IT seems to be growing again. Gartner forecasts worldwide IT spending will increase 4.5% this year to $3.68 trillion, driven by artificial intelligence, big data analytics, blockchain technology, and the IoT.
Digital transformations are fashionable. You won’t find an enterprise that isn’t leveraging some combination of cloud, analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to better serve customers or streamline operations. But here’s a hard truth about digital transformations: Many are failing outright or are in danger of failing. Typical reasons for failing are not understanding what is digital transformation (different people understand it differently), lack of CEO sponsorship, talent deficiency, resistance to change. Usually a technology-first approach to digital transformation is a recipe for disaster. Truing to just push trough technically unfeasible transformation idea is another way to fail.
The digital era requires businesses to move with speed, and that is causing IT organizations to rethink how they work. A lot of IT is moving off premises to SaaS providers and the public cloud. Research outfit 451 standout finding was that 60 per cent of the surveyed enterprises say they will run the majority of their IT outside the confines of enterprise data centres by the end of 2019. From cost containment to hybrid strategies, CIOs are getting more creative in taking advantage of the latest offerings and the cloud’s economies of scale.
In 2018 there seems to be a growing Software Engineering Talent Shortage in both quantity and quality. For the past nine years, software engineers have been at the top of the hardest to fill jobs in the United States. And same applies to many other countries including Finland. Forrester projects that firms will pay 20% above market for quality engineering talent in 2018. Particularly in-demand skills are data scientists, high-end software developers and information security analysts. There is real need for well-studied, experienced engineers with a formal and deep understanding of software engineering. Recruiting and retaining tech talent remains IT’s biggest challenge today. Most CIOs are migrating applications to public cloud services, offloading operations and maintenance of computing, storage and other capabilities so they can reallocate staff to focus on what’s strategic to their business.
The enterprise no longer is at the center of the IT universe. It seems that reports of the PC’s demise have been greatly exaggerated and the long and painful decline in PC sales of the last half-decade as tailed off, at least momentarily. As the sales of smartphones and tablets have risen, consumers had not stopped using PCs, but merely replaced them less often. FT reports that PC is set to stage a comeback in 2018, after the rise of smartphones sent sales of desktop and laptop computers into decline in recent years. If that does not happen, then PC market could return to growth in 2019. But the end result is that PC is no longer seen as the biggest growth driver for chip makers. An extreme economic shift has chipmakers focused on hyperscale clouds.
Microservices are talked about a lot. Software built using microservices is easier to deliver and maintain than the big and brittle architectures or old; these were difficult to scale and might take years to build and deliver. Microservices are small and self-contained, so therefore easy to wrap up in a virtual machine or a container (but don’t have to live in containers). Public cloud providers increasingly differentiate themselves through the features and services they provide. But it turns out that microservices are far from being one-size-fit-for-all silver bullet for IT challenges.
Containers will try to make break-trough again in 2018. Year 2017 was supposed to be the year of containers! It wasn’t? Oops. Maybe year 2018 is better. Immature tech still has a bunch of growing up to do. Linux Foundation’s Open Containers Initiative (OCI) finally dropped two specifications that standardise how containers operate at a low level. The needle in 2018 will move towards containers running separately from VMs, or entirely in place of VMs. Kubernates gains traction. It seems that the containers are still at the point where the enterprise is waiting to embrace them.
Serverless will be talked about. Serverless computing is a cloud computing execution model in which the cloud provider dynamically manages the allocation of machine resources. Serverless architectures refer to applications that significantly depend on third-party services (knows as Backend as a Service or “BaaS”) or on custom code that’s run in ephemeral containers (Function as a Service or “FaaS”), the best known vendor host of which currently is AWS Lambda.
Automation is what everybody with many computers wants. Infrastructure automation creates and destroys basic IT resources such as compute instances, storage, networking, DNS, and so forth. Security automation helps keeping systems secure. It bosses want to create self-driving private clouds. The journey to self-driving clouds needs to be gradual. The vision of the self-driving cloud makes sense, but the task of getting from here to there can seem daunting. DevOps automation with customer control: Automatic installation and configuration, Integration that brings together AWS and VMWare, workflows migration controlled by users, Self-service provisioning based on templates defined by users, Advanced machine learning to automate processes, and Automated upgrades.
Linux is center of many cloud operations: Google and Facebook started building their own gear and loading it with their own software. Google has it’s own Linux called gLinux. Facebook networking uses Linux-based FBOSS operating system. Even Microsoft has developed its own Linux for cloud operations. Software-defined networking (SDN) is a very fine idea.
Memory business boomed in 2017 for both NAND and DRAM. The drivers for DRAM are smartphones and servers. Solid-state drives (SSDs) and smartphones are fueling the demand for NAND. NAND Market Expected to Cool in Q1 from the crazy year 2017, but it is still growing well because there is increasing demand. Memory — particular DRAM — was largely considered a commodity business.
Lots of 3D NAND will go to solid state drives in 2018. IDC forecasts strong growth for the solid-state drive (SSD) industry as it transitions to 3D NAND. SSD industry revenue is expected to reach $33.6 billion in 2021, growing at a CAGR of 14.8%. Sizes of memory chips increase as number of layer in 3D NAND are added. The traditional mechanical hard disk based on magnetic storage is in hard place in competition, as the speed of flash-based SSDs is so superior
There is search for faster memory because modern computers, especially data-center servers that skew heavily toward in-memory databases, data-intensive analytics, and increasingly toward machine-learning and deep-neural-network training functions, depend on large amounts of high-speed, high capacity memory to keep the wheels turning. The memory speed has not increased as fast as the capacity. The access bandwidth of DRAM-based computer memory has improved by a factor of 20x over the past two decades. Capacity increased 128x during the same period. For year 2018 DRAM remains a near-universal choice when performance is the priority. There is search going on for a viable replacement for DRAM. Whether it’s STT-RAM or phase-change memory or resistive RAM, none of them can match the speed or endurance of DRAM.
