If you were curious as to when Intel would launch their fourth generation Xeon processors you can satisfy that curiosity. Intel’s long-rumored Sapphire Rapids architecture is now official as of this week. The biggest takeaways from the official coverage are the inclusion of accelerators on the CPU die to help increase performance for specific workloads such as SSL, 5G, and networking built around DPDK. This features comes alongside Intel On Demand, a service that allows you to purchase a CPU now and unlock accelerators in the future for a fee. There’s even discussion of support for Optane and CXL! This and more on this week’s Rundown.
0:38 | WD and Kioxia Restart Merger Talks
Western Digital is restarting talks with Kioxia about a potential merger between the brands. You may recall that there were talks back in 2021 that eneded up going nowhere. WD is looking at some strategic alternatives thanks to the double whammy of a declining flash memory market and interest from noted activist investor and Tazmanian Devil Elliot Investment Management. The details of the proposal include the two providers being united into one publicly traded company but are still in a very early stage. WD and Kioxia already have a partnership together in a joint venture. Stephen, is this merger going to come through this time around?
Read More: Western Digital, Kioxia Revive Merger Talks With Flash Memory Demand Sinking
4:05 | AWS Encrypts S3 By Default
It’s a new year which means it’s time for AWS to change some default settings. Before you get upset this is actually a very good change! Amazon announced that S3 will now encrypt all new objects by default. This long-requested change ensures that all objects saved to the storage system will be encrypted without user intervention. The encryption method used, SSE-S3, has been available for quite a while but it required user intervention to enable it. Tom, what do you think about this change?
Read More: Amazon S3 Encrypts New Objects By Default
7:23 | Microsoft Officially Has A Fungible Asset
Something we covered on the Rundown late last year is finally official. Fungible has been acquired by Microsoft to integrate their DPU technology into Microsoft Azure. The Fungible team will be joining the datacenter infrastructure team and reportedly will be working on multiple DPU solutions. Stephen, with the phrasing of that statement do you think that Microsoft is going ot keep Fungible as an internal-only offering? Or could we see it being offered commercially?
Read More: Microsoft announces acquisition of Fungible to accelerate datacenter innovation
10:19 | FAA Orders Airlines to Fix Altimeters for 5G
Want to know what it looks like when a government agency is finally tired of stalling and inaction? Ladies and gentlemen, the FAA. The airline oversight agency has announced a sweeping order that sets a 2024 deadline for aircraft operators to either install new altimeters or shield existing models to eliminate the supposed threat from C-band 5G radios. The new rules come amidst a flurry of back-and-forth arguing from providers like AT&T and airlines. The providers had slowed the rollout of C-band tech near airports as a show of good faith to allow airlines to fix altimeters but the lobbyists for the airlines wanted to make the ban permanent. The FAA evidently thought differently. Approximately 8,000 aircraft will need to be adjusted, with around 200 of those requiring a full replacment of equipment. Tom, did the FAA do the right thing here?
Read More: Airworthiness Directives; Transport and Commuter Category Airplanes
13:39 | Intel 4th Gen Xeon Rides the Rapids
If you were curious as to when Intel would launch their fourth generation Xeon processors you can satisfy that curiosity. Intel’s long-rumored Sapphire Rapids architecture is now official as of this week. The biggest takeways from the official coverage are the inclusion of accelerators on the CPU die to help increase performance for specific workloads such as SSL, 5G, and networking built around DPDK. This features comes alongside Intel On Demand, a service that allows you to purchase a CPU now and unlock accelerators in the future for a fee. There’s even discussion of support for Optane and CXL! Stephen, you’ve been following this release very closely for a while now. Tell us what stands out for you.
Read More: 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Sapphire Rapids Leaps Forward
33:17 | The Weeks Ahead
Networking Field Day 30 – January 18 through January 20, 2023
Cloud Field Day 16 – January 25 through January 27, 2023
Edge Field Day 1 – February 22 through February 23, 2023
Tech Field Day 27 – March 8 through March 10, 2023
The Gestalt IT Rundown is a live weekly look at the IT news of the week. It broadcasts live on Facebook every Wednesday at 12:30pm ET. To watch along, “Like” our Facebook page. Be sure to subscribe to Gestalt IT on YouTube for even more weekly video content.
