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Technical Updates (Archive) [Page: 1038 of 2522] |
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Version 3.0.0 of DBD::Pg, the Perl interface to Postgres,
has just been released. The new version is available from CPAN.
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Full View / NID: 46495 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.5.9. This release fixes several bugs against PHP 5.5.8. For source downloads of PHP 5.5.9 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries are located on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes can be found in the ChangeLog.
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Full View / NID: 46494 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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The Official Pattern Release or OPR is Trend Micro's latest compilation of patterns for identified viruses. It is guaranteed to have passed a series of critical tests to ensure that customers get optimum protection from the latest virus threats.
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Full View / NID: 46488 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured browser for Windows that makes browsing more efficient than ever before. Firefox includes popup blocking; a tab-browsing mode that lets you open several pages in a single window; integrated Google searching; simplified privacy controls that let you cover your tracks more effectively; a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser; and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.
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Full View / NID: 68793 / Submitted by: TACKtech Team
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VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
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Full View / NID: 62958 / Submitted by: TACKtech Team
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The Linley Group, a prestigious semiconductor analyst firm, has named the Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) its Best Processor Technology in its prestigious annual Analysts' Choice awards. The HSA Foundation, which includes AMD, ARM, Imagination, Mediatek, Qualcomm, Samsung, Texas Instruments and others, has been driving the development of the HSA specification, an organisation that sets the standard for HSA-featured parts. The Linley Group's recognition of HSA as a key processor technology coupled to the HSA Foundation's roster of top-tier semiconductor vendors and software houses highlights the wide industry acceptance that HSA will be a key technology for the semiconductor industry. It is not a surprise that the Linley Group gave HSA its Best Processor Technology award after considering the technologies that make up HSA. With Heterogeneous Unified Memory Access (hUMA), the HSA Runtime Infrastructure and the ability for processors to allocate tasks to the core that is most appropriate for the workload without developer or user interaction, HSA finally delivers on the promise of heterogeneous compute. AMD isn't the only semiconductor vendor to see the value in HSA. The HSA Foundation has a number of top-tier hardware vendors including ARM, Imagination, LG, MediaTek, Qualcomm, Samsung and Texas Instruments along with a slew of software houses, including Canonical and Oracle. HSA has such a wide industry following because it breaks down the walled gardens of compute, with a single processor having multiple compute engines that accelerate particular workloads. Traditionally, developers had to target which compute engine they wanted their code to run, however HSA removes this allowing the developer to focus on creating compelling user experiences. The work done by the HSA Foundation is being realised in silicon. In January, AMD released the “Kaveri” Accelerated Processing Unit for desktop (APU), the industry’s first processor to have HSA features. AMD's “Kaveri” APU is a watershed product for the semiconductor industry, combining AMD's “Steamroller” architecture coupled to a GPU based on the latest AMD GCN architecture along with HSA features such as hUMA. AMD is proud that its work as part of the HSA Foundation has helped HSA receive this prestigious award from a highly respected independent semiconductor expert.
Lawrence Latif is a Manager of Technical Communications at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only. Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied. 
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Full View / NID: 46739 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 4, 2014 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Satya Nadella as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors effective immediately. Nadella previously held the position of Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group.
“During this time of transformation, there is no better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella,” said Bill Gates, Microsoft’s Founder and Member of the Board of Directors. “Satya is a proven leader with hard-core engineering skills, business vision and the ability to bring people together. His vision for how technology will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Microsoft needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth.”
Since joining the company in 1992, Nadella has spearheaded major strategy and technical shifts across the company’s portfolio of products and services, most notably the company’s move to the cloud and the development of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world supporting Bing, Xbox, Office and other services. During his tenure overseeing Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business, the division outperformed the market and took share from competitors.
“Microsoft is one of those rare companies to have truly revolutionized the world through technology, and I couldn’t be more honored to have been chosen to lead the company,” Nadella said. “The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must focus clearly, move faster and continue to transform. A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly.”
“Having worked with him for more than 20 years, I know that Satya is the right leader at the right time for Microsoft,” said Steve Ballmer, who announced on Aug. 23, 2013 that he would retire once a successor was named. “I’ve had the distinct privilege of working with the most talented employees and senior leadership team in the industry, and I know their passion and hunger for greatness will only grow stronger under Satya’s leadership.”
Microsoft also announced that Bill Gates, previously Chairman of the Board of Directors, will assume a new role on the Board as Founder and Technology Advisor, and will devote more time to the company, supporting Nadella in shaping technology and product direction. John Thompson, lead independent director for the Board of Directors, will assume the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors and remain an independent director on the Board.
“Satya is clearly the best person to lead Microsoft, and he has the unanimous support of our Board,” Thompson said. “The Board took the thoughtful approach that our shareholders, customers, partners and employees expected and deserved.”
With the addition of Nadella, Microsoft’s Board of Directors consists of Ballmer; Dina Dublon, former Chief Financial Officer of JPMorgan Chase; Gates; Maria M. Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College; Stephen J. Luczo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Seagate Technology PLC; David F. Marquardt, General Partner at August Capital; Nadella; Charles H. Noski, former Vice Chairman of Bank of America Corp.; Dr. Helmut Panke, former Chairman of the Board of Management at BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG; and Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of Virtual Instruments. Seven of the 10 board members are independent of Microsoft, which is consistent with the requirement in the company’s governance guidelines that a substantial majority be independent.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.
