Hardware

Although the standard for DDR4 memory won't be finalized until summer, several companies are already preparing to ship modules that will boost performance in data centers and on consumer devices

High cost and a reputation for flakiness limited sales of SSD flash drives as alternatives to hard drives. Cost and flakiness are still a little high, but both are dropping, making SSDs waaaay sexier to consumers than cloud or virtual storage, no matter what geeks think about it.

If you've ever opened a PC case and stared inside, or looked at a bare motherboard, you may be taken aback by the number and variety of connectors, pins, and slots that exist on a modern PC motherboard. In this guide I'll identify some of the most common (and a few uncommon) connectors on motherboards used in most home PCs. I won't cover server- or workstation-class boards here, just what you might find in a typical midrange or high-end home PC.

Replays of the major network shows during primetime will automatically "hop" over commercials.

In an effort to diversify its cloud offerings, NaviSite - a Time Warner Cable cloud computing and managed hosting company - announced plans to offer storage service for customers in what one analyst says could the beginning of service providers looking to offer big data analysis from the cloud.

A portable USB fuel cell promises to charge your smartphone for up to two weeks without going near a wall socket. Lilliputian Systems says its portable fuel cell will provide juice for your smartphone a dozen times before running out -- and then you just need to buy a replacement cartridge.

The server has been virtualized, now it's time for the rest of the data center - including the network - to catch up. That's the message form VMware at this year's Interop, as the company seeks to ensure it remains a major enterprise IT player while the software-defined networking trend continues to gain momentum.

Summer 2012 promises to be the season of tablet experimentation on a grander scale than ever.

Oracle's virtual desktop infrastructure is no longer reliant solely on the company's own storage infrastructure, giving customers a range of new options that won't tie customers into one vendor.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini on Thursday said that the company has an advantage over its rival ARM on Windows 8 for tablets because of decades of developing x86 chips that support the Windows operating system.

Does BYOD put your company in murky legal water? You bet. Employees need protections, too.

While few doubt the importance of maximizing the energy efficiency of their corporate data centers, executive vice president of data center technology for Las Vegas-based Switch, Mark Thiele's talk at Interop this week showcased just how much companies might still be missing.