May 9th, 2008
HRH Prince Penguin
Did anyone else happen to notice that Prince Charles is a closet Penguin?
On our UK-based sister site, ZDNet.CO.UK our British colleague Andrew Donoghue quoted His Majesty as follows:
“Many of the case studies we received highlight the business benefits of developing and incorporating a low carbon strategy - not least the real, tangible, bottom-line savings that would delight the heart of even the frostiest finance director,” he said. “The recruitment company, Reed, for instance, has reduced its PC power use by 80 percent by replacing 4,500 PCs and 400 laptops with ‘thin-client terminals’.”
Clearly, we in the Colonies have something to learn from the Mother Country.
But if you read Between the Lines, you could easily change the words “Thin-Client terminals” with “Open Source”. Because that’s where the real benefits of Cloud Computing and Desktop Virtualization actually come in. The idea of Open Source thin clients certainly isn’t new to England — a British Open Source project called Ndiyo has made successful trials in 3rd-world countries with its “Nivo” technology using a very thin client protocol and very Green hardware. Right now, they are in limited production and have not reached economies of scale, but its possible that Nivo’s could be built for 50 bucks apeice, sans monitor and keyboard and mouse. When built into an LCD OLED 15″ screen, it could be brought down to $150 or less.
In another publication, I discussed the possibility of getting this technology in the hands of 3rd world countries and on every classroom desktop as an alternative to the unmitigated disaster that is the OLPC.
I don’t know if the Prince is an Hardy Heron user, but I’d love to see the Crown adopt Ubuntu as the Official Operating System of The Royal House of Windsor — in the same vein as Bollinger Champagne , Hine Cognac and Bentley Motorcars.
Is the Prince a Penguin? Talk Back and Let Me Know.
May 9th, 2008
If you want to sell a startup, plan a shutdown
Almost a month ago, Mowser founder Russell Beattie was lamenting his debts and telling folks his creation was disappearing. He also questioned the idea of the mobile Web overall. Fast forward a bit and Beattie is announcing the sale of Mowser to dotMobi.
Go figure.
It took a few weeks to work out the details, but pretty much on the day that I announced Mowser was shutting, the guys at dotMobi got in touch with us interested in the service. Today is the official announcement that they’ve acquired the site and technology, and will be adding to their growing number of services targeted at mobile publishers.
That’s a far cry from what he wrote in April where he questioned the concept his company was built on:
The argument up to now has been simply that there are roughly 3 billion phones out there, and that when these phones get on the Internet, their vast numbers will outweigh PCs and tilt the market towards mobile as the primary web device. The problem is that these billions of users *haven’t* gotten on the Internet, and they won’t until the experience is better and access to the web is barrier-free - and that means better devices and “full browsers”. Let’s face it, you really aren’t going to spend any real time or effort browsing the web on your mobile phone unless you’re using Opera Mini, or have a smart phone with a decent browser - as any other option is a waste of time, effort and money. Users recognize this, and have made it very clear they won’t be using the “Mobile Web” as a substitute for better browsers, rather they’ll just stay away completely.
Beattie notes that he didn’t get rich by any stretch, but the rent is paid as are some debts.
May 9th, 2008
Logged into Google? You may see more ads
Google may be using its properties–iGoogle, Gmail and Apps–to step up its behavioral ad efforts.
That’s the conclusion from Piper Jaffray Gene Munster who tracks 400 searches on Google and Yahoo each month. Munster defines a behavioral ad as one that pertains to a past query.
His takeaways:
- This month there were 58 percent of queries that had one or more behavioral ad, up from 27 percent last month.
- You get different search results if you’re logged into a Google account. A logged in user gets 79 percent more ads an anonymous one. Most of these additional pitches are behavioral.
- Google appears to be leveraging its properties to deliver more relevant ads that could boost revenue.
None of this is earth shattering, but Google hasn’t yapped much about behavioral targeting. Google has probably spent more time talking about offline advertising–print, radio and television.
