Ertem prescribes tripod economic plan for Nigeria

ITRealms:

The Regional Director for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Intel Corporation, Mrs Cigdem Ertem has given a tripod prescription for Nigeria’s economic recovery, reports ITRealms.

Speaking at the The Economist Summit in Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos recently, Ertem said that what Nigeria needs now to improve the economy is to encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and diversification.

Nigeria, she said, is facing a new reality of lower oil prices, and structural forces undermining growth, hence technology, more than ever is now a lever that will help transform and diversify the economy.

“Intel focuses on supporting technology enabled industries and drivers of economic growth like Education, Finance & Banking, Manufacturing and the Professional Services,” she said.

As said by her, studies by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) show that approx. 96 per cent of Nigerian businesses are SMEs compared to 53 per cent in the US and 65 per cent in Europe. However SME’s contribute approx. 1 per cent of Nigerian’s GDP, compared to 40 per cent in Asian countries and 50 per cent in the US or Europe. 

Addressing the statistics, Ertem noted that the low level of contribution can be attributed to several constraints, including lack of funding, infrastructure, and low level of productivity; all of which can be bridged through technology.

”At Intel, we do more than power a PC, we empower and enable youth, and women in Nigeria and around the world to become a viable part of the global knowledge economy by providing support for them to develop relevant technology skills that will increase their opportunities in the market, and help them thrive as entrepreneurs, through programs like Intel She Will Connect, Intel Teach, and Intel Capital.”

Intel Capital continues to invest in innovative technology start-ups and companies in Africa, since 1991 Intel Capital and has invested over $1.2 billion, while Intel Teach and She Will Connect have trained over 150,000 teachers and 35,000 young girls and women in Nigeria respectively, in partnership with NGO’s, Government and Intel’s business partners.

Other speakers at the summit include Aliko Dangote, CEO Dangote Group; Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment; and Adebola Williams of Red Media.

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With computers everyone is more powerful – Cigdem Ertem

ITRealms:

The Regional President for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Intel Corporation, Mrs. Cigdem Ertem has declared that with computers, everyone is more powerful, reports ITRealms.

She made this declaration while speaking at a press conference on the Personal Computer (PC) adoption initiative by a set of computing technology players in Lagos.

“With computers, everyone is more powerful,” she asserted.

These players, ITRealms reports include Dell, Microsoft, Asus, Zinox, RLG, Lenovo, Airtel and Diamond Bank.

Mrs. Ertem said that with the kind of partnership Intel is drawing on this initiative, more Nigerians would be empowered.

She also said that this would entail affordable computers, mostly with the support of the government.

“So I am happy to announce that we are in Nigeria to make computers and the internet more affordable,” she said.

Ertem pointed out that only Intel cannot do it all, thus the partnership becomes imperative.

There was series of remarks from the partnership including Dell, Microsoft, RLG, Lenovo and Diamond Bank.

ITRealms also reports that the initiative is aimed at nurturing and supporting the development of innovators as well as businesses in Nigeria.

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Pix: L-r New HP Nigeria, MD, Ify Afe, SSA Job Creation and Youth Employment to Vice President, Mr. Afolabi Imoukhuede, Regional President, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Intel, Mrs. Cidgem Ertem, speaking; Distribution Sales Manager, Lenovo West Africa, Mrs Terae Onyeje, Consumer Director, Microsoft Nigeria, Mark Ihimoyan and Regional Director, B2G West and Central Africa at RLG, Tosin Ilesanmi.

My Digital Journey by Intel provides opportunity for women, girls - Hudnell

ITRealms:

The Vice President at Intel Corporation and Director of Corporate Affairs, cum President Intel Foundation Ms. Rosalind Hudnell has said My Digital Journey initiative by the firm provides an opportunity for women and girls, reports ITRealms.

She made this known during the launch of the programme in Nairobi, saying that as part of the first phase of the programme, it would create opportunities for women and girls in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa to learn about the internet and benefit from the wealth of information available that will contribute towards achieving their goals and provide access to opportunities

Learners on My Digital Journey, she said, will receive a digital completion certificate after successfully completing three quests.

“Each quest comprises 3-6 missions.  The first mission may take a learner 15-45 minutes depending on reading speed and the thought put into responding to challenges,” she said.

According to her, this learning platform provides women and girls with a unique opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and access additional resources that support learning in a safe environment.

Gaining access to the Internet, Hudnell said, enables women and girls to improve their self-esteem and expression, expand their social and political participation, gain new skills that enable them to obtain formal education, become entrepreneurs, or secure employment, and in addition get access to information and new connections within their communities and beyond.

Intel believes that educating girls and closing the Internet gender gap has an important multiplier effect—expanding opportunities for families, communities, and nations.

 “Through the Intel Global Girls and Women Initiative, we are working to empower millions of girls and women around the world by closing the gender gap in access to education, inspiring more girls and women to become creators of technology and connecting them to opportunity,” she noted.

Also speaking, UN Women Deputy Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Simone ellis Oluoch-Olunya, noted that Unlocking gender equality will unlock the growth potential of the continent.

“Grounded in the vision of equality, UN Women believes that technology can be a game-changer for women and girls. Enhancing women’s economic empowerment is one of the five priority areas of UN Women’s work, therefore this initiative is one of many UN Women is undertaking to advance women’s economic empowerment and support women, particularly from a technology perspective,’’ Ms. Oluoch-Olunya said.

