Japanese supercomputer project may be killed

In today's podcast: Japanese supercomputer project may be killed; Microsoft co-founder Allen diagnosed with lymphoma; and Cisco raises its offer for Tandberg.

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An ambitious plan by Japan to build the most powerful computer in the world stands on the brink of collapse this week after a government panel recommended funding for the project be virtually eliminated. The Government Revitalization Unit, a panel established by the government to eliminate wasteful spending, recommended on Friday to freeze spending on the project. The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken), which is leading the ¥115 billion (or US$1.3 billion) project, has already spent over ¥50 billion and had requested around ¥27 billion for the next financial year. Its goal was to create a supercomputer by 2011 with a performance of 10 petaflops. The current fastest supercomputer is a Cray XT5 supercomputer installed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. It has a performance of 1.75 petaflops. Members of the panel questioned whether Japan really needed to have the world's fastest supercomputer and its relevance to the everyday lives of citizens.

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen has been diagnosed with lymphoma.The 56-year-old Allen was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma earlier this month, according to a letter sent by his sister, Jody Allen, to employees of his investment company Vulcan. It is a non-Hodgkin's form of the disease. Allen left Microsoft in 1983 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. After leaving Microsoft, Allen founded Vulcan and subsequently invested in DreamWorks SKG, Oxygen Media and cable provider Charter Communications. He owns the National Football League's Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers, a National Basketball Association team.

Cisco has raised its bid for Norwegian video conferencing vendor Tandberg to 19 billion Norwegian Kroner (or US$3.4 billion), up from $3.0 billion, but says it will raise its price no further. The new offer will expire on Dec. 1, and is the final offer Cisco will make. The holders of an additional 30 percent of Tandberg's shares have accepted the new offer, taking the number of shares committed to the deal to over 40 percent. However, the companies need the support of holders of 90 percent of the shares for the deal to go through.

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke out for unrestricted access to information on Monday during a question-and-answer session with Chinese university students in Shanghai. During the event, Obama took a mix of questions from audience members and questions that had been submitted online, including one question that was sent via e-mail to the U.S. embassy in Beijing. That question, which was selected by a member of the U.S. press corps from a list of questions received by the embassy, asked Obama if he was familiar with China's Great Firewall and whether or not he felt Chinese Internet users should have unrestricted access to Twitter. In response, Obama said he is a big believer in technology and a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information." He also admitted that he's never used Twitter.

...And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.