Pro IT Zone

Since its beginning, when the mice needed a trackball to record movements, users and industry PC solutions have required to be more accurate. The optical mouse was a big step in that direction, being followed by the highly accurate laser technology.

In these days, Microsoft announced a new technology development of the computer mouse.

For now there are no details announced, and Microsoft has released a single image advertising with the words “Say goodbye to laser” and dated September 9.

Then there is a need to wait two weeks to know what concerns Microsoft.

In order to increase scalability and access to archived information, Hitachi Data Systems, announced that investigators from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States, are using the Hitachi Platform for content files for searching and retrieve scientific information about the atmosphere in a faster way.

An integral component of the strategy Services Oriented Storage Solutions of the Hitachi Content Archive Platform, which are scalable archiving delivery services that ensure the protection and preservation of information for a long term, also provides a search and quick recovery method to the valuable data of the proposed high performance of the NASA for the Data Processing System and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument.

“The information that is difficult to obtain or very slow access hinders our investigation, so we wanted to find a technology that automates archiving and expedite the search and retrieval of the database, with an easy way to access the hard drive,” said Curt Tilman, scientific computation of NASA. “The biggest benefit of the Hitachi Content Archive Platform is that we can introduce our information and retrieve the same data without experiencing the latency of an infrastructure based on tape.”

To ensure that researchers can retrieve critical information safely and on time, NASA chose to upgrade their old data storage systems, which are frequently accessed for the files that are accessed less. Researchers at NASA needed a procedure that took less time for data recovery and to endure the failures of systems without loss of information, so as to prevent operators when erase data inadvertently. NASA selected the Hitachi Content Archive Platform to consolidate recovery and dynamic view of 70 terabytes of information.

“The unique approach of content services for storing and managing data of Hitachi, is helping customers in all industries to improve utilization of existing information infrastructure of data centers, and thus reduce the waste and applications in sleep associated with replacements of systems, “said Alejandro Lomelín of Hitachi Data Systems.

According to the education minister of India, D. Purandeswai, the authorities launched in partnership with the National IT Industry a notebook PC designed specifically for students, for the astounding price of 10 dollars.

The super-economic computer will be marketed mainly among students in higher education and secondary school, in order to increase their knowledge and practical use of IT tools. It has not been given a release date of the product.

India is experiencing a tremendous growth in its IT sector. According to various estimates, in 2008, the industry will provide U.S. $ 50 billion to the national economy, that amount will increase to U.S. $ 100 billion by 2010.

The chip will compete with the Intel Atom processor and potentially replace the Geode system-on-a-chip x86 low-powered AMD, which is part of the design of the Project One laptop per child. Based on the design of system-on-a-chip x86, purchased from National Semiconductor in 2003, Geog is also offered to thin clients and embedded computers.

AMD refused to give dates on the launch of the chip.

Plans to develop a low-powered chip, code name Bobcat, were revealed first by AMD last year. At that time, AMD spokesmen described the chip as “designed for maximum energy efficiency and performance-per-watt for next-generation mobile devices, using as little as a watt.”

The company had been very quiet on plans for the Bobcat since then, leading to speculation among industry observers that the project had been abandoned, while trying to recover from consecutive losses and restructuring.

It is expected that more details of the new mobile chip to be divulged in November during the conference of analysts of the company, said the new CEO of AMD, Dirk Meyer, during a conference call on Thursday to discuss the financial results of the company.

“Clearly, when we speak about small form factors, we are interested in the market segment of portable and lost cost notebooks,” said Meyer.

AMD may be a late participant in the market for low-powered chips in the area of mobile devices. Intel processors Atom launched earlier this year, building the x86 architecture in low-powered chips that are now used in low-cost ultraportable mobile and Internet devices. Via also introduced Isaiah processor for mobile devices and ultraportables. In June, Nvidia announced on system-on-a-chip Tegra for cellular, with an integrated graphics processor.

Apple also is taking part in the market for mobile chips, finances using the recent acquisition of PA Semi to develop systems-on-a-chip for iPhone.

Intel is already working on a successor to the Atom, code name Moorestown, to be launched in 2009. The platform includes a system-on-a-chip, code name Lincroft, which is based on a core of 45 nanometers Silverthorne, and puts a graphics driver, video and memory in a single chip.

The processor Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 with four cores at 2.53GHz was announced as an upgrade of $ 1,390 for portable Dreambook Style 9008 Pioneer Computers. Reflecting the expected position of the chip at the top of the mobile product line from Intel, the cost of the upgrade is more than the base price of a laptop that costs $ 1,399.

The quad core chip is not listed in the most recent list price of Intel and will be the first of four mobile processor cores of the company, brings 12M bytes cached according to Pioneer.

Notebooks based on quad core chips are not currently available, but can be sent to consumers within one to two weeks, said a sales representative from Pioneer.

Intel refused to comment of portable quad core chip, with a spokesman saying that the company does not comment on an “unannounced product.”

While Intel has already launched the QX9300, the chip is listed on a roadmap of products developed by Intel India and available on the website of the company.

The QX9300 is the only portable four cores processor on the roadmap, which includes other chips unadvertised, such as the chip for laptop dual-core Core 2 Extreme X9100 at 3.06GHz and the chip for desktop computers with dual core; Core 2 Duo Q9650 to 3GHz. The roadmap does not list dates for when these chips will be available.

This is not the first time that Pioneer Computers has offered an advance of the products coming from Intel. In April, the company leaked details of processors that are part of the package ahead of Centrino 2 mobile processors.