Showing posts with label Computer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computer. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Scheduled vs. automatic defrag: an analogy

Mumbai, India (BUSINESS WIRE) - Here's a familiar scene: you get in your car to go to work and take off in a rush, knowing you're running late. A short time into your drive you notice your fuel gauge, empty, of course. You turn into a gas station, wait your turn and by the time you finally fill your tank, fifteen minutes have passed. No matter what, you're going to be late now.

Let's relate this familiar scene to scheduled defragmentation. By a certain time each night, a system is running slower than normal, indicating levels of file fragmentation have risen considerably since the last scheduled defrag. Because the system is available to users at all hours, including those in other time zones, this performance degradation affects everyone accessing file data. Fragmentation builds and the computer slows to a halt. This means anyone waiting for data could be late as they try to complete their task.

Back to the car analogy; what if there was an automatic device you could attach to your vehicle to refuel it while driving? You wouldn't have been late that morning, and you'd probably save time each week. Your car would run at peak performance all the time, never required to stop and get gas. Every time you needed to get somewhere you could just start the engine and go.

In the computer world, an automatic defragmenter - one which requires no scheduling and runs whenever possible using only idle resources - would have the same affect on servers and workstations. Performance would always be maintained, and there would never be a time each night when performance is drastically affected. In the same way as the car, any user could just log in and go.

The problem is scheduled defragmentation has been outmoded. In today's vastly larger file sizes and disk capacities, fragmentation builds faster than ever -- and it builds in between those scheduled defrag runs, continuing to slow performance. Because a "time when users aren't on the system" has become obsolete due to globalization and other factors, the defragmenter cannot run without negatively affecting users.

A fully automatic defragmentation solution addresses these shortcomings, being the best solution for today's computing environment. While we don't have an automatic refueling solution for your car, there is, fortunately, one for defragmenting your computer system.

Boyers MarketingBruce Boyers, 818-637-2625 beboyers@earthlink.net

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

GfK Asia releases 2007 year end Pan Asian IT Data

Asia PC Market Sees Volumes Grow as Unit Prices Slump


Singapore (ANTARA News/PRNewswire-AsiaNet) - GfK Asia releases its 2007 Year End Pan Asian IT Retail Data Summary, showing a steady expansion in volume but limited change in value in the region's IT sector.

GfK Asia's annual report contains detailed data based on retail sales of personal computers (PC), both desktop and portable; monitors, printers, multifunctional devices, keyboards and printer cartridges from ten Asian countries*.

Personal Computers

GfK Asia reports that volumes in the total region's retail PC market expanded dramatically in 2007, with an average overall regional increase of 21 per cent, but with plummeting per unit values, the overall US$ value of sales actually declined by 5 per cent when compared to 2006.

During 2007, the greatest increase in the PC market was in personal portable computers, with an average regional volume increase of 45 per cent year on year. China was the leader in sales growth with a marked 53 per cent in volumes, to command 57 per cent of all personal portable computer units sold in the region in 2007.

However, Unit values for personal portable computers fell dramatically -- in China, the average unit price fell from US$1146.57 in 2006 to just US$994.65 in 2007. The retail desktop PC market across the region increased at a much slower rate, gaining an overall average of 8 per cent volume and a net fall in value of 6 per cent across the region during 2007 when compared to 2006.

"The rapid notebook expansion in most Asian countries due to the eroding price points continues to drive volumes," explains Gerard Tan, Commercial Director, IT and Office, GfK Asia.

Malaysia, which has recently embraced branded PCs over the assembled PCs previously sold, was the stand-out performer in 2007 posting an overall growth of 68 per cent in PC sales volumes and 72 per cent in sales value. This growth is comprised of 111 per cent volume increases in portable personal computers and 35 per cent increase in desktop PC volumes.

Interestingly, values rose 92 per cent in both categories, indicating that the average unit value of desktop PCs inparticular took a dramatic leap in 2007, compared with the year before.

