interview Implementing virtual desktops across a whole enterprise is rarely as easy as it sounds in vendor white papers. Rich Raether, IT manager, and Dan Putnam, published systems architect at large US law firm Quarles & Brady faced a unique set of challenges when they decided to roll out virtual desktops as a means of improving the firm's business continuity stance.…

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:26:07 GMT

A different bug this time?

Everyone was expecting for Intel to launch the "Sandy Bridge-EP" Xeon E5 processors back in September for delivery in the fourth quarter. Butfor reasons that Intel has never explained – much less admitted that this was the original launch schedule – the E5 processor and its related "Patsburg" chipset has been pushed out to an "early 2012" launch.…

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:00:07 GMT

SCC11 system up for grabs

Silicon Mechanics, a mid-sized manufacturer of rackmount servers, clusters, and storage arrays, is celebrating its 10th birthday by giving away a lot of stuff. First, the company did a great job sponsoring Boston University in this month's SC11 Student Cluster Competition in Seattle (SCC11).…

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:17:08 GMT

Don't fire up the faster-than-light DeLorean. Boo!

Fire up the DeLorean and grab the almanac, time travel is here... or maybe not.…

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:00:02 GMT

Longhorns oiled and battered

Let’s say that you and your pals need to build a high performance cluster to run a number of HPC apps. It has to be fast. Damned fast. Fast enough to beat the very best student-built systems from seven other universities.…

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:53:21 GMT

Smelly cheese consumed

The official results of the Student Cluster Competition were revealed at the lavish SC11 Awards Gala, a luncheon held at the Seattle Sheraton. I was a little put out that I wasn’t invited for the lunch, but felt better after I got a good whiff of it.…

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:11:04 GMT

No more crossed wires

This isn’t the sort of thing that sysadmins usually admit to, but I have recently developed a grudging sort of respect for cable monkeys.…

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:30:12 GMT

Make the most of your disks

In case you have been living under a rock for the past month or so, we are in the middle of a hard drive shortage. Now that we can’t simply add more drives at will, storage utilisation has suddenly become important again.…

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:32:14 GMT

Ultra-close results, rise of GPUs

SC11 The final results of the 2011 Student Cluster Competition (SCC11) in Seattle are in the books and can be revealed. Well, they should have been revealed last night, but a series of meetings, bad hotel Wi-Fi, and perhaps alcohol played a role in the delay. In upcoming articles, you’ll see more videos and analysis of the results, but for now, let me sketch out the big picture.…

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:18:07 GMT

Evolution explained

With the year winding down, I'd like to pull out a crystal ball and peer in. It is not my crystal ball I want to examine here but rather Intel's.…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:22:35 GMT

46 hour grind starts grinding

This short video captures the start of the application portion of the 2011 Student Cluster Competition. The students had spent all day Monday driving their systems to produce the best LINPACK and HPCC result possible. Now, Monday evening at 7:30 pm on the dot, they finally get access to the data sets that they'll use in the four scientific applications that make up the rest of the challenge.…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:20:16 GMT

Longhorns hope for first SCC win

SC11 The Texas team captured a lot of attention at the Student Cluster Competition this year. Their mineral oil deep-fried cluster was certainly a hit with the crowd, but did it pay dividends when it came to computing? They put in the best non-GPU fueled LINPACK and, assumedly, should perform well on the scientific apps, but will it perform well enough to beat the other teams?…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:18:10 GMT

Backup is a lifesaver

In the heart of London, researchers are splitting apart the building blocks of life and working towards a cure for cancer. The Biomedical Research Centre, run by King’s College Hospital and Guy's and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, has a genomic sequencing unit that genotypes tissue from patients with cancer and other diseases.…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:36:44 GMT

Final hours...

SCC11 We caught up with Team Boston (aka Team Chowder) a few hours before they turned in their results for SC11. They share their thoughts about the competition and their results thus far, along with whatever else their sleep-deprived minds came up with.…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:36:22 GMT

Team China preps for finish

SCC11 We spent a few minutes talking to Team China before they submitted their final results for the 2011 Student Cluster Competition. They're happy and had a good time, but it's hard to figure out how they gauge their chances. We'll find out soon....…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:36:00 GMT

Final SCC11 Colorado ramblings

SCC11 We grabbed Team Colorado for a few final thoughts before the end of the Student Cluster Competition. Spirits were good, despite a few problems with their hardware and memory usage.…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:35:38 GMT

Rainforest Eagles compete to finish

SCC11 The Costa Rica team gave it their all at their first Student Cluster Competition. We caught up with them just a few minutes before they turned their final results files into the judges....…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:35:16 GMT

Strategy and final SCC11 thoughts

SCC11 As can be seen by their LINPACK results on Monday (only .233 TFlop), Purdue either completely melted down or had something up their collective sleeves. It turns out that they had a plan, a cunning plan. One that might give them a leg up on the other competitors on the all-important scientific applications. What was the plan? Why did they do it? Watch the video to find out.…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:34:54 GMT

Will LINPACK win fuel overall triumph?