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Full View / NID: 46487 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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“I am very enthusiastic about Satya Nadella’s appointment as CEO of Microsoft. As an active contributor to the CEO search process, I have spent a lot of time with Satya and he is clearly the best choice to lead the company. I look forward to working with Satya, Chairman John Thompson and the rest of the Board of Directors to create value for all shareholders.”
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Full View / NID: 46486 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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From: Steve Ballmer
To: All Employees
Date: Feb. 4, 2014
Subject: Satya Nadella - Microsoft’s New CEO
Today is an incredibly exciting day as we announce Satya Nadella as the new CEO of Microsoft. Satya will be a great CEO, and I am pumped for the future of Microsoft. You can read the full announcement here.
Satya is a proven leader. He’s got strong technical skills and great business insights. He has a remarkable ability to see what's going on in the market, to sense opportunity, and to really understand how we come together at Microsoft to execute against those opportunities in a collaborative way. I have worked closely with Satya for many years and I have seen these skills many times. He is not alone, though. Our Senior Leadership Team has never been stronger, and together this group will drive us forward.
Microsoft is one of the great companies in the world. I love this company. I love the bigness and boldness of what we do. I love the way we partner with other companies to come together to change the world. I love the breadth and the diversity of all of the customers we empower, from students in the classroom to consumers to small businesses to governments to the largest enterprises.
Above all, I love the spirit of this place, the passion, and the perseverance, which has been the cornerstone of our culture from the very beginning.
Stay focused and keep moving forward. I am excited about what we will do. Satya’s appointment confirms that.
Thanks for making Microsoft the most amazing place to work on the planet, and thanks for the chance to lead.
Steve
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Full View / NID: 46485 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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From: Satya Nadella
To: All Employees
Date: Feb. 4, 2014
Subject: RE: Satya Nadella – Microsoft’s New CEO
Today is a very humbling day for me. It reminds me of my very first day at Microsoft, 22 years ago. Like you, I had a choice about where to come to work. I came here because I believed Microsoft was the best company in the world. I saw then how clearly we empower people to do magical things with our creations and ultimately make the world a better place. I knew there was no better company to join if I wanted to make a difference. This is the very same inspiration that continues to drive me today.
It is an incredible honor for me to lead and serve this great company of ours. Steve and Bill have taken it from an idea to one of the greatest and most universally admired companies in the world. I’ve been fortunate to work closely with both Bill and Steve in my different roles at Microsoft, and as I step in as CEO, I’ve asked Bill to devote additional time to the company, focused on technology and products. I’m also looking forward to working with John Thompson as our new Chairman of the Board.
While we have seen great success, we are hungry to do more. Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation. This is a critical time for the industry and for Microsoft. Make no mistake, we are headed for greater places — as technology evolves and we evolve with and ahead of it. Our job is to ensure that Microsoft thrives in a mobile and cloud-first world.
As we start a new phase of our journey together, I wanted to share some background on myself and what inspires and motivates me.
Who am I?
I am 46. I’ve been married for 22 years and we have 3 kids. And like anyone else, a lot of what I do and how I think has been shaped by my family and my overall life experiences. Many who know me say I am also defined by my curiosity and thirst for learning. I buy more books than I can finish. I sign up for more online courses than I can complete. I fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things, you stop doing great and useful things. So family, curiosity and hunger for knowledge all define me.
Why am I here?
I am here for the same reason I think most people join Microsoft — to change the world through technology that empowers people to do amazing things. I know it can sound hyperbolic — and yet it’s true. We have done it, we’re doing it today, and we are the team that will do it again.
I believe over the next decade computing will become even more ubiquitous and intelligence will become ambient. The coevolution of software and new hardware form factors will intermediate and digitize — many of the things we do and experience in business, life and our world. This will be made possible by an ever-growing network of connected devices, incredible computing capacity from the cloud, insights from big data, and intelligence from machine learning.
This is a software-powered world.
It will better connect us to our friends and families and help us see, express, and share our world in ways never before possible. It will enable businesses to engage customers in more meaningful ways.
I am here because we have unparalleled capability to make an impact.
Why are we here?
In our early history, our mission was about the PC on every desk and home, a goal we have mostly achieved in the developed world. Today we’re focused on a broader range of devices. While the deal is not yet complete, we will welcome to our family Nokia devices and services and the new mobile capabilities they bring us.
As we look forward, we must zero in on what Microsoft can uniquely contribute to the world. The opportunity ahead will require us to reimagine a lot of what we have done in the past for a mobile and cloud-first world, and do new things.
We are the only ones who can harness the power of software and deliver it through devices and services that truly empower every individual and every organization. We are the only company with history and continued focus in building platforms and ecosystems that create broad opportunity.
Qi Lu captured it well in a recent meeting when he said that Microsoft uniquely empowers people to "do more." This doesn’t mean that we need to do more things, but that the work we do empowers the world to do more of what they care about — get stuff done, have fun, communicate and accomplish great things. This is the core of who we are, and driving this core value in all that we do — be it the cloud or device experiences — is why we are here.
What do we do next?
To paraphrase a quote from Oscar Wilde — we need to believe in the impossible and remove the improbable.
This starts with clarity of purpose and sense of mission that will lead us to imagine the impossible and deliver it. We need to prioritize innovation that is centered on our core value of empowering users and organizations to “do more.” We have picked a set of high-value activities as part of our One Microsoft strategy. And with every service and device launch going forward we need to bring more innovation to bear around these scenarios.