PCI Express 4.0 is ramping up. PCI-standards consortium PCI-SIG (Special Interest Group) has ratified and released specifications for PCIe 4.0 Specification Version 1. Doubling PCIe 3.0’s 8 GT/s (~1 GB/s) of bandwidth per lane, PCIe 4.0 offers a transfer rate of 16 GT/s. The newest version of PCI Express will start appearing on motherboards soon. PCI-SIG has targeted Q2 2019 for releasing the finalized PCIe 5.0 specification, so PCIe 4.0 won’t be quite as long-lived as PCIe 3.0 has been. So we’ll See PCIe 4.0 this year in use and PCIe 5.0 in 2019.
USB type C is on the way to becoming the most common PC and peripheral interface. The USB C connector has become faster more commonplace than any other earlier interface. USB C is very common on smartphones, but the interface is also widespread on laptops. Sure, it will take some time before it is the most common. In 2021, the C-type USB connector has almost five billion units, IHS estimates.
It seems that the after-shocks of Meltdown/Spectre vulnerabilities on processors will be haunting us for quite long time this year. It is now three weeks since The Register revealed the chip design flaws that Google later confirmed and the world still awaits certainty about what it will take to get over the silicon slip-ups. Last pieces of farce has been that Intel Halts Spectre, Meltdown CPU Patches Over Unstable Code and Linux creator Linus Torvalds criticises Intel’s ‘garbage’ patches. Computer security will not be the same after all this has been sorted out.
What’s Next With Computing? IBM discusses AI, neural nets and quantum computing. Many can agree that those technologies will be important. Public cloud providers increasingly provide sophisticated flavours of data analysis and increasingly Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Central Banks Are Using Big Data to Help Shape Policy. Over the past few years, machine learning (ML) has evolved from an interesting new approach that allows computers to beat champions at chess and Go, into one that is touted as a panacea for almost everything. 2018 will be the start of what could be a longstanding battle between chipmakers to determine who creates the hardware that artificial intelligence lives on.
ARM processor based PCs are coming. As Microsoft and Qualcomm jointly announced in early December that the first Windows 10 notebooks with ARM-based Snapdragon 835 processors will be officially launched in early 2018, there will be more and more PCs with ARM processor architecture hitting the market. Digitimes Research expects that ARM-based models may dominate lower-end PC market, but don’t hold your breath on this. It is rumoured that “wireless LTE connectivity” function will be incorporated into all the entry-level Window 10 notebooks with ARM processors, branded by Microsoft as the “always-connected devices.” HP and Asustek have released some ARM-based notebooks with Windows 10S.
Sources:
Ohjelmistoalan osaajapula pahenee – kasvu jatkuu
PC market set to return to growth in 2018
PC market could return to growth in 2019
PC sales grow for the first time in five years
PCI-SIG Finalizes and Releases PCIe 4.0, Version 1 Specification: 2x PCIe Bandwidth and More
Hot Chips 2017: We’ll See PCIe 4.0 This Year, PCIe 5.0 In 2019
Outsourcing remains strategic in the digital era
8 hot IT hiring trends — and 8 going cold
EDA Challenges Machine Learning
The Battle of AI Processors Begins in 2018
How to create self-driving private clouds
ZeroStack Lays Out Vision for Five-Step Journey to Self-Driving Cloud
2017 – the year of containers! It wasn’t? Oops. Maybe next year
2018′s Software Engineering Talent Shortage— It’s quality, not just quantity
How Central Banks Are Using Big Data to Help Shape Policy
Digitimes Research: ARM-based models may dominate lower-end PC market
Intel Halts Spectre, Meltdown CPU Patches Over Unstable Code
Spectre and Meltdown: Linux creator Linus Torvalds criticises Intel’s ‘garbage’ patches
Meltdown/Spectre week three: World still knee-deep in something nasty
What’s Next With Computing? IBM discusses AI, neural nets and quantum computing.
PCI Express 4.0 as Fast As Possible
Microsoft has developed its own Linux!
Microsoft Built Its Own Linux Because Everyone Else Did
Facebook has built its own switch. And it looks a lot like a server
Googlella on oma sisäinen linux
Is the writing on the wall for on-premises IT? This survey seems to say so
12 reasons why digital transformations fail
7 habits of highly effective digital transformations
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Tomi Engdahl says:
5 things CIOs misunderstand about application development
https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2018/7/5-things-cios-misunderstand-about-application-development?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Do you have a blind spot or two regarding the daily realities of your application developers? Here’s what IT execs sometimes don’t “get” about modern application development
IT leaders, you didn’t get to where you are today without knowing your stuff.
Still, as a CIO or high-ranking IT exec, you’re probably not doing in-the-trenches development work anymore. Rather, you’re leading your company’s overall digital business strategy, ensuring your team is driving toward critical business goals, crunching budgets, communicating with the executive team, meeting with customers, and so forth. If you’re writing code on a regular basis, something’s probably amiss.
