The National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Supercomputing Research Center (RSC) has built the world's first switchless cluster computer. Known as the "CK-Star", this computer connects eight computers without switch control, thus breaking Intel's performance record. Together with the computer systems provided by Acer, the CK-Star is jointly built by NCKU RSC Director Dr. Chi-Chuan Hwang and Dr. Yuefan Deng of Mainland China's National Supercomputing Center in Jinan (NSCCJN), who is also a Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York (SUNY).

NCKU RSC Director Dr. Chi-Chuan Hwang added that CK-Star is the most unique switchless cluster supercomputer compared to traditional cluster supercomputer which requires switch control to control interaction between nodes. He explained that the weakness of the traditional one is that switches will become performance bottlenecks when the number of nodes is large. Besides, switches also consume large amount of power, estimated to be 50% of the total power consumption. With the introduction of the CK-Star which allows the unrestricted expansion of supercomputers, these problems can be overcome.

Eurocom is launching the world's first 12 core / 24 thread Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 based 12lbs (5.5kg) Mobile Server Supercomputer-class laptop, the EUROCOM Panther 5SE. Intel's Xeon E5-26xx v2 technology has a major impact on enterprise computing with its long term scalability, energy efficiency and high performance. For its continuous innovation and creation of new computing form factors such as Mobile Server category, Eurocom received the 2013 Intel Form Factor Solution Innovation Award.

Eurocom is supporting the entire family of E5-2600 v2 Xeon processors ranging from 4-cores/8-treads up to 12-cores/24-treads including E5-2697 v2, E5-2687w v2, E5-2697 v2, E5-2695 v2, E5-2690 v2, E5-2680 v2, E5-2670 v2, E5-2650 v2 and E5-2620 v2.

Intel Corporation unveiled innovations in HPC and announced new software tools that will help propel businesses and researchers to generate greater insights from their data and solve their most vital business and scientific challenges.

"In the last decade, the high-performance computing community has created a vision of a parallel universe where the most vexing problems of society, industry, government and research are solved through modernized applications," said Raj Hazra, Intel vice president and general manager of the Technical Computing Group. "Intel technology has helped HPC evolve from a technology reserved for an elite few to an essential and broadly available tool for discovery. The solutions we enable for ecosystem partners for the second half of this decade will drive the next level of insight from HPC. Innovations will include scale through standards, performance through application modernization, efficiency through integration and innovation through customized solutions."

Lenovo today announced, at the EDUCAUSE annual conference here, two new performance-optimized rack servers, the ThinkServer RD540 and ThinkServer RD640. Armed with the latest Intel Xeon E5 processors, these highly efficient and flexible servers are designed for easy integration into existing IT infrastructures that handle demanding virtualization, cloud and compute-intensive workloads.

Lenovo's ThinkServer RD540 and RD640 are an ideal choice for educational institutions seeking affordable options that pack a punch. The RD540 and RD640 provide the performance, security and reliability needed to support large university workloads and operations. When optionally equipped with Stoneware's webNetwork software, school administrators, students and staff can access data, applications and services from a multitude of devices and platforms using just a browser. With low price points, built-in redundancy, high reliability components and sophisticated cooling technology, the RD540 and RD640 deliver outstanding value for higher education.

Eurocom, www.eurocom.com is shipping the Panther 5SE Mobile Server that is ready to go (R2GO), right out of the box, loaded with Microsoft Server 2012. The EUROCOM Panther 5 Server Edition with Microsoft Windows Server 2012 provides extra virtualization capability, allowing higher performance, low cost computing through virtualization on one platform.

Mobile Server Overview
A Mobile Server is a computer system that has full server capability while being easily portable in a laptop form factor. Eurocom launched its first Intel Xeon powered Mobile Server in 2007, named the Phantom-X. Since its introduction Eurocom has been building on the capabilities and improving on the Mobile Server concept with every new version. The most advanced version yet, the Panther 5SE is the most stable, capable, scalable and durable Mobile Server solution to date.

Eurocom (www.eurocom.com), has officially added support for RedHat Enterprise Server Edition 6.4 in its EUROCOM Panther 5SE Mobile Server solution for onsite, server deployment wherever needed.

