Dell today announced the immediate availability of new displays that combine performance and value to enable customers amazing viewing experiences. The six new displays join Dell's industry-leading portfolio of solutions, which has once again ranked #1 in flat-panel display market share in North Americai, and #2 in flat-panel shipments worldwideii, according to DisplaySearch.

The newest additions to Dell's industry-leading portfolio of displays, the new P and E displays offer customers diverse solutions that help them get the most out of every environment.

Dell today announced the expansion of its XPS laptop portfolio with the XPS 14 and XPS 15 laptops. Joining the award-winning XPS 13 Ultrabook, the XPS 14 and 15 have the same beautiful, thoughtful design and craftsmanship in two additional screen sizes for consumers who desire connectivity, performance and entertainment, no matter where they are.

As part of Dell's flagship XPS brand, this array of laptops enables customers to choose the one that best suits their needs. The XPS 13 is highly portable and compact for today's most mobile users, while the XPS 14 provides long battery life and connectivity for those who need to get online wherever they are. The XPS 15 provides performance graphics and a brilliant display for multimedia creation and entertainment. All three laptops have enterprise-friendly features to intersect the design and performance desired by consumers with the security and services required by IT departments. Additionally, The XPS 14 and 15 laptops are distinguished by vibrant displays with hardened Corning Gorilla Glass, and use the latest Intel technology, such as the latest 3rd Generation processors, and Intel Rapid Start, Smart Response and Smart Connect technologies, to enable users to be productive, connected and responsive anywhere.

ISC'12 - NVIDIA Tesla K10 GPUs offer performance breakthroughs on popular high performance computing (HPC) applications -- ranging from seismic processing to life sciences to video processing -- according to new benchmarks NVIDIA released today.

Based on the new NVIDIA Kepler computing architecture, the Tesla K10 GPU delivers the industry's highest single precision performance (4.58 teraflops) and highest memory bandwidth (320 GB/sec) in a single accelerator. This is 12 times higher single precision flops and 6.4 times higher memory bandwidth than the latest-generation Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs.

Dell today announced the Vostro 3360, 3460 and 3560 laptops designed to deliver strong performance and security with IT support crafted specifically for growing businesses. These new Vostro laptops are easy to configure, easy to maintain, highly productive, and feature the latest technology and business-critical security and support at a great value.

"Growing a business takes more than just hardware; you need to have a solid support system in place to scale and succeed," said Sam Burd, vice president, Dell Personal Computing Product Group. "The Vostro product family enables emerging businesses to grow and thrive in competitive environments. Our end-to-end solution is the reason why so many of our Vostro customers recommend the products to their friends, family and colleagues."

Dell today announced its expanded Inspiron laptop portfolio just in time for graduation and the upcoming back to school period. Parents today want to give their kids the best advantages, and Dell is offering its tailored line-up of Inspiron laptops for the unique needs of families and students. With three series of Inspiron laptops - the Inspiron z series for thin & powerful style on the go, the Inspiron R series for everyday family computing activities, and the Inspiron R Special Edition series for studio-quality multimedia and audio - parents and students can find the laptop best suited to them on Dell.com.

Equipped with the latest technology, customers will have peace of mind knowing that their Inspiron purchase is a smart investment for the family, whether for school work and learning online, multimedia and entertainment, or for household organization. All Inspiron laptops announced today will offer options with Intel's new 3rd Generation Core i processors (Ivy Bridge), Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, and will be eligible for the Microsoft Windows 8 upgrade program.

Today AMD announced 11 servers from its customers, including two based on the new HP ProLiant Gen8 platform, will be integrating previously unannounced versions of the award-winning high-performance AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor and the low-power AMD Opteron 4200 Series processor. These servers are based on five new AMD Opteron processors that offer increased performance without an increase in power consumption, providing customers more choice in using the world's best price/performance x86 server processor.

Last month, HP launched two HP ProLiant Gen8 servers using the new AMD Opteron processors and plans to refresh the ProLiant DL585 G7 and the BL685c G7 later this year. Moreover, Dell is also expected to refresh its AMD offering with the latest AMD Opteron processors in the PowerEdge C6145, C6105, R415, R515, R715, R815 and the M915.

