High-performance computing servers, systems, and software dominated last week’s new product introductions. And pathway analysis software aimed at the enterprise rounded out the product news for the week of October 31 to November 4.
HP announced its first Unix blade server, the HP Integrity BL60p, which rounds out the company’s line of high-performance blade servers so that it now has products that support Windows, Linux, and Unix. The BL60p supports the HP-UX 11i operating system and is based on the Intel Itanium2 processor. A key element of the new server is that it can be managed using HP Systems Insight Manager software, which lets IT administrators manage servers running different operating systems, storage devices, and network equipment all from one console.
HP sees the Unix servers being used in a number of very broad scenarios, including distributed computing and server consolidation applications. For example, using HP’s Global Workload Manager software, an administrator could automate workload distribution across multi-operating system servers. The HP Integrity BL60p blade server will be generally available early next year. The server has a starting price of $5,695.
Ariadne Genomics announced PathwayExpert, an enterprise-class software platform for pathway analysis and systems biology. The new software lets researchers analyze microarray and proteomics data; perform literature mining; and create and share custom pathways for biomarkers, diseases, and drug targets. PathwayExpert comes with ResNet Plus, a large database with functional relationships and protein-protein interactions containing over a thousand reconstructed pathways. PathwayExpert rounds out Ariadne’s pathway analysis product line, which includes desktop PathwayAssist product and client-server PathwayStudio Central product.
Dell announced a database bundle that includes Dell PowerEdge servers based on Intel Xeon dual-core processors and the new Microsoft SQL Server 2005. The hardware/software combination uses quad-socket PowerEdge 6800 and 6850 servers. The database systems can be delivered pre-packaged with the servers, SQL Server 2005, storage, systems management tools, and service and support options. On the systems management front, Dell offers tools including Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 and Microsoft Operations Manager 2005. For storage, Dell supports Dell direct-attached and Dell/EMC network-attached storage systems and PowerVault tape systems.
United Devices announced MP Insight 3.1, new grid and infrastructure capacity planning and reporting software. MP Insight lets companies monitor, measure, and analyze resource utilization across an entire enterprise computing infrastructure. To do this, it collects real-time capacity and utilization data for applications, jobs, and hardware systems. This information is then presented in custom-configured dashboards. UD says it takes an agnostic approach with MP Insight and that the software can be used to collect information about disparate resources running a range of operating systems, workload managers, and commercial applications.
Appro expanded its line of high-performance computing systems by announcing two new AMD Opteron-based servers. Both the Appro 1U XtremeServer and Appro 3U XtremeServer are available with either single- or dual-core Opteron processors and the servers support up to 64 GB and 128 GB of memory, respectively. The 1U version is aimed at supercomputing cluster installations. It can accommodate up to 800 GB of SATA storage or 229 GB of storage on SCCI hot-swappable drives. The 3U XtremeServer is aimed at large compute-intensive and scientific visualization applications. It can support up to 2.4 TB of SATA or 876 GB of SCSI hot swappable drive-based storage. The 3U model offers redundant power supplies and fans. The 1U XtremeServer is available now and has a list price of $2,160. The 3U XtremeServer will be available later this quarter and will have a list price of $15,753.
Emic Networks changed its name to Continuent and launched its new middleware software that adds high availability and scalability to open source database and other applications. The name change reflects the shift in focus that has occurred in Emic Networks’ market over the last few years. When the company was founded, its software was aimed primarily at open source database applications such as MySQL. Its middleware added features like load balancing and fail-over to open source database applications – features that some commercial database applications had (often as optional add-on software). Over time, the company started to offer similar features for other open source applications. At the same time it announced the name change, Continuent announced its new virtualization middleware, which brings high availability and scalability features to all of the major open source databases,
Autonomy announced it would acquire Verity. The companies believe their products will complement each other, allowing users to more easily find and access information. Specifically, Autonomy sees Verity’s search and process management software being used in conjunction with Autonomy’s Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) Server. The IDOL Server software is used to understand the meaning and significance of information. It uses pattern-matching technology (such as non-linear adaptive digital signal processing) to automatically process digital information, and it can identify natural patterns that occur in text based on word usage and frequency corresponding to specific concepts.
Next week’s roundup will include many new products announced a week in advance of the SC05, the international conference for high-performance computing, networking, and storage.
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