Oracle-Sun changes the tech game

SAN FRANCISCO (Fortune) -- Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) pounced on Sun Microsystems a week ago, agreeing to buy the battered server maker for $5.6 billion, excluding Sun's cash. On the surface, the tech world responded relatively quietly to Oracle's bombshell by getting about the business of reporting earnings. Behind closed doors, however, the entire industry has been turned topsy-turvy.

One bold and unexpected deal has changed everything, and the ramifications will play out increasingly dramatically for months. Consider how the move affects the mightiest in the industry.

Oracle. Like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) CEO Mark Hurd, Oracle chief Larry Ellison understands that a broad product line and operational efficiencies in a commoditized industry lead to fat profits and a compelling pitch to customers. Selling enterprise software and hardware is a relationship business, and with Sun, Oracle gets more relationships and has more to sell to the customers it already knows. More than that, Oracle has proved an adept cost cutter in an industry known for growth, not thrift.

Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates that to achieve the $2 billion in operating profit Oracle says it can from the Sun purchase that Oracle will need to cut 5,500 to 10,000 jobs. People forget that plenty of those cuts will come at Oracle too, which uses its big acquisitions as excuses for blood-letting throughout the organization.

SAP. Suddenly SAP, the German software company that dominated its corner of the industry just a few years ago, is in play. That's because Oracle has completely outmaneuvered it, becoming a more complete and therefore more powerful player. The three most likely bidders for SAP are IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), HP and Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500). It's worth looking at the likelihood of each stepping up to what would be a minimum $50-billion transaction.
IBM.

The venerable hardware maker has done an admirable job of moving out of heavy iron and into software and services. It bid first for, but couldn't close, the Sun acquisition. IBM certainly could come back at Sun, but in a classic instance of game-theory behavior IBM knows it's up against an adversary with a demonstrated willingness to play the "crazy card."

(Read about Oracle's protracted battle for PeopleSoft to get a sense of the lengths to which Ellison will go when he decides he wants something.) Instead IBM may be pushed to do something even bolder now that it is competing more directly with Oracle.

HP. The conventional wisdom is that HP couldn't do another large transaction because it is busy digesting EDS. Nonsense. HP had begun to think of IBM as its one true competitor. Now along comes longtime partner Oracle as a credible threat. The quickest -- if most expensive -- way for HP to transform its pipsqueak software business is to buy SAP -- before IBM does.

Microsoft. The faltering giant danced with SAP years ago but didn't pull the trigger. Now Microsoft is locked unprofitably in a death battle with Google. In the last three quarters, Microsoft's online business has posted operating losses of $1.5 billion, including a $575-million loss last week. That's a massive amount of money to lose, even for Microsoft.

I've chronicled Microsoft's search-related red ink here and here. Microsoft insists it is playing for the long haul, and CEO Steve Ballmer last week disparaged Oracle's purchase. Microsoft better have something to show for its investment in online advertising because with each passing year it loses a little more relevance in software, a shocking development in an industry Microsoft helped invent.

Cisco. A wild card, Cisco is rapidly transforming itself into something unrecognizable just a few years ago. Cisco already announced a modest server offering, and it long has considered itself a software maker though it sold the code it writes on routers and switches. Cisco conceivably could bid for Sun or SAP. It clearly sees itself increasingly in competition with IBM and HP.

Ford, IBM Among Companies Signing China Deals Worth $10 Billion

Ford Motor Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Dell Inc. were among companies that signed 32 contracts today with Chinese companies that totaled $10.6 billion.

Cisco Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Microsoft Corp., EMC Corp., Oracle Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Amway Corp. also inked deals in Washington at a forum hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products.

“Our two economies are highly complementary,” Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said at the event. “History tells us that openness and cooperation is all the more important amidst a crisis.”

The contract signing comes as the global economic slowdown curbs demand for imports in the U.S., causing Chinese exports to fall. The U.S. current-account deficit narrowed to $132.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, reflecting a smaller gap in the trade of goods.

John Ng, a senior vice president for Cisco in Beijing, said in an interview after the ceremony that his company’s contracts with China Mobile, China Telecom Corp. and China Construction Bank Corp. totaled about $300 million.

Bill Mannion, Microsoft’s senior director for OEM, said in an interview that the software company’s agreement with Lenovo Group Ltd. didn’t involve money and was an “affirmation to work together.”

IBM spokesman Ian Colley didn’t immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Ford didn’t immediately comment and neither did EMC spokeswoman Lesley Ogrodnick.

“We see this as positive for both countries’ economies,” Colleen Ryan, a Dell spokeswoman, said in an interview. “We are proud to support China’s rapidly growing technology and telecommunications infrastructure.” Dell isn’t discussing contract terms, Ryan said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Forsythe in Washington at mforsythe@bloomberg.net.

Pfizer and UCL sign stem-cell pact for AMD

Pfizer has linked up with University College London to develop stem cell-based therapies for ophthalmic conditions, notably age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness.The collaboration will examine how human embryonic stem cells differentiate into retinal pigment epithelium with the goal of developing therapies primarily for AMD.

Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will provide undisclosed funding to UCL and has been granted exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialise any stem cell-based therapeutic in the ophthalmology field that comes out of the pact. Ruth McKernan, chief scientific officer of Pfizer Regenerative Medicine, which was created in November last year, described UCL as “pioneers in the field of stem cell ophthalmology”.

She added that “while we have much to learn about how stem cells can be used therapeutically, we are confident that this relationship will increase that understanding”.Pete Coffey of the UCL Institute for Ophthalmology, said that “we have not only the benefit of Pfizer’s experience of the regulatory process and their expertise in stem cell technology but the ability, if this works, to produce on a much larger scale”.