 
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Intel unveils innovative mobile system on chips, LTE Solution

ITRealms:

Intel Corporation has unveiled an innovative mobile system on chips, just as it listed partners on its Long Term Evolution (LTE) solution, reports ITRealms.

This is coming as Intel also announced collaborations with Ericsson, Samsung, others as part of broad effort spanning Silicon, devices, security and networking solutions.

Intel Corporation CEO, Brian Krzanich disclosed to a ITRealms that a series of mobile platforms including the company’s new low-cost system-on-chip (SoC) for phones, phablets and tablets, a global LTE solution, innovative personal computing experiences, and a range of customers for mobile device and network infrastructure offerings.

This, he said, include the Intel Atom x3 processor series, Intel’s first integrated communications SoC solution for the growing value and entry device markets, and the five-mode Intel XMM 7360 LTE Advanced solution, designed for performance and worldwide coverage.

Krzanich highlighted joint efforts with Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Huawei to address the demand for new telecommunications, cloud and data center services, improve network efficiencies, and accelerate the industry’s move toward a software-defined infrastructure.

Also he reiterated that Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge users will have the latest anti-malware solution from McAfee VirusScan Mobile technology built into and activated on their devices. “The evolution of the mobile landscape and growth of smart, connected devices has led to increased demand for more connectivity and real-time, protected data on those devices,” said Krzanich. “All of these factors are driving a transformation of the network to accelerate the delivery of new personal computing experiences, services and capabilities in a safe and secure manner. Intel is one of the only companies in the world that can provide solutions end-to-end for the full spectrum of mobility.”

 
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Intel’s secret for future high-performance PCs

DigitalSENSE Business News:

Intel Corporation has revealed the anticipated secret of future high-performance computing, reports DigitalSENSE Business News.

The new and enhanced technologies, DigitalSENSE Business News reports would bolster Intel’s leadership in high performance computing (HPC), which would include the future generation Intel Xeon Phi Processor, tagged ‘Knights Hill,’ and Intel ‘Omni-Path’ architecture; a new high speed interconnect technology optimized for HPC deployments.

Also DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that the new software releases and collaborative efforts were designed to make it easier to extract the full performance potential from current and future Intel Industry- standard hardware.

Charles Wuischpard, Vice President, Data Center Group, and General Manager of Workstations and HPC at Intel affirmed this secret to DigitalSENSE Business News, stressing that this innovation will address the dual challenges of extreme scalability and mainstream use of high performance computing systems while providing the foundation for a cost-effective path to superb computing.

The new Intel Xeon Phi Product family, Knights Hill, he told DigitalSENSE Business News via a press statement, will be built using Intel’s 10mm process technology and integrate Intel Omni- Path Fabric technology. Noting that industry investment in Intel Xeon Phi processors continues to grow with more than 50 providers expected to offer systems built using the new processor version of Knights Landing with many more systems using the coprocessor PCle card version of the product.

 
Intel equally disclosed to DigitalSENSE Business News that the Intel Omni-Path Architecture is expected to offer 100 Gbps line speed and up to 56 per cent lower switch fabric latency in medium-to-large clusters than InfiniBand alternatives.  

The Intel Omni-Path Architecture will use a 48 port switch chip to deliver greater port density and system scaling compared to the current 36 port InfiniBand alternatives.  Providing up to 33 percent more nodes per switch chip is expected to reduce the number of switches required, simplifying system design and reducing infrastructure costs at every scale.  

“Intel is excited about the strong market momentum and customer investment in the development of HPC systems based on current and future Intel Xeon Phi processors and high-speed fabric technology. The integration of these fundamental HPC building blocks, combined with an open standards-based programming model, will maximize HPC system performance, broaden accessibility and use, and serve as the on-ramp to exascale,”  he said.

Charles Wuischpard pointed out that the expected benefits of the system scale include up to 1.3x greater port density than InfiniBand – enabling smaller clusters to maximize single switch investments and use up to 50 per cent fewer switches than a comparable InfiniBand-based cluster of medium- to large-size and up to 2.3x higher scaling in a two-tier fabric configuration using the same number of switches as an InfiniBand-based cluster – allowing for more cost-effective scaling for very large cluster-based systems.

           

Recent high-profile Knights Landing deals, DigitalSENSE Business News recalls  include the Trinity supercomputer, a joint effort between Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, and the Cori supercomputer, announced by The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center. Additionally, DownUnder GeoSolutions a geosciences company, recently announced the largest commercial deployment of current-generation Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors, and the National Supercomputing Center IT4Innovations announced a new supercomputer that will become the largest Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor-based cluster in Europe.

Dr. Matt Lamont, managing director, DownUnder GeoSolutions “The combination of Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors with our proprietary software allows us to provide our customers with one of the most powerful geo-processing production systems to date,” said. “Our Intel Xeon Phi powered solutions enable interactive processing and imaging from each of our geophysicists’ individual computers. A testing regime that once took weeks can now be achieved in days. We’re thrilled with the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors and look forward to evaluating the next-generation product.”

            Intel-based systems account for 86 percent of all supercomputers and 97 percent of all new additions, according to the 44th edition of the TOP500 list announced today. In the two years since the introduction of the first-generation Intel Xeon Phi product family, these many-core coprocessor-based systems represent 17 percent of the aggregated performance of all TOP500 supercomputers. The complete TOP500 list is available at www.top500.org.

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