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We've been working with our friends at VMware and have some nice results to report.  The first paragraph of their blog post says it all:

We just published a SPECweb2005 benchmark score of 62,296 -- the highest result published to date on a virtual configuration. This result was obtained on an HP ProLiant DL380 G6 server running VMware vSphere 4 and featuring Intel Xeon 5500 series processors, and Intel 82598EB 10 Gigabit AF network interface cards.

To read more about these results, here are a few links.

• Achieving High Web Throughput with VMware vSphere 4 on Intel Xeon 5500 series (Nehalem) servers from VMware Performance Team's Vroom! Blog
• The story on VMware communities site, with some additional detail
• SPECweb2005 Result

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Our very first blog post was written by CV Vick on July 7, 2006.  CV is a fellow developer and an all around good guy.  Since CV first talked about Pigs and Chickens we’ve had conversations about everything from Elevators in India to Why Linux People Lust After DTrace.  More importantly, we’ve expanded the blog authors to include non-Intel voices such as Asaf Shelly, Jim Corrigan, Dmitriy Vyokuv, Gaston Hillar, Matthew Wolf and plenty of others.  And you’ve made over 7200 comments to their posts!

What’s been especially exciting for me is to watch how we’ve transformed the way we communicate with each other.  It’s hard to imagine not being able to leave a comment on something written by an “expert”.  But that was just the beginning.  Today we see developers helping each other solve problems in forums, sharing their ideas through articles and blogs, showing off their skills in contests, and telling us how to make our products better by sharing ideas in the Ideazone.

Here are the top 5 posts of all time.

1. The C# Programming Language Version 4.0

2. UMPC MID Clamshell

3. Sony Vaio VGN UX27CN UMPC

4. What Does 256 Cores Look Like?

5. Intel(r) AMT User Notification Service

We’ve come so far, yet we’re just scratching the surface on how we work together as a community.  To celebrate this milestone I thought I’d ask you a question – what is your favorite blog post?

What are your secrets for maintaining margin?  How to you make sure you keep your priorities straight, stay healthy, and stay excited about your work?

On another subject, when I got back I noticed that we had a new blogger.  Maria Camila Gomez-silva, or Maca as her friends call her, started blogging about her experience with AMT.  She has a unique perspective as a developer from Columbia.  Her blog is worth taking a look at.

The other thing I noticed is that lots of people I know are starting to use Friendfeed.  I went ahead and took the plunge and signed up.  I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but would welcome your feedback on how best to take advantage of it.

For those of you still wondering what I'm talking about, I'll let you in on a little secret. We're showing the old design to about half of you, and the new design to the other half. Yes, this is intentional. We're collecting metrics to guage the effectiveness of the new design.

Would you like to do me a favor? Let me know what you think about it.  Does it work better than the old design?  How would you improve it?

Question 1: I found the web site to download cpucount, but it sends me to the Code Samples License with no way to download the file.  This is very frustrating.  What happened?

Let's get this out of the way right up front.  This was an error on our part.  We had a bug that would show you the license over and over again and never let you get to the code.  We fixed it as soon as we realized what had happened.  Thanks for letting us know it was broken.

Question 2: I'm looking for information on your new 45 nm CPU technology.  Where do I find it?

There are a couple of places you should take a look at.

This link has information for developing software on these new chips.

This is the overview of the new technology itself.

Question 3: Lots of questions about Compilers.  One interesting one was do you have a C# compiler?  No.  We do have excellent C++ and Fortran compilers though,  There were several questions about getting help or documentation for those.

The first place you should go for compiler information and documentation is www.intel.com/software/products.  If you need help with a specific question, the fastest way to get an answer is through our forums.

Question 4: Where can I find processor manuals?

Here is the central place for all processor manuals.  There is a ton of good information there.

Question 5: Why are some of the movies on your site in WMV format?  I'm using a MAC and I can't view them.

