Dell uses Via Nano laptop chips in servers

In today's podcast: Dell uses Via Nano laptop chips in servers; established domains host malware; and DRAM slump continues.

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Dell's new ultra-light server will use low-power processors designed for use in cheap laptops. The XS11-VX8 servers will use Nano netbook processors from Via Technologies to run light server workloads such as Web hosting. Dell's move to use the Nano chips is part of a growing trend to use low-power chips in servers to reduce energy and cooling costs in data-centers. The Dell servers will be priced at around 400 dollars and will bundle 12 server boards with Nano chips in one chassis. Each server board will include Via's Nano U2250 processor, which runs at 1.3GHz, and a storage module.

The number of legitimate websites being hacked to host malware has hit startling highs in recent days, according to new figures from MessageLabs. Between the 4th and the 8th of May, 85 percent of websites blocked by the company for hosting malicious content were well-established domains that have been around for a year or more. This runs counter to the usual assumption that malicious websites exist for only days or hours, the better to avoid detection and filtering.
MessageLabs says this is a sign that cybercriminals are compromising DNS records and adding sub-domains pointing to servers they can exploit.

The global DRAM memory chip industry continued to shrink in the first quarter of this year as revenue fell to an eight year low and losses mounted. First quarter DRAM revenue fell 41 percent year-on-year to 3.6 billion dollars, the lowest level since the end of 2001. The downturn started two years ago after memory companies built too many factories, leading to a chip glut.

There's renewed speculation in China that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger is on the cards, following a meeting between Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Jack Ma, the CEO of Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba, which controls Yahoo's operations in China. The two met last Friday in Hangzhou, where Alibaba is based. Ballmer was in town to announce a new software licensing program with the local government. When Microsoft first talked of buying Yahoo, Alibaba feared that a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo, its largest shareholder, might mean the end of its independence and had reportedly sought other investors to buy out the 40 percent stake in Alibaba that Yahoo owns. Such a deal would have meant Microsoft would get Yahoo without any China properties. The meeting between Ballmer and Ma last week is the second in just a few months. Ma and other Alibaba executives met Ballmer in March during a visit to the U.S. that also included talks on potential cooperation with firms like Yahoo, eBay and Google.

And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. This is Marc Ferranti in the new York bureau. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.