The Current Buzz

EMC profit gains on systems, software sales

With demand for storage products up, sales of high-profit software push earnings per share a penny over analyst estimates.

eSATA lets external hard drives run at internal speeds. But don’t expect to see mainstream PCs with those ports until 2008.Photos: eSATA drives

Data center management software pulls in more pieces of the infrastructure–virtual machines and virtual networks.

Spends $160 million on Topio, a maker of software to replicate, recover and protect data.

Revenue rises but stock-based compensation cuts into earnings. Staff to be trimmed by 1,250, or 4 percent.

The arms race continues as determined programmers find ways to circumvent the two leading digital rights management technologies for music.