Also see: Google delivers; Maybe paid clicks weren’t such a big deal
Munster writes in a research note:
“We noticed a significantly higher number of paid ads per results page while logged into a Google Account: there were 79% more paid search ads per search while logged into a Google Account than while not logged in. Also notable was the instance and frequency of past search query information in later searches. We noted 58% of logged in searches to include at least one behaviorally relevant ad, while only 6% of anonymous searches included a behaviorally relevant ad. While logged in to a Google Account, those searches that did include a behaviorally relevant ad included an average of 4 behaviorally generated ads, while anonymous searches averaged only 2.3. The bottom line is that based on our study, Google appears to be utilizing user accounts to more accurately and more frequently target search users with behavioral ads, while allowing Google to generate sustainable user data based on static rather than dynamic records. We believe this represents the early stages of Google’s behavioral ad targeting within search and that the company will continue to make algorithmic changes to improve the quality of behavioral inclusion to paid search ads.”
The larger question is whether there will be any user backlash. Google maintains that more relevant ads are helpful. But you can have too much of a good thing–like 79 percent more if you’re logged into a Google account.
May 9th, 2008
Blockbuster can start due diligence on Circuit City
Circuit City said Friday that it is exploring strategic alternatives and will allow Blockbuster and investor Carl Icahn to “conduct additional due diligence.”
Last month, Blockbuster announced a rather perplexing plan to acquire Circuit City in an attempt to take two struggling retailers and make one strong one.
In a statement Circuit City said it has retained Goldman Sachs to explore strategic alternatives. Philip J. Schoonover, CEO of Circuit City, said:
“While the Circuit City board has confidence in the company’s ability to successfully implement its turnaround plan and generate shareholder value, we believe that we can best serve the interests of our shareholders by exploring all possible alternatives to enhance shareholder value. Let me be clear that our decision to allow Blockbuster and Carl Icahn to conduct due diligence should not be taken as an indication that the board has completed its review of the Blockbuster proposal, that the board has taken a position on the company’s value or that it has settled upon a particular strategic course of action.”
I’ll be really curious to see how this due diligence plays out. This proposed merger makes no sense to me.
May 9th, 2008
Oil’s superspike may make telecommuting the norm
Can the price of crude–currently above $125 a barrel and the high gas prices that go with it–make telecommuting the norm?
These questions come up typically with crises and natural disasters. For instance, if there was an avian flu outbreak workers across the U.S. would have to work from home. If there were a terrorist attack we’d have a similar situation. But as TechRepublic’s Bill Detweiler notes a surge in telecommuting doesn’t necessarily need a big event as a catalyst. The increase in oil prices will do (image via Wikipedia).
Bill’s working theory is that most employees will work from home a couple of days a week as commuting costs spike. The lesson is that IT departments will have to prepare in advance. Bill writes:
Many IT organizations, particularly in large enterprises, already support a distributed workforce. IT leaders within this category should ensure their infrastructure has the capacity to support increased demand. IT departments not currently supporting remote users should begin exploring their options now. At the very least, you should make certain your network can support existing remote workplace technologies. Also, IT will not be immune from this trend. IT leaders must develop the skills and techniques required to manage a distributed workforce.
Are IT managers ready?
The jury is still out. Companies weren’t ready for mass telecommuting back when avian flu was a hot topic. And it’s doubtful that they are ready now.
Where I’ve gone wrong in the past is lack of preparation. I think the three things I’ve missed are:
1) What IT facilities does the person genuinely need? This may be more than the equivalent job in the office; for example will a fax machine be needed in every home? They may also need other software which would not normally be supplied, so the ’standard build’ may be different.
2) The remote worker should be trained in the basics of network connectivity. They need to know where the connections are physically in their house, what needs to be plugged in, and what needs to be powered on. The should be shown how to do basic troubleshooting.
3) They need a formal agreement which includes rules for care of and for personal use of the equipment. This information needs to be available to the help desk.
One of the benefits of home working is the ability to work at flexible times. Therefore the home worker needs to know the help desk arrangements especially outside office hours.
Finally, and not an IT issue, but the employer needs to satisfy itself that the general security of the house is adequate to protect its data, some of which may well be in paper form.
One consensus is that remote workers are more savvy then they used to be. That’s good because more often than not a remote worker will be his or her own CIO, IT support person and help desk.
May 9th, 2008
Wall Street: Too much sway over the tech sector?
Every technology company has three main constituencies: Employees, customers and shareholders. Does that last category overwhelm the first two? Should it?
These questions are worth asking–at least when it comes to putting technology companies in context. Vinnie Mirchandani and I had this back and forth about Wall Street’s influence over technology companies at SAP Sapphire this week.
Vinnie made the following points:
- Technology companies cater to Wall Street interests too much often at the expense of good strategy.
