AMD to Acquire SeaMicro: Accelerates Disruptive Server Strategy

SeaMicro Low-Power, High-Bandwidth Microserver Solutions Set the Stage for AMD’s Disruptive Approach To Lead Fast-Growing Cloud Data Center Market

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -2/29/2012
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SeaMicro, a pioneer in energy-efficient, high-bandwidth microservers, for approximately $334 million, of which approximately $281 million will be paid in cash. Through the acquisition of SeaMicro, AMD will be accelerating its strategy to deliver disruptive server technology to its OEM customers serving cloud-centric data centers. With SeaMicro’s fabric technology and system-level design capabilities, AMD will be uniquely positioned to offer industry-leading server building blocks tuned for the fastest-growing workloads such as dynamic web content, social networking, search and video.

AMD’s server technology combined with SeaMicro technology provides customers with a range of processor choices and platforms that can help significantly reduce data center complexity, cost and energy consumption while improving performance. AMD plans to offer the first AMD Opteronâ„¢ processor-based solutions that combine AMD and SeaMicro technology in the second half of 2012. The company remains firmly committed to its traditional server business, and will continue to focus and invest in this area.

“By acquiring SeaMicro, we are accelerating AMD’s transformation into an agile, disruptive innovator capable of staking a data center leadership position,” said Rory Read, president and CEO, AMD. “SeaMicro is a pioneer in low-power server technology. The unmatched combination of AMD’s processing capabilities, SeaMicro’s system and fabric technology, and our ambidextrous technology approach uniquely positions AMD with a compelling, differentiated position to attack the fastest growing segment of the server market.”

SeaMicro technologies offer substantial advantages in large data center and cloud environments. Cloud data centers are projected to be the fastest growing segment of the server market through 2015, according to IDC1.

Current systems featuring SeaMicro technology typically use one quarter the power and take one sixth the space of traditional servers with the same compute performance, yet deliver up to 12 times the bandwidth per core2.

Foremost among SeaMicro’s innovations is their supercompute fabric, which connects thousands of processor cores, memory, storage and input/output traffic. SeaMicro’s fabric supports multiple processor instruction sets. SeaMicro solutions are currently deployed in multiple sites across the world. AMD will continue to support all current SeaMicro customers while accelerating plans to deliver new platforms that combine AMD and SeaMicro technology and enable AMD’s OEM partners to bring differentiated solutions to market.

“Cloud computing has brought a sea change to the data center–dramatically altering the economics of compute by changing the workload and optimal characteristics of a server,” said Andrew Feldman, SeaMicro CEO, who will become general manager of AMD’s newly created Data Center Server Solutions business. “SeaMicro was founded to dramatically reduce the power consumed by servers, while increasing compute density and bandwidth. By becoming a part of AMD, we will have access to new markets, resources, technology, and scale that will provide us with the opportunity to work tightly with our OEM partners as we fundamentally change the server market.”

The acquisition does not change AMD’s 2012 financial guidance and the transaction is expected to be accretive to earnings after 2012. AMD will fund the cash portion of the acquisition with existing cash reserves.

Sony has demonstrated the face-recognition and tracking capabilities of the upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld, using the portable console’s front-facing camera to track head movement and have on-screen avatars respond accordingly. In the demo, filmed by Siliconera and which you can see after the cut, Sony showed a two-way video chat being held between a pair of animated avatars, the head, mouth, eye and other movements being mapped to those of the gamer.

Although head-tracking has been done before, the system Sony demonstrated was able to track minor details like eye-blinking and eyebrow twitches, for a more lifelike animation. Sony wasn’t saying a video calling app would necessarily be the final use of the technology, 4gamer reports, but that the software was merely a demonstration of the power of the Vita’s abilities and its potential in augmented reality (AR) gaming.

Rather than using specific glyphs that can be identified and tracked by an AR system, Sony’s Yoshikatsu Kanemaru suggested that objects and even people could be distinguished by the Vita and have computer-generated graphics overlaid. It’s a technology that appears to have borrowed from Sony’s previous SmartAR research, which can intelligently spot unique elements -such as posters, magazines or more complex forms, like body outlines – in the camera’s frame and then track them accordingly.

All of the boards in the series use the dual intelligent Processors 2 tech with DIGI+ VRM power delivery for precision power adjustment and control. The boards also provide extra DRAM power to increase stability and has a feature packed BIOS. It sounds like the family will be overclocker friendly.

