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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2006 DOE Contracts for Petaflop Supercomputer Springer Offers All Its Publications Online DSL Growth Soars Worldwide IBM Integrates IM with MS Office Microsoft to Combine Phones and Computers DOE CONTRACTS FOR PETAFLOP SUPERCOMPUTER The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has ordered the first petaflop supercomputing system and an upgrade of its Blue Gene system from Cray. DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory announced the $200 million arrangement last week, with plans for completion of the new supercomputer in 2008. The new system reportedly will attain 1,000 trillion floating-point operations per second (teraflops), or one petaflop. Oak Ridge scientists plan to use the system to tackle problems in energy, biology, and nanotechnology. The lab also expects to offer computing time to other researchers through a program that grants supercomputer access to academic and corporate institutions. Federal Computer Week, 26 June 2006 http://www.fcw.com/article95010-06-26-06-Web SPRINGER OFFERS ALL ITS PUBLICATIONS ONLINE Springer, a publisher of scientific, technical, and medical books, announced it will offer its complete list of publications online, on a single integrated platform. The company announced its e-book initiative at the American Library Association annual conference. The initial collection includes 3,000 titles from 2005, with 10,000 titles planned for 2006 and another 3,000 new e-books scheduled each year. Books will be available complete or as individual chapters in HTML and PDF. With the new model, libraries will own the e-books they buy and can store and archive them locally. Information Today, 26 June 2006 http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb060626-1.shtml DSL GROWTH SOARS WORLDWIDE According to the DSL Forum, DSL subscriptions have grown by 39 percent over the past year, with the most users in China (29.4 million, with 10 million added just in the past year) and the United States (22.2 million). Europe claims the largest share of DSL subscribers with 34 percent of the global market. The DSL user base in India shows the fastest growth with a 700 percent rise. According to the DSL Forum, these growth rates demonstrate a worldwide preference for DSL over cable connections. Silicon.com, 26 June 2006 http://networks.silicon.com/broadband/0,39024661,39159893,00.htm IBM INTEGRATES IM WITH MS OFFICE IBM reportedly plans to integrate its instant messaging (IM) and collaboration product, Lotus Sametime v. 7.5, with Microsoft Outlook, Office, and SharePoint applications. Sametime 7.5 will also connect directly to Research in Motion, Nokia, and Windows mobile devices. The Sametime technology will let users move an e-mail into IM and into a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone conversation with a few steps. Explained David Marshak, director of IBM Lotus Collaboration Technology, "Essentially we built an IM application on top of the Eclipse platform." Users can also share applications or launch Web conferences. The product is schedule to ship in the third quarter. InfoWorld, 26 June 2006 http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/06/26/79612_HNibmsametime_1.html MICROSOFT TO COMBINE PHONES AND COMPUTERS Microsoft reportedly will combine desktop computers with office and mobile phones in a strategy called "unified communications" through a line of products scheduled for the first half of 2007. The products will connect the company's Exchange Server e-mail system to advanced Internet-based PBX and traditional phone systems and link desktop and cellular phones to desktop and server computers. Voice recognition software will interpret messages phoned in by users and automatically generate e-mail notifications to the designated recipients. The Communications Server is an extension to Exchange that reportedly also permits users to have e-mail read to them by phone. New York Times, 26 June 2006 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/technology/26soft.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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