He added that “it has huge implications, not only for our project, but for the field of regenerative medicine as a whole…and it is great that Britain is at the forefront of this research”.Pfizer excited about Wyeth deal Staying with Pfizer and chief executive Jeffrey Kinder has told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting that the New York-headquartered giant has “streamlined operations, reduced bureaucracy, set clear expectations and increased accountability, which has better positioned the company to combine with Wyeth”.

At the meeting, Mr Kindler also defended the decision to cut Pfizer’s historically-high dividend in half, from $0.32 to $0.16, saying that the move will help the firm put $5 billion towards the Wyeth acquisition. He also told shareholders that “I recognise our stock price isn’t where anyone wants it to be, but we have taken important steps to position Pfizer for steady, profitable growth.”

Mr Kindler added that "If we deliver on the potential of the many opportunities before us, then an improved share price should follow”. The AGM also saw shareholders approve proposals asking the company's board to give them an advisory vote on executive compensation and to make it easier to call a special shareholder meeting.

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition review

AMD kick started 2009 with guns blazing introducing their latest Phenom II X4 platform on early January. Although the launch was comprised of just two processors, that's all AMD needed to compete head to head with the Intel Core 2 Quad range.

The flagship model, also known as the Phenom II X4 940, debuted at just $270, while today it can be had for the bargain basement price of $190. In terms of performance we found it closely matched the Core 2 Quad Q9650, which was considerably more expensive at $540 then, and even today it is still fetching around $330. This is an impressive feat for AMD, offering the best value in this price range.

Today AMD is releasing two new processors, the Phenom II X4 955 and 945, which are based on the same “Deneb” architecture though with a few notable changes. The most prominent change is that these are AM3 processors, and therefore can be used with either DDR2 or DDR3 memory. AM3 processors are also completely backwards compatible with AM2+ motherboards.

Although it was initially speculated that AMD would increase the L3 cache of these new Phenom processors from 6MB to 8MB, this has not been the case, and the Phenom II X4 955 still carries the same 6MB as its predecessors. The processor is however reaching new heights for AMD in terms of operating frequency, designed to work at 3.2GHz, it's fastest clocked quad-core processor the company has ever released.

Despite these improvements, the Phenom II X4 955 will remain affordable, with a suggested initial retail value of $245. This new processor looks as having the potential to be the ultimate upgrade solution for AMD users, as it can be paired with AM2+ motherboards that were released as far back as 2007.

Based on pricing, the Phenom II X4 955 could be best compared to the Core i7 920 ($290) and Core 2 Quad Q9550 ($270) processors, though it will be a tad cheaper than both. However it's not just the processor cost that needs to be considered here, as the Phenom II X4 955 can be used on both AM2+ and AM3 motherboards.

Furthermore, while AMD does expect DDR3 memory to become mainstream in 2010, the Phenom II X4 955 can be paired with ultra cheap DDR2 memory for now, postponing the migration to DDR3 until it makes complete sense financially for consumers.

Egyptian intel chief to meet Netanyahu

Egyptian intel chief to meet Netanyahu
Omar Suleiman to arrive in Israel on Wednesday for series of meetings with state officials, on backdrop of high tensions between Cairo and Jerusalem. On the agenda: Talks for Gilad Shalit's release, expanding strategic cooperation. Meeting with FM Lieberman also possible despite controversial remarks .

Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman will arrive in Israel on Wednesday for a series of meetings with the Israeli political echelon, on the backdrop of high tensions between Cairo and Jerusalem.

Suleiman will meet with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and perhaps even with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, despite the latter's harsh remarks against the Egyptians.

Sources in the Foreign Ministry said that one of the goals of the meeting was to ease the tense relations.

Prime Minister Netanyahu will examine during his meeting with Suleiman possibilities to advance the negotiations for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. The talks on the matter have been frozen since former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert left office, and at this stage the new government has yet to form its policy on the issue.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu accepted a request by Ofer Dekel, the Prime Minister's Office emissary heading Israel's efforts to secure the release of its missing and captive soldiers, to leave his post. The prime minister has yet to decide who will replace Dekel.

with Barak on one of his previous visits (Photo: AFP)

The Egyptian minister is expected to land in Israel in the afternoon hours. At this stage there has been no official announcement on an expected meeting with Foreign Minister Lieberman. However senior state officials say that such a meeting could take place between Suleiman's meetings with Netanyahu and Peres.

The Egyptian minister is visiting Jerusalem on the backdrop of high tensions between Egypt and the Foreign Ministry, following Lieberman's past remarks, including, "The Egyptian president can come here, or go to hell."

Lieberman also threatened to bomb the Aswan Dam. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit recently said in response that "Lieberman's foot will not step on Egyptian soil

New Intel chips prompt rise in demand for DDR3 memory

A new series of Intel microprocessors aimed at the computer server market has caused a spike in demand for DDR3 (double data rate, third generation) DRAM chips, according to Samsung Electronics.
Prediction: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner resigns by Dec. 2009?

The world's largest memory chip maker said Tuesday it has ramped up production of DDR3 memory chips over the past month to meet heavier demand related to the launch of Intel's Xeon processor 5500 series.

The production increase is important for DDR3 technology because new DRAM technologies normally find their way into the computer server market before finally making it into desktop and then laptop computers. As production of DDR3 increases, the price-per-chip declines, making them more affordable for less expensive devices such as PCs.

Server makers are generally willing to pay a premium for the increased performance of new memory chip technologies, while a sluggish PC market this year means vendors are less willing to trade up from DDR2 (DDR, second generation) chips because they're much cheaper.

DDR3 memory chips boast several improvements over DDR2, including twice the system performance, speeds up to 1,333Mbps (Megabits per second) and using at least 60 percent less power, Samsung said.

Intel plans to launch two more DDR3-only chip series in the second half of this year, according to a joint statement.

Samsung currently sells 1Gb and 2Gb DDR3 DRAM chips and several memory modules that have already been validated by Intel to work with its microprocessors.

