sequoia

Sequoia, an IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, reached 16.32 petaflops, while previous leader K Computer trailed with 10.5 petaflops, according to the Top500 list. The list was published today at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg.

The latest edition of the list, which is published twice a year, shows that Intel is slipping and IBM is recapturing lost ground, while the U.S. is back on top after losing its lead three years ago. New technologies reign, from updated IBM chips to a build of Fujitsu's novel interconnect product.

Intel processors … Read more

Michael Moritz, the Welsh-born American who helped turn Sequoia Capital into one of tech's juggernaut venture capital companies, is "stepping back" from day-to-day operations because of a medical condition.

Moritz will become Sequoia's chairman and will continue to take on new companies, Andrew Kovacs, a Sequoia spokesman told CNET today. Moritz said in an e-mail he sent early in the day to friends and colleagues that he feels "fitter than ever."

But Moritz, 57, also said in the note that he has been diagnosed with a rare medical condition that he described as "… Read more

Siri can be great in car, but you need to do some work to get it to play ball with all your other gear.

Toyota today announced it will export about 6,000 U.S.-assembled Camry sedans annually to its distributor in South Korea.

The Camry sedans will be built at Toyota's manufacturing plant in Georgetown, Ky., and exported out of the Port of Hueneme, near Oxnard, Calif., beginning in January 2012.

The new exported Camry sedans will join the Kentucky-produced Avalon sedan, the Indiana-produced Sequoia SUV, and the Texas-produced Tacoma and Tundra pick-up trucks, Toyota said.

"We are pleased with the reaction that the redesigned Camry is receiving from our customers, and the sales success it is having in the … Read more

Dolphin, a customizable mobile browser for Android OS, is getting a big boost to being a serious competitor for Firefox and Chrome.

TechCrunch is reporting that MoboTap, the company that makes Dolphin, has secured $10 million in a round of Series A funding with the help of Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners. Some of that funding will reportedly be going to the following projects: making the premium (and paid) version of the app free, expanding its employee bases in San Francisco and Beijing, and developing an iOS version.

Sequoia Capital also made headlines last week after helping Evernote to secure $50 million … Read more

Too busy to keep up with today's tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Wednesday, July 13.

• Customers are not happy that Netflix increased subscription prices for its DVD and streaming video combo plan. Customers who want access to DVDs and streaming video must pay $15.98, up from the $9.99 they were used to paying. The 60 percent price hike didn't go over so well in the digital world; new community pages such as "I Unlike Netflix Today" sprung up to get the masses to quit Netflix. But … Read more

HubSpot, a company that makes a number of software products to help small and medium-size businesses handle digital marketing esoterica like search engine optimization and social media, announced today that it has raised $32 million in a Series D funding round from Sequoia Capital, Salesforce.com, and Google Ventures. A report two months ago in TechCrunch suggested that the company's valuation may be north of $200 million now.

"We agree with HubSpot's belief that search engines, social media, and mobile devices have fundamentally changed how businesses should market themselves," Google Ventures partner Rich Miner, who joined … Read more

Evernote has secured $20 million in a Series C round of financing, the company announced today.

Sequoia Capital led the funding round, according to Evernote--a service that enables people to create, edit, and synchronize data across multiple devices and platforms. Morgenthaler Ventures and DoCoMo Capital, which previously invested in Evernote, also participated in the round. In addition, Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha will join Evernote's board of directors.

Getting Sequoia Capital's support is no small achievement. The venture capital firm is one of the most successful in the tech world. The company has invested in Apple, Cisco Systems, … Read more

Wednesday's recall of the 2003 Sequoia marks the third computer-related recall for Toyota Motor this year.

The Japanese car company announced a recall of 50,000 Sequoia 2003 model year SUVs to address problems with the Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) System. If not fixed, some vehicles may not accelerate as quickly as the driver expects, Toyota said.

And earlier this month, Toyota said it would recall 9,400 Lexus GX 460 SUVs to correct a stability control system problem that could lead to a loss of control, which Consumer Reports designated as a "Don't Buy: Safety Risk."

These two recalls follow a February recall of 133,000 2010 Prius models to update software in the vehicle's antilock brake system (ABS), which could lead to inconsistent braking.

In the glitch disclosed on Wednesday, Toyota said it made a production change during the 2003 model year and published a technical service bulletin to address the issue when it was first identified in the fall 2003. "Since that time, Toyota has been responding to individual owner concerns by replacing the skid control engine control unit in Sequoias impacted by this condition," Toyota said in a statement. The engine control unit, or ECU, is an onboard computer.

There have been no reported injuries or accidents as a result of the condition, Toyota said.

The Sequoia and Lexus GX 460 recalls both involve stability control, which is one of many computer-controlled drive-by-wire technologies used in cars today. Toyota instituted the Vehicle Stability Control system in 1997 on Lexus vehicles (PDF), which it describes as "sensors, actuators, and computer electronics (that) help avoid and recover from vehicle skids and spins." Sensors detect when the vehicle's direction of travel does not correlate with "driver steering inputs." The system then uses throttle and selective brake intervention to help maintain the path of travel.

In the case of the Lexus GX 460, "it was a bad choice of (programmed) settings," said Jeff Bartlett, online deputy editor for autos at Consumer Reports, which first identified the problem. "If you were decelerating from a highway to an off-ramp--they just gave it too much latitude, really," he said in a phone interview. "It wasn't an electronic problem per se, it was more of an… Read more