Schooner Unveils its Next Gen Data Center Appliances

Schooner Information Technology, a start-up based in Menlo Park, California, emerged from stealth mode and unveiled two data access solutions for cloud computing datacenters: the Schooner Appliance for MySQL Enterprise and the Schooner Appliance for Memcached.


Schooner's data access appliances leverage a system architecture that integrates enterprise-class flash memory, Intel Nehalem multi-core processors, low-latency interconnect, and optimized data access and caching applications. The Schooner Operating Environment manages all system resources, including threads, cores, interconnect, DRAM, and flash memory, as well as optimizing key performance metrics, including transactions/sec/watt, transactions/sec/core, and transactions/sec/$.

The company said this level of integration yields dramatic improvements over traditional servers, including eight times higher performance, one-eighth the power and space requirements and 60 percent lower total cost of ownership (TCO).


Schooner appliances are currently in customer trials and will be available for volume shipment in the third quarter of 2009.


Schooner Information Technology is collaborating with IBM to provide fully integrated data access appliances. The Schooner platform uses IBM System x server technology.
http://www.schoonerinfotech.com

• Schooner Information Technology was co-founded by Dr. John Busch (previously a research director of computer system architecture and analysis at Sun Microsystems laboratories from 1999 through 2006) and Dr. Tom McWilliams, who previously founded three successful start-ups. His most recent company, PathScale, developed a low-latency, high bandwidth InfiniBand system interconnect, and was acquired by QLogic in 2006. Prior to founding PathScale, from 1996 to 2001 Dr. McWilliams served as a distinguished engineer and principal investigator at Sun Microsystems, working on server architecture and advanced CAD tools. From 1993 to 1996, he was a director in the MIPS division of Silicon Graphics.

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CableLabs Certifies First PacketCable 2.0 Embedded Devices

Embedded digital voice adaptors (E-DVAs) from Ambit and Thomson are the first such devices to received PacketCable 2.0 certified status from CableLabs. PacketCable 2.0 is a set of specifications aimed at accelerating the convergence of digital voice and multimedia services in consumers' homes. The PacketCable 2.0 core service architecture is based on common standards technologies such as the IP Multimedia System (IMS) and the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).


'This success marks a milestone for our industry's efforts to offer consumers new services," said Tony Werner, CTO and Executive Vice President at Comcast. 'I expect that we will see more advances in multimedia offerings as our industry continues to deliver more choice and convenience to our customers."


'The PacketCable 2.0 architecture represents a major technical advance for the cable industry, providing a flexible platform for service innovation across a wide variety of devices. We congratulate Ambit and Thomson on this milestone accomplishment and look forward to continued momentum for the project," said Ed Miller, Senior Vice President of Broadband Network Services at CableLabs.


In addition to the two E-DVAs, Ambit and Thomson each achieved certification for a PacketCable 1.5 embedded multimedia terminal adapter (E-MTA) that implements DOCSIS 3.0. There also were seven DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems certified from the following manufacturers: Two from Ambit, two from Cisco, and one each from Netgear, SMC, and Thomson. Two DOCSIS 2.0 cable modems were certified, one each from Cisco and Motorola.


The announcement follows a recently completed Certification Wave 65.
http://www.cablelabs.com

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Molex Purchases Key Assets of Motorola Antenna/EMC Measurement Lab

Molex has purchased the equipment assets of the Motorola Antenna/EMC Measurement Lab in Aalborg, Denmark. Financial terms were not disclosed.


The lab has state-of-the-art antenna and EMC measurement equipment, including anechoic chambers, an EMC chamber and a SAR system. Molex plans to utilize the lab for RF research projects to further advance its antenna technologies for wireless applications. In addition, Molex will hire engineers and technicians to operate the chambers and test equipment, which will further boost Molex's research efforts.
http://www.molex.com/link/antenna.html

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CWA: Broadband Grants Must Focus on Creating Good Jobs

Creating and preserving good jobs, while jumpstarting the economy and promoting long-term U.S. competitiveness, should be the top priorities of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Rural Utilities Service broadband initiatives, the Communications Workers of America said in comments filed with the Commerce and Agriculture Departments.