AMD: Tough first quarter; Ready for Intel encroachment for thin, light notebooks

Advanced Micro Devices reported a first quarter net loss of $416 million, or 66 cents a share, on revenue of $1.17 billion, down 21 percent from a year ago. However, CEO Dirk Meyer said Tuesday that AMD is “more nimble” following the spin-off of its manufacturing assets, but the company projects revenue to slide in the seasonally slow second quarter.

Even though AMD’s quarter was tough it still managed to beat Wall Street’s low expectations. The company’s net loss (statement) included a charge of 4 cents a share. Excluding that charge, AMD topped estimates by 4 cents. The first quarter for AMD was about burning off inventory that was built for demand that never arrived.

The company has consolidated GlobalFoundries, the manufacturing joint venture, in its results but referred to AMD “the product company” as the chip design outfit. AMD’s chip design and product business had a net loss of $189 million.

Like its much larger rival Intel, AMD forecasted some balance in supply and demand. “The severe inventory corrections of the last quarter have stabilized,” said Meyer on a conference call with analysts. Meyer stopped short of calling the bottom like Intel has, adding that “I don’t know how anyone can do that.”

Meyer said customers are only buying the processing power they need. Notice AMD’s plan: It is pitching itself as a value chip maker and hinting that Intel gives you more processor than you need. He touted AMD’s Yukon and Congo platforms, which target light notebooks.

CFO Bob Rivet added that AMD saw some demand in the first quarter from value buyers. Nevertheless, Rivet said that second quarter revenue will decline from the first quarter for AMD. AMD hopes to be cash flow positive in the second half of the year.

However, AMD is still going to have a tough time. Meyer was asked about Intel’s launch of chips for the light, thin notebook market. Meyer said AMD wasn’t planning to cede market share, but noted the second quarter was “murky at best.” Meyer said that Intel’s CLUV move was in response to AMD’s move.

Updated AMD Notebook Roadmap Surfaces

Details about AMD's processor roadmap update for the notebook platform have surfaced on the web. Expreview guys grabbed a couple of slides and showed off the updated mobile processor roadmap. More details about the Sabine platform have been mentioned in the slides.

Last November, AMD had unveiled their processor roadmap for the desktop and the notebook platform. AMD mentioned about the Sabine platform for notebooks, which would include the Llano CPU, now known as the Accelerated Processing Unit. The Llano APU will be a 32nm process chip with four cores, a 4MB cache, DDR3-1066MHz memory controllers, and a GPU packed on the die.

DirectX 11 and Unified Video Decoder 3 technology support will be added to the Sabine platform. So by 2011, we can hope for DirectX 11 to appear in a more mature form, supported on a wide range of hardware.

Later this year, AMD will launch the new 45nm process Tigris platform for the mainstream notebook market. The Tigris platform will have single and dual core Caspian CPUs and a 780M chipset, which will be added in the second half of 2009. For the Tigris platform, a chipset bearing a RS880M north bridge chip and SB710 south bridge will be released.

In 2010, AMD will launch the Danube platform, the Tigris successor that will feature a 45nm process Champlain CPU with up to four cores, DDR3-1066MHz support, and which will move from Socket 1 Generation 3 to Socket 1 Generation 4. For the same platform, a chipset that will have a RS880M north bridge and unnamed SB8xxM south bridge chip will be released; along with that, a discrete GPU architecture code-named Manhattan as well.

Let's hope that DirectX 11 will be in a mature state by 2011. The sad part is that till 2010 we'll see DirectX 10.1 supporting hardware, which unfortunately is yet to be launched.

AMD expected to report bigger loss, lower sales

The company will report financials shortly after arch-rival Intel Corp. (INTC:Intel CorporationNews , chart , profile , more Last: 15.60-0.29-1.83%
4:00pm 04/17/2009
Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolio Analyst Create alert Insider Discuss Financials Sponsored by:INTC 15.60, -0.29, -1.8%) boldly declared a bottom for the personal-computer market, although many analysts were disappointed that the chip giant again did not issue a formal outlook. Still, Wall Street will likely look for validation of Intel's bottom call in AMD's report. Intel is the No. 1 maker of PC chips followed by AMD, so a sign of improving demand for Intel could bode well for AMD.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker is expected to report a loss of 66 cents a share on revenue of $1 billion, according to a consensus survey by FactSet Research. For the year-earlier period, the company reported adjusted results of a loss of 51 cents a share on revenue of $1.5 billion.

"I think we'll see an improving outlook from [AMD], but like Intel, the past quarter will be painful," analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group wrote MarketWatch in an email. Analyst Crawford Del Prete of International Data Corp. said: "I suspect it will be a tough quarter" for AMD. "I expect that pricing was probably very tough, although consumer demand for PCs was robust (compared to commercial), and it is a space where [the company has] an important footprint," he added. "Looking forward, it will be important to see if they see the same trends as Intel, and if they see the market hitting bottom.

" Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates noted AMD's strong focus on the consumer market, saying: "Consumer seems to have held up better than commercial. So AMD could be on par or better due to that emphasis, but this has to be taken against a background of the company's having given up some of its technological edge in recent quarters to arch-rival Intel. Share loss could swing results the other way." However, with the uncertainty in the broader economy, BMO Capital Markets analyst Brian Piccioni has been less upbeat about AMD, saying in a March 5 note: "We continue to believe AMD will perform poorly in a deteriorating macro environment."

Like other semiconductor manufacturers, AMD has reeled from the downturn that has led to a steep decline in demand in both the consumer and corporate tech markets. The company also has had to deal with its own issues.

Production missteps caused it to fall behind Intel, and had problems digesting its acquisition of ATI Technologies. But AMD recently has bounced back, earning positive reviews for new products, including a new server chip and new graphics products that benefited from buying ATI, analysts said. The company also recently spun off its manufacturing facilities into a new company called GlobalFoundries, a move that analysts also say should help ease its financial burden.

