Google acquires Agnilux

Google has bought hardware company Agnilux; which is teaming up with Cisco on server technology, reports Network World.

It's speculated that Google's purchase of Agnilux will enable the search engine giant to deliver energy-efficient servers to run cloud-based services.

Agnilux was formed by ex-PA Semi employees while PA technology has been used to create Apple products such as the iPad and the upcoming iPhone 4G.

HP is gearing up for a major refresh of its Integrity server line, states PC World.

HP indicates that Intel's quad-core Tukwila processors will allow it to update its Integrity servers with a modular design that lets customers scale them more easily and reduce total cost of ownership.

Aside from slightly faster processors, HP hasn't made significant changes to most of the systems since the Integrity brand was introduced in 2003.

Microsoft plans to start rolling out the latest version of its SQL Server 2008 R2 in early May, says News Factor.

The R2 version of SQL Server 2008 takes advantage of processor cores while business intelligence technology called PowerPivot lets SQL Server 2008 manipulate data from virtually anywhere.

Ted Kummert, senior vice-president of the business platform division at Microsoft, says: "Our goal is to help customers extract value and business insight from that information, whether it is stored locally on their PC, in a data centre, or in the cloud.”