Large corporations, universities, and research labs have relied on high-performance computers (HPC)–or “supercomputers”–for years to solve complex problems in science, engineering, financial modeling, and other similar uses requiring advanced, heavy-duty computations. The high cost of these systems and their complexity have often kept them out of the hands of smaller companies, institutions, and departments that don’t have the budget or resources to purchase and maintain them. Cray (“The Supercomputer Company”–yes,

ingston Technology recently announced that they are participating in VMware's Alliance Affiliate Initiative. Kingston has established special memory discounts for resellers who purchase VMware solutions. The relationship also
includes creating innovative reseller support tools, such as webinars demonstrating the benefits of the VMware platform and Kingston server memory.

“Kingston has been a champion of the channel since our beginning, and working with VMware to bring virtualization to the world is an incredible opportunity,
said John Holland, vice president U.S. sales, Kingston. “We are honored to be a part of VMware's Affiliate Alliance Initiative and look forward to demonstrating the power that optimum memory brings to both the enterprise and small business customer.

Super Talent Technology late yesterday announced they have added two new series of SSD products in their MasterDrive family that deliver substantially faster performance than existing SSDs. The 128GB MasterDrive OX will be available this week at a street price of around $419.

These new SSDs are based on a sophisticated new multi-channel SATA-II (3.0 Gbits per sec) controller. The MasterDrive OX uses MLC NAND Flash to transfer data at speeds up to 150 MB/sec (sequential read) and 100 MB/sec (sequential write). The MasterDrive OX is offered in capacities up to 128GB, and is backed with a 1-year warranty. The MasterDrive PX employs SLC NAND Flash to deliver the best possible reliability and endurance. Furthermore, it supports breath-taking sequential read and write speeds, up to 170 and 130 MB/sec read and write speeds respectively. MasterDrive PX SSDs are available in 32 and 64GB capacities, and includes a 3-year warranty.

Don’t get TOO excited yet.  The Inquirer spills a lot of rumors, and its credibility is somewhat less because of that.  That said, it’s not always wrong, and there are some valid reasons why Google might be interested in Valve.  Although, you’d think with Android about to launch and Chrome just launched, they might be a little busy. Still, as The Inq says:Well placed sources tell us that Google is going to be buying Valve any second now. So why would Google, emperor of all things Web-based, want

There should be no doubt that streaming video is quickly gaining in popularity. Recent studies shows that about 20 percent of U.S. households are watching TV online. Hulu has quickly grown to be the eighth-largest video site in the U.S., and it is even hosting a number of TV season premiers before the shows’ officially broadcast dates. A new video search site, VideoSurf has recently sprung up, leveraging the mounting mountain of disparate online videos. Even Internet veteran, IMDb.com, has finally embraced streaming

WD Best-Selling Portable Drives Put Half a Terabyte of Storage In The Palm of Your Hand LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Sep. 15, 2008 – Catering to consumers on-the-go with the world’s most popular portable storage offerings, WD (NYSE: WDC) today introduced its new 500 GB capacity My Passport Portable USB Drives which are designed to make it easy to store a half a terabyte of music, videos or photos and carry them in the palm of your hand. Available now at WD’s online store (www.shopwd.com), the new 500 GB capacity

Microsoft and Pioneer Enter Into Patent Cross-Licensing Agreement to Foster Mutual Innovation in Consumer TechnologyAgreement covers a broad range of consumer products for both companies. REDMOND, Wash., and TOKYO — Sept. 16, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. and Pioneer Corp. signed a patent cross-licensing agreement that furthers the development of each company’s product lines and will expand technological innovation to enhance the overall customer experience. The cross-licensing agreement covers a broad range of consumer

The Corsair Flash Voyager Mini is a mall USB drive that utilizes a cap-less retractable connector plug which easily opens with the flick of the thumb, and its ergonomic rubberized housing makes it easy to connect and disconnect from any computer. Read on as we benchmark the 4GB and 8GB version to see how they do against eight other USB 2.0 Flash drives!

Don’t expect this issue to go away anytime soon. We know many are (understandably) upset over the DRM used on the critically-acclaimed game Spore, not just because of SecuROM but also because of the “three activations limitation” and one account per CD key (which was not noted in the manual; in fact the opposite was said in the manual!). And hey, if the game allows you to create the creatures you want, why not create a protest creature, eh? A look at Sporepedia (Spore’s official encyclopedia of creatures) shows

Pardon the headline mashup, but we’re combing two automotive stories into one post here. While the two stories might not necessarily be directly related, they both shed light on different views of what the future of automobiles might look like. The first story is about the juicy tidbits General Motors (GM) has just revealed about the production-version of the Chevrolet Volt, and the second story is about a bloke who recently completed a successful test run of a self-guided, robotic Toyota Prius he built “in