Stand-Alone Monitors 2007 regional retail sales of stand-alone monitors increased an average 12 per cent for volume (just over 3 million units) and 15 per cent for value
when compared to 2006.

China and Taiwan led the region with the highest overall volumes, with approximately 750,000 retail units sold in China in 7 main cities and over 800,000 retail units sold in total Taiwan. Yearly growth in monitor volumes was concentrated in Malaysia (45 per cent), Indonesia (34 per cent) and Vietnam (32 per cent) when compared to 2006.

Mr Tan comments, "Consumers from developing markets in Asia increased their adoption of LCD displays over the course of 2007. Where as LCD displays are a more expensive purchase than the standard CRTs which were dominant in past years, which explains the growth in volumes in these particular countries."

Printers

GfK data shows the region's overall retail printer market is falling, with some individual markets such as Vietnam (23 percent), and Malaysia (36 per cent) showing good volume growth, counterbalanced by other, more mature markets, such as Hong Kong (-16 per cent), Taiwan (-9 per cent), and Australia (-30 per cent), which showed significant falls in volume when compared to 2006.

"These figures illustrate the mature market trend moving away from single-function printers in favor of multi-function printing devices. In developing Asia, where PC penetration rates still relatively low and households are acquiring their first PC, single-function printers are selling due to the lower overall consumer spend," added Mr Tan.

Multifunctional Devices

Of the nine Asian countries surveyed*, multifunctional devices increased an average of 17 per cent for volume and 9 per cent for value in 2007 compared to 2006. Malaysia lead the way showing the greatest year-end volume increase of 86 per cent, followed by Thailand (30 per cent) and New Zealand (29 per cent) in 2007 against 2006. Value growth was lower than volume growth across the region, indicating a continuing
regional trend of lower unit prices.

"As multi-function printers are considered as 'first' printers in the household, single function printers will loose steam and streamline itself to the high and semi-high end photo dedicated printers. We see as well a growing trend of small photo printers in countries like Singapore and Australia that are eating into the single function printer shares," finishes Mr Tan.

About GfK Asia Pte Ltd

GfK Asia Pte Ltd (GfK Asia), part of the global GfK Group, is a leading research company with over 23 years experience in providing reliable Asian retail and technology market data. Our analysts track a broad range of consumer technology markets, including: consumer electronics, telecommunications, IT, household electrical appliances (large and small), digital imaging, optics, entertainment and gaming. GfK Asia covers 55 product groups and over 300,000 models, collecting monthly data from over 6,000 specialist / independent shops as well as over 170 organized retailers with approximately 15,000 outlets.

This disciplined methodology, together with tight field operational control in every country, allows GfK Asia to produce high quality reports containing reliable information that our clients can use with confidence.

Based in Singapore, with offices in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Taiwan and Japan, GfK Asia offers extensive coverage of the following countries: China, Korea, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, New Zealand, The Philippines and Australia.
For further information please visit our website: http://www.gfkrt.com .

About The GfK Group

The GfK Group is the No. 5 market research organization worldwide. Its activities cover the three business sectors of Custom Research, Retail and Technology and Media. The GfK Group achieved sales of 1,112.2 million Euros in financial year 2006. The Group has 115 companies covering over 90 countries. Of a total of approximately 8,760 employees (as of September 30, 2007), 80 per cent are based outside Germany. For further information, visit our website: http://www.gfk.com .

Editors Notes:
* Countries surveyed are China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia,Korea, India and Australia.
* Countries surveyed for Multi functional devices are China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, and Australia.

Survey data available upon request.

Media Contact: Lisa Williamson Bryant Williamson
Communications
Tel: +65-9100-4097 Email: lisa@bryantwilliamson.com
SOURCE GfK Asia Pte Ltd

COPYRIGHT © 2008

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Supermicro SuperBlade servers chosen for CERN Project

Superior Computational Performance, Scalability, and Power Efficiency

San Jose, California (ANTARA News/PRNewswire-AsiaNet) - Super Micro Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMCI), a leader in application-optimized, high performance server solutions, today announced that its dual-processor (DP) SuperBlade(TM) servers were recently chosen by CERN (one of the world's largest research labs) for part of a significant upgrade of its computing capacity for the new LHC (Large Hadron Collider) project in Geneva.