"Eurocom is excited to offer an all in one Mobile Server enterprise solution in a Notebook Form Factor able to run RedHat Enterprise Server Edition 6.4, with no server room required. The Panther 5SE is a portable, mobile and scalable enterprise technology, designed specifically for fast growing and dynamic organizations that do not have or do not require a permanent IT infrastructure" EUROCOM President, Mark Bialic.

Silicon Mechanics, Inc., announces availability of a range of products built with the newly launched Intel Xeon processor E5-2600v2 product family. Compared to the previous generation Intel Xeon processor, the new Intel Xeon processor E5-2600v2 (formerly known as Ivy Bridge-EP) features improved performance, energy efficiency, and security. Ideal for compute-intensive applications, the versatile new processor has been designed to serve as the heart of an efficient data center.

The new processor family promises to be up to 40 percent more energy efficient than a previous generation Intel Xeon processor-based server and up to 250 percent more energy efficient than a typical 4-year-old server. The Intel Xeon E5-2600v2 family can serve as a drop-in replacement for existing E5-2600 (Sandy Bridge-EP) CPUs. The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600v2 replaces Sandy Bridge 32nm lithography with 22nm 3-D Tri-Gate transistors, for improved performance and energy efficiency. Major performance improvements include higher core count, with up to 12 cores/24 threads, and up to 30 MB third-level cache - all in the same thermal design points (TDP) as previous generation Xeon processors. The new architecture offers higher clock speed, up to 3.5 GHz, as well as higher memory speed support, up to 1866 MHz.

Acer announces the support for the latest Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 series processor across its line of high performance Altos servers and Veriton Workstations starting September 2013. With up to 50% more cores per processor, lower thermal design power (TDP), and improved clock speeds, the new line of Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors offers extraordinary performance for companies and researchers alike. "Our professional line up of Altos servers is a cornerstone of our renewed focus on the commercial marketplace," stated Evis Lin, AVP of Commercial Products and Solutions Management at Acer. "Now with complete support of Intel's high-performance Xeon E5-2600 v2 CPUs, the Altos line is positioned perfectly to capitalize on channel and data center markets."

Acer's Altos line of professional server products offers robust functionality, best-in-class time to market, and scalable performance to meet a wide range of customer demands. Not only performance minded, the Altos servers can be configured based on customer demands with form factors that emphasize density and power savings, as well as other form factors to meet data-intense demands. Acer also offers its own management software, Acer Smart Server Manager, free of charge, enabling customers to simultaneously manage and rollout updates across multiple systems.

Lenovo today announced, at the Intel Developer Forum, two new tower servers, the ThinkServer TS140 and ThinkServer TS440. Armed with the latest Intel Xeon E3 processors and Intel AMT 9.0 for remote manageability, these affordable, whisper-quiet tower servers are designed for powerful performance and expansive scalability, ideal for small-to-medium-sized businesses and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) that require rich features and functionality at an attractive price point.

Equipped with the latest Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3 processors, the ThinkServer TS140 and TS440 tower servers offer 15 percent faster performance than previous generations. The TS140 and TS440 also feature Intel AMT 9.0 to provide outstanding remote manageability tools for easy and efficient server maintenance. Intel's AMT technology is certified with popular MSP ecosystem management consoles like N-Able, Level Platforms and Kasaya, enabling MSPs to manage end-user networks remotely and more cost effectively.

Intel Corporation today introduced the Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v2 product family (code named "Ivy Bridge-EP"), an industry-leading set of versatile processors that promises to redefine the server, storage and networking infrastructure found in datacenters. With greater efficiency and flexibility, these processors will enable the rapid delivery of services for high performance computing, cloud and enterprise segments, and offer compelling new opportunities for telecommunications vendors.

The new Xeon product family is based on Intel's leading 22-nanometer process technology, contributing to dramatic energy efficiency improvements of up to 45 percent when compared to the previous generation. The processor family also features up to 12 cores and delivers up to 50 percent more performance across variety of compute intensive workloads.

EUROCOM Super Computer Sheds Weight, Gains Mobility, Becomes Server on the Go

Intel has published a case study on the EUROCOM Panther 5SE Mobile Server as part of winning the "Form Factor Solution Innovation Award", titled "Super Computer Sheds Weight, gains mobility, Becomes "Server-on-the-Go". As an Intel Platinum Reseller, Eurocom works very closely with Intel to offer innovative and cutting edge technology to professionals who demand powerful computing solutions wherever they may be. At the 2013 Intel Solution Summit, Eurocom was awarded the Form Factor Solution Innovation Award for delivering the most innovative mobile solution based on Intel Technology to meet our customers' demands for mobility.