With 13.2 million unemployed Americans, the CWA said the first consideration in grant allocations must be putting Americans back to work.


CWA made several key recommendations in its filing:

• Focus network deployment grants on unserved areas -- defined as an area without at least one non-satellite facilities-based provider of non-dial-up Internet service -- and networks serving community anchor institutions, like libraries, schools, rural health centers and similar community centers.



• Some grants should be made to scalable high-speed projects in underserved areas -- defined as areas without networks capable of 3 mbps down, 1 mbps up.



• To increase broadband adoption in underserved, low-income communities, grants should provide for digital literacy promotion, subsidies for computer ownership and broadband access delivered by community based organizations and public agencies.



• Focus grants on projects that will preserve and create good jobs.



• To ensure enforcement of Buy America provisions and prevailing wage requirements, require that grant recipients report the number of jobs created and the wages/compensation of those jobs.



• Ensure that projects can be started quickly and are sustainable, and that recipients have a track record of success and that grant-funded projects are scalable.



• Establish minimum speed requirements of 3 mbps down and 1 mbps up for network deployment, then rank grant proposals based on speed, number of new households and locations connected, number of jobs created, number of low-income households served.



• Preserve an open Internet by requiring grant recipients to abide by the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet principles and current Internet traffic exchange and peering norms.

http://www.cwa-union.org

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SandForce Unveils SSD Processors

SandForce, a start-up based in Saratoga, California, emerged from stealth mode and unveiled its first product, the SF-1000 SSD Processor family. The chips are designed to overcome data retention issues associated with NAND flash memory, making it possible to build SSDs that deliver unprecedented performance over the life of the drive with orders-of-magnitude higher reliability than enterprise-class HDDs (Hard Disk Drives). SandForce's DuraClass technology includes:

• DuraWrite, which optimizes the number of program cycles to the flash effectively extending flash rated endurance by 80x or more when compared to standard controllers.



• Powerful flash media error correction (ECC) and RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements), which deliver an orders-of-magnitude improvement in drive reliability versus today's SSDs and enterprise HDDs. The result is single-drive RAID-like protection and recovery from a potentially catastrophic single flash block or die failure -- all while avoiding the inefficiencies of traditional RAID.



• Wear Leveling and Monitoring, which provides monitoring of flash block operational metrics to optimize wear leveling algorithms, further extending flash endurance.



• Advanced Read/Program Disturb Management, which safeguards against errant re-programming of cells during read and program cycles and unexpected power loss.



• Recycler, which intelligently performs garbage collection with the least impact on flash endurance.

The SF-1000 Family features a standard 3 gigabit-per-second SATA host interface connecting up to 512 gigabytes of commodity NAND flash memory, and delivers 30K IOPS (random 4K read or write transfers), and 250MB/s performance (sequential 128KB read or write transfers) with 100 micro-second latency. SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) connectivity is easily achieved via a third-party SAS-SATA bridge available from multiple sources. Even more impressive, SF-1000-based SSDs can sustain peak performance for 5-year enterprise lifecycles without artificial daily usage restrictions or costly over-provisioning techniques. SandForce provides software, firmware, reference designs, and complete design kits to enable OEMs to bring SSDs to market quickly.
http://www.sandforce.com

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Motorola Announces iDEN Rugged Handsets

Motorola announced two new enterprise-grade iDEN handsets -- the r765 and the intrinsically safe r765IS -- custom-designed for the utility, petrochemical and industrial markets.