"AMD has had a tough quarter but they have had a number of recent mobile-design wins with products that are much higher-profile than they typically get, and their server parts seem to be moving well," according to Enderle

HP Pavilion dv3z Entertainment PC - 2.1 GHz, 80GB Solid State HD, 2GB RAM

The good: Inexpensive, highly configurable 13-inch laptop; excellent battery life.
The bad: Not as thin or light as other 13-inch systems; AMD processor lags in performance.
The bottom line: The 13-inch HP Pavilion dv3z offers a reasonable trade-off, choosing battery life and value over performance and weight.
Specifications: Processor: AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core (2.1 GHz) ; RAM installed: 2 GB ; OS provided: Windows Vista Home Premium

An inexpensive 13-inch laptop will always get our attention, and HP's Pavilion dv3z fits the bill starting at under $700; it is also highly customizable (our configuration was $893). We're fond of saying that 13-inch laptops are the smallest we could fathom working on for a full day, and the biggest we'd be willing to carry around on a regular basis--the popularity of Apple's 13-inch MacBook line points to this.
However, as much as we liked the HP dv3z's low initial price and customization, you can also get Apple's entry level plastic MacBook or HP's own retail-only Pavilion dv3510nr for only $999, and both offer faster Intel processors. The AMD-powered dv3z counters with a large 320GB hard drive and excellent battery life, albeit at the expense of a giant protruding battery

Similar to other current Pavilion laptops, the HP dv3z trades the typical glossy gray-and-black look for an upscale bronze tint, with a subtle crosshatch pattern on the keyboard tray and a slightly glittery finish on the back of the lid.
The series of lighted, touch-sensitive media controls above the keyboard looks nice, glowing either white, blue, or orange depending on status (Wi-Fi on versus off, for example). There's also a volume slider, but for sensitive volume tweaks, we still prefer a physical wheel; touch-controlled volume sliders can be finicky. When the system is off or asleep, the touch-sensitive buttons literally vanish into the mirrored strip above the keyboard.

The touch pad and mouse buttons have a highly reflective mirrored finish that offsets the bronze chassis color nicely. Fortunately, this touch pad feels like it has a slicker surface than some of the mirror-finished touch pads we've tried on 14-, 15-, and 17-inch Pavilions lately, which means less finger drag and more accurate mousing.

The 13.3-inch wide-screen LCD display offers a 1,280x800 native resolution, which is standard for screens 13- to 15-inches in size. The glossy finish can easily pick up stray light rays, however, and the dv3z lacks the slick edge-to-edge glass found in systems like the current 13-inch MacBooks.

While very configurable, with multiple CPU, RAM, and hard drive options, only AMD processors and ATI Radeon 3200 graphics are available on the dv3z. The starting $679 configuration includes a 2.2GHz AMD Turion X2 RM-74, 2GB of RAM (currently upgraded to 3GB at no extra charge), and 160GB HDD (also currently subject to a no-cost upgrade to 320GB). Interestingly, you have a choice of tray or slot-loading DVD burners; functionally, they're identical, but the slot-loading one costs an extra $25.

Our review unit had a 2.3GHz AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core ZM-84 with 4GB of RAM, and, as expected, it fell behind comparable 13- and 14-inch laptops with Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs, such as Dell's midrange 13-inch laptop, the Studio XPS 13-163B, which has a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600. In casual use--Web surfing, media playback, working on office docs--you're unlikely to notice the difference. Working with more professional apps, such as Photoshop, the difference is more pronounced

AMD CPU roadmap leaked

From what we can tell from the leaked slides, there will be a platform called Tigris that features a Caspian 45nm processor and DDR2 800MHz memory.

The chipsets are to be AMD RS880M-series and SB710 plus support for 12 USB 2.0 connections along with 6 SATA connections and 2 USB 1.1 connections.

Also detailed is the Danube platform, set for a 2010 release with the Champlain processor, four cores, DDR3 1,066MHz RAM, AMD RS880M chipsets and a SB8xxM for the RAID interface, clock generator, 4 PCIe GPP slots and 2 USB 2.0 ports.

The roadmap also featured details for the Sabine platform set for a 2011 release and will ahve the Llano Accelerated Processing Unit with 32nm integrated GPU, four cores, DDR4 1,600MHz RAM, an AMD SB9xxM chipset, 16 USB 3.0 ports and more.

Acer PC joins Nvidia's 'Ion' with Intel's Atom

Acer launched a PC Tuesday that attempts to bring PC-class performance to Atom-processor-based

The Acer AspireRevo is the first Atom-based PC from a major PC supplier to use Nvidia's Ion chipset that packs GeForce 9400M graphics, the same graphics used in the Apple 13-inch MacBook and MacBook Air.
By design, Atom is a more power frugal and, concomitantly, slower processor than Intel's mainstream Core 2 chip architecture.
The AspireRevo's marquee external feature is the diminutive size: the desktop is comparable in size to a laptop (though slightly thicker, about the size of a typical hardcover book). Internally, the device will test Nvidia's thesis that devices, such as Netbooks, that pair the Atom processor with Nvidia graphics offer much better performance than Intel-only (i.e., Atom-with-Intel-chipset) platforms.
This won't be quite the slam dunk that it was before, however. Intel recently started shipping the Atom N280 and the accompanying GN40 chipset, which for the first time on an Intel Netbook platform delivers 1080p HD playback.
"The AspireRevo...is perfectly suited for the living room, because Nvidia Ion provides a brilliant graphics experience with digital photos, watching video, and playing family-friendly games," said Gianpiero Morbello, corporate vice president of marketing for Acer, in a statement.
Nvidia listed the following capabilities for the Ion-based AspireRevo:
Ability to run Windows Vista Home Premium
1080p HD video with true-fidelity 7.1 audio
Popular games including Spore, Call of Duty 4, and Sim City 4 *
DirectX 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity
Accelerated video enhancement and transcoding using Nvidia CUDA technology

