Blogs@Intel

CONVERGENCE is 100% in Portland

2009-11-20T20:47:29Z

All the buzz about energy and climate makes for an interesting backdrop to the SuperComputing ‘09 conference that has converged on soggy Portland this week. Globally, according to Gartner, information and communications technologies are responsible for ~2% of global CO2 emissions and HPC (High Performance Computing) data centers are amongst the most energy intensive. A fascinating aspect of this week’s conference is the extent to which HPC can have a positive impact on reducing the other 98% of emissions - in other words reinventing industries and applying technology to have a positive impact on the environment.

SuperComputing gathers a very large contingent of the HPC community annually for a wide range of technical talks, demonstrations, workshops, and great keynotes (more on that in a bit!). One of the themes for this year’s SC09 conference is “sustainability”. Portland, Oregon was a great choice of a host for this year’s conference because of all the environmentally aware programs and activities here in the city. A quick Internet search of “top green cities rated” will invariably have Portland at or near the top. This conference is so large that it spills over into multiple venues. It’s a lot of fun to see the whole HPC community shuttling around Portland on the environmentally inspired Max light rail and street cars.

But the throngs in attendance weren’t the only convergence here. So at Intel, along with our customers and partners, we are working diligently to improve the energy efficiency of the products we make and sell - back to that 2% figure cited above. Our Eco-Tech team had a brief meeting with representatives of CERN, the large European Center for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland, who were more than pleased that the current systems they are deploying can get 10X the work done than the platforms they deployed just 4 years ago while consuming less power. But the real opportunity is how we can make the other 98% of that energy use more efficient thru the increased use of computational capabilities, controls, and optimizations.

Everywhere on the SC09 show floor it’s all about lower power and increased efficiency. But customers like NASA, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), CERN, and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) also put computational power to good use to solve the scientific, climate, societal, and energy challenges of tomorrow. We can help them serve the planet by increasing the efficiency of our products and working with these end-users to better solve the 98%. During the Sustainability Day at SC09 a wide range of activities from a masterworks session called “Toward Exascale Climate Modeling” to a panel discussion on “Energy Efficient Data Centers for HPC: How Lean and Green do we need to be?”. This proved to be a great day!

Did I mention the keynotes? Justin Rattner, Intel CTO kicked off the week with an exciting and inspiring discussion of the 3D Web and how it will make the HPC community that much better and more productive. He closed with an amazing demo of a more than a Teraflop of performance on a single “Larrabee” chip. That’s more than a trillion operations per second on one processor! Former Vice President AL Gore’s keynote talked about energy, climate, and computing. His message rang true to the crowd, he highlighted technology and innovation as a fundamental requirement for making a meaningful change in our current trajectory.

Another highlight from the conference is the update to the Top 500 list. This time the Jaguar computer at Oak Ridge National Labs topped the list at 1.759 Petaflops. While Jaguar is not an IA-based machine, my favorite take-away from the list is our prevalence: OVER 400 of the 500 supercomputers listed are powered by Intel processors. And with the increased performance per watt packed into the current Nehalem offerings and efforts to move our future generations even higher on the energy efficient computing scale I feel good about our companies efforts to attack both the 2% and the 98%.

Maybe you have some ideas to share on this subject - especially how we can pull together new sustainable practices. I’d love to get your comments and help to influence change within Intel and with industry.

Comments (0)

Intel Reader Innovates Text to Voice

2009-11-20T17:19:51Z

Intoduced on November 10, the Intel Reader is inspiring many people to learn more about what exacetly the device does, how it works and what’s inside.

In short, the Intel Reader is a mobile device that can help increase independence for people who have challenges reading printed text, including people living with dyslexia, low vision or blindness. It converts printed text to digital text, then reads it aloud.

I first got to visit one of the lead Intel Reader designers,Ben Foss, at his home a few weeks prior to the product introduction. On that day, he allowed me to shoot this video of him showing how the Intel works.

Here’s a link to view a longer version of the video, where Ben shares more insights, anecdotes and accessories related to the Intel Reader.

Since then, I’ve had the chance to see Ben again a few times:

at media briefing in San Francisco
again today, when I joined him at the Fox Business News TV studio in San Francisco, where FOX reporters shared their excitement on how this device is a much needed and promising innovation

Ben’s personal experience of living with dyslexia is telling, especially when you hear how his mother helped him succeed from kindergarten up through Law School. This real-life experiences blended with extensive research, field studies, and hardware and software refinements is what it took create this device.

At the heart of the reader is an Intel Atom processor and a Linux-based Moblin operating system. The device has a five-magapixel, autofocus camera, jack for earphones (where the audio quality is splendid), weighs less than one-and-a-hlaf pounds and comes with a nifty, over-the-shoulder protective carrying case.

Several technology writers have shared their take on the Intel Reader, including:

Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal
Engadget
Gizmodo
Ubergizmo
VentureBeat
SiliconValleyWatcher

I have shared our video and some of these reviews on the Intel Fan Page in Facebook.and we’re seeing lots of comments and questions about the device, including a few people interested in using the device in their education curriculum or their local vision imparied community group.

There are more things to learn about the Intel Reader, like what are the hardware specs and does it support common formats used by existing devices for vision impaired? If you have questions, please share them here in the comment section.

You can also learn more by joining the Intel Reader Fan Page in Facebook and following on Twitter.

What's On Your Uber Holiday Gadget Gift List?

2009-11-20T15:00:04Z

The day before consumer technology blog Ubergizmo unveiled their Uber10 list of gadget gift ideas for the holidays (KGO-TV’s Richard Hart report aired 11/15, embedded below), my seven-year-old son asked me what I wanted for Christmas. It was his savvy way to get me to help him brainstorm what will become his wish list for 2009.

My son wants a Wii so he can play sports even when it’s cold outside, but so far that’s the only tech gadget he’s hoping to unwrap.

He seems more interested in Tech Deck skateboards, math games and dinosaur fossils.

As for me? I have my eye an a few upgrades:

I’d like to step up from my Canon G9 to the Canon G11 or Limux GF1
I’d really like to upgrade to a new Blackberry Curve 8500

A new device that I think is interesting is the Viliv S7 for my on-the-go Internet snacking, Kindle store enjoyment and microblogging.

Ubergizmo unveiled their Uber10 list of gadgets for under $500 on November 12 at an event in San Francisco sponsored by Intel (our second year) along with Dolby and UBS. The event is a great way to kick off the holiday season geek-style, so we brought a celebratory cake with colorful Intel chip design decorated on top.