The mainboards also supports SATA 6Gb/s storage interface with RAID 0/1/10 support. The chipset in the boards also supports USB 3.0 natively with no need for a secondary controller. Intel still lacks native support for USB 3.0 and all Intel chipset boards are using a secondary controller for USB 3.0 ports. There is no word on when these boards will land and how much they will cost.

The recent refresh of the GeForce GTX 460M into the 560M was a welcome one, bringing Optimus support and higher clocks to what's liable to be their crown prince of budget mobile gaming. The GTX 560M is beginning to materialize in the market, but we were still left with an odd hole in NVIDIA's lineup at the top. That hole has now been filled, and thankfully it's at least a little more than the usual speedbump that goes along with a new moniker these days. Now every part in the 500M series can switch over to Sandy Bridge's integrated graphics while running on the battery, offering the best of both worlds.

NVIDIA's new top dog is the GeForce GTX 580M. Every spec on the press sheets is listed as "up to," but that's really par for the course. While NVIDIA's reps declined to comment on what chips are being used for the GTX 580M, you'll find the specs are a dead giveaway. The 580M seems to be a mobile version of the GF104/114 (more likely GF114), with 384 CUDA cores, with a main clock of 620MHz (yielding 1240MHz on the shader cores). Riding shotgun is a 256-bit memory bus supporting up to 2GB of GDDR5 clocked at an effective 3GHz. Those of you keeping score at home will note that's an improvement of 45MHz on the core (and thus 90MHz on the shaders), with the memory speed remaining constant. All told I'd expect performance in the neighborhood of the desktop GeForce GTX 460 1GB version (or at least, the original NVIDIA spec): not too shabby, but still an incremental improvement on the shipping GTX 485M. The major selling point is, again, Optimus support in the 580M.

On the heels of the GTX 580M is the GeForce GTX 570M. The 470M was a bit of an oddity in that while the 480M and 485M were easy enough to find, the 470M was largely a rarity. While the 580M sees the minor speedbump we've come to expect, the 570M is a major improvement over its seldom-used predecessor. The 570M likely uses the same silicon as the 580M (which is, again, more than likely a GF114), but while the 470M only had 288 CUDA cores, the 570M gets a healthy upgrade to 336. The 470M's 535MHz core clock also sees a boost to 575MHz, with the shaders clocked at 1150MHz. The 570M still retains the 470M's 192-bit memory bus, and will be configured with either 1.5GB or 3GB of GDDR5 clocked at an effective 3GHz, a marked improvement on the 470M's 2.5GHz memory clocks. All told performance should be somewhere between the desktop GeForce GTX 460 768MB and the GTX 460 SE. For mobile gaming, that's still not bad at all, and again it benefits from Optimus support.

NVIDIA also was able to point out specific models of notebooks that will be shipping with these parts. Availability in 17" Clevo notebooks should surprise no one, with the P270WN in particular supporting both 3D Vision and SLI'd GeForce GTX 580M's. Alienware's new M18x (which we have en route for review) will also be supporting the GeForce GTX 580M in SLI. And finally, the MSI GT780R shown above will be shipping with the GeForce GTX 570M.

NVIDIA expects notebooks featuring the new GPUs to be available for order from OEMs today.

Razer is back and that DeathAdder mouse is getting dressed up for fans of the Transformers franchise. The mice are for the tie in to the new flick that opens this week in theaters everywhere. The DeathAdder comes in both Autobot and Decepticon versions with the good guy mice in red for Optimus Prime and yellow for Bumblebee. The bad guys are in silver for Megatron and purple for the new baddies that pop out of the dust on the moon.

All of the mice have the same 3.5G sensor and 3500dpi sensitivity. You can pick up any of the four designs for $69.99 each. To complete your Transformers desk swag you can also get a Transformers Vespula dual sided gaming mouse pad with Optimus on one side and Megatron on the other for $44.99. Razer also has a line of laptop sleeve cases in Transformers style for $49.99 each.

ARRIS C4® CMTS Demo to Transmit 4.5 Gbps DOCSIS® Downstream Bandwidth Over 128 Downstream Channels Into a Single Fiber Node at NCTA 2011

SUWANEE, Ga., June 13, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –

ARRIS (Nasdaq: ARRS)todayannounced that it will demonstrate two DOCSIS “firsts” at NCTA 2011, in Chicago, June 14-16, 2011.