Which is all to say: It’s natural for IT leaders to have a blind spot or two when it comes to the day-to-day realities of their development teams.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Innovation
The 2018 Top Programming Languages
https://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/the-2018-top-programming-languages
Why is Python continuing to gain programmer mindshare? Two other changes in the Top Programming Languages may give a hint as to wh
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arm, the company that designs the chips that power virtually every smartphone and IoT device, published its roadmap for the next two years
Arm wants to power your next laptop
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/16/arm-wants-to-power-your-next-laptop/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
Arm, the company that designs the chips that power virtually every smartphone and IoT device, published its roadmap for the next two years today. That’s the first time Arm has done so and the reason for this move, it seems, is that the company wants to highlight its ambitions to get its chips into laptops.
So far, Arm-based laptops are far and in-between, though Microsoft recently made a major move in this direction thanks to its push for always connected Windows laptops.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jillian D’Onfro / CNBC:
How Google is improving accessibility by developing a standardized process for new products and UI elements rather than relying on grassroots advocacy
How Google has stepped up its efforts to makes its own tech more accessible to the disabled
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/18/google-accessibility-advances-and-challenges.html
In the past few years, Google has shifted the way that it thinks about accessibility, moving from grassroots advocacy to codified systems.
Beyond making all its products accessible, the next big challenge is finding ways for its technology to help disabled people navigate the wider world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nvidia forecast lags Wall Street as crypto demand evaporates
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nvidia-results/nvidia-forecasts-revenue-below-estimates-on-weak-crypto-demand-idUSKBN1L12FJ
Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) shares fell as much as 5 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday after the chip maker said cryptocurrency-fueled demand had dried up and it forecast sales below Wall Street targets, overshadowing quarterly results that otherwise beat expectations.
The company’s bleak outlook for cryptocurrency chips was a sharp reversal from the prior fiscal quarter, when sales to so-called miners of digital currencies such as bitcoin and ethereum amounted to $289 million, nearly a 10th of Nvidia’s revenue. Nvidia previously had forecast sales for cryptocurrency chips for the fiscal second quarter ended July 29 of about $100 million. On Thursday it reported actual revenue of only $18 million.
“We benefited in the last several quarters from an unusual lift from crypto,” CEO Jensen Huang said on a conference call with analysts, “but at this time, we consider it to be immaterial for the second half” of the fiscal year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arm unveiled its Client CPU roadmap through 2020, including forward-looking performance estimates. Following up the Cortex-A76, released earlier this year, will be a CPU codenamed ‘Deimos.’ Expected this year, ‘Deimos’ will be optimized for 7nm and provide 15% improved compute performance. In 2019, the CPU codenamed ‘Hercules’ will become available. Optimized for 5nm and 7nm, ‘Hercules’ should improve power and area efficiency by 10%. Both are based on Arm’s DynamIQ architecture that allows clustering of multiple cores. A major Arm goal over the next five years is to break into the Windows laptop and Chromebook markets. Ian Smythe, senior director of marketing programs at Arm, said the chips are aimed at 5G, always-connected devices, where power is the primary consideration. “In laptops, 5 watts is straightforward, but in handsets we can provide high performance in 2.5 watts. So you get performance at different power points.”
Source: https://semiengineering.com/week-in-review-design-low-power-6/
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Accelerating mobile and laptop performance: Arm announces Client CPU roadmap
https://www.arm.com/company/news/2018/08/accelerating-mobile-and-laptop-performance
News highlights
Arm unveils its first-ever public CPU forward-looking roadmap and performance numbers
Client CPU’s expected to deliver year-over-year performance improvements of >15% for compute through 2020
Arm positioned for laptop share gain with roadmap designed for 5G always-on, always-connected devices
Over the last five years, advances in Arm technology have brought desktop-class PC performance into our smartphones, fundamentally changing how we use technology in our daily lives. This is a direct result of Arm’s annual cadence of introducing new world-class CPU designs, which have delivered double-digit gains every year in instructions-per-clock (IPC) performance since 2013. Arm is now applying this same design leadership, along with optimizing for the latest advances in process technology from our foundry partners, to enable the PC industry to overcome their reliance on Moore’s law – which has definitely slowed – and deliver a high-performance, always-on, always-connected laptop experience. It’s an experience that will be a necessity as 5G enables an entirely new world of connected possibilities.
The latest example of this is our recently launched Cortex-A76 CPU. The Cortex-A76 is delivering an unprecedented 35% gain in performance compared to the previous generation, without compromising Arm’s efficiency leadership. This is an industry milestone for multiple reasons. Firstly, it’s the foundational CPU IP for the first 7nm SoCs expected to be in production later this year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NAND flash market remains in oversupply
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20180817VL200.html
The global NAND flash market remained in oversupply in the second quarter of 2018, though the market posted a 3.5% sequential increase in revenues, according to DRAMeXchange.
Average NAND flash contract prices fell between 15% and 20% sequentially in the second quarter, but bit shipments bounced back thanks to a pick-up in demand for high-density products from China-based smartphone vendors, said DRAMeXchange. Revenues of the global NAND flash industry came to US$16.29 billion in the second quarter.
Looking forward, DRAMeXchange warned of a nearly 10% sequential decline in NAND flash contract prices for the third quarter, citing the continued oversupply. “There are noticeable signs that the demand growth will be limited despite the contributions from the traditional busy season,” noted DRAMeXchange analyst Ben Yeh. “Shipments of mainstream consumer electronics products such as smartphones and notebooks during 3Q18 are not expected to increase significantly. Also, memory module makers will be carrying high levels of inventory.”