You can see some great photos of the event from a variety of photographers on the scene:

IntelPhotos Set
TheKenYeung Flickr Set
Lauralovesart Flickr Set
@Photo Flickr Set

One of the most stylish devices to make this year’s Uber10 was the HP Mini 110 Studio Tord Boontje with an eye-catching 3D tech mesh design and a tiny, mighty Intel Atom processor inside.

If you’ll looking for ideas, start by voting for your three favorite gadgets listed on the the Ubergizmo site.

If you know already then please leave in the comment section what your top three gadgets wishes are for the 2009 holiday season. Happy holiday shopping!

Developers, here's your chance to win a netbook!

2009-11-20T14:51:11Z

What do you have planned over the holiday break next month? In your free time, how about coding a small app and then entering it for a chance to win a netbook? If that sounds interesting, head over to our Intel Atom Developer Challenge to learn more. Create a netbook application to submit to the challenge and if you are one of the first 100 validated applications, you win a netbook. It is that simple and it's going on now!

Now I know you have tons of questions, but if you check out the webpage it explains everything in full detail. The official rules are also there for you to read through and if that doesn't answer all your questions, our forum is a place where you can post questions and receive replies. You can also comment below under this blog post - we read all of your comments!

Become a fan of the Challenge and then download our snazzy backgrounds for your computer! The .zip file contains the Intel Atom Developer Challenge backgrounds in full screen (1600x1200), widescreen (1920x1200), netbook (1024x600) and a special Moblin netbook graphic (1024x600) to fit the interface. Enjoy and share with others!

Also, if you're sharing or commenting on Twitter, our hashtag is #winanetbook!

NOT the Lazy and the Infirm

2009-11-20T14:23:38Z

Today's posting is about treating people with dignity and respect.

Looking at all the press, ironically, my favorite were the blog entries that used the following words to describe our users - the blind and dyslexic as (and I am quoting here):

"THE LAZY AND INFIRM"

First, I want to say something I mean in complete earnestness: THANK YOU.

Thank you to the journalists who wrote these sorts of headlines. I am guessing that their editors thought it would generate traffic to have an edgy headline, so thank you to you too editors with this sentiment. Thank you because you voiced the thoughts of a lot of people.

Let me speak here to the general population who may have very little exposure to these issues. First some facts: I have a brain-based neurological disorder characterized as a specific learning disability. This means that when I read it is like having a bad cell phone connection to a page. Having a person read print aloud to me is like having a landline.

When you are five and your mom reads to you, it is not that big a deal. But try Stanford Law School. That is where I did my JD/MBA, ordering every book on tape or getting them all scanned and having a Stephen Hawking voice read them to me. A reaction I often get is, "you are not that dyslexic, you went to Stanford!"

The issue is that I am. Look at the brain image below - that is my brain on the right, the one with next to no activity while reading, imaged at Stanford Medical School a few years ago in a study of adults with dyslexia. It showed that this is not just a kid's issue -- I am still that dyslexic. And I like myself for it.

Have a look at the raw version of this blog text below (titled "raw" version) this is the original version that I wrote, then put through spell check, then had the Stephen Hawking voice (my screen reader software) read it back to me not once but four times, then passed it to our marketing people to find any homonyms -- I can't tell the word 'counsel' from 'council', or 'your' from 'you're', because the Stephen Hawking voice says them the same way. This extra effort and time applies to everything, everyday like writing and sending an e-mail or filling out a form when checking into a hospital.

Being dyslexic is the opposite of being lazy. It is being diligent, dedicated, relentless and indefatigable. Some of us can do great things and some cannot, but that is up to people with this disability to figure out

People also make assumptions about blind people--some think they are pitiful, or as some blogs stated: infirm. We people with disabilities are neither.

Reading is personal and intimate, and for me and for the 10-15% of the population that is dyslexic like me, it is a labor. The Intel Reader is making this easier, but that does not equal laziness.

My point is no one I know who is dyslexic is lazy. Indeed, no one with disabilities is lazy - just getting through the day demands focus and effort. My business school roommate at Stanford was a guy in a wheel chair. He was also a Harvard grad (before his injury in a diving accident) and a White House Fellow (after). At a job interview in business school, the organizer, who knew he was in a chair, picked a restaurant without ramps. He could have rolled away. But he insisted that the hosts carry him up two flights of stairs. Was he lazy for asking them to carry him up?

The Intel Reader is that ramp into a book for people like me and if you find it bothersome I take that ramp, feel free to say we are lazy and/or infirm. It lets us know where you are at.

Talk to you later. After all this, I need a nap.

N.B.: The text below was the raw version of what I wrote for my first version of this blog on the use of LAZY AND INFIRM. To write, I write what I am thinking, then put it into a speech engine and proof it three or four times, then hand it to an editor to assure the written language is not a barrier for other to understand. The key point here is I have command of the language in terms of literacy and vocabulary, but not the code of the written language. I am publishing this to show people the work behind the curtain.

Today's posting is about teatig people with Dignity and Respect.

Looking at all the press, ironically, my favorite were the blog entries that used the following words desribing our suers - the blind and dyskexic as (and I am quoting here):

THE LAZY AND INFIRM

First, I want to say somthing I mean in compete earnestness: Thank you.

Thank you to the jornalist who wrote these sorts of headlines. I am guessing that their editors thought it would generate traffis to have an edge headline, so thank you to you too editors with this sentiament. Thank you because you voiced the thoughts of a lot of people.

Let me speak here not to the dyslexic or blind folks, but to the general population who may have very little exposire to these isseus. First some facts. I have a brain based nurological disorder characorized as a specific learning disability. This means that when I read it is like having a bad cellphone conneciton to a page. Have a person read alout to me is liek hving a land line.

Now when you are 5 and mom read to you, not that big a deal. Try Stanford Law Scool. That is where I did not JD/MBA, ordering every book on tape or getting them all scanned and having the equovlent of ttephen hawkings voice read them to me. And what I got -- first the right to take a final in contracts law -- and second, insight into how bipotted peopel can be.

Because the other reaction I get is, you are not THAT dyslexic. The issue is that I am -- look t the brain image. And at the raw version of this text, the version that I wrote, then put through spell check, then has Stephne hawlins voice read back to me not once but twice, then passed it to our marketing people to find any homynims -- how owuld I tell the would counsel from council, or your from your're, given Stephen Hawlings voice says them the same way. It took me an extra hour to get this into shape this morning -- an doubling of the time it take to send an e-mail to someone I do not know very well or the time to fill out a form when checking into a hospital.

Again, for the non-dyslexic, non-blind folks -- I simply call it the majority of people -- being dyslexic is basically the entire opposit of being lazy. It is being diligent, dedicate, relentless and indefatigable.