Next, every one of us needs to do our best work, lead and help drive cultural change. We sometimes underestimate what we each can do to make things happen and overestimate what others need to do to move us forward. We must change this.
Finally, I truly believe that each of us must find meaning in our work. The best work happens when you know that it's not just work, but something that will improve other people's lives. This is the opportunity that drives each of us at this company.
Many companies aspire to change the world. But very few have all the elements required: talent, resources, and perseverance. Microsoft has proven that it has all three in abundance. And as the new CEO, I can’t ask for a better foundation.
Let’s build on this foundation together.
Satya
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Full View / NID: 46484 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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With integrated flatbed models & faster processing speeds February 4, 2014 - Designed specifically for general office scanning applications where speed, image quality and versatility are required, Kodak Alaris announces today its next generation desktop KODAK i3000 Series Scanners offering increased performance and new models which extend the range to provide both rotary and flatbed scanning in one small integrated unit. Able to scan at up to A3, four models complete the range, the KODAK...
Source: RealWire
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Full View / NID: 46483 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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Enabling organizations to re-asses the trustworthiness of their key management and crypto security infrastructurePlantation, Fl - February 4, 2014 - Thales, leader in information systems and communications security, will be showcasing its high assurance cryptographic solutions for protecting big data, public key infrastructures (PKIs), cloud and mobile payments at this year's RSA Conference, San Francisco, February 24 - 28, 2014. As organizations increasingly rely on cryptography as part of their data protection strategy and to...
Source: RealWire
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Full View / NID: 46482 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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Additional enhancements help enterprises defend against aggressive SAP software audit practices with new optimisation capabilities for SAP applicationsMaidenhead, UK - February 4, 2014 Flexera Software, the leading provider of Application Usage Management solutions for application producers and enterprises, announced enhancements to FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises, its market leading Software Licence Optimisation solution. Among other things, the new release significantly broadens the capabilities of its SaaS-based FlexNet Manager Suite On-Demand, the industry's most comprehensive cloud-based...
Source: RealWire
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Full View / NID: 46481 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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Windows 8.1 Pro operating system, increased performance & communications for rugged Toughbook CF-D1Bracknell, UK 4th February 2014: Panasonic today unveiled the latest version of its market leading Toughbook CF-D1 rugged industrial tablet. Designed for the world of Engine & Machine Diagnostics, the Toughbook CF-D1 has been updated with the Windows 8.1 Pro operating system and increased performance and communication capabilities to ensure it continues to dominate as the first choice rugged tablet for the European...
Source: RealWire
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Full View / NID: 46480 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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The Official Pattern Release or OPR is Trend Micro's latest compilation of patterns for identified viruses. It is guaranteed to have passed a series of critical tests to ensure that customers get optimum protection from the latest virus threats.
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Full View / NID: 46479 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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AMD (NYSE: AMD) was recognized for a total of 24 top public relations, marketing and social media awards in 2013, marking the company’s most successful and acclaimed year for communications to date. AMD was recognized by the world’s elite communications industry leaders, including the International Public Relations Ass...
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Full View / NID: 46478 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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2ndQuadrant is proud to announce the release of
version 1.3.0 of Barman, Backup and Recovery Manager for PostgreSQL.
This major release has a new code infrastructure in terms of output,
subprocesses, remote commands, file system, events ('hooks') and
metadata management, making the application more robust.
Barman 1.3.0 introduces a few configuration options for:
- managing hook scripts before and after archiving a WAL file
- network compression of remote backup, and
- recovery operations and immediate checkpoint at backup time
Administrators can now force a rebuild of the "xlog.db" file (WAL
archive) through the "'barman rebuild-xlogdb'" command.
This major version now correctly handles those tablespaces that had been
created inside the "PGDATA" directory, removing content duplication.
Remote recovery code has been improved in order to behave exactly like
local recovery does, including preparation of the directories layout
("PGDATA" and tablespaces).
Minor bugs have also been fixed.
Many thanks for funding towards the development of this release go to
Ecometer (www.ecometer.it), Agile Business
Group (www.agilebg.com) and a French company
(that prefers to remain anonymous).
For a complete list of changes, see the "Release Notes" section below.
Links
Release notes
- Refactored "BackupInfo" class for backup metadata to use the new
"FieldListFile" class ("infofile" module)
- Refactored output layer to use a dedicated module, in order to
facilitate integration with Nagios ("NagiosOutputWriter" class)
- Refactored subprocess handling in order to isolate
stdin/stderr/stdout channels ("command_wrappers" module)
- Refactored hook scripts management
- Extracted logging configuration and userid enforcement from the
configuration class.
- Support for hook scripts to be executed before and after a WAL file
is archived, through the "'pre_archive_script'" and
"'post_archive_script'" configuration options.