More specifically the EUROCOM Panther 5SE was awarded this distinction by conquering the challenge of creating a portable server for application developers, emergrency responders, on site trainers and other who need powerful server capability on the go. As Intel Explains "Eurocom corporation successfully conquered this challenge by outfitting a desktop replacement chassis with the highest quality components, including the Intel Xeon processor E5 series and Intel S3700 solid state drives - chosen for their ability to support both workstation and server-class operations."

Unlike Core i7 "Sandy Bridge-E," chips, which were quad-core or six-core parts cut-down from a common silicon shared with Xeon "Sandy Bridge-EP," which physically features eight cores and 20 MB of L3 cache; the upcoming Core i7 "Ivy Bridge-E" is based on a silicon that physically features just six cores, and 15 MB (or maybe 16 MB) of L3 cache. On the Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition, practically no component on the die is disabled. The Core i7-4930K features just 12 MB of L3 cache, while the Core i7-4820K features two out of six cores disabled, and just 10 MB of L3 cache.

"Ivy Bridge-E" is a variant of one of three large 22 nm dies Intel designed, based on the "Ivy Bridge" micro-architecture, next to a 10-core die with 25 MB of L3 cache, and a 12-core die with 30 MB of L3 cache. Aside from up to six cores, "Ivy Bridge-E" features a PCI-Express gen 3.0 certified root-complex (certified in way that NVIDIA would approve of), and a quad-channel (256-bit wide) DDR3 integrated memory controller, with native support for DDR3-1866. Intel's Core i7 "Ivy Bridge-E" series should launch on or before the 10th of September. Parts in the series will run on existing socket LGA2011 motherboards, with a BIOS update.

Cyberpower Inc., a manufacturer of custom gaming machines, notebook systems, and high performance workstations, today announced its Power Mega III series - a family of Intel 4th Generation Haswell or Xeon-based professional workstation PCs with NVIDIA Quadro K series or AMD FirePro graphics that set the bar for high-performance workstations.

Power Mega III workstations offer precise, professional performance to tackle the most demanding CPU and GPU-intensive applications out of the box. Offered in six configurations, the Power Mega III series is powered by the latest 4th Generation Intel Core Haswell processors with Z87 Express chipset for supreme multi-tasking and content creation. For those who demand extreme processing power, Intel Xeon processors are also offered in several models in single or dual CPU configurations. These advanced performance workstations are perfect for applications such as 3D rendering/modeling, sciences and medical imaging, engineering and earth sciences, matte painting, compositing, and CAD/CAM.

HP today announced the first professional monitors of the new Z Display family as well as new entry-level Z Workstations that offer reliable and flexible workstation performance at PC-like prices. HP is continuing to drive innovation across an evolving workplace with the introduction of the HP Z22i, Z23i and Z24i IPS Displays. Offering outstanding image accuracy and mission-critical reliability, the HP Z Displays are optimized for use with HP Z Workstations. HP Z Displays are ideal for engineers, architects, designers and photographers who require image accuracy at an affordable price.

Building upon HP's award-winning Z series of workstations, the new HP Z230 Workstation, available in a tower or small form factor (SFF), is built for demanding application workloads. The HP Z230 is a great choice for knowledge workers and specialists, design engineers and creative designers who require rock-solid reliability at an affordable price. Designers using applications like Autodesk AutoCAD and photographers using Adobe Photoshop will benefit from the new functionality of the HP Z230.
"Our customers want products that are designed and engineered to meet the most demanding computing and visualization needs, and HP's Z moniker has become synonymous with meeting that challenge," said Jeff Wood, vice president, Worldwide Product Management, Commercial Solutions Business Unit, HP. "The new HP Z230 Workstations and Z Displays meet these workload demands at an affordable price, and demonstrate HP's leadership in providing solutions for professional solutions at all levels."