Reading is personal an intimate and for me and the 2.5 million kids in speciall eucaiton in the US public schools and the 10-15% of the population that is dyslexic like me, it is a labor. The Intel Reader has changed this -- making it at las an option, but hardly a lazy one.

My point is this. I am not lazy. No one who is dyslexic is lazy. Indeed, not one with disbailities is lazy. My Business School roommate at Stanford was a guy in a wheel chair. He was also a harvard grad (before his injury in a diving accident) and a White House Fellow (after). At a job interview in business school, they organizer, who knew he was in a chari, put the dinner at a restrant with ot ramps. He could have rolled away and not fought to get a job he wanted on equal playing field. but he insistent that they organizer carry him up two flights of stair to the interview. Was he lazy for asking them to carry him up the star?

The Intel reader is that ramp and if you find it lazy I take that ramp, feel free to leave you headline up. It lets us know where you are t. I am going to take a nap.

Comments (0)

Ten reasons to read “Active Platform Management Demystified”

2009-11-20T14:17:09Z

This book is a must read for everyone in the IT arena (developers, IT professionals, etc.) because it’s not only a deep guide to Intel® AMT technology, it’s also a very useful review of state-of-the-art manageability standards. If you have discussed or read about WS-Man, WBEM, CIM, DASH, SMASH and other technology acronyms and you still haven’t found their connections to your company or products here are the top ten reasons why you should read "Active Platform
Management Demystified".

You will learn about the vPro architecture and components (like AMT/VT/TXT).
You will identify the Active Management Technology use cases and then you will probably find out how your solution addresses them.
You will discover opportunities to build new software to use AMT technology (like a power monitoring solution).
You will discover AMT features you haven’t used (I didn’t know AMT had a case instruction sensor!).
You will find new ways to perform certain tasks (Did you know about terminal scripting existence? – It’s useful to change many computer BIOS settings).
You will learn how some AMT components integrate with well-known technologies (like Active Directory).
You will learn how to address end user problems with any AMT functionality, for example: preventing a worm infection by pushing a network filter or repairing and updating security agents.
You will discover a way to detect that a console is talking to Intel AMT locally through LMS service.
You will find the difference between the SNMP traps and WS Eventing.
You will find samples on how to scan, connect and gather information of computers using Intel AMT. There are other useful samples like how to build a serial relay application to use a standard terminal like Putty or Microsoft Windows XP HyperTerminal.

Maybe you will find your own reasons and want read it twice! Then don't be shy and share them!

Javier Andrés Cáceres Alvis
Personal Blog: http://speechflow.spaces.live.com/
Intel Blog: http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/author/javierandrescaceres/

Brown goes to Town. Thinking Parallel in Minnesota

2009-11-20T11:41:06Z

I have to say that I love my job. I get to meet all kinds of fascinating people all on the same road to THINK PARALLEL. One such person is Dr. Dick Brown of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Professor Brown attended last year’s SIGCSE in Chattanooga, TN, and heard Michael Wrinn of Intel’s talk on Ubiquitous Parallelism. He told me recently that this talk really helped him realize that a big change in CS curriculum was necessary.

So that is exactly what he set out to do. Here is an article about the work that he has done. http://www.stolaf.edu/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=NewsDetails&id=4769 Professor Brown has started to do what I hope all of you will, which is to THINK PARALLEL, and better yet start to TEACH PARALLEL. Together we can all figure out the best curriculums and the best ways to teach these new curriculums.

I encourage all of you to come to the Intel Academic Community often to see what your fellow academics are working on. Let us know what you are working on, and share some of your curriculum.

TechEd Europe 2009 - Win7

2009-11-20T09:21:16Z

josh.hilliker@intel.com

At TechEd Europe 2009, Microsoft's Keith Mayer outlines how manageability can be achieved with Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Intel's Westmere-EP.

Our old computer is getting slow... time for a new PC?

2009-11-20T09:18:22Z

Yes… I believe the time has come to replaced ‘ye ol shared pc’ in the house. Our little DELL has been great! Other than a dead power supply during the first year (replaced under warranty) - it still runs ‘ok’ - I can hear the fans spinning in the other room. I have to remind myself that I bought this machine a little over 6 years ago in 2003 for about $1,200 (including monitor!)

Here’s the configuration:

Of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I installed a faster 3GHz processor, increased memory from 512MB to 1.5GB, removed the MODEM, added a CD Writer drive, and replaced the original 40GB hard drive with a 160GB PATA model. Even with the mods, it’s now our slowest machine in the house…

Overall - the Pentium 4 has been good to our family. It checks email just fine, you can surf the web, even play some older games (new ones just don’t run due to video card requirements). But the experience is lackluster in the world of Web 2.0+. Sites like Facebook come to a crawl when you push all the flash content, YouTube as well… and Hulu? sure it works, but the experience has become rather flat and choppy.

At home, we’ll most likely go with a newer desktop model since this machine is always stationary in a corner of our home where anyone in the family can go to do homework, check e-mail, surf the web, and as my kids get older - their friends will be able to play games when they visit as well. Sure a nettop would be great at ~$300 but With our computing requirements, we need more than just an ‘Internet Device’ - we need a full desktop computer! And if I expect this next PC to last me 6 more years, something that is mid-top of the line will have to be our pick!

My recommendations for this type of scenario (yours may vary) would be a new Core i5 system. You get the benefits from multi-core processing, the ability to upgrade components in the future (i.e. video cards, memory, etc) and you can get excellent prices!

So looking at the current holiday pricing - new computers and laptops are begging to look pretty appealing! If you check some recent recommendations from @Intel_Inside, you’ll notice a big trend in ultra-thin laptops, and also some Buying Guides that match your personality with your computing model.

During your holiday shopping season - when you’re checking out the deals in the stores - check for those Intel stickers to ensure you get the best “Bang for your Buck!”

