New Products

The good folks at RotateRight informed us that their system-wide performance profiler for Linux, Zoom, has been updated to version 1.3. Zoom profiles are system-wide and precise down to the instruction level, and they capture backtraces. Zoom also analyzes and annotates code with specific tuning advice for most compilers and processors. The latest product update features a number of enhancements to help increase programmer productivity and optimize Linux application performance, both of which reduce costs by making software faster and more energy-efficient. These include support for Intel Atom and Core i7 processors, ability to show kernel source and assembly, support for external debug info files, calculation of symbol ranges when missing symbol information and several others. Zoom is available for Linux x86-64, i386 and PowerPC 64.

www.rotateright.com

Sans Digital's new AccuSTOR AS212X2 Series is a 2U 12-bay SAS enclosure for mid-range and high-capacity storage environments. Sans Digital headlines the product as the first JBOD rackmount to overcome the lack of monitoring ability when utilizing a RAID controller card. A built-in selectable switch allows hardware monitoring via various popular brands of RAID controller interfaces. This new monitoring feature, says Sans Digital, “further simplifies the management process by allowing system administrators to access hard drive status, as well as power supply and cooling fan information”. Data is protected by RAID protection provided by LSI, 3ware, Intel, Dell, ATTO, Areca or Adaptec SAS RAID controllers. The AS212X2 uses the latest SAS expander technology to connect up to 12 high-performance SAS drives or high-capacity SATA drives to the host computer using a single SAS cable, enabling a system bandwidth of up to 1,200MB/s.

www.sansdigital.com

The SheevaPlug is one of the diminutive yet powerful devices in Marvell Semiconductor's “Plug Top Computing” initiative, a computing approach that features embedded, Linux-powered computers that plug in to electrical sockets. These devices, says Marvell, consume less than 5 Watts, can be left on all the time and “are capable of running network-based services that normally require a dedicated [PC]”. These services include Web, e-mail and VPN servers hosted in homes and small offices. SheevaPlug features a 1.2GHz Marvell Sheeva CPU and 512MB each of Flash and DDR2 memory. Network connectivity is via Gigabit Ethernet; peripherals can be connected using USB 2.0. The SheevaPlug development kit contains the SheevaPlug and software tools needed to develop applications for the platform.

www.marvell.com

The open-source app Magento is one of the most evolved e-commerce solutions out there. For those starting a project from scratch, William Rice's new book, Magento Beginner's Guide, from Packt Publishing could be the ticket to success. Running on Apache-MySQL-PHP, Magento offers features such as multiple storefronts, templates and themes and multiple payment gateways (such as PayPal and credit cards). Because getting started with Magento can be daunting, Rice's book offers a step-by-step guide to getting a store up and running. It covers installation, configuration, populating a store with products, accepting payments, maintaining relationships with customers and fulfilling orders. After utilizing the book, readers will have a basic but complete and functional on-line store.

www.packtpub.com

Realize your clandestine plan to develop the next runaway hit game with Luke Benstead's Beginning OpenGL Game Programming, 2nd Ed., from Course Technology PTR. The book provides “an easy-to-understand introduction to OpenGL, introducing all the basic elements of OpenGL as they apply to games”, says the publisher. In addition, the new 2nd edition covers features found in OpenGL 3.0, the new and more efficient API that provides Direct3D 10 level graphics and is platform-independent. A companion CD-ROM features the source code used in the book, bonus chapters, games and the OpenGL Extension Library. Target readers are beginning game developers or programmers who are new to game development.

www.courseptr.com