SCC11 We dropped by the Team Russia booth to congratulate them on their record-setting LINPACK victory and to get their thoughts on SCC11. Is their LINPACK win a sign of things to come? Can they take the whole ball of wax?…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:34:31 GMT

Looks for repeat at Cluster Challenge

SCC11 We had a chance to talk to Team Taiwan as the Student Cluster Competition came down to the wire. Although they were their typical friendly selves, there was an air of tension and anticipation in their booth. They have a lot riding on this. They could become the first team to repeat as champions. It's a pretty tall order to fill, but they seem to believe they have a good chance - even if they won't come right out and say it.…

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:11:11 GMT

Step up the pace

One of the dirty little secrets of virtualisation is the performance cost: operating systems running inside a virtual machine are slower than those running natively on the same hardware, sometimes by quite some margin.…

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:31:24 GMT

Counting the cost

A colleague of mine recently remarked that x86 virtualisation makes no sense to any organisation that is cost conscious.…

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:52:40 GMT

Shocker in Seattle, Longshot comes through

The results from the LINPACK portion of the Student Cluster Competition in Seattle have been released.…

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:15:06 GMT

Have sledgehammer, will cluster

Team vid Purdue is one of two teams that’s participated in the SC11 Student Cluster Competition (SCC) since its inception. They’re a solid team with a half-n-half mixture of rookies and SCC veterans. This year they’re bringing the typical workmanlike Purdue attitude to the competition – along with a plethora of traditional HPC gear.…

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:45:09 GMT

Sixth time the charm?

Team vid The University of Colorado Buffalo team has competed at every Student Cluster Competition – this is year six.…

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:33:35 GMT

Adds mineral oil in bid for cluster crown

Team vid What can you say about the University of Texas Longhorns that they haven’t already said about themselves?…

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:29:12 GMT

’10 Champs look for repeat

Team vid The team from Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University is on a mission: to become the first university to repeat as Student Cluster Competition champions. The team in Seattle this year is almost entirely new, but they have the same coach and have been mentored by their predecessors from the 2010 championship team.…

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:19:43 GMT

Second time the charm for Russian Bear?

Team Russia, representing the State University of Nizhny Novgorod, is returning to the Student Cluster Competition for the second time.…

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:15:04 GMT

Can Rainforest Eagles soar to cluster glory?

Team vid Team Costa Rica is another first-time entrant in the 2011 Student Cluster Competition in Seattle. Their official name is Tecnológico de Costa Rica, but to me they’re the Rainforest Eagles, and they’ve earned respect for not only representing their entire region but for the hardships they overcame to make it to the SCC.…

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:33:00 GMT

Does Tianhe legacy spell SCC win?

Team Vid China’s NUDT (National University of Defense Technology) shocked the world in 2010 when it unveiled the fastest supercomputer known to man, the 1.86 Pflop Tianhe-1A. It came out of nowhere and caught the entire industry by surprise.…

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:19:19 GMT

More cores, more better

Team vid Boston U has brought more than a taste for clam chowder to the 2011 Student Cluster Competition in Seattle; they also brought more hardware heft than anyone else.…

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:42:05 GMT

Texas and Taiwan top punter picks

SC11 Here are the latest odds on the Student Cluster Competition online betting as of 10am SC11 time (Pacific). Betting will close out on LINPACK late this afternoon, since the teams will be turning in those results at 17.30 Pacific on the dot (1.30 GMT 16 November).…

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:54:04 GMT

Student Cluster Competition hardware revealed

SC11 The hardware configurations for the 2011 SC Student Cluster Competition in Seattle have been released, and there are quite a few surprises. First, the most surprising surprise: the University of Texas Longhorn team has brought the first liquid cooled system to the big dance.…

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:17:05 GMT

Ethernet and InfiniBand left behind

Given the great strides that Ethernet and InfiniBand networking have made in the past decade, you would think that there wasn't much room for proprietary interconnects linking together nodes in parallel supercomputers.…

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:16:16 GMT

Stay cool in the data centre

Intel has a new piece of software called Data Center Manager (DCM), which provides power management ranging from the individual server level up to the bird's-eye-view of your entire data centre.…

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:14:03 GMT

Which is the fairest of them all?

Virtualisation has become an over-used buzzword.…