High computational performance, excellent scalability, superior energy efficiency and a competitive price/performance ratio were key factors in this prestigious selection process.

"Our success on previous CERN projects, coupled with Supermicro's industry-leading blade server technology, enabled us to distinguish ourselves from the competition," said Charles Liang, CEO and president of Supermicro.

"Ideal for HPC clusters and data centers, Supermicro SuperBlade platforms deliver unsurpassed performance, computing density and energy efficiency, which saves operational costs (lower total cost of ownership) and also helps preserve our environment for future generations."

"As one of the world's leading international research centers, we are always looking to meet an ever-growing demand for computing performance, striving for maximum performance over total cost of ownership," said Helge Meinhard, coordinator for server and storage procurements, of CERN.

"This is even more true this year when the LHC will start operating and producing an estimated 15 Petabytes of data each year that need to be processed. With these blade server platforms, we can efficiently realize a significant increase in computational power while minimizing our operational costs."

This latest CERN project deploys 210 Supermicro SuperBlade servers equipped with Intel(R) Xeon(R) Quad-Core processors. These servers feature Supermicro's industry-leading high-efficiency (93 per cent*) power supplies, which help significantly increase overall system power savings.

As with some previous CERN projects, Supermicro worked closely with E4 Computer Engineering S.p.A., a highly respected supplier of major Italian and European computation and scientific research centers. Together with the supply of some storage systems, the monetary value of this order exceeds one million Euros, and it also means that E4 has now provided over 1500 total servers to CERN.

"We are proud to work with Supermicro to provide its SuperBlade solutions to CERN, one of the world's largest and most established centers for scientific research," said Vincenzo Nuti, CEO of E4 Computer Engineering.

"Supermicro's blade technology is among the best in the world, our partnership with them has already achieved great results and I am sure that, thanks to the combination of E4's know-how and Supermicro's technology, we will continue to obtain extraordinary outcomes."

Supermicro Server Building Block Solutions(R) offer exceptional flexibility and outstanding feature advantages.
For more information on Supermicro's complete line of server and workstation solutions go to http://www.supermicro.com.

About Super Micro Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMCI)

Established in 1993, Supermicro emphasizes superior product design and uncompromising quality control to produce industry-leading serverboards, chassis and server systems.
These Server Building Block solutions provide benefits across many environments, including data center deployment, high-performance computing, high-end workstations, storage networks and standalone server installations.
For more information on Supermicro's complete line of advanced motherboards, SuperServers, and optimized chassis, visit http://www.Supermicro.com, email Marketing@Supermicro.com or call the San Jose, CA headquarters at +1 408-503-8000.

SMCI-F Supermicro and Server Building Block Solutions are registered trademarks and SuperBlade is a trademark of Super Micro Computer, Inc. Other names, brands and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

* Peak power efficiency rating based on internal test results.

About E4 Computer Engineering
Founded by a group of experienced professionals from the IT industry, our Company specialises in the production of high-performance Server and Workstations both for top level professional use and for small and large businesses, as well as academic and educational. E4 solutions are focused on the four aspects of Specialised Workstations, Server, Multiprocessor Servers for industrial solutions, HPC/HA clusters and PC systems for dedicated office use.

By virtue of the high level of professionalism that distinguishes the Company, E4 Computer Engineering have earned the respect of prestigious companies such as Supermicro, Intel, AMD, Panasas and ICP Vortex. Working in partnership with such companies allows us to keep on top of the latest innovations and to stay on the leading edge of Information Technology trends and techniques.

SOURCE Super Micro Computer, Inc.
CONTACT: Michael Kalodrich, +1-408-503-8063,
michalek@supermicro.com
Web site: http://www.Supermicro.com

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