Pirates block hostage U.S. captain's escape try

The American ship captain taken hostage by pirates in the Indian Ocean jumped into the water from their drifting lifeboat in an attempt to escape early Friday, but he was quickly recaptured, a defense official saidThe standoff unfolding on the high seas off the coast of Somalia intensified Friday as U.S. naval reinforcements moved toward the scene. There were also reports that the pirates, desperate to reach shore with their captive, had themselves called in additional vessels and men.
French authorities, meanwhile, said Friday that they had intervened to end a separate pirate hostage situation off the coast of Somalia, one of the most notoriously lawless stretches of international waters. French forces moved to retake a yacht that had been hijacked last weekend, President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said in a statement. The operation left one hostage and two of the pirates dead. Four other hostages, including a child, survived, and three pirates were captured.
U.S. defense officials apparently have been reluctant to take such an aggressive approach to the hostage standoff involving the captain of the Maersk Alabama, Richard Phillips, who was taken hostage Wednesday when four Somali pirates commandeered the U.S.-flagged container ship.

The Navy has asked hostage negotiators with the FBI for their assistance. Gen. David Petraeus, the head of Central Command and the overall military commander for the region, said Thursday that other warships were headed to the scene.

Defense officials said there were indications that the lifeboat was moving slowly in the direction of the Somali coast. There were some reports on Thursday that the boat had run out of fuel and was adrift in the Indian Ocean, but that did not appear to be the case, officials said on Friday. Even so, defense officials said it was likely that the boat was moving no more than 3 to 4 knots an hour, meaning it was still days from the coast.

Officials said FBI negotiators in Quantico, Va., were in contact with the pirates via a communications link on the Navy destroyer Bainbridge, which was within sight of the lifeboat.
An American defense official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak about the matter, said Phillips was in the water for a short period before the pirates hauled him back aboard.
The official said Navy P-3 aircraft and drones launched from the Bainbridge had since flown overhead and observed Phillips "safe and sound" back on the lifeboat. The official also said he did not know whether the Navy could have rescued the captain during the brief period he spent in the water.
"I couldn't tell you the standoff distance of the ship or whether they could have taken direct action," the official said.
The Maersk Alabama, the first American vessel to be captured by pirates in some 200 years, was commandeered for a number of hours on Wednesday, but the unarmed American crew of 20 managed to overpower the pirates and retake command.
The pirates retreated into a large enclosed lifeboat, taking Phillips as a hostage and apparently seeking a cash ransom.

AMD Launches Opteron Upgrade Program

Yesterday AMD kicked off its global Opteron Processor Upgrade program, and even uploaded an instructive 3-minute video to YouTube, showing the process of replacing the 65nm quad-core Opteron Barcelona processor with the 45nm quad-core Shanghai (video)"in less than five minutes."

Depending on the server, this upgrade is accomplished without having to switch out the motherboard. In fact, consumers who bought a server based on the socket F infrastructure (aka Direct Connect) have it easy, as it supports not only AMD's dual-core Opteron processor, but the quad-core and the upcoming six-core. However, during the video, AMD Product Marketing Manager Ron Myers did point out that the accompanying engineer performing the switch actually swapped out the BIOS chip during the process rather than using a BIOS flash.

In a nutshell, the upgrade program offers AMD partners and customer a cost-effective way to upgrade socket F-based servers without having to purchase an entirely new rig.

The program covers the 2000 series and 8000 series dual and quad-core Opteron processors as well as the upcoming Istanbul six-core processor. By upgrading to the next generation, server owners will receive a 35-percent discount in price: $50 off 2000 series, $100 off 8000 series. Channel partners and customers should see improved performance and energy efficiency after upgrading to the next generation CPU.

“AMD Opteron processors have always provided exceptionally long life cycles and consistent platforms,” said John Fruehe, director, Business Development, AMD. “In the current economic environment customers are trying to stretch their IT budgets and to extend the life of their technology investments more than ever, all while improving performance and energy efficiency. This program offers a unique value to our partners and customers, particularly when you consider the enhancements to the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor and upcoming six-core Istanbul processor.”

"In 15 minutes you can go from dual core Rev F processors to the latest Shanghai quad-cores, giving you up to 200-percent more performance," added John Fruehe, AMD's Director of Business Development for Server/Workstation products, in a recent blog Fruehe said that the real hero in the office is the person that figures out how to get more performance out of their servers without having to tear those servers out of the racks.

He also mentioned that employees looking to replace the server should consider the cost of memory, especially when upgrading from DDR2 to DDR3. "In many cases, the memory costs can be some of the highest component costs in the server," he said.According to AMD, cluster and system builders are already enjoying the benefits of the new upgrade program, naming Rackable Systems and Cray as two examples.

HP Ships Ultrathin Pavilion Dv2 Notebook

wowed CES crowds in January with two new low-cost, ultrathin notebooks based on processors from Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD). The 13.3-inch HP Pavilion dv3 was released at the beginning of the year and this week, HP made its 12.1-inch Pavilion dv2 available as well.

The Pavilion dv2 weighs less than four pounds and its magnesium casing measures less than an inch thick. Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP lists a starting price of $749 for the dv2, as compared to a $649 after-rebate starting price for a Pavilion dv3z found on the company's e-tail Web site Wednesday. The standard Pavilion dv3 started at $769 on the HP Web site.

The Pavilion dv2 release also marks the debut of Advanced Micro Devices' Athlon Neo processor for ultrathin notebooks. The single-core, 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40 includes 512 KB of L2 cache in a new, small-footprint processor package that is 27 x 27mm and just 2.5mm tall for a 50 percent reduction in platform height compared to previous AMD mobile chips.