Falling NAN flash prices will also stimulate shipments of high-capacity (8TB, 16TB) SSDs for servers, Yeh indicated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Nvidia debuts GeForce RTX 2000 GPU series with RTX 2070, RTX 2080, RTX 2080 Ti, claiming up to “6 times more performance” than last gen, shipping begins Sept 20
Nvidia announces RTX 2000 GPU series with ‘6 times more performance’ and ray-tracing
$1,199 for Nvidia’s fastest GeForce card
https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/20/17758724/nvidia-geforce-rtx-2080-specs-pricing-release-date-features
Nvidia is unveiling its new GeForce RTX 2000 series of graphics cards at Gamescom in Germany today. While we’ve seen a number of teasers and plenty of card leaks recently, the GeForce RTX 2080 is finally official. Based on Nvidia’s new Turing architecture, the RTX 2080 is designed to succeed the popular GTX 1080 and push new real-time ray-tracing effects in upcoming games.
Nvidia says the RTX 2080 is designed for overclocking, and the RTX 2070 will offer more performance than Nvidia’s Titan XP card. The RTX 2080 Ti is the flagship, clocked at 1515MHz with 4352 CUDA cores and 11GB of RAM (full specs here), while the regular RTX 2080 will be clocked at 1515MHz with 2944 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6 RAM (full specs here).
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/20-series/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frank Catalano / GeekWire:
Microsoft will launch Minecraft: Education Edition on the iPad in September, says the school version now has 35M licensees in 115 countries
http://www.geekwire.com/2018/minecraft-education-edition-comes-apples-ipad-education-features-expand-mainstream-version-game/
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8331-fotorealismi-tulee-pelaamiseen-mutta-se-maksaa
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Is Planning a New Low-Cost MacBook, Pro-Focused Mac Mini
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-20/apple-is-said-to-plan-revamped-low-cost-macs-to-reignite-sales
Apple Inc. will release a new low-cost laptop and a professional-focused upgrade to the Mac mini desktop later this year, ending a drought of Mac computers that has limited sales of the company’s longest-running line of devices, according to people familiar with the plans.
The new laptop will look similar to the current MacBook Air, but will include thinner bezels around the screen. The display, which will remain about 13-inches, will be a higher-resolution “Retina” version that Apple uses on other products, the people said.
The current MacBook Air, which costs $1,000, remains Apple’s only laptop without a high-resolution screen.
When Apple releases new Macs in the fall, it often does so in October, following the launch of new iPhones. The company is planning to debut three new iPhones, Apple Watches with larger screens, and new iPad Pros later this year, other people familiar with the plans said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft is working reducing the size on monthly updates for Windows 10
https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-is-working-reducing-the-size-on-monthly-updates-for-windows-10/
Microsoft is working on reducing the size of monthly Windows updates. The Redmond giant disclosed the details in a blog post on Tech Community. Microsoft, however, didn’t disclose the name for the monthly updates but it might start with RS5 release.
Right now Microsoft doesn’t release new features with the monthly updates. Instead, they release security patches and bug fixes but this might change in the future. Microsoft also releases cumulative updates almost every month which contain all the updates previous updates. This results in the increase in update size over time.
What’s next for Windows 10 and Windows Server quality updates
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-IT-Pro-Blog/What-s-next-for-Windows-10-and-Windows-Server-quality-updates/ba-p/229461
Tomi Engdahl says:
Survey says Python is top programming language
https://www.embedded.com/electronics-news/4460978/Survey-says-Python-is-top-programming-language
Tomi Engdahl says:
Computing Ethics Gets an Update
https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1333605
In response to significant changes in computing in the last 25 years, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has updated its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
When the code was last changed in 1992, it was still possible for a lone developer to produce a significant piece of software–but even then, software development was changing. Numerous free and open source projects were benefiting from collaboration among developers worldwide, and effective collaborative software development processes were being created and shared.
With the advent of Agile development processes, the circle of collaboration expanded to include the client. The quality of software continued to improve, and software itself aligned more with the client’s expectations.
As the profession welcomed psychologists as collaborators, user interfaces improved. Users became less likely to make mistakes that would lead to harm or even death. Best practices began to mature.
Many computing professionals–even those with strong liberal arts backgrounds–do not have the depth of knowledge and experience in psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, ethics, design and communication theory necessary to fully analyze the impact of complex software systems, especially as they are being built. Experts from those fields who have experience in computing need to be drawn into collaborations as an integral part of the practice of computing in order to advance computing excellence.
The updated ACM Code of Ethics expresses the conscience of the computing profession and is a call to think differently about the nature of computing. It guides professionals in taking a more expansive approach to computing.
A widespread, collaborative, and open practice of applying the updated code when designing and implementing systems will improve the computing profession as happened with the collaborative software development methodologies of the 1990s. The profession has benefited from broadened collaboration in the past. Much is to be gained by expanding the circle again.
ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Every Engineer Needs to Know about Ray Tracing
https://www.designnews.com/design-hardware-software/why-every-engineer-needs-know-about-ray-tracing/154993415159316?ADTRK=UBM&elq_mid=5370&elq_cid=876648
Novel chip architecture promises to lead the way in making ray tracing the new standard in delivering realistic quality to design engineers.