- Implemented immediate checkpoint capability with
"--immediate-checkpoint" command option and "'immediate_checkpoint'"
configuration option
- Implemented network compression for remote backup and recovery
through the "'network_compression'" configuration option (#19)
- Implemented the "'rebuild-xlogdb'" command (Closes #27 and #28)
- Added deduplication of tablespaces located inside the "PGDATA"
directory
- Refactored remote recovery code to work the same way local recovery
does, by performing remote directory preparation (assuming the
remote user has the right permissions on the remote server)
- "'barman backup'" now tries and create server directories before
attempting to execute a full backup (#14)
- Fixed bug #22: improved documentation for tablespaces relocation
- Fixed bug #31: "'barman cron'" checks directory permissions for
lock file
- Fixed bug #32: "xlog.db" read access during cron activities
Download
About Barman:
Barman (Backup and Recovery Manager) is an open source
administration tool for disaster recovery of PostgreSQL servers written
in Python. It allows your organisation to perform remote backups of
multiple servers in business critical environments and help DBAs during
the recovery phase. Barman’s most requested features include backup
catalogues, retention policies, remote recovery, archiving and
compression of WAL files and backups. Barman is distributed under GNU
GPL 3.
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Full View / NID: 46477 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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2ndQuadrant is proud to announce the release of
version 1.3.0 of Barman, Backup and Recovery Manager for PostgreSQL.
This major release has a new code infrastructure in terms of output,
subprocesses, remote commands, file system, events ('hooks') and
metadata management, making the application more robust.
Barman 1.3.0 introduces a few configuration options for:
- managing hook scripts before and after archiving a WAL file
- network compression of remote backup, and
- recovery operations and immediate checkpoint at backup time
Administrators can now force a rebuild of the "xlog.db" file (WAL
archive) through the "'barman rebuild-xlogdb'" command.
This major version now correctly handles those tablespaces that had been
created inside the "PGDATA" directory, removing content duplication.
Remote recovery code has been improved in order to behave exactly like
local recovery does, including preparation of the directories layout
("PGDATA" and tablespaces).
Minor bugs have also been fixed.
Many thanks for funding towards the development of this release go to
Ecometer (www.ecometer.it), Agile Business
Group (www.agilebg.com) and a French company
(that prefers to remain anonymous).
For a complete list of changes, see the "Release Notes" section below.
Links
Release notes
- Refactored "BackupInfo" class for backup metadata to use the new
"FieldListFile" class ("infofile" module)
- Refactored output layer to use a dedicated module, in order to
facilitate integration with Nagios ("NagiosOutputWriter" class)
- Refactored subprocess handling in order to isolate
stdin/stderr/stdout channels ("command_wrappers" module)
- Refactored hook scripts management
- Extracted logging configuration and userid enforcement from the
configuration class.
- Support for hook scripts to be executed before and after a WAL file
is archived, through the "'pre_archive_script'" and
"'post_archive_script'" configuration options.
- Implemented immediate checkpoint capability with
"--immediate-checkpoint" command option and "'immediate_checkpoint'"
configuration option
- Implemented network compression for remote backup and recovery
through the "'network_compression'" configuration option (#19)
- Implemented the "'rebuild-xlogdb'" command (Closes #27 and #28)
- Added deduplication of tablespaces located inside the "PGDATA"
directory
- Refactored remote recovery code to work the same way local recovery
does, by performing remote directory preparation (assuming the
remote user has the right permissions on the remote server)
- "'barman backup'" now tries and create server directories before
attempting to execute a full backup (#14)
- Fixed bug #22: improved documentation for tablespaces relocation
- Fixed bug #31: "'barman cron'" checks directory permissions for
lock file
- Fixed bug #32: "xlog.db" read access during cron activities
Download
About Barman:
Barman (Backup and Recovery Manager) is an open source
administration tool for disaster recovery of PostgreSQL servers written
in Python. It allows your organisation to perform remote backups of
multiple servers in business critical environments and help DBAs during
the recovery phase. Barman’s most requested features include backup
catalogues, retention policies, remote recovery, archiving and
compression of WAL files and backups. Barman is distributed under GNU
GPL 3.
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Full View / NID: 46476 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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Company Adds Significantly to Its Market-Share Leading Customer Installed Base LONDON, UK - Feb 03, 2014 - Centrify Corporation, the leader in Unified Identity Services across data centre, cloud and mobile, today announced that the company posted record total sales in calendar year 2013 and more than 40 percent growth year over year with a strong performance by Europe. With this growth, Centrify continued to grow its customer installed base, the largest share in its...
Source: RealWire
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Full View / NID: 46475 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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The Official Pattern Release or OPR is Trend Micro's latest compilation of patterns for identified viruses. It is guaranteed to have passed a series of critical tests to ensure that customers get optimum protection from the latest virus threats.
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Full View / NID: 46474 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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NAIROBI, Kenya — Feb. 3, 2014 — On Monday, Microsoft Corp. announced the five African startups it will award innovation grants designed to provide the financial support needed to cross borders and empower the next generation of developers and entrepreneurs in Africa. The grant is part of the company’s 4Afrika Initiative, which was launched in February 2013 to facilitate the company’s active engagement in Africa’s economic development to improve its global competitiveness.
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February 02, 2014
The 4Afrika Initiative will award grants to five African startups: access.mobile, Africa 118, Gamsole, Kytabu, and Save & Buy. The grants will provide financial support to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs in Africa.