The new processor also features AMD's PowerNow power management technology, which switches performance states for core voltage and operating frequency based on the part's performance requirements, and supports SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and MMX instructions via AMD Digital Media Express.
The Pavilion dv2 also includes the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker's ATI Mobility Radeon HD Premium Graphics 3410 chipset. The larger Pavilion dv3 is built around AMD's dual-core, 2.1GHz Turion X2 RM-72 chip and features ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics.

The new notebook has a 12.1-inch diagonal 1,280 x 800 LED BrightView display and what HP describes as a "nearly full-size" keyboard. The finish is "Espresso black" with a matching HP Imprint design on the Pavilion dv2's palm rest. Other specs include a 320-GB hard disk drive, Webcam and microphone, 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery, integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN, 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN, Altec Lansing speakers and an external LightScribe optical drive.

The Pavilion dv2 ships with Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit, Symantec (NSDQ:SYMC)'s Norton Internet Security 2009 and HP's own MediaSmart multimedia software. The unit is Energy Star-qualified and EPEAT Silver-registered.

IBM and CSC have been awarded contracts to run some of the technology behind the government's ID cards and passports schemes.

On Tuesday, the Home Office announced that IBM had won a £265m contract to build and run the UK Border Agency (UKBA) database of fingerprints and facial images taken for passports and visa applications, called the National Biometric Information Service (NBIS).

The NBIS database will feed into the National Identity Register, the database behind the ID cards scheme.
Biometric details for the National Identity Scheme will be held on the NBIS, while biographical details will be held on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) database, a government source told ZDNet UK on Tuesday. No government department staff aside from the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) will be able to access either the biometric or biographical details, the source added.
Private-sector companies — for example, a bank seeking to authenticate someone's identity — will not be able to access the details directly, but will be able to use the NBIS to answer queries indirectly, via IPS systems.
The Home Office also announced on Tuesday that systems integrator CSC had won a £385m contract to upgrade the IPS application-and-enrolment systems. This will include putting in place different processing systems, and the means for people to apply for biometric passports online.
Home secretary Jacqui Smith said in a statement that citizens' biometric data would be "safe and secure".
"ID cards and passports with fingerprint and facial biometrics will provide a safe and secure way of protecting personal details and proving identity," said Smith. "These contracts bring ID cards and more secure British passports a step closer, taking advantage of the best technology available to bring real benefits."
However, privacy campaigner Phil Booth of pressure group No2ID told ZDNet UK on Tuesday that the government was wasting public money on an unnecessary scheme.

We don't need a centralised identity register, and we don't need to overhaul our systems," said Booth. "Work on passports has brought us up to all international requirements for the next 10 years."
Booth said that the ID cards scheme had doubled the cost of a passport since 2004, and that there was "no end in sight" in terms of how much the scheme would eventually cost.

"This is a disgrace, especially as this scheme is so controversial," said Booth. "The [ID card] costs are back up to £4.7bn [over 10 years], but these are Home Office costs alone, and are nothing to do with how much the scheme will cost other government departments, and individuals applying for passports."
Opposition to ID cards and the National Identity Register remains strong. A report by the Foundation for Information Policy Research, published in March, concluded that the National Identity Register and 10 other government databases "almost certainly break European law".

Did Sun's total package kill the IBM deal?

It's ironic but fitting that executive bonuses, a subject that's ignited popular anger against the very companies in Sun Microsystems' core customer base on Wall St, helped kill Sun's future.

It's been reported that a disagreement between IBM and Sun over post-acquisition packages for both chief executive officer Jonathan Schwartz and chairman and co-founder Scott McNealy helped sink a deal that sources last week told The Reg was imminent.

Schwartz and McNealy would have received a package of combined salary and - yes, incredibly for a company that's missed numerous boats and trod water for the past nine years - bonuses worth three times their annual pay.
Schwartz, whose been leading the failed crusade of first giving away Sun's software and then somehow monetizing it later, was last year paid a basic salary of $1m.
So far, Sun's refused to comment on what it's called rumors and speculation about a deal, while IBM's been unavailable for comment.
If the IBM deal did sink because of haggling over packages, it would be a sad comment either on the failure of the egos hanging on to their Ts and Cs or the overzealous lawyers arguing for their clients to see the bigger picture of giving Sun and its customers a decent future.

The talks - publicly at least, are off. This could, of course, be the continuation of negotiations by other means: both sides playing hardball, meaning a deal's still in the air.

There can, though, be no question that Sun entered this courtship as the weaker party so it's hard to see why IBM should be tempted to bite. Sun remains overstaffed, becalmed and still recovering from the last recession. Forbes has produced handy recap of six mistakes made by Sun under McNealy and new broom of Schwartz.

I'd add one more, as most people tend to overlook this: middleware and applications.
Software was ignored under McNealy for all his fightin' talk of taking on Microsoft. It only came into vogue under Schwartz, who had a passion for open sourcing Sun's assets and allowing the revolving door or talking heads to continue turning instead of tackling some root-cause problems by installing talent and devoting resources to the subject at hand.

The result has been that, when it comes to working out how to make money off open source, Sun is still rubbing two sticks together while IBM's walking around with a Zippo. Even Microsoft is managing to cash in on open-source, not by throwing open the gates and figuring out the details afterwards, but through a deliberate strategy of making Windows work better with open-source like PHP and Sun's MySQL database.

In measure of how far Sun's open-source strategy has failed not one of three organizations in Sun's core Wall St constituency attending lat month's Open-Source Business Conference said they were running Sun's touted Fedora clone OpenSolaris. Those companies were Bank of America, futures and options house the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Wall St IT services specialist Fidelity Information Services.