If you’re an engineer or developer working with VR/AR/XR, product design, simulation—or if you use CAD in any form—you should add ray tracing to your vocabulary, if it isn’t already there. With its new chip architecture, Nvidia is promising to bring the sort of high-quality graphics previously reserved for the highest-end video games and big-budget Hollywood movies into the engineering workflow and product design applications.
Who Is Ray? And What Is He Tracing?
Though similar, “ray tracing” in terms of computer graphics should not be confused with the term as it is applied to physics (calculating the paths of waves and particles through varying mediums). The ray tracing we mean here refers to simulating light and the way it behaves in the real world.
Computer graphics, as they are commonly seen today, mimic this effect with rasterization. Rasterization, in essence, creates images by turning the data (color, position, texture) of each individual pixel or polygon of an object into digital imagery. It’s very good and can create some very photorealistic imagery in its own right—especially with today’s high powered computers. And the big plus is that it can be done very fast computationally.
Ray tracing, by contrast, works by simulating the light enacting on virtual objects. It actually “traces” the path of the virtual light (as pixels) as it interacts with virtual objects—bouncing, being absorbed, blocked, etc. The result is that you get a much more realistic rendering of an object because the virtual light is behaving in the way that real light does.
It’s not a new idea. Ray tracing has existed as a concept at least since the 1960s, when Arthur Appel, a researcher at IBM, examined the idea in a paper titled, “Some techniques for shading machine renderings of solids.”
The longstanding issue with ray tracing is that it is very computationally intensive to pull off and hasn’t been feasible for rendering real-time graphics. It has, however, found plenty of other uses in arenas where graphics can be pre-rendered. If you’ve been to the movies recently, you’ve witnessed the magic of ray tracing.
Nvidia’s new hardware aims to take all the work out of ray tracing, which could substantially cut costs and eventually open up its accessibility to a wide range of enterprise applications. “Ray tracing is going to revolutionize enterprise applications, cinematic experiences, and immersive VR,”
The Turing Test
At the heart of Nvidia’s new Turing architecture are processors dedicated to ray tracing called RT Cores. Each RT Core is designed to accelerate the processing of light and sound in 3D environments at a speed of 10 giga rays per second (a giga ray is 1 billion light ray calculations). Coupled with the RT Cores are a series of Tensor Cores—processors designed specifically for AI and machine learning processing. By combining the ray-tracing optimization of the RT Cores with the AI capabilities of the machine cores, Nvidia says its Turing architecture can accelerate features like removing signal noise (denoising), adjusting image resolution to screens to preserve quality (resolution scaling), and converting video frame rates (video re-timing).
Tomi Engdahl says:
CIOs say R.I.P. IT project management
https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2018/8/cios-say-rip-it-project-management?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Top CIOs explain why they’ve shifted their IT focus to managing products instead of projects
The most successful IT organizations are not order-takers: They are innovators. They aren’t sitting around waiting for projects tossed over the fence. They’ve torn those fences down. Now they’re working hand in hand with other parts of the business on cross-functional, co-located teams to drive product strategy and business value.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux 4.19 lets you declare your trust in AMD, IBM and Intel
Wave the the CPU trust flag if you’re feeling safe enough
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/28/linux_419_trust/
Linux v4.19-rc1, release candidate code published on Sunday, allows those building their own kernel or Linux distribution to choose whether or not to trust the CPU hardware random number generator, a decision that has become complicated in the wake of the revelations about government surveillance over the past five years.
When random number generation is insufficiently random, encryption based on such numbers can be broken with less effort. Among the security-minded, there’s concern that hardware makers might offer subpar randomization unknowingly, as a result of espionage, or to accommodate demands from government law enforcement or intelligence agencies.
The paranoia wasn’t always so palpable. Back in 2013, Linus Torvalds, Lord of the Linux, dismissed calls to ditch Intel’s RDRAND processor instruction, noting that the Linux kernel uses multiple sources of input to generate random numbers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everything you might like to know about storage (this week) but were too afraid to ask
We’ve got you covered
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/28/storage_roundup/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Alcorn / Tom’s Hardware:
Intel debuts Core U and Y series chips, which were codenamed Whiskey and Amber Lake, saying they improve battery life and connectivity with integrated Wi-Fi — Intel is rolling out six new processors in the new Whiskey Lake U-series and Amber Lake Y-series.
Intel Launches Whiskey Lake And Amber Lake CPUs for Laptops
by Paul Alcorn August 28, 2018 at 1:02 PM
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-whiskey-lake-amber-lake,37704.html
Intel is rolling out six new processors in the new Whiskey Lake U-series and Amber Lake Y-series. These new processors come with new connectivity features, like support for Gigabit Wi-Fi and improved audio DSPs, and will debut in new laptops, 2-in-1s, and thin-and-light devices in the fall.
Intel’s Kaby Lake-Refresh U-series models landed last year with the surprising addition of twice as many cores within the same power envelope. Intel also announced that it would include three different process nodes within the same eighth generation of processors, a first, which included the Kaby Lake-R, Coffee Lake, and Canon Lake processors.
Intel’s delayed 10nm process has slowed progress on the smaller Cannon Lake processors, so the company developed the 14nm++ Whiskey Lake and 14nm Amber Lake processors to fill the gap between generations.
Intel designed the 15W U-series processors for mainstream laptops and 2-in-1s.