- Isn’t what a company does for customers and developers more important than shareholder interests?
- What’s wrong with being a mid-size technology company if customers and employees are happy and the products–software, hardware, services–fit a need? There’s nothing wrong with it, but Wall Street would lead folks to believe that any company that isn’t acquired by Oracle isn’t worth existing.
- And why are we listening to Wall Street at all given that analysts, investment bankers and other financial wonks can’t even manage their own businesses (subslime, credit swaps, write-offs galore)?
Vinnie’s points make a ton of sense and as a card carrying capitalist pig it was a point of view that took a little time to sink in. But he’s right. This Wall Street influence thing is a conversation worth happening.
Let’s view some recent news events and downplay Wall Street to see how things may look differently.
- Microsoft-Yahoo. The ultimate Wall Street story here. Microsoft bids for Yahoo, which plays hard to get. Microsoft walks and takes its $45 billion and goes home. Yahoo is doomed right? If you’re a shareholder you’re a little bent over this Microsoft thing. However, customers don’t see any difference. I’m still happy with Yahoo services. And it’s quite possible that employees didn’t want to be a part of Microsoft.
- AMD. Analysts were clamoring for more detail and were even pitching a breakup ahead of the company’s shareholder meeting. Wall Street got none of those items. AMD is a prove it company, but you can’t ignore the customer angle. Customers like having AMD around as a counterweight to Intel. AMD fills a need. It’s a different perspective from what you’ll get from Wall Street’s view.
- Amazon. This year Amazon has been in Wall Street’s good graces. But for the last two years, Wall Street has been annoyed with Amazon’s capital spending, which was needed to build out Amazon Web Services. There are very few folks that would argue that AWS wasn’t worth the effort today.
Every once in a while happy employees, shareholders and customers line up in a virtuous cycle like Google and Apple are seeing, but those three constituents are out of synch more than you’d think. The key is to not let Wall Street dominate your view.
Thoughts?
May 9th, 2008
News to know: Office 2007 SP1; Microsoft security; KVM vs. Xen; AMD
Notable headlines:
Mary Jo Foley: Mark your calendars: Microsoft to push Office 2007 SP1 on June 16
EIC podcast: SAP; JavaOne; AMD, Microhoo
Larry Dignan: Microsoft previews three critical bulletins; two for Office
- Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft shares more IE8 security details
- Richard Koman: Brewster Kahle offers a cookbook for fighting security letters
- Garett Rogers: Google offers enterprise web security
Jason Perlow: Unixfication II
WSJ: Microsoft Move Suggests Not Reversing Yahoo Decision BusinessWeek: Inside Microsoft’s War Against Google
David Morgenstern: Seeking the iPhone in Adobe’s annual analyst briefings
Paul Murphy: An idea about teaching Linux to the MCSE community
Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft trickling out its Spring Live Search update Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Got a .edu email address? Pick up Microsoft Office Ultimate for $60!
Data Portability: The Microsoft angle
InfoWorld: OpenOffice.org beta fails the Office 2007 test
TechRepublic: Video: Dirty little secrets about working in IT
- Video: Degaussing machine erases hard drive data in less than 10 seconds
- Annalee Newitz is living proof that female nerds are cool
Ryan Stewart: KinetiCast - online presentation and promotional trackingPaula Rooney: KVM and Xen cofounders engage in war of words
Dana Blankenhorn: Sun xVM Virtualbox puts Mac on x86
Paula Rooney: Samba 3.2 reflects open source project’s ambivalence toward Microsoft
Images: A visit to ‘negawatt’ central (right)
Heather Clancy: TerraPass gets more granular with its carbon-crunching calculator
Micron claims low-power server memory lead with two new modules
Dignan: AMD still mum on its ‘asset smart’ strategy
- Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Here we go again …
- AMD’s new roadmap: Can it execute?
Matthew Miller: ShoZu adds Twitter, Seesmic, Photobucket, and 5 more destinations
Phil Wainewright: SaaSplaza opens European SaaS marketplace
Christopher Dawson: How does OpenSolaris fare for Ed Tech? Techdirt: Does The GPL Still Matter?
News.com: After long negotiations, Facebook agrees to safety plan with state AGs
Google Blogoscoped: Google Ends Hello
iTunes FairPlay DRM - Protecting artists and labels, or helping Apple sell more iPods?
