Apple to Build Solar Farm to Power Huge New Data Center

Environmentalists aren't complaining about Apple's policy of using solar energy to power its data centers, but it would be an oversimplification to attribute it to responsiveness to the likes of Greenpeace. "Data centers pull a ton of power," said tech analyst Rob Enderle. "Building a solar farm makes a lot of financial sense on top of its being green.

 

Apple, which has a mixed history on environmental issues, will build a solar farm to power its data center in Washoe County, Nev.

"SunPower is working with Apple to design and build this project," Ingrid Ekstrom, spokesperson for SunPower, told TechNewsWorld. "We will be building a SunPower C7 Tracker system at the site." 

The farm will reportedly generate 20 MW of electricity, some of which will be sold to Sierra Pacific Power Co., a utility operating in Nevada doing business as NV Energy. 

What's Happening in Washoe County

Apple is building a large data center in the Reno Technology Park, about 15 minutes east of the city of Reno. An initial building occupying about 20,000 square feet was reportedly completed in March.

That building is on an Apple-owned lot of about 345 acres. When completed, the Reno facility will reportedly be Apple's fourth-largest data center in the United States.

Apple approached Sierra, aka NV Energy, in 2012 and leased from it 137 acres of land for 20 years for the purpose of building the data center, according to Bobby Hollis, NV Energy's executive of renewable energy.

The two companies have entered various agreements, including ground and a solar-array leases and a renewable energy agreement, Hollis said. Apple will pay for the installation and construction of the solar array. 

About the C7 Tracker

SunPower's C7 Tracker solar concentrators, which will be used in the solar farm, consist of a horizontal single-axis tracker with rows of parabolic mirrors reflecting light onto solar cells.

The C7 Tracker concentrates the sun's energy 7 times, Ekstrom said.

The C7 Tracker technology was first commercially deployed at Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus in Mesa, Ariz., in April.

Why Apple's Playing Nice 

Apple isn't the only company to look toward clean power; eBay is expanding its flagship data center in Utah and will use renewable energy to power that addition. This will be the company's fifth and largest renewable energy installation. Google also supports renewable energy sources, through Google Green.

These moves followed reports in 2008 that data centers would face a power shortage by 2011, leading companies to redesign their data centers, vendors to unveil more power-efficient servers, and power utilities to offer rebates for reduced power consumption or better-designed data centers.

"Data centers pull a ton of power," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. "Building a solar farm makes a lot of financial sense on top of its being green. You'll see a lot of companies doing this."

 

 

IT Spending To Hit $3.7 Trillion

The IT services industry is on track to spend globally $3.7 trillion in 2013.  Gartner, the analyst house publishing these numbers, projects spend for 2014 to rise to $3.9 trillion, up 4.1%.
From devices through to data center investments and the services that run on them are the sources of this revenue.  But that represents shrinking growth of only 2% on last year, as more expensive items like on-premise software and PCs continue to get forced out by less expensive, newer technology like lower-cost tablets and cloud service computing. It is important to note that these figures do not include the vast amounts of money that we as consumers spend online, via e-commerce and in apps etc; nor does it include services like advertising, which is often used to “pay” for content indirectly. “This may change in the future but at the moment it’s excluded,” Richard Gordon, managing vice president at Gartner has said.

Be that as it may, these figures, which do include global numbers on IT devices, provide a gauge for how and where the wider Information Technology world is growing.  The $3.7 trillion in IT spend in 2013 represents a downward revision from where Gartner thought we would be today: compare to last quarter, when Gartner noted growth of 4.1% for this year; that is now more than halved and one of the main reasons for this is because of currency fluctuations. In constant currency, growth would still be down compared to 2012, but less so, to 3.5%.  One of the bigger categories contributing to the lower forecasts comes from declines in IT devices, which Gartner has revised down to growing only 2.8% this year, or $695 billion, this is in comparison to a previous projection of 7.9%.  This is directly linked to trends in what people are buying today for their computing needs: the  time is up for bigger and more expensive PCs; and it’s the smaller, and often less expensive, tablet and smartphone time to shine.
Gartner noted that although PCs are still the second-largest category of IT devices, the shipments of these are decreasing rapidly, while shipments for mobile phones and tablets continue to climb. In all, there will be 2.4 billion devices shipped in 2013 , an increase of 6% on last year, Gartner said.  Analysts spell that out in revenue numbers that tablet revenue will grow by a mammoth 38.9% and mobile devices by 9.3%; but in PCs, “while new devices are set to hit the market in the second half of 2013, they will fail to compensate for the underlying weakness of the traditional PC market,” Gartner notes.  The biggest category of all has been and continues to be telecoms services, which includes things like broadband, telephone services and your mobile bills. These will rise to $1.7 trillion in 2013 — growth of only 0.9%, but at least reversing the declines of -0.7%in 2012.  Enterprise software remains one of the smaller categories but growing the strongest: $304 billion will be spent on enterprise this year, a rise of 6.4%. IT services and data centers will each grow only around 2%.
 