Intel hasn’t been very forthcoming with specifications
We do know that that the Whiskey Lake Core i7 and i5 models come with the same basic four-core eight-thread design as the Kaby Lake-R models, but achieve much higher single-core boost frequencies. The Core i7 model tops out at an impressive 4.6 GHz, a marked improvement over the previous-gen’s 4.2 GHz maximum. The i5 and i3 models top out at 3.9 GHz, which is an improvement of 300 and 500 MHz, respectively.
Provided the laptop’s cooling solution is sufficient, these higher boost frequencies will provide snappier performance in common desktop tasks, like web browsers and light office applications. Intel maintains the same 15W TDP envelope, but it is important to remember that the company measures that specification at the base frequency. Higher boost frequencies could consume more power, but do not impact the TDP rating.
The Whiskey Lake i7 and i5 processors offer similar base frequencies, but the i3 models step back 100 MHz. The processors also come with the same amount of L3 cache and support dual-channel DDR4-2400/LPDDR3-2133.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s latest 8th-Gen Core processors focus on improving Wi-Fi speeds
Amber Lake and Whiskey Lake are the latest members of the family
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/8/28/17790398/intel-eighth-gen-core-processors-gigabit-wifi-amber-whiskey-lake-u-y-series-ifa-2018
IFA 2018 is here, and to go along with the wealth of new laptops that will presumably be announced over the next few days, Intel is taking the wraps off its latest 8th-Gen processors. There are three new Whiskey Lake U-series chips (Intel’s midrange line for laptops), and, for the first time, there are three 8th-Gen Amber Lake Y-series processors.
While Intel is still using the same underlying architecture as its previous processors — making these new chips ostensibly an “8.5-Gen” lineup, at least where the U-series models are concerned — the big change that the company is highlighting is integrated gigabit Wi-Fi support. Intel promises that this should result in dramatically faster internet speeds, especially apparent on the cheaper, midrange laptops that may not have been able to offer those kinds of speeds before.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Dropbox Dropping Linux Support Says
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/08/29/0949228/what-dropbox-dropping-linux-support-says?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
For a company to support Linux, they have to consider supporting: Multiple file systems, multiple distributions, multiple desktops, multiple init systems, multiple kernels. If you’re an open source developer, focusing on a single distribution, that’s not a problem. If you’re a company that produces a product (and you stake your living on that product), those multiple points of entry do become a problem. Let’s consider Adobe (and Photoshop). If Adobe wanted to port their industry-leading product to Linux, how do they do that? Do they spend the time developing support for ext4, btrfs, Ubuntu, Fedora, GNOME, Mate, KDE, systemd? You see how that might look from the eyes of any given company?
What Dropbox dropping Linux support says
Jack Wallen makes a —possibly unpopular —case for Dropbox dropping Linux support.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/what-dropbox-dropping-linux-support-says/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Dell unveils its fall line-up of Alexa-ready Inspiron, XPS, and Vostro laptops and 2-in-1s, updated with 8th Gen Intel Core processors
Dell shows its fall lineup of Alexa-ready Inspiron, XPS, and Vostro laptops and 2-in-1s
https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/28/dell-shows-its-fall-line-up-of-alexa-ready-inspiron-xps-and-vostro-laptops-and-2-in-1s/
Dell today revealed its new lineup of laptops, 2-in-1 laptop-tablet hybrids, and monitors with the latest components from Intel. The company showed off the devices at the IFA tech trade show in Berlin, and some of the models feature Alexa and Cortana voice command support.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/tassa-ovat-parhaat-potilastietojarjestelmat-laakarit-arvioivat-suomen-terveydenhuollon-tilaa-6738696
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8359-mit-julkisti-uuden-superohjelmointikielensa
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8363-snap-tekee-linuxista-turvallisemman
Tomi Engdahl says:
These Are the Most Hyped Technologies of 2018
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/these-are-most-hyped-technologies-2018?ADTRK=UBM&elq_mid=5457&elq_cid=876648
What’s got the hype? And what’s losing it? The 2018 Gartner Hype Cycle report outlines the current maturity and adoption of technologies and gives predictions of what’s on the horizon for AI, Blockchain, IoT, VR/AR, and even battery technologies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why the Future of Data Storage is (Still) Magnetic Tape
https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/why-the-future-of-data-storage-is-still-magnetic-tape
Studies show [PDF] that the amount of data being recorded is increasing at 30 to 40 percent per year. At the same time, the capacity of modern hard drives, which are used to store most of this, is increasing at less than half that rate. Fortunately, much of this information doesn’t need to be accessed instantly. And for such things, magnetic tape is the perfect solution.
Seriously? Tape?
Indeed, much of the world’s data is still kept on tape, including data for basic science, such as particle physics and radio astronomy, human heritage and national archives, major motion pictures, banking, insurance, oil exploration, and more. There is even a cadre of people (including me, trained in materials science, engineering, or physics) whose job it is to keep improving tape storage.
Tape has been around for a long while, yes, but the technology hasn’t been frozen in time. Quite the contrary. Like the hard disk and the transistor, magnetic tape has advanced enormously over the decades.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s Chrome browser is now 10 years old
A lot has changed in a decade
https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/2/17811844/google-chrome-browser-10-years-history
Google first released its Chrome browser 10 years ago today. Marketed as a “fresh take on the browser,” Chrome debuted with a web comic from Google to mark the company’s first web browser. It was originally launched as a Windows-only beta app before making its way to Linux and macOS more than a year later in 2009. Chrome debuted at a time when developers and internet users were growing frustrated with Internet Explorer, and Firefox had been steadily building momentum.