I have good news for you.  First, we are now producing our videos so that it can be easily viewed on most any platform.  To view the videos on WMV format on your Mac, you can use a product like flip4mac.  They make a free WMV viewer.

Question 6: What is a mashup?

According to wikipedia, a mashup is a web application that combines data and/or functionality from more than one source.

Question #7: I'm looking for a driver for an Intel product.  Where can I find it?

The Intel Software Network won't have the driver you're looking for.  We're a site focused on software developers.  However, the download center probably has what you need.  This is where I go when I'm looking for the latest drivers or BIOS for my Intel motherboard.

How do you get started?  If you have a paper in mind, send it to us.  It it's something that's a fit, we'll publish it.

Who can participate?  The good news is that any developer can participate.  It helps if you know something about one of the areas mentioned above.  I used to teach programming at a local college.  I noticed that I learned quite a few things from my students, even those just learning the language.  If you've got something to share, there's probably someone who can use it.

I'm sure there are other questions you have.  Leave a comment here and I'll answer them.  If you want to send your topics to me directly, send them to my firstname dot lastname at intel.com

I’ve been playing with the mobile browser on the iPod Touch lately. It’s such a big change from my Blackberry 8700 browser. I find myself checking email and looking things up on the web from all over the house through my home wifi. The experience is just so much better than my older Blackberry. As developers continue to find ways of exploiting the power of each new handheld device, the experience will continue to get better and better. Once we have wimax, wifi, and DVB-H digital tv on our mobile devices, just imagine what is possible. Watch tv, browse the web, pay your bills, buy movie tickets, chat with your friends... while on the bus, train, or from your car. A lot of this is possible now, but the single chip solution means future devices will be smaller and cost less. I’m looking forward to that device!

Q. What is Cool Software?
A. An online community of people passionate about software. Members post information about an interesting new software company and the community votes on whether they think a software company is, well, "cool." The site is designed to engage anyone interested in identifying and ranking innovative new software companies and applications that are pushing the boundaries of compute technology and/or forming compelling new usage models - in short, cool software.

When I first heard of the idea for coolsw, it sounded interesting. The blog chatter we've seen in the past two days has blown me away. If you haven't seen it, take a peak at the site and let me know what you think. I'll also see if I can get the guys behind coolsw to write a few words of their own here. :)

If you're attending the event or in SF and want to get together, drop me a note at bill (dot) pearson (at) intel (dot) com.

We ended up visiting three universities – Tecnologico De Monterey, Universidad De Guadalajara, and Cinvestav. At each university the professors I met with were passionate about their work and excited to talk to me (that’s always a plus).

At Universidad De Guadalajara we met with Dr. Marco Cisneros, head of the Computer Science Department. He brought a few of his colleagues into the discussion as well. While we had a great discussion, the most exciting takeaway for me was the enthusiasm and passion Marco had for his students and his work. Its people like Marco that make learning fun. I’m excited to see what he does with the Computer Science Department.

The most unexpected and challenging part of my trip was at Tecnologico De Monterey. Dr. Gilardo Sanchez Ante, Director of the Department of Computer Science and IT, met us outside and asked if we would like to see the lab that Intel had donated to the school. I was expecting to look in on some empty computers or maybe step into the back of the class and observe learning from afar. Instead, we marched straight in to the front of the class and asked to say a few words to the students. I got a few thoughts out, but Omar really saved the day with a great speech! The students must have listened to our advice about learning how to thread because a half dozen of them came up to us after class and wanted to know why there weren’t more multicore projects in their classes.

As I headed for the Guadalajara airport that day, I reflected on what I’d seen in my short visit. The passion and excitement displayed by both the instructors and students was similar to what I had seen with the software companies I spoke with in Mexico City and Guadalajara. There is a genuine interest in building a world-class software industry. There are plenty of smart people and innovative ideas to make it happen.

If you are using SSE4, leave a comment here and let me know what you're using them for.