FE Colleges Turn to Blackboard for e-Learning

Academic, Technical Solutions Advance Mission for Growing Number of FE Institutions

November 19, 2008 – Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB), a leading provider of educational enterprise technology, announced today that Northumberland College is the latest Further Education (FE) college to select Blackboard’s software and managed hosting solutions to support skill development and to help meet its students’ range of individual educational needs. 

Northumberland joins Havering College of Further and Higher Education, Middlesbrough College, The Cleveland College of Art and Design, City of Wolverhampton College and Westminster Kingsway College, all FE colleges to have recently selected Blackboard to support the development of virtual learning environments within their institutions.

Supermicro Launches Single-Socket High-End Desktop Platforms Based on Intel X58 Express Chipset

Super Micro Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMCI), a leader in application-optimized, high performance server and workstation solutions, today launched its first line of energy efficient whisper-quiet (27dB) platforms based on the new Intel(R) X58 Express chipset.

"At Supermicro, we deliver the best quality and performance, with industry leading energy efficiency. Our single-socket platforms based on the new X58 Express chipset are no exception," said Charles Liang, CEO and president of Supermicro. "Our performance-optimized X8SAX and C7X58 motherboards support dual graphics cards via two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots to deliver up to twice the performance for the most demanding games and visual applications."

ATG Expands eStara Connections to Include Online Video Advertising

ATG (Art Technology Group, Inc., NASDAQ: ARTG), the premier provider of e-commerce software and platform neutral optimization services, today introduced eStara Video Connect, an addition to its eStara Connections product line that transforms passive video advertisements into active, revenue and lead-generation tools by enabling consumers to instantly ‘take action’ while watching video ads. These actions, such as in-bound phone calls or visits to advertisers’ websites are tracked and measured in real-time, allowing media companies and Internet video providers to provide advertisers with true return on investment data from each online video ad.

Cray XT5 Supercomputer Slated to Ship With the New Quad-Core AMD Opteron(TM) Processor

Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (NasdaqGM:CRAY) today announced plans to begin shipping Cray XT5 supercomputer systems with the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, codenamed "Shanghai," in early 2009. This enhanced processor, built on 45nm process technology, is designed to provide significant benefits in energy efficiency, increased performance compared to previous generation AMD Opteron processors, and investment protection.

"Cray expects the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, based on AMD's Direct Connect Architecture, to enable excellent performance scaling on high performance computing applications in combination with the unique Cray SeaStar interconnect," said Cray Chief Technology Officer Steve Scott. "We look forward to delivering this capability to our Cray XT5 customers."