Janice Chen: Top five (last-minute) digital camera accessories
Andrew Nusca: New Dell Inspiron consumer laptops leaked! (hint: thin)
Malware shipped with Firefox 2 language pack
Roland Piquepaille: NASA’s lunar breathing system
Photos: Cracking open the Nintendo Wii Remote
Mitch Ratcliffe: Social Infrastructure still very much wanted
Steve O’Hear: MySpace partners with Yahoo, Twitter and eBay in “data portability” initiative. Techmeme
- How much are your friends worth?
- The number of social network users in Latin American countries grew 103% in January 2008
- Monetizing social media: Still an uphill climb; Some friends may be worthless
Vonage narrows losses; Inks deal with Covad
WSJ: Gates says Vista sales are ‘rapid’
Christopher Dawson: Large Hadron Collider will put academic networks to the test
Dana Blankenhorn: Delaying a PC revolution in cell diagnosis
Harry Fuller: Don’t insulate, Nansulate, says Florida cleantech company
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: And in other news … id Software announces Doom 4
May 8th, 2008
EIC podcast: SAP; JavaOne; AMD, Microhoo
In this week’s EIC squared podcast, Dan and I talk SAP Sapphire, JavaOne; AMD and Microsoft and whether it’ll come back around to its Yahoo bid.
As for Sapphire this week, the big question was what was happening with Business ByDesign, SAP’s software as a service rollout. The verdict: SaaS is harder than it appears and SAP is rethinkng its entire model. Nevertheless, the SaaS market will be large and SAP will definitely be a player.
Meanwhile, the story with AMD is focused on what isn’t being said. AMD has declined to discuss its asset light model and its roadmap, highlighted by Tom Krazit, will depend on solid execution. Can AMD deliver?
Dan recapped his JavaOne experience, how he caught up with Neil Young and discussed Sun’s cloud computing plans. Sun is also dabbling in the consumer markets. Is it too late?
And finally we leave you with a simple question: Will Microsoft stay away from Yahoo or come back if Jerry Yang and company have second thoughts? Dan’s verdict: Don’t count out a Microhoo in the future.
May 8th, 2008
Unixfication II
Can the Linux community get over its “not invented here” ideology which has often hindered its ability to adopt technological improvements from outside sources? I keep saying to myself, I hope so. But recent events have shown me that we have a long way to go until we become a culture of inclusion and not of exclusion and isolationism.
You Suck, Perlow
My OpenSolaris 2008.05 write-up struck a chord with a bunch of folks in the community because the very title itself “What Ubuntu Wants to Be When it Groups Up” was taken as an affront to Linux’s maturity and the hard work and milestones accomplished by Ubuntu project and the Free Software community’s efforts. While I will claim a mea culpa in that I wanted to title the piece with a headline that attracted attention, that was not the intended message here.
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” for more.
May 8th, 2008
JavaOne: The week in video
JavaOne has come and gone and we’ve learned that Sun is gunning for LiveMesh, is bringing applets back and wooing developers.
Here’s a look at some of the key stories:
- Microsoft Live Mesh to get more competition — from Sun
- Sun’s continuing open source problem
- JavaFX’s day in the Sun
- Profits-strapped Sun continues decade-long pitch to developers on Java dominance
- OpenSolaris: What Ubuntu wants to be when it grows up
- Commercial OpenSolaris ships
- News.com: Sun heading into the cloud
- News.com: JavaOne ‘08: Sun starts delivering
And the week in video:
May 8th, 2008
Facebook reaches safety plan with states
Facebook has joined MySpace and inked a deal with 49 state attorneys general on a safety plan. Texas was the lone holdout.
News.com’s Caroline McCarthy reports:
“We’ve agreed with 49 states and the District of Columbia to set up principles around Internet safety,” Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly explained in an interview with CNET News.com. The agreement is centered on “largely features that (Facebook) has in place already, but that we’ve committed to continuing and to enhance over time,” Kelly said.
In the deal, the social network has agreed to develop age verification technology, send warning messages when an under-18 user may be giving personal information to an unknown adult, restrict the ability for people to change their ages on the site, and keep abreast of inappropriate content and harassment on the site.
The agreement also has some security hooks. Kelly noted that “there is a specific provision in the agreement around phishing, and antiphishing tips, which we’ve already implemented.”
