New Linux Kernel Goes Faster
The newest update to the Linux operating-system kernel features a number of enhancements that should offer a performance boost, particularly for running databases and other programs that require maximum resources from the server.
The 2.6.38 kernel features some "really deep changes," noted Linux creator and manager Linus Torvalds in an e-mail announcing the release. This kernel has been released only 10 weeks after the previous version, 2.6.37.
Linux 2.6.38 comes with a number of significant changes that should speed performance, including the addition of new technologies such as automatic process grouping and transparent huge pages. It also includes significant improvements in the VFS (virtual file system). Read more...
Cornerstone OnDemand Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering
Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc. today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 10,500,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $13.00 per share. The common stock will begin trading on March 17, 2011 on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "CSOD."
Cornerstone OnDemand is offering 7,500,000 shares of common stock and certain selling stockholders are offering 3,000,000 shares of common stock. In addition, the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,575,000 shares at the initial public offering price. Cornerstone OnDemand will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders. Read more...
SAP plans cloud version of HANA
SAP plans to offer a version of its HANA (High-Performance Analytic Appliance) software that will allow customers to upload data to the vendor's own cloud setup for processing, rather than deploy related infrastructure in-house, a senior executive of the company said.
HANA uses an in-memory computing engine, holding data to be processed in main memory for faster processing. This approach is designed to eliminate the need to read data from the database, process it, and then write data back to the database, SAP said. Read more...
Android 50 percent faster than iPhone 4 in loading Web pages
The latest Android smartphone loaded Web pages 52 percent faster than iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3, according to thousands of independent field tests released today by Blaze Software.
The Web page load times were about a second apart for the two devices in a study that amassed 45,000 load tests in all. For Android 2.3 on the Google Nexus S smartphone using a version of Chrome, the median load time was 2.144 seconds, compared to 3.254 seconds for iPhone 4 on iOS 4.3 running a version of Safari, according to the study. Read more...
Dell ships laptops with Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge chips
Dell on Thursday started shipping new Inspiron and Vostro laptops powered by Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors with prices starting at $499.
The company's Vostro 3000-series laptops will come with 13-, 14-, 15- and 17-inch screens, with prices starting at $499. The laptops will be equipped with the newest Core i3, i5 and i7 dual- and quad-core processors based on Intel's latest microarchitecture, code-named Sandy Bridge.
Dell also announced Inspiron R-series consumer laptops with Intel's new processors. The laptops will come with screen sizes of 14, 15 and 17 inches. Read more...