Google used components from Apple’s WebKit rendering engine and Mozilla’s Firefox to help bring Chrome to life, and it made all of Chrome’s source code available openly as its Chromium project. Chrome focused on web standards and respected HTML5, and it even passed both the Acid1 and Acid2 tests at the time of its release. This was a significant step as Microsoft was struggling to adhere to open web standards with its Internet Explorer browser.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Next major Windows update will be called Windows 10 October 2018 Update and will arrive that month
Windows 10’s next major update arrives in October
https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/31/17805372/microsoft-windows-10-october-2018-update
Tomi Engdahl says:
AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 2950X CPU Now Available
by Anton Shilov on August 31, 2018 11:05 AM EST
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13315/amds-ryzen-threadripper-2950x-cpu-now-available
As pre-announced, AMD has begun selling its latest Ryzen Threadripper 2950X processor. The new CPU features 16 cores and is aimed at high-end desktops that can be overclocked for additional performance. And with half the cores, the new CPU is priced accordingly, with a price tag half that of AMD’s flagship Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX, its sibling counter-part meant for extreme workstations.
The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X processor relies on two eight-core Zen+ dies fabbed using GlobalFoundries’ 12LP process technology on a single piece of substrate. The CPU thus offers 16 cores featuring SMT technology and running at 3.5 – 4.4 GHz, featuring 32 MB of cache, a quad-channel DDR4-2933 memory subsystem, and 60 lanes of PCIe Gen 3.
With a TDP of 180 W, the Ryzen Threadripper 2950X is compatible with all AMD X399-based platforms featuring sTR4 sockets. Meanwhile, since these chips are designed to be overclocked
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hello ‘WOS’: Windows on Arm now has a price
Full Windows on new Qualcomm silicon at last
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/31/hello_wos_windows_on_arm_now_has_a_price/
IFA Microsoft’s long journey away from Intel reached escape velocity this week, as the first traditional laptop machine with Qualcomm’s Arm processor was revealed by Lenovo, in the shape of the Yoga C630 WOS.
“WOS” stands for “Windows on Snapdragon”, how Qualcomm prefers to call “Windows on Arm”, and since it’s Qualcomm Inside, not Intel Inside, it gets to call the shots.
This is the second “always connected” PC from Lenovo to run a Qualcomm chip, but the first to run the Snapdragon 850 processor. Officially announced last year, the Microsoft-Qualcomm alliance Always Connected was created to produce chips with support for legacy x86 instructions into an Arm processor, which should result in full blown Windows running on devices with greater power efficiency than Intel could manage.
How much more efficiency? “25+ hours of local video playback on a single charge,” says Qualcomm. The proof’s in the pudding, though: once the x86 instructions are tapped, and the Yoga is put through a real-life work day, we’ll have a better idea.
This particular Yoga is a smart but generic 1.2kg machine with 13.3-inch touchscreen convertible display. Naturally, there’s an LTE modem built in: no more hunting around for dodgy hotspots, Lenovo stresses. The Snapdragon 850 (2.90Ghz) is supported by 4GB of RAM.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Who wants to read 34 pages about getting VMware Private Cloud to run on NetApp HCI?
Deployment in ‘less than 30 min’ – but not including reading the manual
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/31/netapp_element_hci_vmware_private_cloud/
NetApp has produced a verified architecture for VMware on its Element hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), promising deployment in under 30 minutes if its rules are obeyed.
VMware Private Cloud (VPC) is basically VMware installed on-premises. NetApp’s Element HCI is, as we understand it, a converged system, with separate compute and storage nodes which scale independently, and are claimed to function as a single effectively hyperconverged system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Post-HCI hardware vendor Nutanix keen to show its soft side as it flashes Q4 numbers
Boasts of passing billion buck annual revenue milestone
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/31/nutanix_results/
“We expect to achieve Red Hat-like sales* by fiscal 2021,” said Nutanix CEO and chairman Dheeraj Pandey in an earnings call as the company reported its Q4 and full year fiscal 2018 results.
Invoking a software firm was not a coincidence, it seemed, as the exec and his CFO continued to push the message that the firm is moving towards a software-only model.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Good news, bad news, weird news – it’s the week in networking
Air traffic messages over the Internet? All this and more
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/09/01/network_roundup_august_30/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The State of Agile Software in 2018
https://developers.slashdot.org/story/18/09/02/1734220/the-state-of-agile-software-in-2018?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
On the surface, the world of agile software development is bright, since it is now mainstream. But the reality is troubling, because much of what is done is faux-agile, disregarding agile’s values and principles, writes programmer Martin Fowler. The three main challenges we should focus on are: fighting the Agile Industrial Complex and its habit of imposing process upon teams, raising the importance of technical excellence, and organizing our teams around products (rather than projects), he added.
The State of Agile Software in 2018
https://martinfowler.com/articles/agile-aus-2018.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sara Salinas / CNBC:
Amazon shares rose to $2,050.50 in intraday trading, valuing the company at $1T, a month after Apple reached the milestone — Amazon market cap hit $1 trillion on Tuesday, becoming the second publicly traded U.S. company to reach the record valuation after Apple.
Amazon falls off $1 trillion market cap, leaving Apple the only public US company above the benchmark
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/04/amazon-hits-1-trillion-in-market-value.html
Amazon briefly crosses the mark five weeks after Apple reached $1 trillion in early August.
