IBM

Overheard - DNA origami

“At IBM, scientists are investigating the possibility of using structures made of DNA strings as buildings blocks for future microchip designs. The structures, dubbed ‘DNA origami,’ self assemble onto lithographic templates which can lead to manufacturing of circuit features down to 22 nanometers.” MedGadget, IBM’s DNA Origami May Lead to New Computer Chip Design

Overheard - IBM backing the World Community Grid distributed supercomputer

“Forget about aliens, let’s cure AIDS.” Stanley Litow,  quoting a commenter after the launch of the World Community Grid

I’m proud to help spread the news that IBM is backing a distributed grid supercomputer called the World Community Grid.  As I write this, over 413,000 members volunteering 1.2 million computers are harnessing their idle computing power to help scientists working on humanitarian causes.  The really interesting part is that this initiative will create kind of a hybrid supercomputer and once again change the definition of “the cloud.” (IBM piloted the program on their internal cloud and then extended out the grid to individual computer users.)

To become of member of World Community Grid and donate  your idle processing power so scientists can find a cure for AIDS, develop more efficient solar panels or help humanity in some other useful way,  all you have to do is sign up www.worldcommunitygrid.org. You’ll be asked to install a  small software which will allow your computer to request work from the World Community Grid’s server. After the work has been completed, your computer will send the results back to the WCG server and ask it for a new piece of work. A screen saver will tell you when your computer is busy being a supercomputer.

…The World Community Grid is running at an average of 179 Teraflops, roughly equivalent to the 11th most powerful supercomputer on earth. (The current heavyweight, IBM’s Roadrunner, runs at more than 1 Petaflop or 1,000 trillion calculations per second.)

The quote above comes from the article IBM and Harvard Tap World Community Grid
by David Gelles. Litow, IBM VP for corporate citizenship and affairs, was referring to another grid computing initiative called SETI@home. SETI is an abbreviation for “search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.”

Overheard - IBM takes a page from Apple when building Blue Business Platform

The model we tried to emulate in the project codenamed Blue Business Platform was to think just like the Apple iPod model — the iTunes Store (Smart Market), iPod (Smart Cube), and the iTunes desktop application (Smart Desk). Thomas Yung, IBM Blue Business Platform morphs into IBM Smart Business

Overheard: It’s official — IBM Roadrunner is world’s fastest computer

Perhaps surprisingly, more than 5 million PlayStation 3 owners in the U.S. have first-hand knowledge of at least one of the processors that carried the Roadrunner to victory. Walaika Haskins, IBM Roadrunner Meep-Meeps to Top of Supercomputer Rankings

The IBM supercomputer is powered by 12,240 IBM PowerXCell 8i Cell chips similar to those found in the gaming console. The system’s 6,562 AMD Opteron dual-core processors handle the basic compute functions, leaving the Cell chips available to deal with the heavy lifting necessary for the math-intensive calculations in which the processors specialize.

Overheard: Redmond is the new Armonk

“15 years ago this month, Lou Gerstner arrived at IBM. When he got there, Gerstner found a company that literally didn’t believe in its own future. The mainframe business — the core of IBM — was collapsing. Other business units were busy trying to turn themselves into stand-alone companies that could be spun off. The big blue ship was sinking, and everyone wanted off.”  Frank Hayes, Frankly Speaking: Microsoft’s woes are like IBM’s of old

Frank Hayes makes an interesting comparison between IBM in the early 80’s and Microsoft today.

I remember the culture shock of those days. Signs appeared in offices: “The mainframe is dead.” Project managers and programmers were frantic, pitching themselves to whoever held the purse strings. Life in Poughkeepsie, New York would never be the same.  Lifetime tenure at IBM was a thing of the past. People had to prove their worth each and every day. The shakeup was stressful, but it worked. It made the sleeping giant more agile.

Now who will do that for Microsoft?

Video: IBM’s first supercomputer

The Computer History Museum has put together a great series of video tours. Here’s a peek at the IBM 7030, the first “supercomputer.”

Video: IBM unveils hydro-cluster green supercomputer

The product name is the Power 575. IBM is promoting is as a hydro-cluster supercomputer. To paint it green, the literature says the Power 575 requires 80 percent fewer air conditioning units and reduce total cooling costs by 40%. (It’s water-cooled).

Key points discussed at last visit to IBM:

1. Water cooling is 4,000 times more efficient than air cooling.

2. Air cooling has become too expensive and there’s a finite limit to how much power you can bring in.

3. It’s tough to budget ahead for air cooling – power costs are a big unfriendly variable.

4. Heated water is easier to recycle than heated air.

Overheard: Why the mainframe didn’t die

“The mainframe survived its near-death experience and continues to thrive because customers didn’t care about the underlying technology. Customers just wanted the mainframe to do its job at a lower cost, and IBM made the investments to make that happen.” Irving Wladawsky-Berger as quoted in Why Old Technologies Are Still Kicking

John Belmont shows us IBM’s newest mainframe, the Z10. It has a starting price of about a million dollars.

Overheard: The jungle drums are beating “Ubuntu, Ubuntu, Ubuntu”

IBM believes Linux on the enterprise desktop finally ready for widespread adoption. To meet future demand it is preparing to deliver its next versions of Lotus Notes enterprise collaboration software and Lotus Symphony office productivity applications for the first time with full support for Ubuntu Linux 7.0. Todd Weiss, IBM says end users with 100,000 desktops looking at Ubuntu Linux

It seems like everywhere I go, I’m hearing somebody talk about Ubuntu.

Overheard: What’s inside IBM’s Blue Cloud

“Blue Cloud is based on an open-source project called Hadoop that manages computing resources across large clusters of computers. Hadoop includes an open-source version of MapReduce, the same software Google uses to efficiently distribute its computing chores across its servers around the world.” Erick Schonfeld, IBM’s Blue Cloud is Web Computing By Another Name