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Apple's move to G5 processors from IBM is giving the company a clear advantage against manufacturers using chips from Intel or AMD, an industry expert has said. "The 970FX", (the G5 chip that powers Apple's Xserve and is thought likely to drive a future Power Mac G5 upgrade from the company), "should yield well at 2.5GHz, up from the 2GHz speeds of the 970 used in the original Power Mac G5. This 25 per cent increase in clock rate will not soon be matched by Intel or AMD," writes Microprocessor Report editor-in-chief Peter Glaskowsky.

Intel's new Prescott chip is described as "struggling to eke out minor clock-rate improvements, and AMD will have to wait for its own 90nm products (due in the second half of the year) to achieve substantial speed-ups for Athlon 64," he writes. The new G5 chip has already won the coveted Microprocessor Report Analyst's Choice Award for Best Desktop Processor of 2003. Glaskowsky is optimistic for the future of the processor architecture.

News source: Macworld | UK

The four new guides are:

* Solution Guide for Windows Security and Directory Services for UNIX
Using Active Directory and Kerberos for authentication and identity store in a heterogeneous UNIX and Windows IT environment.

* Solution Guide for Sybase/UNIX to SQL Server 2000
Migrating a Sybase / UNIX database environment to SQL Server on Windows with focus on the backend server.
* Solution Guide for Migrating High Performance Computing Applications from UNIX to Windows
Migrating a High Performance Computing environment from UNIX or Linux to Windows and in depth information about HPC on Windows.

* Solution Guide for Migrating UNIX Build Environments
Migrating UNIX application projects based on make to Windows and Visual Studio using a variety of UNIX toolsets including Microsoft Services for UNIX (SFU).

"With these guides and SFU 3.5 we are demonstrating our continuing commitment to customers who want to maximise cost savings and IT value by migrating to the Windows platform," said Hilary Wittman, Server Solutions Marketing Manager, Microsoft UK. "We see a great deal of demand from our customers for these products, which can really add value to their use of Windows Server 2003 in a cross platform environment. Customers can also rely on the specific training and skills that Microsoft Partners have in Windows/UNIX migration." The complete list of customers is Infosys, Avanade, HP, Unisys, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Trinity Expert System.

Steve Rawsthorn of Unisys said: "Unisys recognise that enterprise customers require an interoperability solution for the UNIX and Microsoft platforms that reduces costs and improves infrastructure efficiency. We offer a UNIX Migration Assessment Service to customers and Services For UNIX 3.5 is an effective tool as part of the overall Migration service."


Steve Watling, Managing Principal, HP Services, added: "Customers are migrating from UNIX onto lower cost Microsoft platforms because of the capital and operational savings this allows. The guides that Microsoft has produced facilitate the project management and skillsets needed in realising a migration project and maximising the agility of the IT infrastructure."

Meeting Customer Needs for Interoperability

"The vast majority of enterprise IT shops have both Windows and UNIX installed, and this will be the case for the foreseeable future," said Al Gillen, research director of system software at IDC. "Achieving effective interoperability is not only critical for leveraging these investments, it's essential for building flexible systems that can solve today's business problems."


SFU 3.5 includes new tools to make administering a cross-platform environment more cost-effective too - for example, by including an expanded array of UNIX-based tools and utilities for administering the Windows platform. This enables companies to harness their IT administrators' UNIX expertise and make it relevant on the Windows platform. Also new in SFU 3.5 are dynamic registry capabilities, which enable network administrators to make changes such as network performance tuning without incurring the downtime that comes with rebooting.

The Interix subsystem and Software Development Kit (Interix) - a full application execution subsystem that lets customers compile and natively run UNIX programs and scripts on Windows operating systems, has also been enhanced in SFU 3.5. Capabilities have been expanded to include support for running multithreaded applications, enabling customers to run a wider array of applications that have been developed for UNIX on the Windows platform.

Upcoming Events

To help customers realise the potential of these toolsets, Microsoft and its partners are holding a series of events in London for customers looking migrate or integrate UNIX environments. Avanade are holding an event for customers in central London on March 25th and similarly, HP is hosting Executive Circle Events on this topic in London on April 6th and May 11th - Unisys will also host an event on April 28th. For details of these events contact HilaryW@microsoft.com.