Analysts cite the company’s ever-diversifying portfolio as a value driver.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Does Linus Pirate Windows??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3bezYerYxQ
It’s still pretty crazy how Windows and certain apps are tied to the motherboard still…
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why do we need SO MANY SERVERS??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQED3tF8wuw
“I can’t help but think all of this is just an excuse so Linus can create an over-complicated networking and server setup.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chrome 69 arrives with revamped design, more powerful omnibox, and better password manager
https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/04/chrome-69-arrives-with-revamped-design-more-powerful-omnibox-and-better-password-manager/
Google today launched Chrome 69 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Android, and iOS, just a few days after the browser’s 10-year anniversary. The release includes a new design, more powerful omnibox, updated password manager, more accurate autofill, plenty of developer-specific changes, and a slew of security improvements. You can update to the latest version now using Chrome’s built-in updater, download it directly from google.com/chrome, or grab it from Google Play and Apple’s App Store.
With over 1 billion users, Chrome is a browser as well as a major platform that web developers must consider.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Processing In Memory
https://semiengineering.com/processing-in-memory/
Growing volume of data and limited improvements in performance create new opportunities for approaches that never got off the ground.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unity CEO says half of all games are built on Unity
https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/05/unity-ceo-says-half-of-all-games-are-built-on-unity/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
Unity CEO John Riccitiello came to TechCrunch Disrupt SF to give everyone an update on the world’s most popular game engine. You might not be aware that most of the games you’re playing, especially mobile games, are built using Unity.
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Disrupt SF 2018
Unity CEO says half of all games are built on Unity
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Disrupt starts today
Unity CEO John Riccitiello came to TechCrunch Disrupt SF to give everyone an update on the world’s most popular game engine. You might not be aware that most of the games you’re playing, especially mobile games, are built using Unity.
For those not familiar with game engines, Riccitiello started by describing game engines very clearly. Back in the days, “[game developers] would write out a game program that had lots of art assets, lots of animation, lots of sounds. But they also had to write a rendering engine, to write a system for animations, to write a system for sound, to write a system for physics,” he said.
It’s pretty much half of all games period.
John Riccitiello
And when you wanted to port your game to another platform, you basically had to start over. Unity works on 30 platforms, including Windows, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Oculus Rift, etc. Unity competes with Epic’s Unreal Engine, the game engine behind Fortnite and many games on the PS4 and Xbox One.
There are also less popular game engines from Valve, Amazon and others. The biggest game developers behind AAA franchises (think Battlefield or Assassin’s Creed) have their own in-house engines.
But it’s clear that Unity has captured a huge chunk of the market. According to Riccitiello, every month, people download 2 billion copies of Unity games. People tried at least one Unity game on over 3 billion devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tencent launches strictest verification system yet to detect minors after Beijing’s call for action on gaming
https://m.scmp.com/tech/article/2163015/tencent-launches-strictest-verification-system-yet-detect-minors-after-beijings
Chinese President Xi Jinping has spoken publicly about the need to help children’s eyesight and called for the nation to address the problem
Tomi Engdahl says:
The package manager for Windows
Chocolatey – Software Management Automation
https://chocolatey.org
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nico Grant / Bloomberg:
Dell reports revenue of $22.9B, up 18% YoY, and projects $92B in adjusted revenue for 2019 as it weighs a plan to go public again — Dell Technologies Inc., the world’s largest closely held technology company, reported growing sales, and increased its outlook for the year …
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-06/dell-reports-rising-sales-amid-planned-return-to-public-markets
Tomi Engdahl says:
The monopoly-busting case against Google, Amazon, Uber, and Facebook
What tech companies have to fear from antitrust law
https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/5/17805162/monopoly-antitrust-regulation-google-amazon-uber-facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Vincent / The Verge:
Google unveils Dataset Search, a search engine that will cover datasets from environmental and social sciences, government, and ProPublica-style news orgs
Google launches new search engine to help scientists find the datasets they need
Dataset Search could be a scientist’s best friend
https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/5/17822562/google-dataset-search-service-scholar-scientific-journal-open-data-access
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
AMD announces a range of new chips to compete with Intel’s lower-end lineup, including the dual-core Athlon 200GE for $55 — Advanced Micro Devices is rolling out its latest processors based on the Zen architecture that will attack the low end of rival Intel’s product line.
AMD marches out new Athlon, Athlon Pro, and Ryzen Pro desktop processors
https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/06/amd-marches-out-new-athlon-athlon-pro-and-ryzen-pro-desktop-processors/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chrome is turning into the new Internet Explorer 6
Chrome-only sites are a problem
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/4/16805216/google-chrome-only-sites-internet-explorer-6-web-standards
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Next Cold War Is Here, and It’s All About Data
https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-new-data-cold-war
Combatants in the new Cold War are fighting over the currency of the modern age: personal information. The battles are over who controls data. Vying against each other are those societies that believe that individuals have an absolute right to control their personal data—to exercise the same kind of dominion over data that they do over their bodies or their personal property—and those that believe that personal data is a good to be traded on the open market and thus subject to the same market forces at play elsewhere. May the most innovative, efficient company win.
The EU stands firmly for the interests of the individual. The regulatory language of the GDPR cogently expresses its view, harmonizing data protection rules throughout the EU and requiring that any company, anywhere, must respect the data rights of EU citizens, or face stiff penalties.
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8404-arm-kannettavien-toinen-aalto-joko-nyt