The U.S. National Security Agency has awarded IBM (NYSE: IBM) a technology and services contract for the High Assurance Platform (HAP) program. NSA and IBM will work together to design and develop the next generation of high assurance workstations, servers and pervasive computing technology. The contract, awarded in the fourth quarter, has an estimated contract value of $9.4 million over 15 months.

Researchers at the University of Warwick’s Department of Computer Science have developed a colour based Sudoku Puzzle that will help Sudoku players solve traditional Sudoku puzzles but also helps demonstrate the potential benefits of a radical new vision for computing.

Microsoft Corp. today released the first public beta of Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008, a server operating system and tools designed for the fast-growing high-performance computing (HPC) market. Microsoft also established the Parallel Computing Initiative, a program creating a set of common development tools across multicore desktops and clusters.

Dell today issued a global challenge to members of the "ReGeneration" – people of all ages who share a goal of protecting the Earth – to help its engineers design the world’s most environmentally responsible computing technology.