We have all been in a meeting where we’ve played pass-the-cable-around to connect to a projector. Now Vision launches a product so obvious you’ll wonder why it hasn’t been done before.

The “Techconnect Select” is an HDMI dongle which fits to an HDMI cable, and plugs into your laptop.

When a user is ready to share their screen they just press the SELECT button on the dongle. The Techconnect Select sends a control signal back down the HDMI cable to the HDMI switcher which is hidden out of sight.

It only works with Vision’s HDMI switcher Read more...

For Q3, EMEA sees declines in both server shipments (54800 units less, a -7.2% decline) and revenues ($2.8bn with -4.3% decline) Gartner reports-- performance the analyst describes as no less than a "downward spiral."

According to Gartner Q3 2013 is the 9th consecutive quarter of dropping revenues and the 8th for shipments. Server revenue across the region is also the lowest for over 15 years, making out an increasingly contracting server market. W. and E. Europe both see revenue declines at -4.8% Y-o-Y and 13% Y-o-Y respectively, while MEA is the only region showing growth at 12.1% Y-o-Y.

EMEA x86 server revenues drop by 0.1%, RISC/Itanium UNIX revenues fall by -29.4% and Other CPU sees 15.2% growth. Non-x86 platforms suffer from platform migration, although the RISC/Itanium UNIX platform is the worst hit.

“Q4 is typically the strongest quarter of the year for these platforms, but even a strong end to the year will not change the long term downward trend,” the analyst remarks.

Intel reveals its ambitions for the software defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV) with Highland Forest-- a networking platform combining the Xeon E5-2600 v2 CPU with the next generation Coleto Creek communications chipset. 

According to the company the Highland Forest platform carries up to 20 2.4GHz Ivy Bridge CPU cores. It should reach performances of up to 255 million packets per second, up from 140m p/s from the previous generation Crystal Forest. It also pushes 10Gb/s of IPsec and 200Gb/s SSL security for encrypted traffic. 

For deep package inspection Intel adds Hyperscan technology, a technology from October 2013 acquisition Sensory Networks.  Read more...

Global server factory revenues drop by -3.7% Y-o-Y to $12.1 billion in Q3 2013 IDC reports-- a 3rd consecutive quarter of Y-o-Y declines due to still soft server demand ahead of the refresh cycle set to emerge during Q1 2014. 

Shipments for the quarter remain flat (after modest Q2 2013 growth) at 2.3 million units. 

Volume systems see 3.5% Y-o-Y revenue growth, while midrange and high-end system demand sees Y-o-Y drops of -17.8% and -22.5% respectively due to difficult Y-o-Y compares and weak Unix demand.

Worldwide server revenue declined in all major geographic regions including EMEA," IDC says. "The market was impacted by a steady transition from 2nd Platform to 3rd Platform workload demand coupled with particularly weak sales of Unix servers, which served to further dampen the market." Read more...