As the massive growth of information technology services places increasing demand on the datacenter, Intel Corporation today outlined its strategy to re-architect the underlying infrastructure, allowing companies and end-users to benefit from an increasingly services-oriented, mobile world. The company also announced additional details about its next-generation Intel Atom processor C2000 product family (codenamed "Avoton" and "Rangeley"), as well as outlined its roadmap of next-generation 14nm products for 2014 and beyond. This robust pipeline of current and future products and technologies will allow Intel to expand into new segments of the datacenter that look to transition from proprietary designs to more open, standards-based compute models.

"Datacenters are entering a new era of rapid service delivery," said Diane Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of the Datacenter and Connected Systems Group at Intel. "Across network, storage and servers we continue to see significant opportunities for growth. In many cases, it requires a new approach to deliver the scale and efficiency required, and today we are unveiling the near and long-term actions to enable this transformation."

WD, a Western Digital company and world leader in digital storage solutions, today unveiled the fourth generation of WD Arkeia network backup appliances, delivering an all-in-one backup and disaster recovery solution for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The new line up consists of four rack-mount appliance models with larger internal disk capacities, faster processors, increased memory, and integrated solid state drives (SSDs) to shorten backup time and accelerate data recovery. The bundled WD Arkeia v10.1 software delivers new support for "seed and feed" technology to support hybrid cloud backups. This allows companies to move backups offsite via network replication rather than shipment of tapes.

"In announcing their fourth generation of purpose-built network backup appliances, WD Arkeia is delivering comprehensive SMB backup solutions that go beyond simple raw capacity increases," said Liz Conner, senior research analyst, IDC. "WD Arkeia offers easy-to-use data protection that takes the guess work out of purchasing, configuring and managing data backup & recovery, while also embedding features such as deduplication and hybrid cloud backup for small- and medium-sized businesses or remote offices."

A system built with thousands of Intel processors and co-processors was just named the most powerful supercomputer in the world in the 41st edition of the Top500 list of supercomputers. The system, known as "Milky Way 2," includes 48,000 Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors and 32,000 Intel Xeon processors and operates at a peak performance of 54.9 PFlops (54.9 quadrillion floating point operations per second) -- more than twice the performance of the top rated system from the last edition of the Top500 list in November 2012. This is the first exclusively Intel-based system to take the top spot on the list since 1997.

Intel also announced the expansion of the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors portfolio and revealed details of the second generation of Intel Xeon Phi products code named "Knights Landing." The new products and technologies will continue to radically increase the energy efficiency and performance of supercomputers worldwide.

First sighted in January, ASUS' P9X79-E WS socket LGA2011 motherboard is ready to take on the new breed of Core "Ivy Bridge-E" and Xeon "Ivy Bridge-EP" lines of processors, even if initial versions of its BIOS don't advertise that support. Based on Intel X79 Express chipset, the board is built in the 305 x 267 mm SSI-CEB form-factor. The LGA2011 socket is powered by a 10-phase VRM, with 2+2 phase memory VRM. The CPU socket is wired to eight DDR3 DIMM slots, four on its either sides, supporting up to 64 GB of quad-channel DDR3-2133 MHz memory. The board features a total of seven PCI-Express x16 slots. 4-way NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX are supported.

Storage connectivity on the P9X79-E WS includes two SATA 6 Gb/s ports from the X79 PCH, four SATA 6 Gb/s from a Marvell-made 4-port SATA 6 Gb/s AHCI/RAID controller, four SATA 3 Gb/s from the PCH, and an additional two eSATA 6 Gb/s from an ASMedia-made controller. There are just four USB 3.0 ports on offer, all ASMedia-made controllers. Other connectivity includes two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, both driven by Intel-made controllers, 8-channel HD audio, legacy connectivity such as PS/2 and RS232 COM (header), and a pinch of overclocker-friendly features in the BIOS and on-board. The P9X79-E WS from ASUS is priced at US $499.99.

AsRock, the renowned motherboard manufacturer, earlier today updated the CPU Support List for its LGA 2011 platform products with Intel's next generation Xeon E5 processors, using Ivy Bridge-EP silicon and scheduled for launch in Q3 this year. Along with the part number list, specifications such as clock frequency, cache size and TDP value were made public as well. Information from which we can deduce that the new chips will come in three core count versions, specifically 8 core, 10 core and 12 core parts. TDP ranges from 70 W for the E5-2650L v2, a 10 core chip running at 1.7 Ghz, to 150 W for the E5-2687W v2, also a 10 core chip but running at 3.4 Ghz.

