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Students, show off your technical talent @ Mentor's University Design Contest 2010!
I really envy the students of today! They live in such lucky times!! There are so many opportunities for them to learn, grow and flourish, and so many avenues to venture!!!
Here’s one more opportunity for those brilliant students from various engineering colleges across India. Friends, you can participate and show off your techical talent by participating in Mentor Graphics’ University Design Contest 2010!
Mentor's Veeresh Shetty.
I was elated when Veeresh Shetty of Mentor Graphics informed me today about this great contest! Thanks a lot, Veeresh, and Mentor Graphics India, especially, my friend Raghu Panicker, for taking time to think about spotting talent among students.
Time to participate and win, dear students!
First, what do the students get out of this contest? Well, there’s prize money involved! The top three winners will earn a Certificate of Recognition. There will be one Winner team followed by two runner-up teams. The winning team will be awarded a cash prize of $3,000, 1st Runner-up – $2,000 and 2nd Runner-up – $1,000, respectively.
So, what’s the purpose behind this contest? Well, this is the inaugural Mentor Graphics University Design contest 2010 in India.
How Intel manages IT through downturn — Server and data center optimization!
Ever wondered how Intel is managing IT through the downturn — Server and data center optimization? According to Kenny Sng, data center engineering manager, Intel Technology Asia Pte Ltd, there are three key things that Intel IT does. These are:
• Internal efficiencies are critical in freeing up resources and reducing operational costs.
• Server refresh is a key strategy to ensure IT runs efficiently.
• Intel continues to look at innovation in DC operations for reducing running costs
Server and data center optimization? Intel's Kenny Sng, data center engineering manager, making a point!
How can IT make a difference?
* Drive employee productivity — by way of mobile client refresh
* Drive business productivity
* Continue IT efficiencies — by way of data center and server refresh
Intel data center profile
Intel has four major groups currently driving individual data center requirements (DOME).
Design:
Support the chip design community
Design Computing: Has most of the servers in Intel
Office:
Supporting typical IT and customer services
General Purpose
Manufacturing:
Manufacturing computing supporting fabrication and assembly
FAB/ATM
Enterprise:
Enterprise applications supporting eBiz and ERP
About 80 percent of servers in Intel are in D. And, 20 percent of servers in Intel are in O, M and E, categories.
Intel IT’s approach to data center optimization
Intel’s approach is very simple — standardize, improve and optimize.
Standardize
* Supply and demand forecasting
* Processes and design specs
* Overall data center structure
All of this enables IT and consolidations, prevents unnecessary spending and ensures consistency in the overall data center structure.
Improve
* Batch processing pools via grid computing (DCV) – (D)
* Virtualization (DCU) – (O) & (E)
* Replace single core with quad-core servers
* Information Lifecycle Management
* Intel “Green” data center initiatives
* Containerized Data Centers
These go on to reduce server spending and storage/hardware expenses, Contain costs (network, power, space), simplify the environment and well, improve energy efficiency by at least 6x.
Optimize
* Close inefficient and unnecessary data centers
* Assure batch and virtualized servers are in optimal data center locations
What do these do? One, maximize data center utilization in all locations, and two, maximize server asset utilization across the world. Read more…
TI Beagle Board for Indian open source developers and hobbyists
Texas Instruments recently introduced the pocket-size, USB-powered Beagle Board based on TI’s OMAP3530 applications processor. It features an ARM Cortex-A8 core, 2D/3D graphics engine and high-performance TMS320C64x+ digital signal processor (DSP) core.
This will help open source developers and hobbyists in India to realize their creative design ideas without being restricted by expensive hardware development tools, lackluster performance capabilities, high power consumption or stifled design environments, according to Khasim Syed Mohammed, Lead Developer for Open Platforms, Texas Instruments India Pvt. Ltd.
He added: “It helps us in learning cutting edge technology, innovating new ideas and executing them. Beagle board should be used to explore the growing demand in areas like medical, security, infotainment, navigation, education, signal processing, mobile devices and communication.”
Important for India
This initiative is particularly important in India where students can use the board to learn, show case their efforts and global recognition for their innovations.
Innovators in India should use this opportunity to prototype their ideas using the specification software hardware openly available in a never before package. It is important for the student community to learn new technologies, explore new areas and innovate. This initiative by TI also helps startups in India who want to explore the OMAP hardware but have limited support base for their requirements.
Passionate open source developers and hobbyists in India can realize their creative design ideas without being restricted by expensive hardware development tools, lackluster performance capabilities, high power consumption or stifled design environments.
Open platform innovators have the expandability of desktop machines without the expense, bulk or noise with the Beagle board, which is a powerful, low-cost and fan-less embedded system development board smaller than the size of an index card.
Board named after Beagle
The board is named after a popular breed of dogs, Beagle. It has been designed it to be one of the shortest pocket sized OMAP3530 boards. TI is encouraging the Open community to treat this as a pet, which is easy to carry and can be USB powered so that development is made easy and can perform high end applications at very less power.
Inspired to create a small, open source development board, a small group of enthusiastic engineers worked together on the concept and realization of the Beagle board. The resulting 3×3-inch board bridges desktop and embedded development by allowing developers to use the same peripherals and usage mode for almost limitless expansion. Developers are able to design exactly according to their specifications and collaborate with the community on creative new applications.
Mohammed said: “There is a growing need for development support in the Open Community. The Open Community is capable and passionate to work on industry’s high end processors and architectures and build innovative applications and prototypes for mobile, portable infotainment, portable navigation, medical, home security and many such applications. Another important reason for this initiative was the cost implications in owning a high end platform which was restricting them in exploring many such ideas/applications.”
Beagleboard is a global initiative to address the growing needs of the Open community to help them innovate and explore new areas by providing them access to leading hardware and software, giving them a forum to present their views and thoughts, showcasing their efforts for global appreciation, maintain community’s contribution.
Developers can quickly maximize their design concepts by tapping into the expertise and support of some of the industry’s top Linux programmers already experimenting with the Beagle board. With communities hosting the latest updates and codes, live forums and chats for easy collaboration, developers have easy access to support and exchange of ideas. Users are encouraged to join active, existing communities already participating in the project.
Pradeep Chakraborty 