Graviton 3E is finally here. What does that mean? It’s a CPU that is designed to accelerate floating point and vector math. That may not sound exciting to you but for high performance computing environments that’s exactly what the doctor ordered. This custom unit is going to be aimed at giants that are looking to eake out the last drop of performance from those life sciences models. At the same time, Amazon introduced the Nitro version 5, the latest in their groundbreaking DPU family.
0:45 | Dell Technologies Pays $1 Billion Settlement
If you think back to the glory days of 2016 you proably remember the blockbuster acqusition of EMC and VMware by Dell. At the time there was some interesting stock trading happening to provide value for VMware shareholders in order to make the deal happen. Now, six years later, Dell Technologies has agreed to a $1 billion settlement with shareholders over the value of that stock trading. The issues stem from the way that Dell issued stock for the so-called tracking shares that VMware shareholders owned after their acquisition by EMC back in 2004. Shareholders claim that Dell’s offer was billions less than the market value of those shares. Dell Technologies did not comment on the specifics of the deal and it still needs to be approved by the court. Stephen, did Dell get a deal? Or are they paying it back with interest now?
Read More: Dell Technologies will pay $1 billion to settle lawsuit over 2018 stock deal
3:41 | IBM Sues Micro Focus over Mainframe Software
Mainframes aren’t dead! Well, at least they aren’t for IBM. The computing titan filed a lawsuit against Micro Focus, alleging that the company reverse engineered Big Blue’s software to create a competitor in the space. Micro Focus had been in a partnership with IBM to develop software to run on z/OS but, per the complaint, took advantage of the insider knowledge afforded to them and created a competing program called Micro Focus Enterprise Server. Both software suites are designed to function as middleware for transaction processing systems which are still very common on IBM mainframes. Micro Focus Enterprise Server has been available for the better part of 20 years now which does raise questions about what this could mean should IBM win in court. Tom, who would have thought we’d be seeing mainfram lawsuits in 2022?
Read More: IBM sues Micro Focus, claims it copied Big Blue mainframe software
7:22 | Micron Cuts DRAM and NAND Production…for now?
A couple of curious stories appeared last week that seem to indicate that Micron is both reducing NAND and DRAM production as well as ramping it up. As if Schrödinger himself were reporting the first story mentions that Micron has cut their production for memory chips based on the falling demand for the technology across the industry. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said the moves were designed to limit supply growth and reduct inventory sizes. The news comes on the heels of many other companies doing similar cutbacks due to a down market. However, in a different news article, reports surfaced that Micron was accelerating delivery of samples of their smartphone-focused 1-beta DRAM chips. This acceleration means that Micron will be ramping up production almost a year ahead of their competitors in the space. Stephen, are we confused about what Micron is looking to do here? Or do they have a plan for thinking outside the box?
Read More: Micron abruptly cuts DRAM, NAND production
Read More: Micron to ramp up 1-beta DRAM shipments, eyeing market rebound in 2024
11:43 | Dell Builds Quantum Computer Interface for IT
Now we look to the future for quantum power. During SC22 this week, Dell has released a blueprint for a traditional IT server infrastructure that alllows for the integration of quantum computing. The idea is that the organization uses a traditional server infrastructure for delivering the results from quantum calculations from technologies powered by IonQ. Dell’s goal is to take complex calculations like those being run today on GPUs and offload some of the intense processing to a quantum computer before returning results back to the decision makers. The hope is that by integrating the two technologies together Dell can provide value by letting the quantum computer do what it is good at and leaving the rest to traditional IT. Tom, has Dell figured out how to make quantum work?
Read More: Dell Builds Tech for Quantum Computers to Interface with Conventional Systems
15:30 | AWS re:Invent
This week is the cloudiest time of the year for fans of the world’s largest online bookstore and data center. Amazon is holding AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas. A reported 50,000 people are in attendance as well as some 300,000 watching the opening keynote online. We had a couple of stories that came out of the event that we wanted to highlight here.
Read More: Top Announcements of AWS re:Invent 2022
17:57 | Graviton CPU Variant for HPC
Graviton 3E is finally here. What does that mean? It’s a CPU that is designed to accelerate floating point and vector math. That may not sound exciting to you but for high performance computing environments that’s exactly what the doctor ordered. This custom unit is going to be aimed at giants that are looking to eake out the last drop of performance from those life sciences models. At the same time, Amazon introduced the Nitro version 5, the latest in their groundbreaking DPU family.
Read More: AWS intros homebrew Graviton CPU tuned for HPC, network stack tuned to updated Nitro system
Read More: AWS Nitro v5 Ups the Cloud DPU Game Again
22:38 | Digital Sovereignty Pledge
Amazon has finally realized that there is a world outside of Seattle. AWS announced a new Digital Sovereignty Pledge this week. The goal? To build out controls and features in AWS that provide ways for customers to have full control over their data and how it is handled and secured. The pledge is a statement that AWS is going to provide existing tools and develop new ones to ensure companeis are in compliance with laws regulating how data is transported and utilized. The European Union especially has been very hot to get sovereignty controls in place with the relative ease of portability of applications in the cloud.
Read More: AWS announces Digital Sovereignty Pledge
29:29 | The Weeks Ahead
Security Field Day 8 Videos have been released! Watch them on the Tech Field Day YouTube channel.
AWS re:Invent November 28 – December 2, 2022
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