IT giants form open source storage coalition

IT giants including IBM, Cisco Systems, Computer Associates, Fujitsu, Sun Microsystems and Network Appliance plan to form an organisation to develop open source storage management software, reports ZDNet.

Jim Stallings, IBM`s VP of intellectual property and standards, described the move as a breakthrough in traditional storage.

IBM will donate a portion of its storage management technology to the new Aperi group, and other members have the option to do the same. The open source storage code will be designed to remove the barriers that occur when running computers that have different platforms, Stallings said.

A microprocessor custom-built for Microsoft`s Xbox 360 game console is in production at IBM`s New York chip factory and at Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing in Singapore, reports Macworld.

The processor, which is based on IBM`s 64-bit PowerPC architecture, comes with three cores, or calculating engines, that each run at clock speeds greater than 3GHz, IBM said.

IBM and Microsoft engineers have worked together since 2003 to design the three-core processor specifically for high-definition gaming and entertainment.

Microsoft is to offer online searches of published work, reports BusinessWeek.

Microsoft said it would avoid the copyright tussles faced by rival Google by focusing on books, academic materials and publications that are in the public domain.

The company plans to initially work with a group called the Open Content Alliance on the project. A test version of the search product is expected next year.

Internet search company Google could be preparing to take on online auctioneer eBay with its new advertising service, reports PCMag.

Screen shots of a new service, Google Base, appeared on several different Web logs, which said the service-to-be is a database consisting of "your content", which would allow users to advertise goods for sale.

Google confirmed the screen shots were genuine and said they were from an "early-stage test of a product that enables content owners to easily send their content to Google".