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Downloads:
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Last year, Microsoft 4Afrika extended the Microsoft Ventures partnership program to Africa, with startup accelerator 88mph as its first partner. Through the 4Afrika Initiative, Microsoft is now extending its support to include grants to startups, selecting five startups as the first set of recipients. The startups were selected based on the uniqueness and scalability of their solutions, their business models and the relevance of the key problems they are addressing. The solutions and apps developed by the startups are relevant to consumers and the African market, ranging from agriculture, education and consumer (gaming). These startups will receive funding: • access.mobile LLC (Uganda) A solution with a key focus in the agriculture and healthcare industries, giving enterprises the ability to collect, analyze and share clear, real-time information about their operations and supply chain activity. • Africa 118 (Kenya) A mobile directory services solution that helps bridge the information gap both for enterprises and consumers. • Gamsole (Nigeria) A mobile game production company creating Windows games, with downloads topping more than 4 million. • Kytabu (Kenya) A textbook leasing application for low-cost tablets. Students can save more than 60 percent of their education cost by renting their textbooks on an hourly, weekly, monthly, school term or annual plan. • Save & Buy (Nigeria) A Web and mobile platform that enables Nigerians to save toward the purchase of items conveniently and securely through e-commerce channels. In addition to grants, Microsoft will provide technical support and mentorship to help these startups develop their businesses through the company’s Center of Expertise. This group of Microsoft technology enthusiasts focuses on using Microsoft tools and technologies to solve business problems. The 4Afrika Initiative aims to help startups break through barriers and reach new heights with the help of Microsoft’s data platform solutions, unified communications, optimized desktops and enterprise project management. “As part of the 4Afrika initiative, we are excited to be supporting startups that have developed innovative solutions that address key issues in Africa,” said Amrote Abdella, director of startup engagement and Partnerships for 4Afrika. “Our support is aimed to showcase the importance of local innovation, but, more important, it highlights the great potential that African innovators have in competing with world-class developers and entrepreneurs.” Abiola Olaniran, CEO of Gamsole, which has already developed some of the most popular Windows Phone games in Africa, said, “The Microsoft 4Afrika innovation grant provides a great support as it helps entrepreneurs to further bootstrap their companies without giving up equity or control. It allows us to not miss out on the kind of fast growth that only major cash infusion can provide.” “A critical success factor in driving the economic success of entrepreneurs in Africa is access to capital together with a solid incubation foundation. Microsoft 4Afrika is partnering with local organizations in creating opportunities for ‘smart capital’ to be available to our young innovators,” said Fernando de Sousa, general manager for Microsoft 4Afrika. “Smart capital combines access to finance, technical skills development, business mentoring, sharing of global best practices and access to markets with the infrastructure provided by local partners to enable world-class companies to emerge from Africa.” The Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative is designed to help Africa improve its global competitiveness and, in just under a year, has successfully launched various programs across the continent, including these recent innovation grants, to reach is 2016 goal. This will help place tens of millions of smart devices in the hands of African youth, bring 1 million African small and medium-sized enterprises online, upskill 100,000 members of Africa’s workforce, and help an additional 100,000 recent graduates develop skills for employability, 75 percent of whom Microsoft will help place in jobs. Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.
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Full View / NID: 46473 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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Today is a momentous day for the team behind AMD Radeon™ graphics, as we are proud to announce the official public availability of the AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 Beta driver, which features Mantle libraries to support the release of the Mantle-enabled patch for Battlefield 4™, along with the recent debut of the Mantle-based “Star Swarm” technical demo by Oxide Games. In addition, AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 delivers the promised "phase 2" frame pacing fixes for AMD CrossFire™ technology users! A BRIEF PRIMER ON MANTLEMantle has been many years in the making by AMD, but we were not alone in this effort! Mantle was also directly shaped by the input we received from the greater game development community that has long sought a low-level graphics API for PCs. We worked shoulder-to-shoulder with developers like DICE and Oxide Games to create Mantle in the image of their needs: a streamlined, robust, efficient API for modern graphics work. In fact, Mantle is the very first API designed directly by game developers for their modern craft! At the simplest level, Mantle is an Application Programming Interface (API), or a language that game developers can use to write code that creates the beautiful graphics on your screen. In its current iteration, the Mantle API uniquely leverages the hardware in the Graphics Core Next architecture (GCN) of modern AMD Radeon™ GPUs for peak performance. More broadly, Mantle is functionally similar to DirectX® and OpenGL, but Mantle is different in that it was purpose-built as a lower level API. By “lower level,” it’s meant that the language of Mantle more closely matches the way modern graphics architectures (like AMD’s own GCN) are designed to execute code. The primary benefit of a lower level API is a reduction in software bottlenecks, such as the time a GPU and CPU must spend translating/understanding/reorganizing code on-the-fly before it can be executed and presented to the user as graphics. Mantle comes in contrast to the “high level API,” which offers broader compatibility with multiple GPU architectures, but does so at the expense of lower performance and efficiency. Before entering into performance analysis, however, we wanted to provide some new insight on the design goals of the Mantle API. DESIGN PRINCIPLES OF MANTLEFirst and foremost, Mantle is primarily designed to improve performance in scenarios where the CPU is the limiting factor (so-called “CPU-bound” cases); CPU-bound scenarios are legion in gaming, as existing APIs typically have heavy validation overhead, along with difficulty scaling out to multiple CPU cores. In addressing this common problem, Mantle can enable a pronounced improvement for the majority of global PC gamers that have entry-level and mid-range processors. Some of the techniques to achieve this include: - Low-overhead validation and processing of API commands
- Explicit command buffer control
- Close to linear performance scaling from recording command buffers onto multiple CPU cores
- Reduced runtime shader compilation overhead
