Business Tech

Roadrunner outraces supercomputer rivals

Correction, 10:38 a.m. PST: This story misidentified the maker of the Power processor. The maker is IBM.

Jaguar vs. Roadrunner. It could be a new Saturday morning cartoon, or a Hollywood franchise to replace an Alien vs. Predator series that surely must have run its course by now.

But no. It is instead a shorthand for the two fastest supercomputers in the world, as reported in the latest Top500 listing, released Monday in conjunction with the SC08 conference in Austin, Texas.

First place went to Roadrunner, an IBM supercomputer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Its performance in … Read more

Adobe answers cries for 64-bit Flash on Linux

Starting to answer the clamorous demand from open-source fans, Adobe Systems plans to release an alpha version of its Flash Player technology on Monday for those using 64-bit Linux software.

Linux has moved more rapidly than Windows or Mac OS X to support 64-bit processors, in part because the developer-friendly compile-your-own-software ethos that prevails makes it easier for the technically savvy to make the switch. But one of the obstacles in the switch is that people could only use the 32-bit Flash plug-in, which meant that they only could use the 32-bit version of Firefox.

The company plans to release … Read more

Adobe wants to bridge gap between PCs and cloud

Adobe Systems wants to have it both ways.

Microsoft's power with programmers is tethered to desktops and laptops, the vast majority of which run Windows. Google is trying to dominate what it believes is the new frontier, cloud computing, where applications run on the Web. Adobe, though, is trying to run down the middle with a strategy that touches on both domains.

"It's a balance of the client and cloud together that makes for the most effective applications and the best development," said Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch, who's planning to speak on the subject in a keynote speech Monday at the company's Max conference in San Francisco.

Since Adobe's $3.4 billion Macromedia acquisition in 2005, programming technology has been rising in importance within a company that got its start with publishing software such as Photoshop. The technology that brought the two companies together, Flash, will hog the spotlight at the conference.

Flash got its start as a way to give Web pages animations and basic applications such as games, but it's grown up since then. The Flex technology has given developers a more mature programming model, and the addition of video-streaming abilities to the Flash Player that's plugged into the vast majority of Web browsers has given Adobe's technology incumbent status. Who can live online without YouTube?

Adobe is still working on Flash, releasing Flash Player 10, aka Astro, in October. At Max, though, a Flash cousin called AIR--the Adobe Integrated Runtime--will share the stage with the release of version 1.5.

Flash and AIR are key to bridging the cloud-PC gap. For example, Adobe has launched an online Photoshop.com service, where members can upload, edit, and share photos. The site uses Flash to run the processing-intensive editing software on people's own computers, not Adobe's servers, Lynch said.

"Our operational costs for hosting that application are much lower than if we had server-side processing," and users get better performance, Lynch said.

But Flash still lives largely within the browser. Adobe hopes to uproot it with AIR, a "runtime" foundation for housing applications. AIR runs Flash programs but also has a built-in engine for showing Web pages and for running programs written in JavaScript, which is widely used for Web-based applications. And AIR is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and programmers who write AIR applications don't have to worry about what operating system is on a person's computer. … Read more

Intel Core i7 chip launches in Tokyo

Irasshaimase! Stores in Tokyo districts such as Akihabara have launched sales of Intel's Core i7 processor, due to be officially rolled out at U.S. resellers on Monday.

Computerworld reported that "several hundred people crowded stores" that opened around 10 p.m. Saturday. The top-of-the-line 965 chip sold out, according to one retailer.

The Core i7 represents the vanguard of Intel's new Nehalem microarchitecture. The i7 is a desktop processor targeted initially at gaming boxes.

(See CNET review of Falcon Northwest Mach V tower system based on Core i7-965 processor.)

Sofmap, a large Japanese computer reseller, … Read more

Which PC maker will fare best in a bad economy?

Commercial and consumer spending on technology is expected to fall off in the next year, and the PC industry is bracing for the impact.

Already beginning to feel the effects of sagging average selling prices, thinning margins, and oversaturated markets in North America and Europe, there's clearly going to be a shakeout among the biggest players as the economy enters a full-blown recession. (Of course, many believe we're already in one.)

Intel's warning this week that the company sees "significantly" lower demand for its chips signaled that the worst is still to come for PC … Read more

AMD: Netbooks? No thanks

Updated at 9:00 p.m. with additional comments on Netbooks at bottom.

In case you missed it, Advanced Micro Devices is passing on Netbooks. At least as Intel and its partners have defined the category.

In fact, a lot of the media outlets missed this point completely, insisting that AMD is going to go head-to-head with Intel on Netbook processors--apparently because it satisfies a journalistic boilerplate that AMD must, just must, have a direct response to Intel's Atom.

Just to set the record straight, here's what AMD Chief Executive Dirk Meyer said Thursday: "We're ignoring … Read more

Ubuntu to run on ARM-based Netbooks

Canonical has announced that it will be developing a version of its Ubuntu Linux desktop operating system specifically for ARM's Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processor architectures.

ARM-based processors have traditionally been used in small devices such as mobile phones, but it emerged in October that ARM's technology would soon be used in Netbooks, the new breed of small, low-cost notebook PCs. Thursday's announcement builds on that revelation, as well as on Canonical's announcement in June that it would create Netbook-specific distributions of Ubuntu.

"The release of a full Ubuntu desktop distribution supporting latest ARM technology will … Read more

Week in review: Tech's belt-tightening

The ailing economy is rippling through the tech arena in the form of layoffs, cutbacks, and consolidation.

Struggling electronics chain Circuit City announced that it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, allowing it to hold off creditors while it attempts to restructure its finances. Circuit City on Monday said it has negotiated a commitment for a $1.1 billion debtor-in-possession revolving credit facility to supplement its working capital.

Circuit City announced earlier this month that it would shutter 155 stores and lay off 17 percent of its workforce. The retailer said it will eliminate an additional 700 positions in … Read more

Sun chops heads: Can it get any respect?

Sun Microsystems is a pioneering tech company that is having trouble getting any respect.

A Forbes article on Thursday notes that the company's market cap has dropped below $3 billion: "The company has become so toxic that no one dares to swallow it."

As Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz likes to say, the Forbes writers "over-rotate." But Sun has fallen further and harder on Wall Street than its main competitors over the last few years and months. Schwartz has bravely pushed Sun down the path of open source and created demand for its hardware and service … Read more