T-Systems and Fujitsu Siemens Computers have signed a strategic partnership that encompasses a world wide co-operation, primarily for computer workplaces and server infrastructure services. The companies are looking to jointly develop and market new solutions. The agreement extends the existing international hardware resale co-operation and framework contracts.

Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI), and Toshiba have unveiled some of the key concepts of the highly-anticipated advanced microprocessor, code-named Cell, they are jointly developing for next-generation computing applications, as well as digital consumer electronics.

Scali, specialized in high performance clustering solutions, has teamed with HP to deliver Scali Manage and Scali MPI Connect software solutions as a featured offering in HP's Unified Cluster Portfolio.

After searching the world over for the most powerful computing technology, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW) has selected the latest generation of SGI Altix systems from Silicon Graphics to power

HP has invested more than $3 billion over the next three years designed to vault Intel Itanium 2-based HP Integrity servers to the leadership position in the $20 billion market currently served by RISC processors. Building on strong Integrity server sales momentum, this investment will span research and development, server and system software design, partner-led application solutions, and sales and marketing.

According to new survey results, 81 percent of U.S. enterprises intend to invest next year in servers based on the new 32/64-bit hybrid processors for industry standard computing such as the AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon EM64T processors. Respondents ranked server performance as the top criteria for the shift from traditional x86 to the hybrid servers. Corporations also said that network security and business growth will be key priorities in 2005, with 82 percent citing security and 79 percent citing business growth as top drivers of their technology spending.

After signing the contract, Professor Dr. Heinz-Gerd Hegering, head of the directorate of Leibnizrechenzentrum, Munich, discussed the tasks of the centre, applications, political issues and the support from the State Bavaria. Additionally he mentioned the technical infrastructure of the new building in Garching near Munich. In the old one in the centre of Munich the infrastructure was no longer sufficient. HLRB II supports researchers all over Germany, whose projects have been examined by a scientific Lenkungsausschuss (an expert gremium). He gave an outlook of the European perspective too. Then Robert Übelmesser presented SGI's view.

Gupta Technologies has struck a strategic partnership with Fujitsu Siemens Computers. GUPTA's SQLBase 9.0 for Linux is now available for the Intel-based PRIMERGY servers from Fujitsu Siemens Computers. GUPTA is focused on launching its software portfolio which will include Team Developer 2005 for Linux, GUPTA's RAD tool coming in November 2004, across the PRIMERGY server line.

HP continued its no. 1 position in worldwide total disk storage systems factory revenue for the 10th consecutive quarter, with 23.6 percent market share and revenue growth of 2.4 percent quarter-over-quarter, according to market data released by IDC.

Scali has appointed Andrew Sutherland as Vice President of Finance and Administration to focus on developing an international infrastructure to encourage future revenue growth.

Different communities have their own focus, way of saying things and words for specific topics. From the drawing board it that could be obvious that tow communities should work together because they use the same slogans, while in fact they are looking at complete different topics. The only way to really know whether they have something in common is to bring the communities together and see whether some fruitful cooperation emerges. This is exactly what the European Commission did with a session called "The Semantic Grid: when the Semantic Web meets Grid" at IST2005 in The Hague. About hundred people from two communities, The Grid and Semantic Web met. Dieter Fensel discussed the status and ideas for a Semantic Grid from the Web services perspective; David de Roure did the same from the Grid perspective.

Eight European research institutes are linking four supercomputers to create one powerful megacomputer in a bid to boost Europe's competitiveness in scientific areas where extreme performance is needed. Connecting the four national supercomputing infrastructures at European level will greatly enhance the speed of complex scientific calculations and allow scientists to perform research that would otherwise have been impossible. The innovative strategy, called Distributed Infrastructure for Super Computing Applications (DEISA), is partly funded by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

Egenera Inc. and Oracle Corp. have made available a new joint service designed to help customers easily deploy Oracle 10g RAC solutions on the Egenera BladeFrame system. Together, Egenera and Oracle deliver a Grid-ready infrastructure for the datacentre, including Oracle Database 10g, Oracle 10g RAC, Oracle Application Server 10g and Egenera's unique utility computing platform.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers has recorded another customre for its FlexFrame for mySAP Business Suite. This time, Plaut/Germany, a management consultancy, was won over by the SAP adaptive computing concept with functionality of SAP NetWeaver. Plaut, which plans to use the system for prototyping, testing and training, sees FlexFrame as the key to more efficiently operating existing SAP solutions as well as acquiring new customers.

