March 8, 2010
Intel preps new Xeons for March 16 launch
The Register
Timothy Prickett Morgan writes about Intel’s release plans for its Westmere-EP processors.
“The word on the street is that chip maker Intel will finally get around to launching its new Xeon processors on March 16, and AMD will follow up with its new Opterons sometime near the end of the month. Let the marketeering begin. It is unclear at this time if Intel will launch both the six-core ‘Westmere-EP’ processors for two-socket servers (presumably to be called the Xeon 5600) and its high-end, eight-core ‘Nehalem-EX’ processors for four-socket and larger boxes (also known as ‘Beckton’ and probably to be known as the Xeon 7600) on the same day. All we can see for certain at this point is that that’s the day server makers are prepping for their launch blitzes. Intel could launch the Westmere-EPs and save the Nehalem-EX powder to try to make some noise when the twelve-core ‘Magny-Cours’ Opteron 6100s come out at the end of the month.”
Asus will hit e-pad market this year
The Register
Joe Fay writes about Asus’ plans in the e-pad device market.
“Asus is working on multiple e-pad type devices which it hopes will exploit the shortcomings of Apple’s iPad when they hit the market this year. Eric Chen, corporate vice-president systems business group at the Taiwanese portables specialist, told El Reg that many people had described Apple’s product du jour as ‘one big screen iPhone.’ He said that Apple was one of the ‘most respected companies,’ but he didn’t think that the iPad would necessarily be the dominant product the iPhone had become.”
Could Silverlight be Microsoft’s next app for Android?
ZD Net
Mary Jo Foley writes about the possibility of Microsoft making Silverlight into a cross-platform solution that would work with Google’s Android mobile operating system.
“Microsoft released its first application for the Android mobile operating system (last) week: The Microsoft Tag mobile barcoding reader. Might Silverlight be Microsoft’s next Android app? The move makes sense. Microsoft officials have been hinting since 2008 that Microsoft was considering supporting the Android platform. One report last summer noted that Microsoft had a version of Silverlight for Google Android in beta (though I haven’t found anyone claiming to have such a beta). Silverlight already works with Google’s Chrome browser, though ‘official’ support arrives with Silverlight 4, which is due out in the first half of this year.”
