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Focusing

NEWS IN BRIEF

T T

on

international connectivity

raditionally, datacentres hold a focus towards local solution development and the region they apply to. But shouldn’t borders be expanded more in the worldwide economy we’re living in today?

he Amsterdam based RSN Group, with its own GYRO Center Datacentres and ReasonNet ISP (www.reasonnet.com), believes the industry should. Focusing on crossing international borders for large enterprises, they are functioning as a key specialist for European corporations with hosting and data housing needs in North and South America. Gerben Ras, CCO at the GYRO Center, is passionate about this decade long strategy. ‘The Dutch have a longstanding tradition in international trade, it’s a rewarding focus, as we manage to remove obstacles for clients that often stand in the way of productivity. All solutions are turnkey: need a private data suite in New York or Suriname tomorrow? We’re able to deliver incredibly fast. That’s pretty unique.” And it’s true, as there’s more to it than connections alone. International partnerships with other datacentres, differences in legislations and permits. The GYRO Center has worked its way through all these aspects and now holds points of presence in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, the Dutch Antilles, Suriname and other

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stronghold locations in the U.S., the Caribbean and South America. “We’ve developed so much more than hosting and housing solutions alone,” said Director of Marketing Dennis Gerritse. “International VoIP platforms that connect immigrant markets to home markets, partnerships with peers and experts such as WebAir.com in New York City and Telesur in Suriname, our clients are more and more able to pick the low hanging fruit.” It’s the world of international trade that fires this datacentre organisation. The strategy of being an Atlantic hub for large corporations is paying off. There’s a reason for tradition; sometimes it just fits the need. For more information, please visit www.datacenter-amsterdam.com/welcome-to-holland

If you thought computers couldn’t get much smaller, think again. A SWEET pioneering research effort by IBM scientists has revealed they FROM IBM are able to shrink the world’s most powerful supercomputer processors to the size of a sugar cube.

credentials. Dr Bruno Michel, a lead researcher at the Big Blue’s Zurich labs, said that a prototype model has already been built, demonstrating a water-cooling system that could be used on supercomputers.

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Aquasar, as the machine has been dubbed, has processors stacked on top of each other being cooled by water flowing between each one. IBM estimates that the device is almost 50 percent more energy-effi ergy efficient than the world’s leading supercomputers. rs.

The reason behind such shrinkage are wholly beneficial – the move would reduce these machines’ energy consumption, so – rather than producing nothing more than a mini device – IBM sugar cube computers could help reverse the insatiable energy consumption of the modern computer. Indeed, with some two percent of the world’s total energy being consumed by building and running computers and equipment, this move is more than welcome.

The machine works on the idea that the cause of the energy costs of computers is the cooling g process, as computers generate a large amount ount of heat as a side effect. Until recently, the supercomputer that topped the list could do around 770 computational operations for one watt of power. Aquasar can do nearly half as much again, boasting 1.1 billion operations.

According to BBC News, researchers at IBM Zurich labs made the claim, stating that a future supercomputer’s cost will not depend on expense, but its environmental

Now this has been built, the next step is to shrink it. IBM predict the process could d be achieved within the next ten years.

07/12/2010 15:03


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