PayPal Set To Enter Space

It would seem that the world is just not big enough for PayPal as they aim towards handling financial transactions for astronauts, space travelers and tourists.

 Commercial space travel is getting closer to becoming an everyday reality and PayPal want to prove that they are ready for such progress. On Thursday they announced the launch of PayPal Galactic, which is  designed to address the upcoming need for universal payments from space.

Along with experts from the scientific community, including SETI Institute and Space Tourism Society, PayPal worked on the new initiative that will be able to handle financial transactions for those travelling in space.
Buzz Aldrin, an astronaut and author who took part in the announcement said “Trips to Mars, the moon, even orbit will require we provide astronauts and astro-tourists with as many comforts from home as possible, including how to pay each other. Whether it’s paying a bill, even helping a family member on Earth, we’ll need access to money.”

“I think humans will reach Mars, and I would like to see it happen in my lifetime,” Aldrin added. “When that happens, I won’t be surprised if people use PayPal Galactic for the little things and the big ones.”
Although a brilliant and forward-thinking plan, there are some things to consider about the PayPal Galactic initiative. For example, how will our current banking system have to adapt? Risk and fraud management is an on-going discussion on earth, so how will it fare in space?
Of course space travel is still a way off, so there is still time to address any issues and develop protocols for the necessary currency and transactions.

Good Timing

The first commercial trip to space is set to take tourists in December and according to PayPal president David Marcus, there are plans for constructing a space hotel in three years. So they obviously feel getting ahead of the game will be worthwhile.

However Jeff Foust a senior analyst at Futron commented by saying “It’s at least a little bit ahead of its time, and maybe a lot ahead of its time. At some point down the road, and maybe in terms of decades, we have to start thinking about payment and currency infrastructure.”
“If you’re going to be on a suborbital flight, you’re only going to be in flight for a few minutes,” Foust said. “You’re not going to buy something on eBay. At some point far down the road, we need to take action on these things.”
Still with private projects planned to take volunteers into space, many of them will no doubt be in need of PayPal Galactic and PayPal will be glad they were ahead of time.

Sony Release The Xperia Z Ultra

 Sony has announced the release of the Xperia Z Ultra, a waterproof Android smartphone with a 6.4-inch screen. They claim it is the slimmest large-screen handset on the market.
 
The company say they intend for this device to challenge Samsung’s dominance in the jumbo-sized handset sector.

The Ultra follows the previous Sony Xperia Z, which was unveiled in January. It will go on sale in China, Indonesia and Singapore in July and reach Europe in September.

Calum MacDougall, Xperia’s director has said that “Southeast Asia is the key market for the product because the trend towards large-screened smartphone devices is stronger there, but we also see the trend in Europe as well.”

“In the large-screen segment at the moment most consumers are looking at the Galaxy Note. Now we can offer something that is really distinct: a stronger screen, greater portability, waterproofing and something different around the stylus and the pen.”
 
The Xperia Z Ultra can accept sketches or notes written not just from the optional stylus, but also from a standard pencil or metal-tipped pen.

It is only 6.5mm thick, making it it only slightly deeper than the Huawei’s Ascend P6, the thinnest device on the market.
Sony have done away with the flap over the headphone socket, which featured on the original Xperia Z, after there were complaints that it was fiddly to use.


The handset can be submerged in freshwater for up to half an hour at a depth of 1.5m, that’s deeper than its predecesor.
Some other features that the Xperia Z Ultra offer are:

•     A 1080p resolution screen with in-built software to upgrade lower definition videos and photos
•     16 gigabytes of internal storage with support for 64GB microSD card
•     An 8 megapixel rear camera
•     A battery offering up to 11 hours talk time or 120 hours of audio playback – a figure which Sony claims is a record
  

Sony is not the only company trying to undermine Samsung’s lead in this market; Huawei, ZTE, Acer, Asus and Lenovo have all released devices, trying to compete for popularity. But with Samsung releasing their own Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Mega, have they already missed the boat?

World’s First 5GHz CPU From AMD

AMD has announced the release of the first 5GHz CPU; they’ve called it the FX-9590.
In a statement accompanying the announcement at E3 2013 in Los Angeles, Bernd Lienhard (corporate vice president and general manager, Client Products Division at AMD) said “The new FX 5GHz processor is an emphatic performance statement to the most demanding gamers seeking ultra-high resolution experiences including AMD Eyefinity technology”.

