Facebook continues to design networking hardware with what it describes as the first open modular switch platform-- the "6-pack", a solution it claims is simpler than the hardware the likes of Cisco or Juniper offer.

As the name suggests, the 6-pack combines 6 smaller switches, specifically the Wedge top-of-rack switches Facebook revealed back in June 2014. It includes 12 independent switching elements (each switching 1.28Tbps) and comes in two configurations, one exposing 16x40GE ports to the front and 640G (16x40GE) to the back, and one exposing all 1.28T to the back.

Being designed to the social network's specifications, the 6-pack runs on an own OS (specifically FBOSS, a Facebook-developed Linux-based networking OS) on the local server and is completely independent, allowing the modification of any part of the system with no system-level impact.

Supermicro announces a wide range of server and storage products with support for "true" hot-swapping capability via Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) technology.

NVMe is a scalable CPU PCIe Gen3 direct connect designed for use in client and enterprise server systems using SSD technology. It reduces latency and allows for faster CPU to data storage device performance.

The NVMe solution range covers 1U Ultra and WIO SuperServers, 2U Ultra, TwinPro, EXDP 32DIMM and DCO SuperServers, 4U FatTwin and 7U platforms. It promises up to 6x throughput gains and 7x lower latency compared with current SATA3/SAS3 SSD technology, and according to Supermicro is ideal for  a wide gamut of applications.

According to IHS global power distribution unit (PDU) revenues are set to grow by 5.6% in 2015-- double the increase forecast for unit shipment growth as the market shifts towards higher-priced rack PDU products.

IHS says a couple of factors lead to this shift. First is the growth of intelligent products, since more customers demand power usage monitoring, efficiency reports, decreased datacentre power power use and capacity planning. Meanwhile rack densities are on the up, driving demand for pricier 3-phase (and higher) rack PDUs.

“While different regions of the world are at different stages in the adoption of the higher-priced product types, we do see an overall trend globally toward rack PDUs with intelligent features such as metering and switching and PDUs with higher power ratings,” the analyst says.

Extron Electronics ships the ShareLink 200 Wireless Collaboration Gateway, a means for users to present content from personal devices, including Windows and OS X PCs, iDevices and Androids.

It uses ShareLink technology to simultaneously display presentations, images, documents and other content from 4 different personal devices, eliminating the need to change sources during sessions. Content from a single device shows full screen, while content from multiple devices appears simultaneously in 4 windows on the display.

A collaboration mode allows any user to share content and control the presentation, while a moderator mode ensures only the display of approved content. Video outputs come in HDMI and VGA flavours.