Today Intel introduced the new Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v3 product family based on Haswell microarchitecture and the company's 22nm manufacturing process. When deployed in cloud data center environments, the new Intel Xeon processors will help reduce costs and increase media processing capabilities for cloud-based media service providers to better support customers wanting to upload and share videos with friends across different mobile devices. In addition to a better offering for cloud media workloads than discrete graphic-based servers, new Intel Xeon processors offer exceptional energy efficiency and lowest TDP ever at 13 Watts for highly dense environments like microservers. Get the Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v3 product family fact sheet.

GIGABYTE Technology introduces today, in coordination with Intel's official launch, two initial models of single socket server/workstation motherboards designed for the brand new Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 V3 product family (former codename Haswell). Suitable for both rack and desktop tower integration, GIGABYTE introduces here ultra-flexible products featuring the latest technologies and built to deliver all the benefits and new features of this new CPU line in many professional application scenarios.

Still based on the 22 nm tri-gate lithography, this new generation of Xeon processors is built on Intel's latest microarchitecture and brings up to 15% computing power improvement and increased L3 cache across the line. In addition, this new generation also brings to the Xeon E3 family the support of 1600MHz ECC memory, Intel Trusted Execution and Virtualization technologies, as well as AVX 2.0 and TSX instructions. Last but not least, the Xeon E3-1200 V3 processors will include the latest Intel integrated graphics, which will bring the support of OGL3.2+, DirectX 11.1, and higher frequencies over the previous generation.

Noctua today presented a new revision of its much acclaimed NH-U12DX and NH-U9DX quiet CPU coolers for Intel Xeon workstations and servers. The new i4 models support LGA2011 (both Square and Narrow ILM), LGA1356 and LGA1366 based Xeon platforms and now come with PWM fans for automatic speed control. Fitted with the professional SecuFirm2 mounting system and bundled with Noctua's industrial-grade NT-H1 thermal compound, the NH-U12DX i4 and NH-U9DX i4 form complete premium quality packages for quietly cooling Xeon based workstations and servers.

"Builders of quiet workstations and servers still have trouble finding quality cooling solutions for Intel's LGA2011 socket with Narrow ILM mounting", explains Mag. Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO), "so we've decided to update our DX line of coolers to work with both Square ILM and Narrow ILM based LGA2011 platforms. At the same time, we've added PWM control and switched the U12 version to the new, slimmer layout of the NH-U12S, which not only provides better performance but also ensures easier access to the RAM slots, which was another long time request from our industry partners."

Arctic announced the Alpine 20 Plus CO, a low-profile CPU cooler specifically designed for socket LGA2011. It could provide an inexpensive air-cooling option for Core i7 LGA2011 desktops, and Xeon LGA2011 workstations. The cooler is a fan-heatsink, with a dense aluminum heatsink being ventilated by a 92 mm PWM-controlled fan, which spins at speeds of 600-2,200 RPM. The cooler measures 99 mm x 95 mm x 80 mm (LxWxH), weighing about 440 g. Backed by a six-year warranty, the Alpine 20 Plus CO is priced at 14.50?.

Intel has announced the production release of the Intel SDK for Open CL Applications XE 2013 that launched as a beta program in December. The new SDK broadens options for developers on Intel architecture and includes tools, optimization guides and training.

The SDK helps OpenCL developers improve performance and efficiency on Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors and Intel Xeon processors as well as create highly parallel applications for high performance computing workstations, data analytics and other uses. Download the Intel SDK for OpenCL Applications XE 2013 here.

Intel Corporation today took the wraps off its brand new, low-power, high-performance microarchitecture named Silvermont. The technology is aimed squarely at low-power requirements in market segments from smartphones to the data center. Silvermont will be the foundation for a range of innovative products beginning to come to market later this year, and will also be manufactured using the company's leading-edge, 22nm Tri-Gate SoC manufacturing process, which brings significant performance increases and improved energy efficiency.

"Silvermont is a leap forward and an entirely new technology foundation for the future that will address a broad range of products and market segments," said Dadi Perlmutter, Intel executive vice president and chief product officer. "Early sampling of our 22nm SoCs, including "Bay Trail" and "Avoton" is already garnering positive feedback from our customers. Going forward, we will accelerate future generations of this low-power microarchitecture on a yearly cadence."