As well as the 5GHz FX-9590, AMD also announced the release of the FX-9370, although this is clocked at a slower speed of 4.7GHz. Both of these new CPUs are part of the FX-Series.
The FX-950 and the FX-9370 have eight processors cores based on the “Piledriver” architecture and because they are from the “Black edition, they are unlocked and therefore overclockable. They also feature AMD’s Turbo Core 3.0 technology, so performance is optimized to cope with the most intensive of workloads.

When it comes to processors, AMD has been consistently at the forefront of cutting edge technology. The fact that their products have made their way into big name devices like PlayStation and Xbox One is testament to this. AMD has also announced plans to support Android and Chrome OS as well as Windows, and Apple too have revealed that AMD will be supplying FirePro for the new Mac Pro.

Although there has been no word on pricing yet, expect the FX-9590 and FX-9370 this summer.

China Unveils World’s Fastest Supercomputer

China has scored a win in the race to achieve mega computing power, by unveiling a new system that is twice as faster than anything else available right now.

Tianhe-2  was unveiled at the end of last month by the Chinese National University of Defense Technology. At an operating speed of 30.7 petaflops or quadrillion operations per second, it is definitely the world’s fastest supercomputer right now.

Also known as Milkyway-2, the supercomputer is more than likely to top the biannual Top 500 supercomputer list out this month. The first place in the ranking is currently held by U.S. system Titan, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. For comparison, Titan, owned by the U.S. Department of Energy, operates at just 17.6 petaflops per second.

 China already topped the supercomputer ranking in 2010, but was beaten by Germany in 2011 and then the United States last year. A senior Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher and Tennessee University professor, Jack Dongarra, was able to see Tianhe-2 in operation and confirmed the statistics revealed.

What’s interesting is that the Chinese system operated at 30.7 petaflops per second in a Linpak test of only 90 percent of its capacity, so it is likely to score more when it runs 100%. Dongarra said in a report that the system’s theoretical performance is estimated at 54.9 petaflops.

Technical specs 

The world’s fastest supercomputer is equipped with 2 different kinds of Intel computer chips and locally-developed circuitry. It reportedly has 12.4 petabytes (1 petabyte equals 1,000 terabytes) of storage and 1.4 petabyte memory.

Its operating system, Kylin Linux, was especially developed by the National University for Defense Technology. The machine is housed in a large room and is equipped with 48,000 Xeon Phi boards and 32,000 Intel Ivy Bridge Xeon sockets, Dongarra said.

Tianhe-2 will be moved to the China’s National Supercomputer Center to provide a high-performance, open computing services for the southwest of the country. Among possible uses for the system is running simulations for airplane testing, aiding government security and processing what was described as “big data.”

Sony PS4 Undercuts Xbox One on Price, Fully Supports Used Games

 Not only is Sony's new PlayStation 4 considerably cheaper than Microsoft's Xbox One, but it also sports some more gamer-friendly features. Case in point: "When a gamer buys a PS4 game, they have the right to trade in that game, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend or keep it forever," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America.

Sony took its best shot at stealing Microsoft's thunder on Monday evening at E3 by announcing that its upcoming PlayStation 4 will arrive this holiday season for US$399.
That's $100 less than the price Microsoft announced earlier in the day for its competing Xbox One, and the reaction was meet by thunderous applause that shook the Los Angeles Sports Arena serving as the backdrop for Sony's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference.

"Momentum and excitement across the industry has grown exponentially," proclaimed Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America.

'We Won't Impose Any New Restriction'

Perhaps even more exciting for some users than the lower price, however, was another gamer-friendly announcement Sony made at the event.

"The PS4 supports used games," said Tretton. "We won't impose any new restriction on gamers."

More thunderous applause greeted that announcement, which came in stark contrast to Microsoft's news that its Xbox One would require an always-on connection and thus limit users' ability to sell the games.
"When a gamer buys a PS4 game, they have the right to trade in that game, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend or keep it forever," Tretton noted. "We won't require you to check in online to play a game."

 

Beyond Gaming

Sony did also offer a few key points on how the PS4 will fit into the greater Sony umbrella.
Specifically, in addition to streaming services that will include Netflix and Vudu, the new system will feature Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited services, giving users access to more than 150,000 movies and TV shows as well as 20 million songs that can be streamed across Sony' PlayStation platforms.
"Sony is clearly going after the living room as much as Microsoft," said Pidgeon. "While this is as much about games, there is a bigger target for both companies." 

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