Changing Ideas to Reality

2009-11-19T23:40:22Z

The 5th Annual Intel + UC Berkeley Technology Entreprenuership Challenge concluded tonight with “Ihealth” from Tsinghau University, China winning both the First Prize award of $25k and the People’s Choice Award. Second and third prize were respectively CaptchaAd and Zimplistic. The IBTEC Challenge is a business plan competition focused at combining technology and business development. Technology encompassed in the competition included everything from saving the rainforest through social networking, medical diagnostics for TB, DNA transfer at room temperature,

Ihealth tackled the problem of creating a better bone screw for addressing fractures in load bearing bones/limbs. Current common practice utilizes metal screws which provide the strength for supporting load bearing bones - but must be operated on to remove them after the bone has healed. Alternatively there are bones screws that are biodegradable and the body will eventually reabsorb them but they are not suitable for the “big bones” (load bearing) and create acidic response that can cause inflamation. Now this may have been a rather clinical explanation of the problem - but the team highlighted their new invention which allowed physicians to utilize new biodegradable bones screws which provide the strength to support the big bone breaks and still be reabsorbed by the body without side effect. The team engaged the audience by reviewing the Houston Rockets center Yao Ming’s fractures for roughly the last 5 years - proving that he would have been able to return more quickly to the game - saving Houston millions from the lost revenue generated by winning games. A fun twist on the benefits

Second Prize was CatchaAd put forward by Germany’s TU Munich University. How often have you been presented with distorted words/letters/symbols to prove you are you and not a machine asking for access to a new website or account. It has been proven that these security guards can now be easily breached by “smart” programs - defeating their original purpose. CatchaAd replaces the words with video - being able to drop a picture in that the user can identify - the key is that that graphic can be an add or message that can link to other mediums. A simple concept that prduces security a computer can’t immediatly hack and give advertisers extra eyes.

Zimplistic’s “Rotimatic” rounded out the top prize at Third Place. The “Rotimatic” produces the Indian meal “Roti” at the push of the button. Roti’s are similar to the traditional bread or rice dishes with meal and are a staple to most Indian meals. Based at the National University of Singapore, Zimplistic’s invention free’s the homemaker from 30minute plus preparing Roti’s for the meals. What was great about this idea was its simplicity - it reminded you of the microwave concept 30 years ago - which reduces the time in meal preperation while retaining good food value. What could you do if at the push of the button - you were given 30 minutes to an hour back a day. Consider the possibilities.

There were just the top prizes - but were a fun start to consider - what would you create - given your best use of technology idea - and a little bit of money….;} ..

Comments (0)

vPro: Windows 7 Migration with SCCM SP2

2009-11-19T17:04:00Z

florence.lo@intel.com

Take a look at the posted document for step by step instructions on Windows 7 Migration with SCCM SP2. This document includes how to create an image using SCCM, Installing drivers, Installing Applications, Creating Hardlinks with the User State Migration Tool, and Renaming and Joining the domain. This document allows IT technicians to create an Win 7 image, deploy it to their environment using collections, and upgrade their existing Windows XP clients to Windows 7 clients without having to remove the data and put the data back. Included in this guide is some tips and hints on getting the image deployment to work for your company.

http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-4079

Newsletter Published: Radmin, Webinars, Intel AT, and real world examples

2009-11-19T16:53:47Z

michele.gartner@intel.com

This issue of the newsletter has some good content about using Intel vPro Technology. A new use case reference design was published recently; this one has to do with using Radmin to perform basic Intel AMT functions on a managed client. (What's a use case reference design? Read my blog: New stuff in the community: Use Case Reference Designs) You'll also find links to a white paper about Failsafe and Intel Anti-Theft Technology, a registration link for a Windows 7 webinar that's coming up, and some real-world stories about companies that have implemented Intel vPro technology in their environments.

Read the newsletter or subscribe to receive it in your inbox automatically. This newsletter goes out every two weeks.Enjoy!

Evidence & Economics, Emotion & Entitlement: The Politics of Proof in the Current Breast Cancer Debate

2009-11-19T16:51:49Z

I am not a breast cancer expert. Nor are the majority of you who are reading this. Nor are the hundreds of millions of Americans witnessing the media- and partisan-fed furor over the change in guidelines about breast cancer screening for women between 40 and 50 years of age. I'm pretty sure no one in Congress is a bona fide breast cancer expert. For that matter, neither are most physicians or nurses. And I'm willing to bet that most, if not all, of the news and radio personalities pontificating and practicing "armchair medicine" about breast cancer on the airwaves are untrained in advanced oncology or health outcomes research. Which is why someone--in this case the committee of actual breast cancer experts convened by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)--has to take on the challenge of researching, analyzing, and updating recommendations for the screening of breast cancer and hundreds of other conditions, tests, and therapies.

So what's the news? Based on new studies and analysis, the USPSTF experts have updated their 2002 recommendation about when women should begin regular mammography screenings (you can read it verbatim here). Specifically, it says: "The USPSTF recommends against routine screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years. The decision to start regular, biennial screening mammography before the age of 50 years should be an individual one and take patient context into account, including the patient's values regarding specific benefits and harms." The AHRQ website then goes on to provide a well-reasoned explanation of the scientific and medical studies that led the committee to come to this conclusion (see here).

My non-expert reading of their report leads me to conclude that, frankly, the mammography tests for women at that age are pretty inaccurate (there is a high number of false positives), and we are putting a lot of women through tests that have high emotional and economic costs with much risk for very little reward. But the report clearly says this decision should be an "individual one" and "take patient context into account"--in other words, it doesn't prevent women and their doctors in any way from deciding to have a mammographic screening for their personal healthcare history and situation. I found this advice from the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to be a wise and reasonable response:

How should women respond to this news? Calmly. There has always been debate about whether or not to recommend routine screening mammography for women in their 40s. The focus of the debate is the balance of risks and benefits. The most important potential benefit of screening mammography is a modest reduction in breast cancer mortality. Potential risks of mammography include false-positive test results (which lead to stress and additional testing), false-negative test results (a missed cancer), and overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis refers to the diagnosis of a cancer that will never cause health problems during the life of a patient. Overdiagnosis leads to unnecessary cancer treatment.

So if this is simply a routine update--though it does reverse the recommendation compared to 2002--based on new scientific evidence, and everyone still has the freedom to choose mammography in consultation with their doctor, how has this created such a firestorm? The problem is that these new recommendations--having emerged at a critical moment in healthcare reform as the House version has passed and as Senator Reid is launching debate of the newly minted 2000 plus page bill in the Senate--are being politicized to try to influence the controversial bills being voted upon. Sadly, I think this controversy has far less to do with cancer and care for patients and much more to do with politics and quests for power. It is much more about the "politics of proof" for how we decide which medical devices, tests, and treatments are effective and which ones really aren't worth the effort. Thus, hidden behind this debate about cancer is really a political fight about what is called Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) and the large amount of tax-payer money to pay for it.

Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) is a political hot potato that most people don't understand, if they have even heard of it. The stimulus package put $1.1B into the CER program (see this link for more info) with $300 million going to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (from which the USPSTF that produced this breast cancer report is managed), $400 million to the National Institutes of Health, and $400 million to the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to "conduct, support, or synthesize research that compares the clinical outcomes, effectiveness, and appropriateness of items, services, and procedures that are used to prevent, diagnose, or treat diseases, disorders, and other health conditions." In other words, these dollars will be used to help inform patients and providers which treatments, interventions, therapies, and clinical practices achieve the best results for people and under what care models. There is a federal coordination Council to oversee this initial stimulus investment, and the healthcare reform bills are very likely to create a nonprofit corporation and ongoing funding mechanism of $1 per patient each year from both Medicare and private plans to sustain CER for the long haul.

Anytime you start talking about sums of money this large, politics inevitably comes knocking on the door very quickly. First, there is a political tussle within the government to see which of these agencies, if any, will ultimately end up controlling the CER funds and research agenda. John Inglehart recently published an overview of the Institute of Medicine's recommendations for CER in the New England Journal of Medicine, which helps to further explain all of this and to give examples of the kinds of questions this research would pursue. Second, CER has become a partisan wedge by which some politicians claim that this will lead to government rationing and the removal of choice for patients. Third, there are some healthcare and medical industries who are resisting CER because they fear that a particular drug or medical device--particularly "higher end" or "premium" versions--may be deemed by the research to be incrementally unnecessary or ineffective when placed under this kind of comparative scrutiny. For example, does some new blockbuster pain drug really deliver improved health benefits over the "old" drug?

To me, Comparative Effectiveness continues a common-sense tradition of evidence-based medicine that uses science and clinical trials to help doctors determine which treatments provide the best options for which patients. As a patient, I'm pretty glad we're not using leeches to "cure" my flu bug anymore or exposing cancer patients I work with to dangerous and unnecessary amounts of radiation and chemotherapy like we did only a decade ago. Times change, technologies improve, researchers make new discoveries, and physicians change "best practices" based on the latest, greatest information. Yes, sometimes the experts prove to be wrong later on (and change their recommendations) and, yes, there are huge economic implications to this kind of research. But what is the alternative? To simply guess which devices work best? To continue to use outdated, ineffective, even dangerous therapies? To pay 10 or even 100 times more for some new intervention even though there is no evidence that it produces any significant improvement in health or recovery over cheaper, older alternatives? To put ourselves through often painful and emotionally-wrenching procedures when they may not even work?

Thus, some Republicans have seized upon this breast cancer controversy--and on the emotions of millions of women and families--as yet another reason to delay or stop healthcare reform, and, without most of the public even realizing it, to launch salvos on the Comparative Effectiveness programs that are already in the stimulus package. Out comes the "R" word again--"rationing"--with headline-grabbing, fear-fanning sound bites claiming that the federal government is going to do something bad to patients. I scanned six different cable channels this morning and heard the most preposterous claims from partisan pundits: from "this is the beginning of the end of Americans' freedom to choose their medical care" to "the President wants to take away early detection of cancer to save money to pay for his expensive healthcare reform bill." This kind of rhetoric that preys upon fears about cancer is immoral and, to my thinking, amounts to emotional terrorism that ends up hurting everyone in the long run.

At the same time, many Democrats have failed to seize upon this controversy as an opportunity to engage the country in very important discussions about the entitlements, expectations, and economics of healthcare. Simply put, the Administration has, once again, failed to lead on a such a complex, emotional topic, instead hiding behind technicalities, avoiding the political hot potatoes, and issuing ambiguous statements that hurt their own principles of CER and evidence-based medicine by distancing themselves from the panel's recommendation. For example, Secretary Sebelius, on almost every channel this morning and in her recent press release says:

The U.S. Preventive Task Force is an outside independent panel of doctors and scientists who make recommendations. They do not set federal policy and they don't determine what services are covered by the federal government....My message to women is simple. Mammograms have always been an important life-saving tool in the fight against breast cancer and they still are today. Keep doing what you have been doing for years -- talk to your doctor about your individual history, ask questions, and make the decision that is right for you.

Yes, a doctor should ultimately be weighing these new facts in deciding what diagnostics to put patients through. But there is no political courage or conviction in these and other statements coming from many Democrats, as if some poll numbers or focus groups have left them afraid to tackle the real, hard issues around healthcare entitlements head on.

I hope and pray the President himself will use this breast cancer controversy as a way to start a thoughtful, nuanced dialogue with the country, even it if it is hard, complex, and politically unpalatable or unpopular. We, as Americans, have to face the hard facts that we all need to change our I-deserve-every-test-in-the-book attitudes if we're going to save this country's healthcare system and economy. We simply cannot afford to perpetuate and pay for healthcare treatments, tests, and practices that don't work...or that themselves are risky without much reward...or that don't work well enough to warrant paying for them. We simply cannot afford a smorgasbord approach to all-you-can-eat healthcare; we need to put our expectations on a diet. Smart, compassionate, evidence-based rationing of healthcare resources has been--and always will be--a necessary part of the care experience unless and until money grows on trees.

In doing cancer patient advocacy for the past two decades, I can promise you that these ethical and economic dilemmas come up all the time. And that most patients are very capable--in moments of calm consultation with their families, friends, and providers--to evaluate tradeoffs between treatments and tests, effectiveness, and quality of life. If empowered and educated, we all can (and should) do our own "comparative effectiveness" studies for our own specific healthcare situations. Dealing with cancer--or any major illness--can be a terrifying experience, and in the midst of those moments of panic about suffering or death, it's easy to embrace the notion that we want to be treated by "any means necessary" and to live "at any cost." But we have to balance those emotions and entitlements with the evidence and economics of care. And the sooner we, as a nation, can start to have a healthy dialogue about these hard, personal issues, the better off we will be. It's hard to imagine healthcare reform producing any meaningful result if we don't.

Comments (0)

SP1 for Intel Parallel Studio - service pack worth installing!

2009-11-19T15:48:43Z

Intel® Parallel Studio Service Pack 1 is now available, adding support for Windows* 7.

SP1 is well worth downloading and installing - here are some of the reasons:

Parallel Inspector and Parallel Amplifier can be driven (for automating test suites) from the command line now.
Bug fixes - of course - not many issues needed fixing, but you may appreciate the ones bugs that were found and fixed!
Window 7 support (Parallel Studio came before Windows 7, now that it is released - we had a few things to update)
TBB 2.2 and other improvements to align with the upcoming Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 I'm sure there are more - these are the highlights as I see them.

Download SP1 - you'll be glad you did!

See the release notes for more details - skip the main document if you want to read about what is new and useful - read the three individual documents.

