fujitsu

Report: Siemens wants out of Fujitsu partnership

German conglomerate Siemens AG is looking to end its participation in Fujitsu Siemens Computer, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter."

The joint venture did $10.3 billion in sales last year, but Siemens CEO Peter Loscher apparently isn't pleased overall with the performance of FSC, which never found a real foothold in the U.S. in the face of competition with Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

"We have said that we want to focus on the three sectors--industry, energy, health care--and that we want to concentrate on them," a spokesman for … Read more

Crank secret data away when your back is to the wall

In the time of triplicates, shredders and burn cans were SOP for destroying records at embassies and military installations. Today, information stored on hard disk drives far forward on the battlefield demand other methods.

Fujitsu has come up with a way to dispose of your brigade's database of informers and cash payoffs in a hurry. The Fujitsu ME-P3M emergency degausser combines state of the art with a good ole' hand crank, allowing a drive to be wiped clean in 10 to 20 seconds--even absent electrical power, according to Jim Preasmyer, business development manager, Fujitsu Computer Products of America (click here for PDF).… Read more

Sun's new SPARC64: Nice product, little excitement

Earlier this week, Sun Microsystems launched a family of new servers based on the SPARC64 VII processor. In contrast to Sun's "CMT" (Chip Multithreading) UltraSPARC T1 and T2 designs that deliver aggregate performance using a large number of threads, SPARC64 takes a more conventional approach that is more rooted in parallelism and performance at the level of a single thread. This design is more attuned with the performance requirements of typical enterprise back-end applications and databases, whereas CMT has more of a network-facing orientation.

SPARC64 comes from Sun's partner Fujitsu, which also designs and builds the … Read more

Centrino 2 announcements galore

Last night, while the East Coast was crawling into bed and the West Coast was tucking into dessert, Intel was officially launching its new mobile platform, Centrino 2. In addition to new processors, the platform includes an 802.11n wireless card and new integrated graphics with support for high-definition content. The platform also supports graphics switching, which lets you choose between integrated graphics (for longer battery life) and discrete graphics (for better performance).

Laptop manufacturers were quick to adopt the new platform, and many took the opportunity to significantly revamp their laptop lines. For your convenience, the first five major … Read more

Fujitsu launches LifeBooks with Centrino 2

To coincide with Monday night's launch of Centrino 2, Fujitsu announced six new laptops, all of which incorporate the new platform. Highlights from the announcement include two convertible tablets with 13.3-inch displays--a first--and a media-oriented midsize system with a handful of unique features.

First up, the tablets: The LifeBook T5010 and LifeBook T1010 are the first convertible tablets to incorporate a 13.3-inch backlit-LED screen. The LifeBook T5010, aimed at business users, includes such corporate-friendly features as a Trusted Platform Module, modular drive bay, optional WWAN, optional indoor/outdoor display, and support for Intel vPro technology. Likewise, its … Read more

Sun, Fujitsu unveil quad-core Sparc64 chip, servers

Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu have announced a quad-core version of the Sparc64 processor and servers to that will use the chip.

Fujitsu--which manufactures and designs the Sparc64 processor--along with Sun unveiled the M4000, M5000, M8000, and M9000 enterprise servers that use the new quad-core Sparc64 VII chip. The two companies claim the processor delivers 80 percent better performance using 44 percent less power than the previous Sparc64 VI processor.

The Sparc64 VII is made on a more advanced 65-nanometer process than the Sparc64 VI chip, which used a 90nm node.

Sun is no stranger to multicore--putting many processing cores on … Read more

Fujitsu laptop strikes (pink) gold

All laptop makers have joined the fashion bandwagon--some later than others--so it's no surprise that Fujitsu is continuing to experiment with its runway persona. The Japanese company has gone through some interesting evolutionary phases of its designer laptops, from finishes in ubiquitous pink to an odd cedar and now precious metals, at least in name.

The Fujitsu LifeBook P8010E has already gotten a good review from CNET (7.5), but its new "Limited Pink Gold Edition" is trying to sell beauty as well as brain and brawn with such aesthetic features as a high-gloss finish and chrome … Read more

Fujitsu gives biometrics a hand

For years, biometric finger scanners have been used in ATMs and at the cash register. But there are problems with finger scanners. Researchers have demonstrated how a flat photograph or molded fingertip can easily fool these devices into giving a false approval. And while face recognition is improving, especially 3D facial mapping, these devices aren't yet in wide use today.

Fujitsu PalmSecure is another option. Already in use in hospitals and government offices, the device reads the hand's vein pattern using near-infrared light. On this week's Security Bites podcast, I spoke with Joel Hagberg, vice president of … Read more

Security Bites 99: Fujitsu gives biometrics a hand

This week, CNET's Robert Vamosi talks with Joel Hagberg, vice president of marketing and business development at Fujitsu. Listen now: Download today's podcast

Fujitsu PalmSecure is another option. Already in use in hospitals and government offices, the … Read more