After less than a year on the market, Windows 2000 Professional continues to be the desktop operating system of choice and Windows 2000 Server will continue to expand market share in 2001, according to the results of an Ipsos-Reid study. One in three Canadian organizations have Windows 2000 Professional running on at least one desktop.
The study, Charting the Desktop and Network Operating System Market in Canada, conducted by the Ipsos-Reid Corp., found that despite the slowdown in PC sales, Canadian organizations plan on staying at the forefront of information technology.
According to the study, 51 per cent of IT decision makers will upgrade their existing desktop OSes and 74 per cent of those organizations will be upgrading to Windows 2000 Professional within the next year.
Chipmakers confirm poor market
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) released figures once again confirming the recent slump in chip sales. Worldwide sales were down 5.7 per cent in January compared to December.
Worldwide sales in the sector came in at US$16.87 billion in January, down from US$17.89 billion in December. Sales compared to January 2000 were increased, with the 2001 figure up by 13.7 per cent from US$14.84 billion. However, decelerating month-to-month sales were seen in each semiconductor sector in every geographic area, the SIA said. The drop is due to slowing demand and inventory build-up, the industry association said.
Department of Defense to install Linux supercomputer
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) said it plans within the next few months to install a 512-processor Linux cluster at a computing facility in Hawaii. The supercomputer is supposed to be able to process 478 billion calculations per second. It will be used for applications such as tracking and fighting wildfires across the country.
The Linux cluster is being built by IBM Corp. at the Maui High Performance Computing Center and will be used by the DOD, other government agencies and academic institutions. In addition to tracking fires, uses eyed for the cluster include environmental research and combat-related projects.