My Half Day at Supercomputing 09 at Portland Expo Center

2009-11-19T15:36:26Z

As usual of this year at Portland metro, it is raining and windy this week. After watched the SC09 keynotes at Intel Software Network TV, I decided to utilize the pass I got from our Academic Community manager to go to SC09. Trimet MAX Light Rail is my best choice as it will drop me right at the front door of Portland Expo Center. While I am on my way crossing the Willamette River on MAX, I saw the landmark Twin Towers standing tall in gray sky, and started wondering the SC09 under the towers, over 10 thousands professionals from all over the world came to this place. How many servers and laptops have they brought together with? What if counted by computer cores, I guess there may be a big multiplier as it is everything about supercomputing and HPC.

As I expected, SC09 took most of Portland Expo floor space . Since I have my four-pages print out from SC Conference Activities, I was able to orient myself, and able to find Portland Ballroom for most of Paper and Technical sessions. Not surprisingly, I saw and heard a lot of voice and discussion in different languages, people with suit, tie and laptops. I was able to say hello and joined quite a discussions in Chinese, which is my first language, at exhibit hall, poster area and Ballroom. I attended my first technical session ”Enabling Software Management for Multicore Caches with a Lightweight Hardware Support” presented by Jiang Lin, and Qingda Lu from Iowa and Ohio State Univ. about the management of shared caches in multi-core processors. In the article, a proposal of an affordable and lightweight hardware support to coordinate with OS-based cache management policies. The presenter concluded that the policies improve performance over LRU-based hardware cache management by 14.5% on 8-core systems. It was a good project.

Then I jumped into another ballroom in a less attended time for one of my interested, and bookmarked session on “On the Design of Scalable, Self-Configuring Virtual Networks” presented by David and Yonggang from Univ. of Florida on a novel Virtual Network design that supports dynamic, seamless addition of new resources with emphasis on scalability in a unified private IP address space. My interest attributed to the virtualization technology came from my group’s need to find an innovative way of supporting the parallel and multi-core programming education in academic classroom with realistic Hardware budget ( it is still the recession time for some of us right?). With our first parallelism integration with University of Southern California, providing maxima servers’ access for lab exercises with student/server ratio of more than 10 has to be done in an innovative way.

After two sessions, I also visited another interesting presentation: Space-Efficient Time-Series Call-Path Profiling of Parallel Applications presented by Zoltan etc. of Juelich Supercomputing Center. There is still one of my interested presentations that I could not make it on Thursday: Comparative Study of One-Sided Factorizations with Multiple Software Packages on Multi-Core Hardware which will be presented by Emmanuel and Bilel etc of University of Tennessee, Knoxville).

Later, I went back to exhibit hall and started wandering through the most technology enriched IT professional/Server/laptop firm in the world. Passing through the amazing 1024 high definition movie streaming demo and almost zero latency 1024P Live broadcast from Tokyo Japan by Japan NTT, I came to a small booth, which has been my dream of “what I want to be in future” kind of answer when I was a child: Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, ICT is the cradle for China computer profession, having spun off new academic institutions and hi-tech companies(i.e. Lenovo) . Dawning 5000A Supercomputing System will be launched by this November, developed by ICT and Dawning Corp. under the support of Chinese Hi-tech Program, with 230 TFlops of peak performance and 160TFlops Linpack performance. All my following discussion at the booth is in Chinese.That seems to be the very productive time I spent, and the highlight of my experience at SC09.

About a hour later, I continued my brainstorming journey, paused at booths with brand names I saw everyday for some exhibit forum, and ended at Microsoft boot for another long discussion ( stay tuned for my blog on it)

Education at Super Computing 2009

2009-11-19T14:29:34Z

greg.wagnon@intel.com

I have to admit, I have never had the opportunity to be involved in HPC, Super Computing, or the communities that have evolved around such things. My first real experience with it was yesterday at SC09 in Portland, Oregon. A conference like any other was my thinking. But, when I started walking around the exhibition area (booths), I was amazed at the number of Universities and education based solutions that were represented.

Here is a quick montage of images that I put together of the educational facilities I saw and took a picture of...I am sure there are many, many more, but I only captured the few that are represented here. The one on the bottom left is not really an educational institution, but rather a company that I stopped and talked with for a few minutes.Here is another picture I took of a scout troop that was visiting the event.Here they are again listening (attentively) to a speaker from NASA talkiing about the expansion of the universe and how we study it.Education is and should remain a priority for all of us.-Greg

10 Gigabit iWARP @ SC’09!

2009-11-19T10:48:09Z

tom.l.stachura@intel.com

What is iWARP? (Click here to find out)

Ethernet Tom here. I’ve recently come into the Intel Ethernet group – marketing Ethernet products in the HPC, Financial, and Cloud verticals.

And very HPC relevant - I’ve been very busy getting things lined up for Super Computing ’09 and wanted to share what we have happening:

· 3 demos:

o Intel Booth: Two 6-node clusters (96 total cores!) running NYSE’s Data Fabric* middleware – showing iWARP vs. non-iWARP

o Supermicro Booth: 4-node cluster running Fluent

o EA Booth: 4-node cluster running Linpack in a converged Ethernet environment

· 5 presentations:

o Data Transportation at iWARP Speed – Feargal O’Sullivan – NYSE Technologies

o Memory Virtualization over iWARP for Radical Application Acceleration – Tom Matson – RNA Networks:

o A 10Gigabit Ethernet iWARP Storage Appliance – Paul Grun – System Fabric Works

o CD-adapco Benchmarking Performance using Intel iWARP – William Meigs – Intel Corporation

o iWARP – What & Why? – Tom Stachura – Intel Corporation

If you are here today (final day of SC’09!), stop by and check it out. If not, I’ll come back later with some video links.

Follow-up post on CIRA - we have Lift-Off...

