Intel bets on Brazil and aims to grow the future of the PC

Brazil, a country with higher growth in PC sales in Latin America over the past five years, is one of the bets from Intel to continue innovating and growing, according to Shmuel "Mooly" Eden, corporate vice president and general manager of PC Client Group Intel. The executive spoke on the future of PC on Tuesday in Sao Paulo, the opening of the 13th edition of the ICC (conference channel), a training program for resellers and technology integrators. Present in the third-largest PC market in the world - behind only the United States and China - the company invests in Brazil, where is "always looking at opportunities." 

Very humorous, the Israeli Mooly opened the "show" with a video showing the animated penguins of Madagascar showing the Core i5. He spoke to a packed audience in the auditorium almost Elis Regina, in Anhembi, about evolution, the transformation of the PC industry and the role of Brazil as one of the major markets. 

In 2000, Mooly recalled, 12% of computers were for personal use, and 88% for the corporate market. Last year, 72% of the machines were for personal use. "There was a phenomenon similar to the phone, which exploded with the arrival of the phone and customization." In the beginning, there was talk of a PC for home, then in a PC room in the house. Today, we talk about a notebook person. 

The user experience is key, said Mooly. And the company, accelerating a new class of notebooks, I once again make a revolution, and here comes Ultrabook. Intel created a fund of U.S. $ 300 million for the development of technologies, new usage models, new components. 

The device, which will combine the performance and capabilities of laptops with tablet features, aims to deliver a user experience secure, agile and quick, with an elegant design. An ultra-thin device, ultrafast, and ultrasseguro ultrassurpreendente. 

The first worldwide release should happen by the end of this year, with estimated price of $ 999 or less - and that should decrease over time. "It will be a monster," said Mooly. "Battery life will go from 5 or 6 hours for the entire day, 12 to 20 hours." For him, "is a fascinating way of communicating with these devices, it will be fantastic, he talks to me, answer my voice or gesture, did not keep me waiting." 

Mooly also spoke about the technologies that make possible the development of Ultrabook, and projected that in 2013 "I have the tablet PC when I want and when I need the same device." "The only way to invent the future is to create it," said Mooly - and that Intel is once again, want to do.

Source  jb.com.br

IBM develops chip inspired by the functioning of the brain

IBM created a computer chip that seeks to mimic the functioning of synapses in the brain, which paves the way for a machine capable of perceiving, learning, and in some situations, act like humans.


In IBM's view, computers with this type of chip - the company calls cognitive computers - "will not be programmed the same way that traditional computers." Instead, "is expected to learn from the experiences, find correlations, create hypotheses and memorize - and learn from - the results," said IBM in a statement.


In the brain, the synapses connecting the neurons to other cells including other neurons. These links can be strengthened, weakened or eliminated, allowing the brain to learn and adapt. Synapses are essential in the process of perception and thought.


It is this flexibility of connections that the IBM scientists are seeking to emulate the new chips.


The company did not elaborate on the technology works, but explains that "through advanced algorithms and circuits," chips are able to weaken or strengthen the links between its components, according to the information they receive.

Currently, there are systems capable of learning, but this process takes place at the software level rather than at the underlying hardware.


The system developed by IBM consists of two chips, each with 256 "electronic neurons" that are arranged in parallel and connected by "synapses" one of these chips has 262,144 "synapses" that are programmable and the other has 65,536, capable of learning. Although the circuit is not able to physically change the connections between components, can evolve to give priority to some links over others.


Unlike in conventional computers, these "neurons" (which constitute the system processor) are very close to the "synapses" (which is memory), which allows each connection consumes much less energy than usual - a the characteristics of the brain is precisely the reduced energy consumption given the enormous amount of links that do.


"The long term goal," IBM says, "is to build a system chip with ten billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses, consuming only one kilowatt of power and occupying less than two liters of volume." Estimates for the number of neurons in the human brain vary. Some point to values ​​of around 80 billion neurons, with other counts to suggest a number above 100 billion.