May 8th, 2008
AMD still mum on its ‘asset smart’ strategy
The wait for AMD to outline its so-called “asset smart” strategy continues. AMD CEO Hector Ruiz in his annual shareholder meeting address failed to add any more detail about its manufacturing strategy going forward.
AMD outlined its new server roadmap on Wednesday.
In many respects, Ruiz reiterated previous comments that boil down to this:
- AMD is “strategically important” to the computer industry.
- “I could not be more disappointed with our financial results. The Barcelona delay really hurts.”
- But those problems are behind AMD.
- The future is bright.
That was it. The shareholder meeting lasted 27 minutes or so and it would have been 22 minutes if the only shareholder question wasn’t a rambling mess. Some folks say there’s no such thing as a dumb question. These folks are wrong.
The first (and last) shareholder question was about golf and sponsoring a tournament. The guy rambled on for five minutes just to ask whether AMD would sponsor a golf tournament. Ruiz said he’d take the suggestion seriously. Me? If there were ever a good time for a hook this would be the case. This guy–who owned 1,000 AMD shares–really made me wish I had a button for a trap door.
But I digress. Anyone looking for detail from Ruiz was disappointed. Ruiz said that AMD remains “on the path of profitability.” Now not all of this disappointment is the fault of Ruiz. Analysts were hoping that Ruiz would use the shareholder meeting to offer up some detail about its strategy. Instead it was more of the same.
Among the Ruiz-isms:
- “Our long-term plan is to be profitability in good times and bad. We’re currently reorganizing the company.”
- “We’re progressing forward with asset smart strategy,” but Ruiz added that he hopes to “disclose more details” at a future date.
- AMD will focus on its core strategy and products. AMD is “doing fewer things better.”
- Customers want choice and AMD’s “product execution is back on track.”
- “We’re overcoming challenges we’ve faced in the recent past. I stand before you with a company that is fundamentally stronger. Our customers have begun to reap the benefits of competition.”
The big question today–as it was yesterday and a year ago–is what will this asset smart strategy look like. Could AMD go fabless? Will this be a partial outsourcing strategy? What’s IBM’s role here as a manufacturing partner? Can you go partially fabless and continue to innovate enough to leapfrog Intel?
We’re still waiting for those answers.
May 8th, 2008
Vonage narrows losses; Inks deal with Covad
Vonage is still losing money, but the bottom line is moving in the right direction. The company also signed a deal with Covad to offer DSL service.
The VOIP provider on Thursday reported a first quarter net loss of $9 million, or 6 cents a share, compared to a loss of $72 million, or 47 cents a share, a year ago (statement). Excluding charges, Vonage had operating income of $8 million. The results topped estimates by a penny. Revenue for the quarter was in line with estimates at $225 million, up 15 percent from a year ago.
For a company that was arguably about to disappear, Vonage has managed to stop the bleeding. The company is off life support, but it’s unclear whether it can grow with high churn rates. Vonage is hoping a deal with Covad to offer digital subscriber line (DSL) service in a bid to boost lines in service (statement).
Under the Covad pact, Vonage will launch Vonage Broadband, which will offer maximum download speeds of 3 to 6 megabits per second to residential and small business customers. The Covad deal may get Vonage some incremental revenue, but DSL is being lapped by both cable and next-generation services from Verizon and AT&T.
By the numbers:
- Vonage reported churn of 3.3 percent in the first quarter, up from 3 percent from a year ago.
- Vonage added 30,000 net subscriber lines in the first quarter and had more than 2.6 million lines in service.
- Vonage had first quarter average monthly revenue per line of $28.85 million, up from $28.19 in the fourth quarter.
- Average cost per line was $7.26, down from $8.03 a year ago, but up from $7.11 in the fourth quarter.
- Selling, general and administrative expense was $79 million, down from $91 million a year ago. Marketing expenses were $61 million, down from $91 million a year ago. The company said:
Marketing cost per gross subscriber line addition (”SLAC”) was $216 in the first quarter 2008, down from $273 in the year-ago quarter and $223 sequentially. The Company expects SLAC to increase in the second quarter, consistent with prior year seasonal trends. Vonage expects to gradually increase marketing expenditures in the second half of 2008 to accelerate growth but continues to expect the cost of acquisition to fall within $225-$250 for the full year 2008.
- Cash on hand was $190 million as of March 31.