Dell today announced a completely refreshed portfolio of its Latitude and OptiPlex business laptops and desktops, featuring durable, consumer-inspired design that appeals to today's professionals coupled with state-of-the-art manageability and data protection. The new Dell business computing solutions integrate seamlessly into today's evolving business technology ecosystems which require secure, anytime and anywhere data access and outstanding productivity to meet the demands of an increasingly mobile workforce.

"Dell's heritage is delivering computing solutions that help customers drive productivity and achieve results. Today we offer our strongest-ever portfolio of products, integrated solutions and services to help organizations of all sizes do more than ever," said Sam Burd, vice president, Personal Computing Product Group, Dell. "Dell's new lineup helps customers thrive with mission-driven devices and solutions that empower end-users-in the boardroom, the classroom, the hospital, or on the battlefield-while providing the state-of-the-art manageability and data protection that IT departments require."

Dell is reimagining the all-in-one computer with a new portfolio of solutions for consumers who desire beautifully designed systems for multimedia creation and entertainment. The new computers include the XPS One 27, Dell's largest ever all-in-one and part of the premium XPS performance family, and the Inspiron One 23 and Inspiron One 20 all-in-one computers for families. The three desktop computers are slim and stylish and reflect Dell's design aesthetic that places a premium on unique materials, form factors and experiences.

The XPS One 27 delivers a big-screen experience - from the diagonal to the resolution - with one of the most vibrant displays Dell has offered. The XPS One 27 is 27-inches of stunning 2560x1440 Full Quad HD clarity and color. The wide format 16:9 WLED display makes digital work, movies, games and photos appear crisp, colors vivid. It delivers optional high-performance graphics from NVIDIA and entertainment features such as Waves MaxxAudio 4 and Infinity-branded speakers, an optional slot load Blu-ray disc drive, and optional internal TV tuner, making it an entertainment and multimedia powerhouse.

Dell today announced it has completed its acquisition of Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing. The combination of Wyse's capabilities with Dell's existing desktop virtualization offerings position the company as the leader in the desktop virtualization, enabling it to offer true end-to-end IT solutions for customers and partners.

Dell has made significant strategic investments over the past three years to expand its enterprise technology and services capabilities. The Dell Wyse portfolio with current Dell desktop virtualization offerings, leading data center products such as servers and storage, and Dell's services division, provides customers and partners with a single vendor that can match the full range of their cloud computing and desktop virtualization needs.

As revealed by a leaked slide, Dell's Windows 8 plans include the launch of a 10-inch tablet running Microsoft's upcoming operating system. Interestingly-enough, although Windows 8 will be ARM-friendly the tablet Dell has in the works, named Latitude 10, is going to be powered by an x86 processor, more specifically, a dual-core Intel Atom (Clover Trail).

The Latitude 10 will feature a 10.1-inch (1366 x 768) capacitive touchscreen, integrated graphics, 2 GB of LPDDR2 memory, up to a 128 GB SSD, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2MP front camera, stereo speakers, WiFi, Bluetooth and optional broadband, and a removable 2-cell or 4-cell battery enabling up to 8/12 hours of operation.

The tablet is rumored to become available around October/November.

Dell announced its fiscal 2013 first quarter results today, continuing to show progress in its move to being a total enterprise services and solutions provider. Revenue for the quarter was $14.4 billion, with GAAP operating income of $824 million, and earnings of $0.36 per share.

"We're committed to continuing our strategy to re-shape Dell's business as an end-to-end IT provider," said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO. "We saw continued progress in our first quarter with the innovative IT solutions we're providing - notably our latest Dell servers, storage, networking and services that deliver customers enhanced productivity."

"We continued to shift the mix of our business during a challenging environment," said Brian Gladden, Dell chief financial officer. "Our enterprise solutions and services businesses now account for 50 percent of our gross margin, and we'll continue to make the necessary investments to maintain our progress."

Microsoft Corp. today announced the return of its successful student offer that allows students buying a qualifying Windows 7-based PC to also get a free Xbox 360 4GB console. The offer is available for current students while supplies last, starting May 20 at participating retailers in the U.S.; a similar offer will be available starting May 18 at participating retailers in Canada. Terms and conditions will vary by participating retailer.