Fitech Laboratories has created the Fitech Laboratories University Relationship Programme. The programme is designed to facilitate research projects that can benefit from the computing power of using a computational Grid and is now accepting applications from Universities worldwide.

Satyam Computer Services Limited launched its Grid Computing Practice. With this launch, Satyam will offer customers consulting, design and implementation, conversion and maintenance in Grid Computing. This practice is part of the Consulting and Enterprise Solutions unit of Satyam.

The West Virginia High Technology Consortium (WVHTC) Foundation has made available the Global Grid Exchange, the world's first open public computing Grid. To mark this unique "initial public offering", a launch event was held at the WVHTC Foundation headquarters featuring guest speakers US Congressman Alan B. Mollohan (D-W.Va.) and West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise.

DAM (Military Application Department) of the CEA - the French Nuclear Power Agency - has selected Bull to provide a supercomputer delivering a power of over 60 teraflops or sixty thousands billions of operations per second. This supercomputer named Tera10 will increase CEA Military Applications Department's present supercomputing power by the factor of ten. It will be used for its Simulation Programme that guarantees the continuation of the French nuclear deterrent, following the cessation of nuclear testing.

Dutch researcher Kirsten ten Tusscher has developed a model that can simulate the electrical behaviour of the heart during heart rhythm disorders. One of the things her model revealed is that the electrical activity of the heart during a rhythm disorder is much less chaotic than was originally thought.

To power intensely real 3D image generation within a new tactical support and training system for its Gripen fighter, Saab Aerosystems has purchased four SGI Onyx family visualization systems from Silicon Graphics as the core hardware technology. Saab's new flight simulator, called PETRA (Planning, Evaluation, Training, Rehearsal and Analysis), can be used for planning, evaluating and debriefing of missions, either simulated or actual real-life missions as well as for basic training and rehearsal exercises, mission rehearsal in training and analysis of tactical scenarios.

Vignette Corporation, Sun Microsystems and DaimlerChrysler Consult Graz (DCCG) GmbH, a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler, have signed a collaboration to provide smart enterprise services that deliver complete information lifecycle management applications, infrastructure and services.

Silicon Graphics has launched the SGI Open Broadcast Initiative designed to deliver a more open system choice approach to broadcasters around the globe easing their transition to a digital IT infrastructure. Among the challenges facing broadcasters making this transition is equipment interoperability.

Orad Hi-Tec Systems, specialized in scalable high performance image generators in the field of visual simulation and TV production technology, and Fakespace Systems Inc., a provider of large scale 3D visualization solutions, have signed an agreement allowing Fakespace Systems to provide Orad DVG high performance image generators to their customer base worldwide. Further, ORAD systems are now supported by Fakespace's Conduit software.

SYSTIMAX Solutions, a worldwide expert in structured connectivity solutions and services for businesses, has launched a revolutionary cabling solution capable of supporting 10 Gigabit Ethernet. SYSTIMAX Solutions believes it is the first vendor to provide a full UTP solution that fully complies with the latest IEEE 802.3an task force guidelines for 10GBASE-T. SYSTIMAX Solutions has developed the SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED X10D Solution to provide a next

generation total solution that supports both the bandwidth needs of today's enterprises and the needs of more demanding applications such as high resolution video, grid computing and Storage Area Network/Network Attached

Foundry Networks Inc., a provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing and application traffic management solutions, has doubled the performance of its hardware-based Denial of Service (DoS) SYN-Guard security shield on its ServerIron family of Layer 4-7 application switches. ServerIron modular systems implement advanced security algorithms in programmable network processors to achieve the industry’s most powerful defense against Denial of Service attacks that can threaten the integrity and availability of data centre operations. ServerIron SYN-Guard technology provides massive attack protection and is capable of defending against high-velocity threats at up to 10 Gigabit rates when the application switches are deployed in a high-availability, active-active configuration. Additionally, Foundry has added protection from thirty different types of DoS attacks and security enhancements to its Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB). GSLB provides optimized traffic distribution across multiple data centers including automatic failover in the event of a server or site failure.

Several global carriers and research networks are now deploying and trialing the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System as a key driver of their Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) strategy to deliver advanced multimedia services. Cisco customers SOFTBANK BB Corp., providers of "Yahoo! BB", the National Institute of Informatics' SuperSINET research network in Japan, as well as the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center have chosen the Cisco CRS-1 as a key component for building out their IP network infrastructures.

Cisco Systems issued several f new products and partnerships to help service providers transform their networks to IP Next-Generation Networks (IP NGN).