In turn, Mantle makes less of an impact in cases where high resolutions and “maximum detail” settings are used, as these settings are likely to be maximally taxing GPU resources in a manner that is more difficult to improve at the API level (so-called “GPU-bound” scenarios). While Mantle provides some built-in features to improve GPU-bound performance, gains in these cases are largely dependent on how well Mantle features and optimizations are being utilized by the developer. Some of those features include: - Reduction of command buffers submissions
- Explicit control of resource compression, expands and synchronizations
- Asynchronous DMA queue for data uploads independent from the graphics engine
- Asynchronous compute queue for overlapping of compute and graphics workloads
- Data formats optimizations via flexible buffer/image access
- Advanced Anti-Aliasing features for MSAA/EQAA optimizations
It’s also prudent to note that Mantle is still in the beta phase and may not reflect the full performance we might be able to achieve through the optimization time we’ll be investing in the months ahead. And, as developers are still familiarizing themselves with Mantle and its relationship to Graphics Core Next, they may not have capitalized on all available opportunities for optimizations—but that will come with time. One such optimization is the approach to multi-GPU performance scaling, which now rests in the hands of the game developer in the Mantle ecosystem. Developer control of multi-GPU performance empowers them to design an optimal multi-GPU codebase that perfectly matches the approach their rendering engine takes to graphics. Battlefield 4 is currently enabled with multi-GPU capabilities on Mantle, but the Oxide Games StarSwarm demo will be enabled with these capabilities in a later build. MANTLE ON BATTLEFIELD 4A game that needs no introduction, Battlefield 4 has captivated gamers with its intense multiplayer environments and, of course, the tremendous graphics courtesy of the game’s Frostbite 3™ engine. Augmented this week with Mantle, configuring Battlefield 4 to activate our API requires that you meet a few prerequisites: Once these requirements have been met, you’re ready and Mantle is enabled! As for the performance uplift you might expect, the following diagrams are illustrative of the performance uplift you can expect from Mantle across a variety of processors. The data is demonstrative of what we’ve been promising since Mantle’s unveiling: a performance uplift across every scenario.     MANTLE ON STAR SWARM
Star Swarm, meanwhile, is a technical demo developed by the incredible minds over at the new Oxide Games. Composed of industry veterans from Firaxis and Microsoft studios, the experienced artists and developers at Oxide have crafted the “Nitrous” engine to power a new generation of RTS titles, like the StarSwarm demo, with massive battlefields and a huge quantity of on-screen units—a perfect use case for Mantle! Star Swarm is important because it shows the impact Mantle can make in scenarios with a high number of “draw calls,” which are instances where the GPU and the CPU must communicate to display any object you see on screen. Traditional game engines based on DirectX® typically hit a limit somewhere around 5000 draw calls (or lower, depending on the user’s CPU), demonstrating severe performance degradation beyond that point. This performance degradation is due largely to the inability to efficiently utilize multiple CPU cores, which artificially limits the speed at which the CPU and GPU can communicate to do meaningful work. In contrast, the Star Swarm demo from the team at Oxide uses Mantle’s efficient multi-core scaling to raise that draw call limit into the neighborhood of up to 100,000 objects! With that in mind, tests performed on a range of CPUs demonstrate impressive performance improvements, even with significantly higher visual fidelity.
To test the Star Swarm demo from yourself, you’ll need to meet the following prerequisites:    UPDATED FRAME PACING
Frame pacing is a technology that allows a multi-GPU configuration to deliver each frame of your game at consistent intervals. Even duration between each frame in your overall frame rate imparts a certain buttery smoothness that’s hard to describe in words, but luxurious to experience in-action in your favorite game. Last year, we developed and released our own implementation of this technology for customers of AMD Radeon™ products in the AMD Catalyst™ 13.8 Beta driver. In that update, we enabled frame pacing for Graphics Core Next-based GPUs on resolutions up to 2560x1600 in DirectX® 10 and 11 applications. With that release, we also promised a “phase 2” driver that would address additional configurations, and we’re pleased to say that today is the day: AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 Beta is the promised “phase 2” driver! AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 Beta brings new frame pacing support to the following AMD CrossFire™ or AMD Dual Graphics configurations when running DirectX® 10 and DirectX® 11 applications at resolutions higher than 2560x1600: - AMD Radeon™ R9 280X Graphics
- AMD Radeon™ R9 270X Graphics
- AMD Radeon™ R9 270 Graphics
- AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series
- AMD Radeon™ HD 7000M Series
- AMD Radeon™ HD 8000 Series
- AMD Radeon™ HD 8000M Series
- These AMD Dual Graphics configurations
- AMD Dual Graphics configurations using the new “Kaveri” APU with the AMD Radeon™ R7 240 or R7 250 GPUs
As a visual example of the benefits provided by frame pacing, we can plot out a real-world gaming scenario. The following diagram represents the time, in milliseconds, it took to render and display each frame to the user. To interpret the graph, look at the peaks and valleys: the line presenting fewer periods of frequent peaks and valleys, particularly fewer dramatic spikes, is representative of a smoother gaming experience. The below image illustrates an AMD Dual Graphics configuration: pairing the new “Kaveri” APU and the AMD Radeon™ R7 250 to run Tomb Raider™. As you can see, the time to present a frame is noticeably improved with the AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 graphics driver (red line), which is consistently and significantly less erratic than its predecessor (blue).  THE ROAD AHEAD
Throughout the months that have followed our October 2013 unveiling of Mantle, you have been patient and kind to us as the Mantle consortium labored to make the first release the best it could possibly be. Concurrently, your enthusiastic support on Facebook, Twitter and at trade shows has been real and personal encouragement for every person working on the API. While we can never truly repay your kindness with a piece of software, we hope that it goes into the world with no uncertain amount of gratitude for us. We thank you so very deeply for your support, and vow that we will bring support to the full breadth of Graphics Core Next GPUs in the months ahead. More broadly, AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 can be a significant improvement for gamers with systems based on AMD CrossFire™ or Dual Graphics technologies, with the potential for vast enhancements to the overall fluidity of their DirectX® 10 and 11 gaming experiences. As this is a beta driver, we’d like to sign off by noting that your feedback is vital to the future of the AMD Catalyst™ driver. Please report any bugs or issues to our official reporting form! SUPPORTING RESOURCES Robert Hallock is PR Manager for Gaming & Desktop Graphics at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only. Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.
SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONS FOR BATTLEFIELD 4™ and STARSWARM: - Intel Core i7-4960X System: Intel X79 Chipset, 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM, Windows 7 x64, AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 graphics driver
- Intel Core i5-4670K System: Intel z87 Chipset, 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM, Windows 7 x64, AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 graphics driver
- AMD FX 8350 System: AMD 990FX chipset, 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM, Windows 7 x64, AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 graphics driver
- AMD A10-7700K System: AMD A88X chipset, 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM, Windows 7 x64, AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 graphics driver
SYSTEM CONFIGURATION FOR TOMB RAIDER™ FRAME PACING:- AMD A10-7850K, AMD Radeon™ R7 250, 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM, Windows 7 x64, AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 graphics driver, Resolution: 1920x1080, Preset: High Quality
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Full View / NID: 46740 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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The Official Pattern Release or OPR is Trend Micro's latest compilation of patterns for identified viruses. It is guaranteed to have passed a series of critical tests to ensure that customers get optimum protection from the latest virus threats.
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Full View / NID: 46472 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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The Official Pattern Release or OPR is Trend Micro's latest compilation of patterns for identified viruses. It is guaranteed to have passed a series of critical tests to ensure that customers get optimum protection from the latest virus threats.
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Full View / NID: 46471 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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Softros LAN messenger is a secure network messaging software application for corporate LANs (local area networks). It does not require a server and is very easy to install and use. Softros LAN Messenger comes with a variety of handy features such as message notification alarms, personal or group messaging, file transfer and an intuitive interface. Softros LAN Messenger offers strong encryption options for all incoming and outgoing messages, guaranteeing no unauthorized person ever reads personal correspondence....
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Full View / NID: 95440 / Submitted by: TACKtech Team
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Actual Window Manager is an innovative desktop organization application which introduces unconventional window controls and also automatic general window operations making your work more productive, convenient and enjoyable. It has more than 50 handy tools to help you in daily routine window manipulations.
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Full View / NID: 50707 / Submitted by: TACKtech Team
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The Official Pattern Release or OPR is Trend Micro's latest compilation of patterns for identified viruses. It is guaranteed to have passed a series of critical tests to ensure that customers get optimum protection from the latest virus threats.
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Full View / NID: 46470 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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The Bat! is a powerful, highly configurable, yet easy to use email client. We've designed it especially to help you deal with your growing volume of email as quickly and efficiently as possible, saving much of your precious time.
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Full View / NID: 47916 / Submitted by: TACKtech Team
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With Adobe's newest version of Adobe® Photoshop CC, now available to Adobe Creative Cloud™ members everywhere, several fantastic and valuable new features have been made available that are sure to be appreciated by anyone who takes graphic design and photography seriously. While the new features are available to some degree to every Photoshop CC user, those with AMD APUs and GPUs will have built-in performance optimizations that will enable them to enjoy the full experience as the Adobe developers intended. How about a vivid, practical example? Let's take a look at the remarkable Smart Sharpen feature. Smart Sharpen is a workhorse tool that lets users create crystal clear images by minimizing noise and halo effects. To find the perfect image, the tool lets users choose the preferred algorithm and dynamically adjust the amount and radius of sharpening and noise reduction.
Early in 2013, AMD and Adobe collaborated to use OpenCL™ to help increase performance for just the “de-noise” portion of the Smart Sharpen feature. The results were good--we saw overall Smart Sharpen performance double simply by leveraging AMD graphics technology for this one portion of the Smart Sharpen pipeline1.
With the newest release of Adobe Photoshop CC, AMD and Adobe developers looked deep into the code to help take maximum advantage of OpenCL™ across the entire Smart Sharpen pipeline and thereby fully leverage AMD GPU compute power. The results are nothing short of spectacular. Take a look at this video for comparison:
In fact, we found that the new AMD A10-7850K APU processed images up to 11 times faster with OpenCL On versus Off when we used it to process a 21 MP image with the new OpenCL™-optimized Adobe® Photoshop® CC Smart Sharpen feature2. We also found up to 46 times faster performance3 on our top-of-line AMD FirePro™ W9000 card when compared with CPU-only processing, even with an image as large as 64 MP! Yes, you read it correctly—up to 46 times faster!
What you are seeing is the impact of the close collaboration between AMD and Adobe to bring the promise of heterogeneous computing--where the system and software are designed to make the best, most intelligent use of all of the CPU and GPU resources on board--to the most demanding creative workflows. These speed boosts are critical to your workflow. They can mean the difference between having the freedom to adjust and tweak until you get the image exactly the way you want it or accepting a “good enough” outcome in the face of repeated processing delays and interruptions to your creative flow.