2009-11-19T08:47:34Z

tal.elgar@intel.com

If you're reading this blog posting, hopefully you've read my blog post on CIRA last week -

http://communities.intel.com/community/openportit/vproexpert/blog/2009/11/10/cira-and-fast-call-for-help--what-is-it-where-can-i-find-it

Firstly, I wanted to share with you that over the past week we have actually worked through an entire end to end setup with a real-world customer (i.e. not just inside Intel labs) and now we have CIRA and AMT functionality over CIRA working successfully!If you're wondering which of the management consoles and MPS/vPro Gateways were used - it was LANDesk 8.8 SP3 in this case (remember that LANDesk bundle their own MPS/vPro Gateway offering). If you're looking to get this to work in your environment (CIRA with LANDesk specifically) please do get in touch and I can share some specific current LANDesk pointers with you (that are not mentioned in this blog posting).Some of the things we came across last week which are good pointers to pay attention to:There are 4 ports that get configured with the MPS which are fully configurable (i.e. they are not restricted to being a specific port number) - however, you cannot re-use the same port number, you need to have 4 distinct port numbers (sounds trivial, but it happens).You can use port 16993 as one of the port numbers, even though that is the port that is used for https connections in AMT (there is no conflict)In the httpd.conf file - instead of havinga deny all and allow specific IP addresses, you might want to change to allow allCIRA relies on the DHCP option 15 that is allocated where the vPro client is to be different than what it was pre-configured with - that is how the system knows it is outside the corporate environment. If DHCP option 15 happens to be blank where your vPro clients connect from - that is good enough. Blank is considered different and CIRA works fine.Currently, you should install the LANDesk agent after provisioning is completedCheck through selecting the 'vPro Status' operation on a provisioned vPro client to ensure all the LANDesk NED settings have been deposited properly on the vPro client prior to taking it out of the corporate environment.Btw, the CIRA connection is established through a user click at the OS-level using the IMSS utility.So the bottom line is we now have close to 100 systems that are confirmed to be have full AMT functionality working over a CIRA connection in a real live environment - it works! (The 2nd part of the blog can be considered a more 'advanced topic' and is devoted to what happens if your management console of choice doesn't currently support CIRA...One Management Console for example that is currently not supporting CIRA is Microsoft SCCM (even with SP2).The options as I see them, are:Contact your software vendor and ask them whether they support Intel - Intel works with multiple software vendors on incorporating support for various Intel vPro features (CIRA amongst others) - they can hear it from us, but it is much better if they hear it from you.Your software vendor might have plans to introduce support for CIRA, however it is further down the line - so it is just a question of time.Try and engineer something yourself to have CIRA work in the environment you have setupAt least for testing your environment for what CIRA would look like, you could leverage the WebUI tool. You would need to have an MPS installed and configured first of all. Thereafter, all that you need to do is configure the proxy settings in the web-browser you are using to the IP address/FQDN of where you have your MPS installed and also enter the default http proxy port of 8080 - that will be sufficient for getting your WebUI to work over a CIRA connection.If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer you are limited only to the http proxy portion which will allow several of the AMT operations to work over a CIRA connection, but not SOL/IDER for example.If you are using Mozilla Fire Fox for example, you can configure a SOCKS proxy as well, which can handle routing SOL/IDER traffic as well.If we take the example of Microsoft SCCM, what you can do is to use the scripting framework that has been used successfully for something like: providing out of band 802.1x in Microsoft SCCM SP1 (it is natively supported now in SP2) - http://communities.intel.com/message/10877You can configure the correct settings for the vPro client to be able to contact the MPS Proxy Server and establish a CIRA connection between the MPS Server and the vPro client, however you will still need your management console to integrate and be aware of this CIRA connection to be able to do something useful.What you could do at this point is to configure a 'transparent proxy' - what that would typically entail is to configure the MPS IP address/FQDN as a proxy routing that will be inserted in the headers of packets that go through the router to which the Server that is hosting the management software. You can use something like Cisco WCCP (Web Cache Control Protocol) to set this up. At this point, Microsoft SCCM will not be aware that the packets it is sending are actually being re-routed through the MPS to the vPro clients (which is aware of the remote vPro client) and that is why this is called a transparent proxy.A caveat/disclaimer I would add though is that albeit technically feasible you would need to put together the full working solution yourselves and support it yourselves.

Video: Paul Cooper on the Moblin User Experience

2009-11-19T08:06:41Z

According to Jeff Orr, an analyst at ABI Research, Linux-based netbooks will be close to one-third of the 35 million netbooks shipped this year or 11 million Linux netbooks, and Intel has been working with the Moblin community and other projects to make sure that these Linux netbooks run well on Intel architecture.

In this video from the Intel booth at OSCON, Paul Cooper, Moblin Apps and UI Engineering Manager at Intel, talks about the user experience on Moblin. The netbook as a mobile device with a smaller screen size, keyboard and trackpad provided particular challenges that had be considered when designing the user experience for Moblin.

You can read an interview with Paul for more details about the improvements they have made to the Moblin user experience, and we have many more open source videos on the multimedia page.

Leonid Meteor Shower, The 2009 Tech Awards - Part 1

2009-11-18T17:43:55Z

When I heard that the Leonid meteor shower this year was predicted to be one of the most active in years past, I was determined to head out and catch the sight of the “shooting stars” myself. And boy was it an amazing sight to see! Sitting under a moon-less night with nothing but the stars and the frequent meteor to light up the sky was nothing short of breathtaking. Granted, it was quite a chilly night even for California weather, but that didn’t stop me from staying out for quite some time in the wee hours of the night.

You may be wondering, “What does the Leonid meteor shower have anything to do with social responsibility?”

As I sat gazing in the sky, I was thinking about the activities that were in store for me this week. The Tech Awards. Call it coincidence, but like shooting stars the 2009 Tech Award Laureates had just flown into San Jose nearly the same time as the Leonid showers had. But let me not get ahead of myself - The Tech Awards is a yearly international awards program that recognizes and honors innovators from around that world that use technology to impact humanity in profound ways. There are five categories that these innovative programs would fall under: Environment, Economic Development, Education, Equality and Health. Of the countless submissions each year, there are three finalists, or Laureates, selected for each category. Even though the recognition as a Laureate is prestigious enough, one Laureate from each category is honored with $50,000 for their work. Since its inception in 2000, The Tech Awards has gained worldwide recognition, which in turn brings attention to the amazing programs that are selected as Laureates. As the sponsor of the Environment category, Intel has returned year after year to witness and honor the Laureates.

Today, we hosted all 15 Laureates at Intel Headquarters in Santa Clara. After a welcome by one of our VPs Stu Pann and an introduction by our Director of Corporate Responsibility Mike Jacobson, Intel World Ahead’s Chief Strategist Chris Thomas shared with the Laureates the Intel World Ahead vision: that doing socially responsible and humanity-benefitting programs can also be good business, and that technology is at the core of making these programs profitable, and thus sustainable. The excitement in the room was electric, as the Laureates realized that not only was a tech giant like Intel aware of the struggles and challenges they face on the front lines of social change, but that we too were out in the trenches alongside them. The questions began pouring in, at times challenging Chris and at other times echoing his words of support.

There are more activities lined up for The Tech Awards this week, so stay tuned for more to come. In the meantime, I encourage you to take a gander at this year’s Laureates, who come from all corners of the globe - their programs and accomplishments are nothing short of outstanding. And the next time you see a shooting star lighting up the sky, remember that there are those out there around the globe impacting humanity and serving as beacons of light for their communities.

