IBM Unveils High-powered 'iDataPlex' Server for Web 2.0 Computing

iDataPlex uses 40 percent less power while increasing the amount of computing that can be done 5X. To achieve these breakthroughs IBM created a design that, among other things, turns the standard rack on its side [Image courtesy: IBM]

Today, IBM unveiled a new type of server design that targets so-called Web 2.0 companies operating or building massive data centers with tens of thousands of servers to power social networks, online gaming, search, and other services that reach millions of users.

The iDataPlex system, which leverages IBM's Intel-based blade-server technology, doubles the number of servers that can run in a vertical rack, while using 40% less power. The new system uses a liquid-cooled wall in the back to provide cooling, which enables the technology to run without the need of air conditioning.

The rack system is meant to replace the white-box servers commonly found in Internet companies' data centers. The iDataPlex is designed for "stateless computing" that turns many separate computers into a pool of shared resources, IBM said. The system is geared toward allowing customers to scale rapidly, as traffic increases.

"With iDataPlex, IBM is making Web 2.0-style computing more efficient and commercializing it for Internet companies and other high performance segments like financial services and research," Bill Zeitler, senior VP of IBM's systems and technology group, said in a statement. "iDataPlex can provide a foundation that companies can build on to provide improved services to Web users around the world."

The system runs the open-source Linux operating system, including distributions from IBM partners Novell and Red Hat. It also uses the open source, scale-out cluster management software xCat. IBM plans to use iDataPlex in its Cloud Computing Center at Dublin, Ireland and at the Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif.

Vendors that have committed to work with IBM in building products for iDataPlex include Avocent, Blade Network Technology, Devon IT, Force 10 Networks, Intel, QLogic, and SMC Networks. Blade Network, for example, built its new RackSwitch G8000 Ethernet switch specifically for the new system, IBM said.

IDataPlex is scheduled for release in the United States and Canada next month and globally by the end of the year. The new product is a custom-built solution, so pricing, which could run into the millions of dollars, will depend on configuration.

Spintronics based 'Racetrack' Memory from IBM

In two papers published in the April 11 issue of Science, IBM Fellow Stuart Parkin and colleagues at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose describe both the fundamentals of a next-generation nonvolatile memory dubbed "racetrack" as well as a milestone in that technology. "Racetrack" is expected to initially replace flash memory and eventually hard-disk drives.
Using spintronics --the storage of bits generated by the magnetic spin of electrons rather than their charge--a proof-of-concept shift register was demonstrated by this team from IBM. The prototype encodes bits into the magnetic domain walls along the length of a silicon nanowire, or 'Racetrack', so named because the data "races" around the wire "track". IBM uses "massless motion" to move the magnetic domain walls along the nanowire for the storage and retrieval of information.

With these advancements, computer memory that combines the high performance and reliability of flash with the low cost and high capacity of the hard disk drive could be closer than we dreamed of. This milestone could lead to electronic devices capable of storing far more data in the same amount of space than is possible today, with lightning-fast boot times, far lower cost and unprecedented stability and durability.

Currently, there are two main ways to store digital information: solid state random access flash memory, commonly used in devices such as mobile phones, music players and digital cameras, and the magnetic hard disk drive, commonly used in desktop and laptop computers and some handheld devices.

While both classes of storage devices are evolving at a very rapid pace, the cost of storing a single data bit in a hard disk drive remains approximately 100 times cheaper than in flash memory. While the low cost of the hard disk drive is very attractive, these devices are intrinsically slower and, with many moving parts, have mechanical reliability issues not present in flash technologies.
Flash memory, however, has its own drawbacks – while it is fast to read data, it is slow to write data, and it, too, has a finite lifespan. Flash, can be reused only a few thousands of times because it eventually breaks because it is slightly damaged by each use or "rewrite."

Within the next ten years, racetrack memory could lead to solid state electronic devices – with no moving parts, and therefore more durable – capable of holding far more data in the same amount of space than is possible today. For example, this could enable a handheld device such as an mp3 player to store around 500,000 songs or around 3,500 movies – 100 times more than is possible today – with far lower cost and power consumption. The devices would not only store vastly more information in the same space, but also require much less power and generate much less heat, and be practically unbreakable; the result: massive amounts of personal storage that could run on a single battery for weeks at a time and last for decades.



References
[1] "Current-Controlled Magnetic Domain-Wall Nanowire Shift Register"
Masamitsu Hayashi, Luc Thomas, Rai Moriya, Charles Rettner, Stuart S. P. Parkin
Science, Vol. 320. no. 5873, pp. 209 - 211 (11 April, 2008). Abstract Link
[2] "Magnetic Domain-Wall Racetrack Memory"
Stuart S. P. Parkin, Masamitsu Hayashi, Luc Thomas
Science, Vol. 320. no. 5873, pp. 190 - 194 (April 11, 2008). Abstract Link

Finalists for the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize

The finalists for the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize have been announced at a press conference held at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London on Tuesday.

Four innovations have been shortlisted for the world's biggest technology award, the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Finland on June 11, 2008.

Names in the final list are:

Professor Alec Jeffreys from the Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, Britain, who invented DNA fingerprinting.

Professor Robert Langer, from Massachusettes Institute of Technology, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, United States, who invented and developed innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration.

Dr. Andrew J. Viterbi, Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California, United States, who invented the Viterbi algorithm, the key building element in modern wireless and digital communications systems.

Professor Emmanuel Desurvire, Director, Physics Research Group, Thales Corporate Research & Technology, France, who, along with Dr. Randy Giles and Professor David N. Payne, invented the erbium-doped fiber amplifier which made possible the global high-capacity optical fiber network, serving as a backbone of the global information superhighway.

The Millennium Technology Prize is Finland's tribute to life-enhancing technological innovation. The prize is awarded every second year for a technological innovation that significantly improves the quality of human life, today and in the future. The world's biggest technology prize is awarded by the Technology Academy Finland, an independent foundation established by Finnish industry, in partnership with the Finnish state. The prize pool for the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize is 1.15million euros. The Winner of the Millennium Technology Prize will be awarded 800,000 euros, and the other innovations will each be awarded 115,000 euros.

The 2004 award was given to Tim Berners-Lee who revolutionized electronic communications with the invention of the World Wide Web. The 2006 award was given to Shuji Nakamura, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara and inventor of the high-brightness gallium nitride light-emitting diode (LED) and a blue laser.