Together, a Windows 7-based PC and an Xbox 360 console provide students the functionality they need for school while also helping them stay connected to friends and family far away. To take advantage of this offer, students or their parents must provide valid student identification as defined by the participating retailer. Participating retailers may change over the course of the promotion, but will include Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, Dell.com, HPDirect.com, Microsoft Stores and NewEgg.com in the U.S., and Best Buy, Dell.ca, Future Shop, Staples and The Source in Canada.

Alliacense today announced that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has purchased a license for its CORE Flash Portfolio Licensing Program. The agreement resolves the ITC Investigation and District Court lawsuit recently filed against the Korean electronics giant. Samsung joins a rapidly growing list of CORE Flash Portfolio licensees, including Lexmark, ASUStek, Philips and Lenovo.

In order to protect the investments of the CORE Flash licensee community, the successful CORE Flash Licensing Program has been dramatically enhanced with aggressive enforcement activities -- including the filing of two separate waves of patent infringement complaints with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and US District Court against nearly 40 companies in the past 9 months.

Dell today announced that customers such as Morphlabs and Vibrant Media are using Dell microserver technologies based on Intel Xeon processors to power business-critical web 2.0, cloud, and content delivery networks (CDN), as well as high-performance computing (HPC) applications. Driven by the emergence of a growing hardware and application ecosystem, x86-based microservers are rapidly evolving from a niche solution to one with widespread awareness and value.

"We're constantly inspired by the unique ways our customers are leveraging Dell microserver platforms to drive specialized web 2.0, HPC and cloud computing applications," said Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager, Dell Server Solutions. "As the microserver market and ecosystem have matured, customers like Vibrant Media have validated that microservers are a cost-effective, scalable platform in web 2.0 environments."

AMD announced today that Colette LaForce, 39, will join the company as senior vice president and chief marketing officer, reporting to President and Chief Executive Officer Rory Read. In her new role, LaForce will lead global integrated marketing for AMD, including marketing strategy, branding, internal and external communications, corporate events, sponsorships and entertainment marketing.

"Colette brings strong technology marketing and brand-building experience, a fresh perspective and a results-oriented approach that will strengthen AMD's global marketing organization," Read said. "Her deep expertise will accelerate the revitalization of the AMD brand, amplifying our voice in the marketplace while helping position the company for long-term growth."

Alienware announced that outstanding (pending) orders of M14x, M17x, and M18x gaming notebooks, which were placed before last month's refresh to the Core "Ivy Bridge" processor platform, will be upgraded for free, to Ivy Bridge. Such customers with pending orders are being notified by email that their selected models with previous-generation Core "Sandy Bridge" processors will be upgraded to their "Ivy Bridge" equivalents, at no additional charge, and with no delay in their delivery dates. This offer applies only to the Alienware line, and not other Dell notebooks.

Dell continues to deliver high-performance laptops and desktops for families, multimedia professionals and businesses demanding power and performance for complex tasks and immersive entertainment activities. The XPS 8500 and Vostro 470 desktops are now available with Intel's 3rd generation quad-core processors and the latest discrete graphics on Dell.com for professionals who demand high-performance technology. Additionally, Dell is expanding the laptop line-up with the Inspiron Special Edition series for families who desire enhanced multimedia capabilities. The Inspiron Special Edition 14R and 15R are available today in select countries in Asia.

The XPS 8500 Desktop: Advanced Performance for Creatives

The XPS 8500 desktop delivers a superb user experience for creatives who demand uncompromising performance, whether composing music, working on graphics-intensive design, creating and editing various multimedia, or playing games. The desktop features a premium fit and finish in a compact chassis without sacrificing future expandability.

Alienware, Dell's high performance PC gaming brand, is taking the mobile gaming experience to a new level with its enhanced gaming laptop portfolio that lets gamers choose a system that best fits their mobile lifestyle. The enhanced systems include: the M14x, the most powerful 14-inch laptop in the universe, for the gamer who requires a balance between mobility and performance; the 3D-capablei M17x for an immersive high-definition, surround-sound sensory experience, and the M18x - also the most powerful 18-inch laptop in the universe - for gamers whose priority is performance above all else, but who also require the option to occasionally 'go mobile.'

The Alienware M14x, M17x, and M18x laptops deliver immersive sensory experiences, with each offering the latest NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon HD graphics cards and the Creative Sound Blaster audio chipset with THX 7.1 digital surround sound and Klipsch-branded speakers.

