NEWS UPDATES

Toshiba prepares coin-size hard-disk drive
http://storage.itworld.com/4650/031216toshibahd/page_1.html

Toshiba Corp. plans to begin sample production next year of a coin-size hard-disk drive that can hold up to 3G bytes of data, the company said. Toshiba will demonstrate a prototype of the drive at the CES show in Las Vegas in January 2004.

New Microsoft unit will focus on core of Windows
http://www.itworld.com/Comp/2444/031216msunit/index.html

Microsoft Corp. announced it is creating a new central engineering division that will work on the core of the Windows OS (operating system). The Windows Core Operating System Division (COSD), within the company's Platforms Group, will be responsible for the core OS platform, including development, program management and testing.

IDC: China, India to drive Asia's IT comeback in 2004 http://www.itworld.com/Tech/4535/031216asiait/index.html

The IT market in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) will grow by 11 percent in 2004 to US$88 billion, driven by strong growth in the region's two biggest developing economies, China and India, according to research firm IDC.

Server vendors launch management initiative
http://utilitycomputing.itworld.com/4807/031216serverstandard/page_1.html

Intel Corp., Dell Inc., IBM Corp., and Hewlett-Packard Co. have announced plans to jointly work to standardize the way servers are managed. The four companies will lead a new working group, called the Server Management Working Group, being formed within the Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF) standards organization.

Oracle earnings up on strengthening market
http://utilitycomputing.itworld.com/4831/031216oracle/page_1.html

Citing a strengthened competitive position and an improving economy, Oracle Corp. reported fiscal second-quarter results on Monday that exceeded its own guidance and hit the upper end of Wall Street expectations.

EMC buys VMWare for $635 million
http://utilitycomputing.itworld.com/4838/031216emcvmware/page_1.html

Storage giant EMC Corp. on Monday announced plans to buy Palo Alto, California, virtualization software company VMWare Inc., a move that further strengthens EMC's growing software portfolio.

Foundation opens door to Net and knowledge
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/031216havenot/index.html

Amid all the talk about bringing computers and Internet access to the digital "have-nots" during the global Net summit in Geneva last week, one group was showing participants how it's already delivering the goods.

Top 10 IT stories of 2003
http://security.itworld.com/4774/031216top10/page_1.html