The company is already testing prototypes and design, which includes contributions from several American universities, received funding from DARPA, a research agency in dependence on the U.S. Department of Defense.

The technology could be applied in situations where a computer has to collect a large amount of unstructured information (which may include visual information, sound or temperature, for example), process it immediately, as humans do, and choose a given action.

One possible application would be the management of road traffic. Computers are already good at analyzing large amounts of data, since these are the right format. But they have difficulty perceiving an environment filled with different information, scattered and unpredictable, like the sound of children running, the image of the car floor, lights traffic lights and horns.

Source publico.pt

A pharmacist eliminating HP's computer business

Shortly after the announcement of radical restructuring at Hewlett-Packard (23.6% -21.80) (HP), the share of U.S. IT company in Wall Street has slumped drastically. In mid-morning New York trading, the paper quoted the end of the week at $ 23.42, an increase of more than 20 percent below the previous day's close. Shortly after the start of trading were HP papers even up to a new annual low of $ 22.75 by slumped.

The investors apparently punished by their reaction from the decision to cease all activities in the Smartphone and Tablet PC market and in future to concentrate on services for businesses and government agencies. At the same time, HP also introduced the PC business for discussion. Thus takes the world's largest computer manufacturers a step that made the rival IBM six years ago.


$ 10 billion

By the German CEO Leo Apotheker forced conversion comprises three steps: HP sets up the October production of tablet computers and smartphones. In addition to selling the PC business. By the end of the year HP computer could, under the name of another company being sold. Finally, the Group intends to take over the British software company Autonomy, which specializes in corporate clients for about ten billion dollars.


Had been rumors about a swap of the PC business, there have been several months already. Although it is responsible for the majority of sales from Hewlett-Packard, but at least raises profit. HP recently as March had rejected reports of a possible separation from the PC business as irresponsible. Whether there is also a loss of jobs was not immediately known. HP employs more than 300,000 people. For the conversion, the Group returned a billion dollars, as pharmacists said.


Purchase of Palm just last year


HP turns to a development which was initiated by the Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina. Under her leadership HP acquired Compaq Computer for $ 19 billion and has won the controversial business to the largest PC company in the world.


Then bought the Palo Alto-based HP just last year for $ 1.8 billion the smartphone pioneer Palm webOS with its operating system - now the production of smartphones and Tablet PCs with Palm software is set. In recent years the company has already made from pure PC-independent business and tries to focus increasingly on services for businesses.


This development was influenced by IBM, but also from Apple, and analysts said. "Apple has single-handedly pushed HP out of business with PCs, smartphones and tablets," the analyst Brian Marshall said of Gleacher & Co. in an interview. Instead of competing with Apple to consume, HP has decided to focus on business customers and thus compete with IBM, Oracle and Cisco.


Hewlett-Packard plans to cut losses


This concentration seems logical, after all pharmacists spent most of his working life at the German software company SAP, which also specializes in business software. "That his bread-and-butter business is," Marshall said. "Now he must deliver." Apple is a more aggressive rivals, said analyst Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee. "HP has probably noticed that it needs to limit his losses," he said. "And it makes sense to limit their losses sooner rather than later."


When you buy HP Autonomy pays $ 42.11 per share, 64 percent more than the last traded market value. Autonomy produces among other things, search for specific companies. It is one of the most expensive acquisitions in the 72-year history of Hewlett-Packard.


In the third quarter, HP grew its net profit rose nine percent to 1.93 billion dollars, equivalent to 93 U.S. cents per share versus 75 cents a year earlier. At the same time, the company revised its expectations for sales in the current year downward. How HP announced that sales rose last quarter by less than two percent to 31.2 billion dollars. For the current year, the company expects revenues from 127.2 to 127.6 billion dollars, slightly less than analysts expected.

Source derbund.ch