It's no secret that OS X is based on BSD Unix, and it looks like Apple let a little more of those roots shine through with Leopard -- The Open Group has just awarded OS X 10.5 Leopard UNIX 03 certification, meaning that Apple joins Sun, HP, and IBM as the only certified vendors. The spec covers libraries, system calls, terminal interfaces, commands and utilities, internationalization and the C language, meaning that software vendors can easily port server and non-GUI apps to and from OS X with minimal effort. Although this was already mostly the case, it's always nice to see the circle complete, isn't it?

[Via TUAW]

Nah, it's no BlueGene L supercomputer, but IBM's latest dual-core microprocessor runs at a cool 4.7GHz while sporting 8MB of total cache per chip. The device reportedly runs "twice as fast" and packs four times the cache as the POWER5, and boasts a processor bandwidth of 300Gbps. Interestingly, the massive power increase doesn't seem to come with a boost in energy requirements, as IBM claims that the 65-nanometer POWER6 somehow ups its game while "using nearly the same amount of electricity" as its predecessor. The company plans on shoving the new darling into the System p570 server, and preliminary testing showed that all four of the "most widely used performance benchmarks for Unix servers" were shattered by its CPU. Unfortunately, there's no word on pricing nor availability just yet, but we're anticipating a bit of sticker shock when it does finally land.

[Via LinuxDevices]

We can't help but feel a twinge of melancholy as we ponder Silicon Graphics' announcement today that the company is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. However, the SGI of today is a mere shadow of it former self, with a mixed bag of products that range from overpriced, Linux-based, Intel-powered workstations to overpriced, Linux-based, Intel-powered supercomputers. But it wasn't all that long ago that the SGI Indy was considered the hottest thing on the market, and seemed to herald the future of multimedia computing. Of course, that future was pre-empted first by cheaper Unix and Linux options, and later by Mac OSX and even Windows, which was hardly a factor in the graphics industry back in the early 90s when the Indy debuted. So, best of luck emerging from bankruptcy, SGI. We'd like to see you stick around for a bit just for old time's sake. But if we want one of your boxes, we'll skip the new ones, and hunt down an Indy on eBay.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]