Computers News

Friday, February 18, 2011

IBM, Nuance adding Watson to health-care text team-up
One day after IBM Corp.'s trivia-playing supercomputer Watson trounced his human opponents on Jepoardy!, IBM and Nuance Communications Inc. announced a deal to bring speech recognition to Watson for its possible first real-world use in the health-care industry.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Q&A: The meaning of Watson
The folks at the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering Department have been watching IBM’s Watson computer on “Jeopardy!” this week with even more interest than the rest of us. They even hosted a viewing party last night on campus, followed by expert commentary.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Mercury Computer prices offering at $17.75
Mercury Computer Systems today assigned a price to its previously announced common stock offering, setting the mark at $17.75 per share for 4.85 million shares, for a total value of about $86 million.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Blog: Remembering Ken Olsen and some thin ice
Editor James Connolly blogs: Let me tell you the story about how I almost dumped Ken Olsen into an icy pond.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Ken Olsen, co-founder of DEC, died at 84
Digital Equipment Corp. co-founder Ken Olsen has died at the age of 84, according to Gordon College, the home of the Ken Olsen Science Center.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Schools making laptops a bigger priority for students
While research indicates positive gains in schools where laptop computers are assigned to every student, a lack of funding is slowing the widespread adoption of such programs.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

SiCortex co-founder Mucci dies of reported heart attack
John Mucci, co-founder of the recently closed high-performance computing company SiCortex Inc. of Maynard, died yesterday of an apparent heart attack, according to colleagues and news reports.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

DEC may be gone, but it's not forgotten
Launched more than 50 years ago and dominant in the Massachusetts economy from the 1970s into the 1990s, Digital Equipment Corp. blazed a technology trail that others followed. And as shown by two new books and a “preview” of a PBS documentary, the tale isn’t over.
DEC co-founder Anderson on VCs and Route 128
In 1957, Harlan Anderson co-founded Digital Equipment Corp. with Ken Olsen, planning to make the world’s first computer that companies could afford to buy. The venture-capital deal they took was one of the earliest for VC pioneer American Research and Development. Anderson recently spoke with MHT writer Galen Moore about the venture capital industry then and now.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Startup Litl launches Internet-enabled computer
John Chuang has spent the past two years developing a computer that has no hard drive, no software and an operating system that does one thing: connect you to the Internet. Today, the result ­— a 12-inch portable computer known as the litl — launches for sale on the company’s web site and through online retailer Amazon.com.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Mac vs. PC will play out in Maine's high schools
Even with the success of its now seven-year-old program to put laptops in the hands of all middle school students, some local administrators are bucking the state's deal with Apple Inc. in light of the lousy economy.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Emerging Technologies: Emerging tech trends in brief
Analyst firms expound on subjects such as location-based services, networked TVs and cloud computing, among others.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Supercomputer firm SiCortex closes doors
High performance computing systems maker SiCortex Inc. of Maynard has shut its doors, ceasing operations yesterday.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

SiCortex calculates a need for new $1M funding round
High-performance computing systems maker SiCortex Inc. of Maynard has closed on $1 million in its latest funding round, according to federal documents.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Sugar Labs beta tests USB-enabled kids’ OS
Educational nonprofit Sugar Labs reports it has released a beta test of “Sugar on a Stick” -- a version of the operating system for children that works from a USB memory drive.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Wife of DEC founder Olsen dies at 84
Eeva-Liisa Aulikki Olsen, 84, the wife of Digital Equipment Corp. co-founder and long-time president Kenneth Olsen, died earlier this week, according to published reports.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

OLPC loses half staff, reduces pay for others
One Laptop Per Child has laid off half of its staff and implemented salary reductions for the remaining 32 employees. The nonprofit organization was launched with the mission of providing $100 laptops to those who couldn’t otherwise afford them.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Tech Citizenship: N.E. tech firms redefine 'community' in volunteer work
Dubbed the Corporate Services Corps and launched in 2007, IBM has taken a page from the Peace Corps, sending employees for one-month stays in developing countries where they apply their business and technology expertise to local nonprofit organizations. By the end of this year, the Corporate Services Corps will have sent 600 employees in 20 teams to destinations around the globe.
Tech Citizenship: IBM’s community outreach history extends to 119 years
Under the direction of chairman, president and CEO Sam Palmisano, IBM has refocused its community involvement efforts to reflect the modern Digital Age and IBM’s role in it. That led to the creation of the On Demand Community, which puts together the strengths and skills of more than 125,000 IBM employee and retiree volunteers with access to new IBM technology, resources, training, and support.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Supercomputing firms focus on affordable power
The new market swell -- a handful of local companies attracting investors -- isn’t being driven by multimillion-dollar, peta-flop scale computers, but by smaller clusters, focused on serving a broad range of industries, from life sciences to manufacturing.