The demonstration will show real file transfer throughput of 4.5 Gbps of DOCSIS downstream traffic being transmitted over 128 DOCSIS downstream channels into a single Fiber Node. In the demo, an ARRIS C4 CMTS will be configured using four newly-released 32 Downstream Cable Access Modules (32D CAMs) to source the 128 DOCSIS downstream channels into the Fiber Node. The Bandwidth Monitor will illustrate that the total downstream bandwidth sent into the Fiber Node remains fairly constant at about 4.5 Gbps. These record-breaking bandwidth levels may be required for large-scale IP Video systems in the future.

The demo will also show a proof-of-concept implementation of a 5-200 MHz high-split DOCSIS upstream system with 575 Mbps of DOCSIS upstream bandwidth being transmitted over 24 DOCSIS Upstream channels out of a single Fiber Node. This demo uses a single ARRIS 24U CAM to receive the high-split 5-200 MHz upstream spectrum from a Fiber Node. This record-breaking upstream bandwidth is intended to help the industry explore the future frequency allocations of HFC to protect its value and viability for many years to come.

The demonstration is designed to illustrate three key points:

* to show the incredible capacity of the current HFC network
* to illustrate the ability of the ARRIS C4 CMTS to capitalize on the HFC network’s immense capacity
* to display the latent flexibility of future DOCSIS CMTS systems that can capitalize on the HFC network’s upstream capacity as well

Google Apps to Cut Off Support to Older BrowsersWhile the elimination of support for Firefox 3.5 and earlier and Safari 3 and earlier won’t affect many users, the latest figures from NetMarketShare show that IE7 is still pulling 7 percent of the browser market. Beyond that, IE6, which Google dropped support for last year, is still claiming a healthy 10.36 percent, second only to IE8. All told, Google is eliminating support to 17.4 percent of the browser market merely by cutting off IE7 and below.

It’d be tempting to view this as a move by Google to slap at its rival Microsoft, but the announcement makes no pitch for users to switch to Google’s Chrome browser. Rather, it asks users to “get the latest version of [their] favorite browser.”

Instead, the announcement emphasizes the importance of the security and compatibility fixes offered in newer browsers, and for that, Google deserves some kudos. As the use of Web apps continues to grow, so too do the security and compatibility issues that Web apps bring, and using old browser versions exacerbates those vulnerabilities. It may be frustrating for some users to have to upgrade, but it’s a good thing for Web app providers to force a browser upgrade now and then, if only to keep users from suffering a security breach and to be able to leverage the best new technologies.

The account hijackings were a result of stolen passwords, likely by malware installed on victims’ computers or through victims’ responses to e-mails from malicious hackers posing as trusted sources. That type of hack is known as phishing. Gmail’s security systems themselves were not compromised, Google said.

The company believes the phishing attack emanated from Jinan, China. In addition to the U.S. government personnel, other targets included South Korean government officials and federal workers of several other Asian countries, Chinese political activists, military personnel and journalists.

“The Department of Homeland Security is aware of Google’s message to its customers,” said Chris Ortman, a spokesman for the agency. “We are working with Google and our federal partners to review the matter, offer analysis of any malicious activity, and develop solutions to mitigate further risk.”

The news comes a little more than a year after a separate hack originating from China affected Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. In that case, attackers were able to break through Google’s security systems, and two Gmail accounts were hacked.

That cyber attack set off a series of events that eventually led to Google ending its agreement with the Chinese government to censor certain search results, and the company physically moved its servers out of the country.

This time around, the hack appears larger in scope — but Google itself was not attacked. A person with knowledge of the attack’s details said there was no apparent correlation between last year’s attack and this one.

A spokesman from Google declined to comment on how the company obtained the information about the most recent hack. Public information, user reports and a third-party hacking blog called Contagio was used to determine the scope, targets and source of the attack.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) said it notified the victims and disrupted the campaign.

The hackers were attempting to monitor the victims’ e-mails, and some users’ forwarding settings were altered.

The company urged users to “please spend ten minutes today taking steps to improve your online security so that you can experience all that the Internet offers — while also protecting your data.”

Google provided several examples of how Gmail users can better protect themselves from phishing attacks on its blog, including enabling a setting that allows users to login to their accounts only after receiving a verification code on their phones. The company also suggested that users monitor their settings for suspicious forwarding settings.