The Computing Foundations Companion is Illuminata's program of ongoing assistance for those developing and deploying the servers on which high-scale, mission-critical applications reside.
We offer a technically sophisticated, business-savvy perspective on the products, technologies, techniques, and vendors that support enterprise applications. Topics include:
- processors including
traditional Intel x86-compatible (such
as Pentium, Xeon, AMD64, and Transmeta Crusoe) and other
high-performance CPUs (such as Itanium, POWER, SPARC, zSeries, and
specialty network engines) and processor
evolution (including the 64-bit transition,
VLIW/EPIC, and new directions such as multi-core/CMP,
SMT/HyperThreading, MCM, and mainframish attributes);
- system architecture
(including multiprocessing/SMP, NUMA, and
even more exotic forms of parallel design such as COMA and MPP) and
related control structures (multi-level caches, memory controllers,
crossbar switches, and system redundancy);
- modular systems
(including blades, bricks, and modular interconnects);
- high-performance interconnects
(including InfiniBand, Myrinet, QsNet, IBM SP Switch, RDMA, and
multi-gigabit Ethernet) and their role as datacenter fabrics and
- I/O channels (including
multi-gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel,
ESCON/FICON, SATA, SCSI, PCI-X, HyperTransport, PCI Express, and
InfiniBand) and acceleration
(including RDMA, TCP/IP offload engines, and intelligent channels);
- datacenter
fabrics and intelligent network switching;
- resource partitioning (including
physical, logical, virtual,
and resource partitions), fabric partitioning (such as VLANs, VSANs,
and FC zoning),
and system-oriented forms of dynamic capacity on demand;
- clustering (including
MSCS, Unix and Linux, clusters, OpenVMS
Clusters, and Parallel Sysplex) for high availability and scalable
performance;
- fault tolerance and resilience
(such as NonStop Himalaya,
Stratus ftServer, and zSeries) and the progression of high availability
- mainframes (aka IBM
zSeries servers) and their evolution to include open APIs and network
enablement; techniques to higher-volume equipment;
- operating environments
and systems software (including Unix, Linux, Windows, zOS, OS/400,
OpenVMS, and NonStop Kernel);
- Linux trends, including evolution to 2.6 kernel and ongoing datacenter, FT, and telco extensions;
- Windows Server, esp. as it gains further scalability, robustness, and manageability attributes;
- the impact of commodity
technologies,
including their
rapid march into, and effect on, enterprise computing; and the
continuing role of Unix and virtuoso platforms even in a commodity age;
- leading vendors of
server technology (for instance, Dell, Egenera, Intel, Fujitsu, HP, IBM,
Microsoft, RLX, SGI, Sun, Unisys, and VMware);
- product choices and investment
strategies needed to take advantage of industry trends and the
best technology; and
- server, operating system, clustering, and related announcements
of industry significance and general interest.
Take control of your Enterprise Information today! Contact sales@illuminata.com.
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