Items tagged with Enterprise
Over the weekend, we talked about an issue surrounding AMD's Ryzen-based processors on Unix-based OSes. Today, we learn a lot more about what's going on, as well as which products are actually affected. But first, let's get the upside out of the way: this bug is rare, and requires very specific conditions. The vast majority of users are not going to experience an issue, but it's at least an issue to be aware of. With almost comical timing, SMT issues surrounding both FreeBSD and Linux were outed at around the same time, although it's now been confirmed that the issues are different. Through exhaustive...
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Toshiba has been busy updating its solid state drive portfolio this summer, and it is leaving no market untouched. The company's latest product announcement is a pair of speedy enterprise SSDs. They are the first enterprise-class SSDs to be built around the company's latest 64 layer, 3-bit-per-cell TLC (triple-level cell) NAND BiCS flash memory, making it possible for customers to expand the use of flash with cost-optimized solutions.The first of the new drives is the TMC PM5 series. It offers up to a whopping 30.72 terabytes of capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor, with transfer speeds rated to...
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Dell as a company has been around for more than three decades and shows no signs of slowing down. But it was 20 years ago that Dell began selling Precision workstations to professionals. To celebrate two decades of Precision workstations, Dell skipped the cake and streamers, and instead announced a few new and updated additions to its workstation portfolio, including a special anniversary edition of its Precision 5520 mobile workstation. The Precision 5520 is the thinnest, lightest, and overall smallest mobile workstation in Dell's stable. For the anniversary model, Dell blinged things out with...
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Ever since AMD launched its Ryzen processors for the desktop, many security conscious users have pleaded with the company to open source its PSP - no, not the portable console, but rather its "Platform Security Processor". This chip is found on most AMD platforms from 2013 on, and behaves much like Intel's Management Engine does: it offers simple low-level access to the computer. Both AMD and Intel share the same message about these unique chips; they are there to keep us protected. Because the OS can't see what the PSP or IME is doing, though, the user will likewise be oblivious to the chip's...
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In an era where high profile data breaches are becoming far too common, IBM has a solution that could help. The company on Monday unveiled IBM Z, a next generation mainframe that is is billing as the world's most powerful transaction system. Just as importantly, it offers pervasive encryption so that all data is encrypted all of the time, whether it is part of an application, cloud service, or chunks of bits in a database. "The vast majority of stolen or leaked data today is in the open and easy to use because encryption has been very difficult and expensive to do at scale," said Ross Mauri, General...
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Intel announced its Xeon Scalable processor family based Skylake-SP a few weeks back, but today marks the official launch of the platform. These new processors feature a new microarchitecture versus previous-generation Xeons and Intel has revamped the naming convention and arrangement of the product stack as well. Whereas previous-generation Xeon processors carried version, class, and model number designations – for example, Xeon E5-2697 v4 – the Xeon Scalable processor family is now designated by Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze categories, with a single model number.The new naming convention...
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It feels a little weird to write about performance results for AMD's EPYC processors and not have to tie the word "leak" into it. As we covered just last week, AMD has finally unleashed its hugely anticipated EPYC processor line for the server market, and to say it's long overdue would be a gross understatement. There is no doubt that Ryzen is important for AMD's desktop aspirations, but EPYC is hugely important for its chance to steal back enterprise market share from Intel. Today, we get a glimpse of some of what EPYC can deliver, as some results have hit SiSoftware's Sandra repository....
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AMD has been on a tear lately. After all of the hype and anticipation, AMD's Zen architecture has proven to be the real deal, and not just on the desktop. Last week saw the launch of AMD's EPYC 7000 series processors for data center servers, and now the chip designer is formally introducing its Ryzen PRO lineup. In case it its not clear at this point, Zen is a multi-headed threat that is intent on competing with Intel in virtually every market segment. In this case, AMD's Rzyen PRO desktop chips are tweaked versions of the company's consumer-based Ryzen processors, with the PRO parts taking aim...
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Today marks the launch of AMD's EPYC family of processors for data center servers. Based on the company's Zen microarchitecture, it has become abundantly clear that AMD was targeting the lucrative data center market first and foremost with its new CPU architecture and the highly scalable Naples platform that leverages it. Of course Zen scales well for client/consumer desktop applications, as we've seen with AMD's successful Ryzen processor launch. However, the data center is near and dear to the AMD's heart, due to significantly higher chip pricing and better profit margins; not to mention the...
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Lenovo is on a mission to change the way you think about workstations. Just as we have seen in other PC categories, the trend is towards increasingly smaller machines. When it comes to workstations with Independent Software Vendor (ISV) certification, nothing out there takes up less space than Lenovo's newly minted ThinkStation P320 Tiny, which it built around a one liter form factor.The new ThinkStation P320 Tiny ties into Lenovo's PC as a Service (PCaaS) offering, which consists of a fully managed, fixed monthly cost subscription model combining hardware and services into a single solution. There...
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We wrote last month about Intel's plans to overhaul its Xeon lineup, in effect forcing us to forget everything we ever knew about its current model naming convention. When the new Skylake-SP Xeons are released, they'll be separated by a simple medal-based ranking system: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and the baller-sounding "Platinum" edition. Today, we learn about what some of those chips are going to bring to the table. It looks like the "Intel Xeon Platinum 8176" chip is going to be one to drool over in the server space, as it delivers an impressive 28 cores (56 threads with Intel HyperThreading), which...
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Last fall, we reported on a somewhat humorous report of a mere "reply all" email that managed to bring down email servers of the UK's National Health Service. Unfortunately, we have something a bit more severe to report on today: an all-out cyberattack against the NHS. At some point today, doctors at NHS had to begin turning away patients as a ransomware attack that affected NHS' most important servers reared its ugly head. Doctors and staff were immediately locked out of their computers, essentially meaning that patient data could not be accessed. Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham;...
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AMD is looking to make a big impact on the enterprise market with its upcoming Naples platform. Naples will bring tons of memory bandwidth and up to 32 cores, so many have been wondering what Intel has up its sleeves to counter it. Overall, the blue team still has the fastest IPC and single-threaded performance, so it doesn't have much to fear for now, but if Naples can deliver close to what is being promised, it is going to give the enterprise market a long overdue shakeup. As we now learn, part of Intel's disruption versus their competition will be underscored with a rebranding, as...
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Though encryption and enterprise products often go hand-in-hand, that is not always the case. There are some instances where encryption is not needed, and so Toshiba answered the call with a line of non-encrypted solid state drives optimized for data centers. Those drives are now starting to ship in select NetApp SolidFire all-flash array (AFA) models, enabling NetApp customers to reach new markets. Specifically, Toshiba's non-encrypted SATA 6Gbps HK4 series SSDs are shipping in NetApp SolidFire SF4805, SF9605, and SF19210 products. Toshiba is the first to ship non-encrypted SSDs on SolidFire AFAs...
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