May 8th, 2008
Monetizing social media: Still an uphill climb; Some friends may be worthless
News Corp. confirmed what had been reported for weeks: Fox Interactive revenue isn’t going to hit its targets. The problem: Social networking is still very hard to monetize. Does inventory matter when you can’t sell it?
Peter Chernin, News Corp.’s operating chief, delivered his state of MySpace (actually Fox Interactive) address on Wednesday (Techmeme) on an earnings conference call:
This is a very healthy business with significant progress over multiple fronts. We continue to expand our leadership in the fastest growing consumer area of the web. But let me begin by saying yes, we will fall short of what were very aggressive initial projections of 80% growth for this fiscal year.
Translation: OK, now we’ve put it on the table.
But it’s worth pointing out that in a tough economy our shortfall will be slight — roughly only about 10% and to put it in some context, FIM is nearly a billion dollar revenue business; a business that is not even three years old. And to give you some comparisons, it took Google five years to hit a billion dollars; it took Yahoo eight years and we’ll get there in a little over three years.
Translation: We can grow from here.
It’s also worth pointing out that FIM’s revenue growth is tied to an entirely new category of advertising inventory. Social media has only been around for a few years and gaining market acceptance for any new category will always have its challenges. But as the creators of this new media, as the leaders, we will be in the forefront of developing the tools to make it work. We’re incredibly optimistic about the future of social media and our role in shaping it.
Translation: Social networking inventory is difficult to monetize, but it’s early days. Relax folks, says Chernin as Rupert Murdoch breathes down his neck.
When it comes to specific challenges we’re facing, I think that there are three areas worth noting.
First of all, the explosive growth of social media has created an enormous amount of advertising inventory. As pages on MySpace and Facebook continue to grow, the lack of scarcity creates a liquidity challenge. We’ve spent a lot of time developing prime real estate opportunities to draw the big advertisers and big CPMs — particularly with the MySpace Homepage and features like MySpace TV. We’re focused on migrating more of these big brands and their dollars to MySpace.
Second, people who visit sites like MySpace are there for an entirely new form of Internet activity. As a consequence, the on-line ad models that have driven the Internet economy in the past need to be refined for the social media universe. New methodologies are required, which we are actively developing including our HyperTargeting initiative and optimization efforts.
Third, it’s still difficult to quantify the economic value of a friend in the social media space, particularly with advertisers who have long histories with the metrics by which they value their brand spends on TV and on radio. We’re working with these major brands and their agencies to educate, innovate and experiment in the social media and to develop the right set of metrics. We’re making headway and it remains a work in progress.
Translation: Social media has a supply and demand problem. Some so-called friends may be worthless so we’ll never monetize everything.
May 8th, 2008
AMD’s new roadmap: Can it execute?
AMD has revamped its server processor roadmap with plans to jump to six and then 12 cores in the first half of 2010, but the larger question is whether the company can actually deliver.
Given that AMD has had a hard time delivering its quad-core chips and only recently started shipping it’s a bit of a leap to put a lot of faith in this new roadmap. AMD is a “prove it” company right now. It has to prove it can execute. AMD CEO Hector Ruiz (right) is on the hot seat on Thursday as the company updates shareholders about its plans. Analysts are clamoring for details (again) about AMD’s asset light manufacturing model and are speculating about a potential breakup, a long-shot scenario that doesn’t make a lot of sense at the moment.
Update: AMD’s Ruiz didn’t offer any details about the company’s asset light strategy.
But first, here’s AMD’s roadmap detailed in a fact sheet. News.com’s Tom Krazit also has a handy breakdown.
Randy Allen, corporate vice president for AMD’s server and workstation group, updated the server roadmap to align with “end-customer priorities.” The key roadmap points:
- AMD (all resources) is skipping plans to deal with an eight-core chip. It’s going from six to 12 cores.
- “Shanghai” is on track for production in the second half of the year. This chip is AMD’s first 45 nanometer processor and will increase Level-3 cache from 2 MB to 6 MB.
- “Istanbul,” a six core processor, will come in the second half of 2009.
- Third generation Opetrons land in the first half of 2010.
- Six- and 12-core Opterons land in the first half of 2010. “Sao Paolo” will incorporate DDR3 memory, more HyperTransport 3.0 links and a 6-core design. “Magny Cours” will be the 12-core processor version.