Dell's newly redesigned portfolio of Dell Precision tower workstations announced today delivers superb performance, accessibility and best-in-class¹ chassis design to help creative and design professionals deliver results faster. Dell engineered its tower workstations to enable engineering, product design, animation, and other graphics and compute intensive professionals increased productivity and minimized downtime so they can focus on their innovations.

From creating the 854 stereo 3D VFX shots featured in the award-winning movie "Hugo" to designing unique architectural spaces to analyzing seismic data to accelerate exploration of natural reserves, companies around the world rely on Dell Precision workstations to design and deliver superb results fast.

Kingston launched a fleet of new system-specific SO-DIMM memory packages. Each of these packages contain memory that's tested for 100% compatibility and rated performance on the notebook makes they're specific to. These include HP, Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba. The new packages make it easy for ground-store buyers to pick the right memory for their notebooks off the rack, with minimal help from the storekeepers. Newer batches of Kingston DDR3 SO-DIMM memory for notebooks will implement the new packaging.

Still not officially announced by Dell, the Alienware M18X R2 gaming laptop has once again found its way in the news thanks to a leak detailing its hardware. According to the latest scoop, the M18X R2 will pack a quad-core Intel (Ivy Bridge) processor - either the 2.3 GHz Core i7-3610QM, 2.6 GHz i7-3720QM or 2.7 GHz i7-3820QM, AMD (Radeon HD 7970M in CrossFire) or NVIDIA (GeForce GTX 660M or GTX 675M in SLI) graphics, up to 8 GB of RAM, and up to a 750 GB (7200 RPM) hard drive, and/or a solid state drive with a capacity of up to 512 GB.

The updated Alienware M18X will also feature an 18.4-inch (1920 x 1080) LED-backlit display, a Wireless HD card (optional), a 240 W or 330 W AC adapter, and two color choices - red and black.

Courtesy of a new scoop by dell-lab.posterous.com we now have some specs of Dell's upcoming Precision M4700 (15.6-inch) and M6700 (17.3-inch) laptops. Powered by Intel chips, the two new Precision models are supposed to feature 65 Whr or 97 Whr batteries, DDR3 1866 MHz memory options, 2.5-inch HDD/SSD (one drive for the M4700, up to two for the M6700) storage, a built-in webcam, an ExpressCard slot, an SD card reader, and optional WiGig (wireless Gigabit).

The Precision M4700 also packs a Full HD (1920 x 1080) LED-backlit display with anti-glare coating, and either NVIDIA N14PQx (28 nm) or AMD FirePro M4000 graphics, while the M6700 can have a 2D or 3D Full HD display, and AMD Heathrow XT or NVIDIA N14EQx GPUs. The laptops' release dates are yet unknown.

The worldwide PC market saw a slight increase in volume during the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12) compared to the same quarter in 2011, with shipments rising 2.3%, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. The results are slightly above IDC's February projections of a 0.9% year-on-year decline due to hard disk drive (HDD) supply constraints in addition to weak economic conditions, competition from other devices, and uncertainty about Windows 8.

HDD supply remained a key constraint through most of the first quarter, although PC makers generally had better access to drives than customers in the retail and distribution channels. As a result, large PC vendors were able to maintain shipments by managing inventory or absorbing price increases, while the impact to shipments from smaller PC makers was in line with expectations.

Dell today announced it has acquired Clerity Solutions, a leading global provider of applications modernization and re-hosting solutions and services. Clerity's capabilities will enable Dell Services to help customers reduce the cost of transitioning business-critical applications and data from legacy computing systems and onto more modern architectures, including the cloud.

Dell has taken significant steps over the past three years to expand its services capabilities to help customers manage the increasing complexity of IT, including the ability to support growing volumes of data, streamline processes and ease the transition to cloud-based solutions.

Dell today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, to significantly extend its desktop virtualization offerings. The addition of Wyse will expand Dell's desktop virtualization capabilities and provide new solutions and services opportunities for the full range of Dell's enterprise offerings.

In some environments, a virtual desktop allows enterprises to more efficiently and securely manage their users and end point devices. With this acquisition, Dell expands its enterprise solutions portfolio and offers customers an ever broadening array of tailored solutions to meet their needs.