These rugged devices for private iDEN networks are aimed at mobile workers in noisy and hazardous environments. In addition, the ergonomic design enable mobile workers to change settings and make adjustments with the turn of a knob, helping users stay focused on the task at hand. The r765 will be available for purchase in the second quarter of 2009, while the r765IS will be available in the third quarter of 2009.
http://www.motorola.com/us

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Ascom Introduces High Performance LTE Scanner

Ascom announced the availability of its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) 700 MHz spectrum scanning receiver solution, which supports simultaneous multiband and multi-mode RF measurements. The new scanner design supports LTE baseband scanning in the 700 MHz bands while simultaneously supporting EVDO scanning of the 850/1900 MHz bands, simplifying deployment of multi-mode LTE/EvDO systems and offering advanced baseband decoding analysis for LTE deployment. An enhancement of Ascom's existing leading RF scanner design, this third generation Software-Defined Radio (SDR) solution builds on Ascom's proven technology while serving to increase its utility and improve performance at the same time.


Supporting precise measurements of the downlink signal strength in 850 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 700 MHz bands, the scanner is offered in three forms: as a standalone scanner product, as an upgrade to Ascom's popular Symphony) Quality of Service (QoS) wireless network benchmarking and optimization products, and as an OEM version for integration with third party test and monitoring equipment.


The scanner module is fully programmable and supports simultaneous scanning of multiple technologies (CDMA-1x, EvDO, and LTE) and provides both received signal strength indication (RSSI) and high performance, technology specific baseband decoding. As with previous designs, CDMA modes deliver Ec/Io, Ec/Ep, individual Walsh code measurements, All PN scan, and an automated Top PN scan. The unit's rapid CDMA scan rate of 100ms/512 PNs coupled with high precision measurements offers unparalleled analysis capabilities for CDMA operators, simplifying pilot pollution detection and neighbor list optimization as well as identifying "island cell" conditions and other timing related and multi-path interference induced issues.
http://www.ascom.com

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Verizon: Broadband Stimulus Should Focus on Unserved Areas and Demand-Side Obstacles

Ninety percent (90% of U.S. households already have access to broadband, and, of the households that have computers, 80 percent of them subscribe to broadband services


In recommendations filed with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), , Verizon said the $7 billion-plus broadband stimulus program should focus on two key objectives: extending broadband Internet connections to unserved areas, and addressing demand-side factors that hamper growth of broadband subscriptions, such as the lack of a computer in many households.


Verizon suggested three principles to guide the broadband stimulus program, which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Be open to a wide range of projects to help finish what has already been started; rely on state and local expertise in identifying unserved areas; and maintain transparency and accountability.


Verizon also stressed the need for quick action on the part of the agencies cooperating to produce an economic stimulus, and the importance of administering the programs in a way that encourages broad participation.


"In reliance on the light-touch regulatory approach designed to encourage network investment, broadband providers have invested hundreds of billions of dollars - and employed hundreds of thousands of employees - to deploy wireline and wireless broadband networks widely throughout the vast majority of the country," Verizon told the agencies. "Notwithstanding these successes, work remains to be done to achieve ubiquitous broadband availability and adoption."
http://www.verizon.com

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Harris Stratex Networks Provides Preliminary Q3 Results

Harris Stratex Networks announced preliminary operating results for its quarter ended April 3, 2009. Revenue is expected to be between $150 million and $160 million, which is within the range of $150 million to $170 million revenue expectation provided on February 4, 2009. The company anticipates an increase in operating expenses of $5 million to $7 million primarily due to an increase in the bad debt provision and, to a lesser extent, added expenses associated with the recent acquisition of Telsima. Without these additional charges, Q3 operating expenses are anticipated to be comparable to Q2. Operating cash flow for the quarter is expected to be positive.
http://www.harrisstratex.com/

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Obama Authorizes U.S. Telecom Opening with Cuba

President Barack Obama's new policy towards Cuba includes several telecom provisions. Specifically, the President has directed the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Commerce to:

• Authorize U.S. telecommunications network providers to enter into agreements to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the United States and Cuba.



• License U.S. telecommunications service providers to enter into roaming service agreements with Cuba's telecommunications service providers.



• License U.S. satellite radio and satellite television service providers to engage in transactions necessary to provide services to customers in Cuba.



• License persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to activate and pay U.S. and third-country service providers for telecommunications, satellite radio and satellite television services provided to individuals in Cuba.



• Authorize the donation of certain consumer telecommunication devices without a license.

http://www.whitehouse.gov

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