These chips would apparently be manufactured under a new model for AMD. Ruiz is expected to detail the company’s asset smart model and talk about manufacturing partners. Here’s what JMP Securities analyst Krishna Shankar says:
AMD expects to announce in 2008 more details of its Asset-Smart strategy to reduce capital spending by partnering with a foundry or another semiconductor company. AMD indicated good progress in the Asset-
Smart strategy development. It appears that the New York facility, where AMD has an option to build a next-generation 300mm fab with over $1 billion in tax rebates and subsidies from the NY state government, will figure prominently in AMD’s Asset-Smart strategy, with IBM being a logical potential partner given AMD’s participation in the IBM technology club, joint development over the last seven years, and proximity to IBM facilities in upstate NY. AMD also indicated that the Asset-Smart strategy would not violate the terms of the AMD/Intel cross-licensing agreement. The AMD/Intel cross-license is up for renewal in January 2010, and AMD management indicated that they have confidence in their growing IP portfolio and ability to renew the license.
Can AMD deliver on that roadmap and its manufacturing strategy? That question looms large. AMD can restructure, go asset light and do a bunch of things, but the largest item on its list is hitting its roadmap targets.
JP Morgan analyst Christopher Danely sums it up:
Regardless of any changes in the corporate structure of AMD, we believe improved execution and management is key to stabilize AMD’s pricing and gain back market share in the microprocessor market. We do not currently see evidence that is happening.
The challenge for AMD: Don’t tell us what you’re going to do. Show us.
May 8th, 2008
News to know: AMD; Oil and telecommuting; Verizon’s EV-DO modem; Linux
Notable headlines:
Jason O’Grady: Review: Verizon UM150 USB EV-DO modem
Gallery (right).
Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft Live Mesh to get more competition — from Sun
News.com: AMD revises server road map
Bill Detwiler: IT must prepare for $200-a-barrel oil and a rise in remote workers
Jason Perlow: Geek Sheet: Bare-metal backup and recovery
- Kingsley-Hughes: Proof that Linux is for geeks with too much time on their hands!
- Jeremy Allison: Free software great and small
- Dana Blankenhorn: Sun’s continuing open source problem
- Paul Murphy: Why many MCSEs won’t learn Linux
Phil Wainewright: Marc Benioff heralds Web 3.0 at DreamForce Europe
May 7th, 2008
On polite police
The Register is reporting on a pilot program in the UK under which police officers will have video cameras sticking out of their helmets. The goal is to encourage good behavior on the part of suspects (and, I suppose, on the part of police officers).
So What?
I’ve long thought that ubiquitous video cameras will breed new levels of politeness in the citizenry, but it recently hit me that there’s going to be another area where we’ll see a significant impact: Bars.
That’s right. Imagine a bar around midnight a few years from now, full of drunken patrons each with a miniature cell phone-connected lens implanted (cyclops-like) in his or her forehead. Why use such a thing? To deter crime, to recall names, to capture precious moments–whatever. We’ll all have them and they’ll be on most of the time.
What’s wrong with the bar scene described above? Simple: You’d have to be crazy to be drunk in front of those cameras. Slurred speech, lewd jokes, and everything else that goes with a late night on the town…the mind boggles. People won’t want their drunken antics taped and posted on Facebook. I mean, talk about your career-limiting moves and forget about getting elected.
But back to the police. Sometimes, being polite is not tenable. Under those circumstances, it’ll be tempting to turn off your camera (if that’s technically possible) in order to avoid later criticism. I don’t think that’ll fly: A gap in the record won’t go down well with juries or the press. So cameras may keep the UK police polite whether it’s tenable or not. And our own cameras will keep would-be muggers polite, as well (I guess that’s the way to look at it). Which is nice…but not much compensation for having to drink alone.
May 7th, 2008
Geek Sheet: Bare-metal backup and recovery
Tired of the same old punditry and OS wars? Want to read something practical you can actually use and apply to your real job? Or perhaps you need some light reading material to help you get some sleep on the plane between consulting engagements – either way, welcome to the first in what I hope will be a series of technical HOWTO articles, entitled “Geek Sheets”.
One of my favorite Linux tools and live CD distributions is the System Rescue CD. It allows you to boot up on any x86-based, PowerPC and SPARC-based machine and perform any number of backup and recovery tasks on Linux, Mac, Solaris and Windows-based systems. The System Rescue CD can