Friday, November 16, 2007

Print 2.0 – a New Era for Printing

HP is working on Print 2.0

Key areas of focus of the Print 2.0 strategy:

  • Make it easier to print from websites, such as blogs and travel sites, and bring new printing capabilities to online properties;
  • Extend the company’s digital content creation and publishing platforms – for example, Snapfish and Logoworks – across customer segments spanning from consumers to enterprises; and
  • Deliver a digital printing platform that increases print speeds and lowers the cost of printing for high-volume commercial markets.

Story

Story in Express Computers

Labels: ,

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

NComputing : Getting more from less

In a country like India with its wide digital divide, a solution like sharing computer processing and computing capacities could make a big difference. Shonali Misra finds out more about NComputing.


Operating a computer these days is as routine as writing in a notebook (not the laptop!) Though computer prices have declined over the years, it is still difficult for every average middle-class person to be able to afford one. In this scenario, when any individual or organisation has an affordable as well as efficient option of computing, cyberspace seems so much more accessible.

Turning complexity simple enters the NComputing solution. Founded in 2003 by a Korean engineer, Young Song, and German inventor, Klaus Maier, dedicating more than 12 years of applied research in multiuser computing, NComputing breaks the affordability and complexity barriers that have limited the PC from being deployed everywhere.

NComputing, Inc. (www.ncomputing.com) is a privately held software and hardware technology design and manufacturing company with offices in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Korea, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Headquartered in Redwood City, CA, the company's patented technologies drastically lower costs, improve manageability and reduce energy consumption.

Explaining how the system works, Mr Raj Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, NComputers, says, "The NComputing system is based on the simple fact that today's PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of users only need a small fraction of the computing capacity. Most users only tap one to five percent of the more powerful PC's processing power. NComputing taps this unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously shared by 7 to 30 users at a time."

Each user's monitor, keyboard, and mouse are connected to a very small and highly reliable NComputing access device, which is then connected to the shared PC. This thus brings down the cost of infrastructure, installation, and maintenance.



In addition to lower initial costs, the NComputing solution also lowers ongoing support costs. For example, the NComputing access devices only use one watt of electricity—compared to 120 watts of electricity for a dedicated PC.

The 95 percent electricity reduction is especially critical in India where electricity rates are high with India facing a 70,000 MW power shortage along with power supply being unreliable, adds Shah. The lower power consumption also reduces the need for uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and inverters.

Finally, since fewer PCs need to be maintained, the support, maintenance and replacement costs are significantly lower. The additional bonus is an 80 percent reduction in e -waste.



How it works

With the NComputing solution, each user still has his/her own monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers. However, instead of connecting directly to a PC, these peripherals connect to a small NComputing access terminal on their desk. The access terminals connect either directly (X Series) or over Ethernet (L Series) to the terminal services software using the high performance User eXtention Protocol (UXP).



Presence in India

With a two year presence in India already having delivered around 200 seats, the company plans to work with the central and state government bodies, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and school systems. Azim Premji Foundation, Jindal South-west (JSW) - Vijaynagar Steel Plant near Hospet, Apollo Hospitals in Bangalore, and RV Public Girls school, Bangalore, are a few of the local names who have opted for the simplified computer solution. Digital Waves (http://www.digitalwaves.in/) is the Bangalore distributor for NComputers.

Story


Labels: , ,

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

TATA CRL and HP Supercomputer ranked Fourth Best in the World

TATA CRL and HP create Supercomputer

HP has announced a major milestone in world class supercomputing as the company has collaboratively worked with Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) for the development of the 4th most powerful supercomputer in the world and thus the most powerful in Asia-Pacific region.

CRL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TATA Sons. HP had been working with CRL to evaluate and plan for an advanced HPC facility in India over the last year. In fact, using HP’s new High-end compute building blocks, CRL managed to successfully build their supercomputer.

CRL plans to use this newly developed supercomputer to push scientific and industrial discovery to infinite limits. For instance, using such a powerful supercomputer, engineers will now be able to model particle dynamics at ultra high resolution - allowing for significant breakthroughs in fields such as nano-photonics and medicine.

So where does HP come into all of this, you might be wondering. HP’s leading c-Class Blade System technology enabled CRL to put this supercomputer capability in place in a record one-month period.

CRL and HP have named this supercomputer “Eka”, which means the “one” in Sanskrit. In actual fact, this machine will act as a stepping-stone for CRL’s Petaflops Project.