At the best, OpenSolaris is penned up in the labs where it's used to benchmark hardware performance by the Mercantile Exchange. And if you think that bodes well for sales of more Sun-only servers in the long run, think again. BoA said while Solaris is its third-largest install base: "It's going to follow the migratory path to x86 that the industry is following."

Despite this, Sun's senior management still thinks projects like OpenSolaris are actually worth something. Bloomberg reported Sun's board: "Contended IBM wanted too much control over Sun's projects and employees before the deal closed, without providing guarantees that the transaction would be completed if it faced delays such as antitrust review."
If this is true, it sounded like Sun wanted to graft itself onto IBM and drag it down too.
However, IBM operates in the real world of profit and loss, and sources told The Reg categorically that IBM failed to get a satisfactory answer on which, if any, of Sun's software makes money.
The result was IBM staffers going through Sun's books and its portfolio couldn't recommend keeping any of Sun's software assets beyond what we reported last week - MySQL for systems, Java for licensing and continuity, and Solaris for the services business. It looked like projects such as OpenSolaris and others were heading to a community graveyard.
If Sun is playing hardball with IBM in the hopes of getting a better price and firm guarantees, then it'll be a long time waiting. There's no reason for IBM to buy any of the software projects Sun's attached so much importance to. And that will mean staff cuts.
Even Sun knows the reality - it's just in denial about the scale. In recent months Sun has had to cut staff involved in marketing and engineering on OpenSolaris and desktop Java as part of planned redundancies.

AMD, Nvidia Release 'Most Powerful' Graphics

On Thursday, both AMD and Nvidia released updates to their graphics cards, with AMD claiming to have the most powerful graphics chip in the world. According to testing from ExtremeTech, however, Nvidia's card is faster.
AMD released the Radeon HD 4890 reference card, which the company says will be priced at $249 by its fourteen or so partners, or $229 after a rebate. Nvidia countered with the GeForce GTX 275, which will be sold at about the same $250 street price.
Technically, both cards are extensions of existing architectures, although ATI is using a different ASIC for the 4890, simply rearranging the components to allow the chips to reach higher clock speeds.
Although both cards are powerhouses in and of themselves, the $250 price point is becoming more significant in a world where a new graphics card costs as much as a dedicated game console, PC gaming's chief competition. Both AMD and Nvidia have shifted away from monolithic graphics monstrosities into a business model that attempts to facilitate older integrated graphics to work together with a newer graphics card, and push PC gamers into buying one graphics card now, buying another later, and pairing them together to gain more performance.
"The ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card represents the AMD sweet spot strategy reloaded," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD, in a statement. "With last year's launch of the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and ATI Radeon HD 4870 products, we gave gamers great performance and an incredible value proposition. Today, we're doing it again. ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards are incredible performers, priced to sell in all major markets worldwide."
Although AMD has publicly boasted of its transition to 40-nm process technologies and aggressively using new memory technologies, at Nvidia "we want to focus on things, more about what does the end user consumer care about?" said Ujesh Desai, the general manager of the GeForce product group at Nvidia, in a small press conference last week. The company will shift to the more aggressive technologies "when it makes sense," he said.
So who won the graphics shootout? According to an ExtremeTech review of the AMD Radeon HD 4890 and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 275, most likely Nvidia, by a nose. But the review also did not take into account what AMD claims is an extensive overclocking threshold, which OEMs and enthusiasts will take advantage of.

The first laptop to use AMD's Athlon Neo processor, the HP Pavilion dv2 extends the range of ultraportables into the territory between notebooks and n

The Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv2 defies simple categorization: Its combination of processor, price, and diminutive size put it somewhere between a mini-laptop (aka netbook) and a full-fledged ultraportable laptop. This $749 model is the first laptop we've seen that features AMD's inexpensive Athlon Neo 1.6GHz MV-40 processor (formerly referred to as AMD's Yukon). My initial impressions are largely positive.

Intel's Atom CPU, which powers most netbooks today, has tended to lower users' expectations about what is possible from a low-cost, lightweight netbook--a small screen, no Windows Vista, no high-resolution video or games.
The Pavilion dv2 aims to change those assumptions about mini-laptops. For $749--not much more than you'd pay for the HP Mini 2140--you get a 12.1-inch display, a 320GB 5400-rpm SATA hard drive, 4GB of RAM, and a discrete ATI Radeon HD 3410 GPU with 512MB of video memory, all packed into a 3.8-pound machine.
The PC World Test Center is currently running this machine through our WorldBench 6 performance benchmark test suite. When those results are in, I'll fill in some important blanks such as how well this CPU stacks up to the rest of the market and how long its included 6-cell battery lasts. From my informal hands-on testing, though, I can say that this machine seems perfectly capable of running Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition.

Video streamed from Hulu looked crisp and clear. I also tried copying a high-definition recording of a TV show (3.36GB for a half-hour show) that I had recorded on a Media Center PC and then playing it back on the Pavilion dv2 at full screen. Though the show took a few seconds to get up and running, it looked great once it kicked into gear.