Here are the 2009 Laureates:

Environment Award Laureates - Intel

Cows to Kilowatts

LeafView: an Electronic Field Guide

GRUPEDSAC: Ecotechniques Toolkits for Self-Sufficiency

Economic Development Award Laureates - BD Biosciences

Alternative Energy for Empowerment

Driptech

Solar Ear

Education Award Laureates - Microsoft

Akshaya Patra Foundation

GeoGebra

Khan Academy

Equality Award Laureates - Katherine M. Swanson

kiwanja.net: FrontlineSMS

Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha: SuryaHurricane: Electrification for the Landless

World of Good Development Organization: Fair Wage Guide Open-Source Platform

Health Award Laureates - Nokia

mPedigree Network

PATH: Ultra Rice

VillageReach

As always, your comments are most welcome!

Hosam

Comments (0)

Miss the Win7 and Intel vPro technical webinar? Recording now available.

2009-11-18T14:00:55Z

michele.gartner@intel.com Webinar Recording

If you missed the live event, you can now watch the recording! You can also download the webinar.

Webinar SlidesWant to download the deck? It's attached to this blog post (scroll to the bottom).LinksMicrosoft Management Summit 2010 OS Deployment in MS ConfigMgr MS ConfigMgr Doc Library Virtual Labs ConfigMgr Tech Center Quick Start Guide for Microsoft ConfigMgr SP1Online Training for Microsoft ConfigMgr SP1

Intel cores in 80% of TOP500

2009-11-18T13:35:27Z

I didn't get the chance to go to the SC09 conference, but I am watching the news that's coming out of that event. One of the regular features at SC is the release of the TOP500 list of most powerful computers in the world. Check out the website (www.top500.org) for the most current list and all sorts of ways that you can summarize that data.

While massaging the data around to see how many machines use what kind of processor, one data point that stuck out for me was that Intel processors are in 402 of the 500. Obviously we're proud to be driving a large percentage of the highest performing platforms on the planet. One little thing that I found odd, though, was the raw numbers for IBM Power. Within the 52 Power-based machines, 1470752 cores are used. That is an average 28283 cores per platform. (The Intel average number of cores per platform is much smaller.)

The Performance Development charts are interesting, too. The historical data shows that my laptop would have been on the list in the mid-1990's. The Projected Performance Development chart predicts that we should be seeing exascale machines near the end of the next decade. (Estimates about the power needed to keep such a machine running have heightened the need and desire to find ways to lower the processor power requirements.)

What does it all mean? I don't know. There are so many ways you can spin all the gathered data that I better understand Mark Twain's remark from his "Chapters from My Autobiography", published in the North American Review, No. DCXVIII., July 5, 1907: "Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself."

VOTE in the Education Challenge

2009-11-18T12:58:07Z

Intel and the Wall Street Journal have sponsored a contest called the Education Challenge, where people have provided their perspectives on what can be done to improve students’ engagement with science and math curriculum in the U.S. Five finalists have been selected from hundreds around the country who provided ideas. The winner receives 5K. And YOU can become a key player in solving America’s education challenge by casting your vote here on which finalist came up the best idea.

According to the Education Challenge website “The United States lags significantly behind two dozen other advanced nations in educational performance in science and math.” Shelly Esque, Intel’s VP of Legal and Corporate Affairs, says that every year Intel invests over $100 million dollars world wide to help improve education standards. “As our nation focuses on rebuilding the economy, Educators, Business leaders, governments, and parents must come together to improve education in America,” said Esque. The WSJ Challenge offers an opportunity for us all to ponder the finalists’ perspectives and create awareness about why the United States lags in the critical curriculum areas of science and math. Awareness is the first step in making a difference.

Take a closer look at what the Challenge is about…

Comments (0)

Green Storage

2009-11-18T12:52:02Z

curt.e.bruns@intel.com

It’s not just about energy-sipping systems—it’s also about your storage footprint

Most of us are familiar with the concept of green IT: increasing energy efficiency across the enterprise to trim costs and optimize resources. While you hear a lot about servers helping to reduce energy usage, not as much is said about storage. Intel and the storage industry are working together to provide green storage solutions, too. For the storage community, every system has to be cost-effective as well as performance-driven, which means energy efficiency is a key consideration. It starts at the processor level, where the IntelMany storage system providers have picked up on the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series since it was introduced last March. For example, the HP StorageWorks XP10000* Disk Array and 3000 Enterprise* Virtual Array are based on the new processors. Schooner Information Technology appliances leverage quad-core Intel Xeon 5500 processors and half a terabyte of IntelBut green storage isnVirtualization is driving huge data center energy savings by greatly reducing the number of physical machines in the data center. As Bob Fine, director of product marketing at Compellent, pointed out at the 2009 Storage Networking World conference last spring, many large enterprises realize that theyMany IT managers tell Intel that storage can be a big gating factor when it comes to scaling virtual environments. The Intel Xeon processor 5500 series uses IntelCompellent and Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), both users of the Intel Xeon processors, recommend reducing the storage footprint in other ways as well. Asim Zaheer, vice president of product and competitive marketing at HDS. CompellentIsilon Systems, another user of Intel processors, has a pay-as-you-grow model for its clustered storage products that makes it easier to avoid over-provisioning and wasting power. If a customer needs to add more performance, Isilon can provide nodes with Intel processors and memory, but no storage. If the customer requires capacity only, Isilon sells nodes with just disks. In addition, Isilon uses ColdWatt power supplies, which it says are about 30 percent more efficient than traditional power supplies. As Intel works with the storage industry to deliver more energy-efficient and high-performance storage solutions, we

"Live From Super Computing 2009"

2009-11-18T12:12:27Z

william.h.lea@intel.com

This week I'm in Portland, Oregon, where I call home. Its interesting for me since this is my first Super Computing conference, and soo far, I'm really impressed, not only by the intense knowledge and the plethera of scientific discovery all around, but also by the fact this conference is so well attended. There -s a huge trade show floor, filled to capacity where you can see everything from genome research to oil and gas exploration, to bio-computing. . It's very cool to see NASA, Oak Ridge Labratory, and many top universities all showing off the lastest in High Performance Computing, some very cool stuff indeed. From the point of view of higher learning and how super computers are changing the world, this is the place to be. Here are a few shots of the Intel booth in case you get a chance to come by and see us.

I'll be capturing some cool videos from the conference and you should keep a look out for these on Channel Intel at YouTube. Thanks for stopping by The Server Room.