Mr. S Ramadorai, Chairman, CRL spoke on this jubilant occasion stating, “This project, based on standard infrastructure building blocks from HP, will herald the availability of affordable research in India. This will pave the way for growth in the Indian research industry by providing affordable access to computational infrastructure to the vast existing research talent pool across verticals and domains.”

Mr. Balu Doraisamy, Managing Director, HP India Sales said, “HP is honored to partner with Tata CRL, a leading name in the field of High Performance Computing, from the inception stages of the project, all the way through its production. We are proud to work collaboratively with Tata CRL to take forward their vision of being a global leader in HPC, building scalable and cutting-edge supercomputer architectures while making affordable research in India a reality.”

The Eka system is one of the first implementations on Fiber Optical Infiniband cables, which have proven very reliable at lengths greater than those generally achieved by copper alternatives.

The 2.5 MW of captive power being generated to keep the Eka system going was a catalyst for Computational Research Labs to create a new data center model for Dense Data Center Layout and Innovative Network Routing Technology that will see advances for HPC future products.

The supercomputer is powered by a Linux open source operating system and it is based on standard hardware to address the issue of application scalability, which has been the bane of supercomputing till date.

TechShout Story


Nature Story


BusinessLine Story

Labels: , ,

Ban the Bulb !

Greenpeace is gathering 1 million petitions to force our Government to Ban the Bulb. Simply sign the petition below to join us in fighting climate change.

Click Here to sign the petition

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Help build the Encyclopedia of Life

E.O. Wilson: TED Prize wish: Help build the Encyclopedia of Life



As E.O. Wilson accepts his 2007 TED Prize, he makes a plea on behalf of his constituents, the insects and small creatures, to learn more about our biosphere. We know so little about nature, he says, that we're still discovering tiny organisms indispensable to life; yet we're still steadily destroying nature. Wilson identifies five grave threats to biodiversity (a term he coined), using the acronym HIPPO, and makes his TED wish: that we will work together on the Encyclopedia of Life, a web-based compendium of data from scientists and amateurs on every aspect of the biosphere.

Story

Labels: , ,

EYE-FI UNVEILS WORLD’S FIRST WIRELESS MEMORY CARD

Eye-Fi Card Uses Wi-Fi to Automatically Upload Photos to Computers and
Online Photo Sharing and Social Networking Sites

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 30, 2007 – Eye-Fi Inc., a company dedicated to helping people navigate, nurture and share their digital memories, today unveiled the Eye-Fi Card – the world's first wireless SD memory card for digital cameras. The Eye-Fi Card uses home Wi-Fi networks to create an effortless and convenient way for users to send photographs from digital cameras to PCs, Macs and online photo and social networking sites. See release entitled “Eye-Fi Announces Support from Seventeen Online Photo Destinations.” Priced at $99.99 with 2GB of storage, the Eye-Fi Card is available now from major online retailers.



“Digital cameras have made it extremely easy to take pictures, but the rest of the process is a hassle,” said Jef Holove, chief executive officer of Eye-Fi. “The Eye-Fi Card removes the barriers and lets users get to the fun part of sharing and printing their memories. We’re putting the magic back into photography.”
Eye-Fi uses home wireless networks to eliminate the time-consuming chore of dealing with cables, card readers or software plug-ins associated with uploading photos. Users simply turn on their digital camera and their pictures are wirelessly uploaded. The Eye-Fi Card works with existing and new SD-compatible digital cameras and stores photos like a conventional SD memory card.

“We know that a large percent of digital images captured each day are never printed or shared. That adds up to significant lost revenues for photo sharing and printing sites,” said IDC analyst Ron Glaz. “We anticipate wireless cameras will fundamentally change the way people manage their digital photographs in the future and believe that Eye-Fi Card will help drive these changes.”

How the Eye-Fi Card works

During a simple set-up process, users can select from among 17 popular online photo sharing, printing, social networking or blogging sites to share their photographs, and select where on their PC or Mac they want to archive their images. Once the set-up is complete, users can focus on taking pictures and sharing memories – and not on the process of uploading photos from their camera.

Eye-Fi’s free upload service allows users to transfer an unlimited number of photos. It handles full-resolution JPEG pictures and intelligently resizes the images if required by the selected online destination.
“We’re thrilled to be among the first to sell the Eye-Fi Card and we expect it to be a big hit for the holidays,” said Aaron Maguire of Buy.com. “Eye-Fi understands how time-starved our customers are, and this solution matches their needs.”


The 2GB wireless SD memory card, which holds approximately 1,000 images, is available now at major online retailers including Amazon.com, Buy.com and Walmart.com for $99.99 USD. For more information, please visit www.eye.fi.

Review of this card


Story

Labels: