20 Dec 04. India and China are planning to embark upon a new era of joint cooperation. And this is taking of this month with Indian Chief of Staff’s visit to China. According sources closed to Beijing, China and India will cooperate in defense, aerospace and of course commerce and trade. Both sides are equally excited to form a new trade as well defense cooperation block. Chinese hardware combined with Indian software can produced world most sophisticated arms. In addition Beijing and well as New Delhi both are eager to provide support to each other in International forums like World Trade Organization. Recent quiet but very significant breakthrough in border settlement provided the catalyst. India’s growing software services market and China’s hardware manufacturing when combines can produce miracle, says experts. As a part of the aim to further strengthen Sino-Indian ties, the Chief of Army Staff General Nirmal Chandra Vij would be visiting China on December 22. Vij, who was expected to meet his Chinese counterpart and the Defence Minister of that country, said he hoped the talks to further boost the ties between the two countries. The Army Chief was talking to newspersons after laying the foundation stone of the proposed Rs 1.2 crore Non-Commissioned Officers” Training Academy at Bengdubi, near here. The academy, to be constructed over 795 acres of land within three years, would be the biggest of its kind in the world, Vij said. To a question Vij said there was no need to introduce a unified command in North Bengal as proposed for the northeast at the moment. However the army had no problem in joining the command if it was really extended, the Army Chief said. The academy would impart modern training to 1200-2000 non-commissioned officers each year and make the country’s defence more powerful, Vij said.
15 Dec 04. Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday announced it was exiting the microprocessor-making business by ending its 10-year partnership with Intel to develop Itanium chips for server computers. The companies said the decision to end their co-development arrangement would let Intel focus on making the chips while HP focused on developing Itanium-based systems. The move could address concern among rivals that HP’s close Itanium relationship with Intel put other computer makers at a disadvantage and discouraged them from adopting the chip. Itanium was once seen as the industry standard computer chip of the future but rivals have been slow to adopt it and sales have been lacklustre. The computer-maker had long argued its relationship with Intel in developing Itanium provided it with a competitive advantage over computer rivals. Under terms of Wednesday’s deal, HP would shift several hundred Itanium engineers to Intel, which would assume responsibility for all Itanium processor design. HP and Intel engineering teams have tended to leapfrog each other when designing successive generations of the chip. (Source: FT)
17 Dec 04. Wyle Laboratories Inc., an affiliate of private investment firm Littlejohn & Co., on Friday said it will acquire the aeronautics services business of General Dynamics Corp. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Wyle is an engineering firm that specializes in high-tech testing, life sciences, and technical support services. Both Wyle and Littlejohn are privately held.General Dynamics’ aeronautics services business has about 1,600 employees, according to a spokesman for the company. The acquisition will create a company with revenue of about $450m and 3,000 employees. The new company will provide technical testing and support services to a number of high-profile customers, including NASA and the Department of Defense. Wyle has grown rapidly in the past several years, and was awarded a $1bn NASA bioastronautics contract to provide life sciences and services to the shuttle and international space station.
Dec 04. Australian Navy flags $50m digital defence. The Australian Navy is preparing to lay the keel