The Pavilion dv2 uses HP's 92-percent-of-full-size keyboard, with the same flat, wide keys that I've come to appreciate in members of the HP Mini series and in the Gateway UC7807u. On the other hand, given how the keyboard is laid out, HP could have made the keys even bigger. Not that typing is a chore at 92 percent scale, but it is noticeable. Also, prepare to squint if you plan on using the function keys that line the top of the keyboard. As on the HP Mini 1000 netbook, these undersize keys are barely present and require neck craning to see which function key is which.
In contrast, the smooth, mirrored touchpad is fantastic. It is responsive and wide enough that I fingers felt comfortable--not crammed together--when I used it to navigate the desktop. And the long, wide selection buttons are exactly where they should be (at the bottom of the touchpad).
The dv2's screen is no slouch, either. Capable of 1280-by-800-pixel resolution, this LED-backlit widescreen display looks good. Its glossy coating helps make images pop, though this also invites some sunlight-induced glare. But even when I ratcheted up the brightness, the display delivered an acceptable image: It just makes some colors on the brighter end of the spectrum seem a little more subdued.
As for the Pavilion dv2's design, the unit's trim lines and slickly coated, glossy black surface are snazzy and eye-catching. The unit measures 11.5 by 9.45 by 1.29 inches, and weighs just 3.8 pounds, despite managing to squeeze in HDMI and VGA video outputs, three USB 2.0 ports, a PC Express Card slot, a flash-card reader, ethernet, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. within addition, HP throws in a matching external DVD burner.
The front-firing Altec Lansing speakers sound hollow and tinny at best, but they're certainly not a step down from anything you'll find on competing netbooks.
Unfortunately, HP continues to load its laptops with software that you'll want to uninstall the second you get home (games, demos, and the like). The one standout among the pre-installed apps is the handy HP Advisor bar, which camps atop your desktop. While it is borderline obtrusive, it provides a handy shortcut for online searches--and the PC Health & Security button is an excellent one-stop window for obtaining a full status report on your PC. If ultraportability is your bag, but you don't want to drop a fortune and you don't want to sacrifice performance, the HP Pavilion dv2 may be a good bet. I can't pass final judgment until our performance benchmarks are complete, but I like what I'm seeing. Be sure to check back here soon for the full, updated review.

Unboxing HP's Pavilion dv2, featuring the new AMD Athlon Neo CPU

One of only a handful of specific upcoming laptop models that readers have regularly asked about, Hewlett-Packard's 12-inch Pavilion dv2 has finally arrived.
Back at CES 2009, we noted that, "at first glance, another glossy HP laptop with an processor from Advanced Micro Devices may induce yawns, but when we learned this was the first system to use AMD's new Netbook-like Athlon Neo platform, our ears perked up."
The Neo is intended to be a kind of step-up from Netbook CPUs such as the Intel Atom and Via Nano, offering additional processing power for a little more money, and is targeted at slightly larger systems--12-inch laptops instead of 9-inch and 10-inch ones.
AMD sees room for systems with slightly bigger screens than Netbooks, which cost slightly more. AMD claims the 1.6GHz Neo handles multiple apps better than the Intel Atom, and it comes paired with ATI Radeon graphics (it's also restricted to Windows Vista--sorry, no XP option).
We'll be testing and reviewing the HP Pavilion dv2 this week. In the meantime, check out this hands-on video from CES 2009, plus specs and new photos after the break.

As Intel's Atom gains, Apple still holdout

First the news. iSuppli reported Monday that Intel gained share in the global microprocessor during every quarter of 2008 to finish up with 80.5 percent of the total processor market--a 1.6 percent gain over rivals--partly due to the success of its Atom chip in Netbooks.
"Intel's low-priced Atom has become increasingly popular as the Netbook market has gained steam," Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms research, for iSuppli, said in a statement.
Worldwide unit shipments of Netbooks soared by more than 2,000 percent in 2008 and are expected to rise by about 68 percent in 2009, iSuppli said.
Not surprisingly, every major computer maker has announced a Netbook--some, like Toshiba, begrudgingly--and others, like Dell, seemed, at least initially, to put a product out there just in case.
Hewlett-Packard--one of the early leaders in the market--came out (back in April 2008) first with an upscale business-class "Mini-Note" Netbook, but since then HP has added a lower-cost consumer-focused HP Mini 1000 series too. All HP Netbooks now use the Atom processor after a brief flirtation with a Via processor (used because HP developed its Mini-Note before Atom was available).
But not Apple--about a year after Intel announced the Atom brand. A Russian magazine has posted a pretty compelling mock-up of what an Apple Netbook could (should?) look like. The magazine even proffered some believable specs that were slightly off-kilter--a typical Apple product strategy: a 1.86GHz Atom Z740 (typically not used in Netbooks, most vendors default to the 1.6GHz N270), a 64GB solid-state drive (not unheard of in Netbooks but certainly not common), and, most interestingly, an Nvidia chipset and Nvidia graphics.
One of the challenges Apple faces with a luxury Netbook configuration like this is that it comes uncomfortably close to its pricey MacBook Air, which also offers Nvidia graphics and solid-state drives. This, of course, could change if Apple updates the Air with a more upscale configuration. Or Apple could price a Netbook (Apple, of course, will dare not speak the name "Netbook") in such a way that keeps it up-market but far enough below MBA territory.
That essentially was HP's strategy for about six months. But Apple brings a bit more cachet to the market than HP so it could prove to be a popular product. That said, if Apple goes the Netbook route, it will not be immune from the inevitable cannibalization that Atom brings with it.
Some potential MacBook Air buyers would look at a 10- or 11-inch Apple Netbook and say why pay the $1,000 premium? Maybe too many for Apple's taste. We'll see.

Intel rolls out Xeon in crowded servers arena

Intel (INTC.O) has unveiled its newest and most powerful family of microprocessors, the Xeon, announcing more than 70 customers for a more energy-efficient chip targeted at an increasingly crowded server market.
The world's largest chipmaker officially announced its Xeon chip for servers and workstations on Monday, based on its "Nehalem" design, technology that had been incorporated in Apple's (AAPL.O) Mac Pro since January.
Analysts said the new processors may help it cement its position just as Cisco readies a push into the market and a potential reorganization looms with sources and media saying IBM (IBM.N) may buy server-maker Sun Microsystems (JAVA.O).
"The server business is very competitive," said Douglas Davis, vice president of the digital enterprise group and general manager for Intel's embedded and communications group.
Xeon "will drive a set of requirements for the data center infrastructure."
Manufacturers and analysts say one of the next battles in the chip industry revolves around the amount of energy required to run data centers. A chip that performs better without drawing more power or producing more heat could be key