Category: News digest

Nortel curtailing Carrier Ethernet switch/router investment

NortelNortel this week said is winding down its investment in Carrier Ethernet switch/routers (CESR) in favor of packet optical transport platforms.

Nortel said the decision will let the company focus investment on an area where it is realizing momentum and stability. Nortel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors as it attempts to restructure the company operationally and financially, and last week it fired 3,200 more people.

Affected product lines include the Metro Ethernet Routing Switch 8600, Metro Ethernet Services Unit 1800 and the Metro Ethernet Manager element and domain management system. Nortel says it has dedicated resources to continue to work with customers, and that it will continue to service, support, and ship products to its CESR installed base.

Please read the full article on NetworkWorld.com…

Microsoft TechFest: The low power data center

Racks of servers demonstrated prototypes of low-power processors for data centers that deliver one-third to half the performance of high-performance processors while consuming only 5 percent to 10 percent as much power. So, how much power can data center save?

“In addition to requiring far less energy – 5 watts versus 50 to 100 watts for a processor typically used in a data center- low-power processors also have quiescent states that consume little energy and can be awakened quickly,” explained Dan Reed, director of Scalable and Multicore Systems for Cloud Computing Futures. “These states are used in the sleep and hibernate features of laptops and netbooks. With our current Atom processor, its energy consumption when running is 28 to 34 watts, but in the sleep or hibernate state, it consumes 3 to 4 watts, a reduction of 10 times in the energy consumption of idle processors.”

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Organizing retail loyalty cards on cell phone application

In Japan, NTT Communications has begun trials of a high-tech alternative to plastic or paper loyalty cards that promises to simplify their use for consumers.
Why in Japan? Well, Loyalty cards are big business there and it’s almost impossible to spend a day shopping without being asked for one or, if you don’t have one, being offered one during shopping time. The NTT technology, is called “Gyazapo,” and  it’s a Java applet that can be used in phones that also include the Felica short-range RFID technology. Most current phones support the technology. Trials began this week at retailer Bic Camera and will last for four months.

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