We are seeing great overall competitive performance on both benchmarks and application tests with our recently launched “Kaveri” products. This new lineup is topped by the AMD A10-7850K APU powered by 12 Compute Cores* featuring AMD Radeon ™ R7 Graphics for revolutionary, responsive computing and next generation gaming (*Visit AMD.com/computecores).   
Reviews so far include such accolades as the “Gold Award” from PC Perspectives, and “Dam Good Value,” and “Dam Good” awards from Hardware Canucks. Joel Hruska from Extremetech wrote, “With HSA enabled, however, (Libre Office) performance skyrockets — AMD’s A10-7850K is more than 5x faster than the Core i5-4670. This, more than any other result, points to the potential of HSA.” Here are the results of our competitive testing for the new performance-enhanced Smart Sharpen now shipping with Adobe’s latest Photoshop CC):  Here's a video showing the benchmark in action:
The ultimate goal of all this is for the technology to keep pace with the user's creativity. We think this represents a dramatic step in the right direction.One of Adobe's most innovative and, frankly, remarkable new features for Photoshop CC is Perspective Warp, which lets the user adjust the perspective of a select part of an image while leaving other areas untouched to create the perfect image.
Adobe developers have tapped OpenGL to take advantage of AMD GPUs to accelerate on-screen rendering so users can see and modify their results instantaneously. You will also find that same interactive, on-screen speed at work, with the outstanding new 3D beautify and 3D print preview features in the latest version of Adobe Photoshop CC.
The new release of Adobe Photoshop CC represents another important step forward in the development of intelligent application workflows that make full use of all the processing resources available in a system. Adobe continues to show real leadership in taking advantage of heterogeneous compute design. Working together, AMD and Adobe ensure that users’ creativity is never limited by performance.
Supporting Resources
Clarice Simmons is a Senior Technical Marketing Manager at AMD. Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only. Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied. 1.AMD tests are performed on optimized AMD reference systems. PC manufacturers may vary configuration yielding different results. Test project used the new Smart Sharpen effect with Adobe Photoshop CC pre-release build, version 1.0.0.157 from 4/23/2013, test image: 5616x3744, 60.2MB, .PSD format. A notebook PC with AMD A10-5850M APU with AMD Radeon™ HD 8650G Graphics, 2x2GB DDR3-800 RAM, video driver 12.105.0.0 - 07-Apr-2013, SSD hard drive and Window 8 Professional (x64) build 9200 took 14.84 seconds with GPU acceleration on versus 31.03 seconds with GPU acceleration off. RIN-27 2.The AMD A10-7850K APU can process images at up to 11 times faster with the new OpenCL™- optimized version of the Adobe® Photoshop® CC Smart Sharpen feature. AMD tests are performed on optimized AMD reference systems. PC manufacturers may vary their configuration yielding different results. Test project used the Smart Sharpen feature in Adobe® Photoshop® CC, updated January 2014, test image: 5616x3744, 60.2MB, .PSD format. A desktop PC with AMD A10-7850K APU with AMD Radeon™ R7 Series graphics, 2x4GB DDR3-2133 RAM, video driver 13.300.0.0 - 22-Dec-2013 (RC1), Window 8.1 build 9600, took 52.63 seconds with OpenCL off, 4.39 seconds with OpenCL on. KVD-4 3. The AMD FirePro™ W9000 graphics card can process images up to 46 times faster with the 2013 preview of a new OpenCL™- optimized version of the Adobe® Photoshop® CC Smart Sharpen feature. AMD tests are performed on optimized AMD reference systems. PC manufacturers may vary their configuration yielding different results. Test project used December 2013 preview of a new OpenCL™- optimized version of the Adobe® Photoshop® CC Smart Sharpen feature, test image: 8000x8000, .PSD format. A desktop workstation with Intel® Xeon® E5506 processor, AMD FirePro™ W9000 graphics card, 3GB DDR3-1600 RAM, video driver FirePro 13.152.4, Window 7-x64, took 529.5 seconds with OpenCL off, 11.2 seconds with OpenCL on. FP-86 4. The AMD A10-7850K APU can process images at up to 3.2X the speed of an Intel i5-4670K with the updated (January 2014) Adobe® Photoshop® CC Smart Sharpen feature. AMD tests are performed on optimized AMD reference systems. PC manufacturers may vary their configuration yielding different results. Test project used the Adobe® Photoshop® CC Smart Sharpen feature, updated January 2014, test image: 5616x3744, 60.2MB, .PSD format. A desktop PC with AMD A10-7850K APU with AMD Radeon™ R7 Series graphics, 2x4GB DDR3-2133 RAM, video driver 13.300.0.0 - 22-Dec-2013 (RC1), took 4.39 seconds with OpenCL on. A desktop PC configured with an Intel Core i5-4670K with Intel HD 4600 graphics, 2x4GB DDR3-1600, video driver 10.18.10.3379 - 17-Dec-2013, took 13.87 seconds with OpenCL™ on. Both systems used the same SSD hard drive and Window 8.1 build 9600. KVD-3 
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Full View / NID: 46741 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Devinder Kumar will present at the Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference 2014 at 9:00 a.m. PST on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 in San Francisco. A real-time audio webcast of the presentation can be accessed on the Inves...
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Full View / NID: 46468 / Submitted by: The Zilla of Zuron
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