Advances in Computers thread

[ScienceRocks]

A Circuit That Breaks Records, Runs At One Trillion Cycles Per Second

The Pentagon's advanced concepts research wing has attained a crucial technological milestone by building the world's fastest integrated circuit. Clocking in at a full one terahertz, it's 150 billion cycles faster than the previous record. The stage is now set for some unprecedented new technologies.

DARPA, along with its partner Northrop Grumman, has been working on this for years. Nearly a decade ago they hit the 670 gigahertz (GHz) range. Then in 2012 they demonstrated a 850 GHz integrated receiver, an achievement that hinted at the plausibility of developing a 1 THz version. The researchers were looking to take full advantage of the untapped high-frequency band beginning above 300 GHz — the point at which wavelengths are less than one millimeter. But developing the 1 THz circuit proved to be elusive owing to the inability to generate, detect, process, and radiate the necessary high-frequency signals.

 

[longknife]

Thanks for posting these informative items. Most are way beyond my skills but are most interesting.

Thanks you

 

[ScienceRocks]

TU/e-researchers demonstrate record data transmission over a specially fabricated fibre

• 27 October 2014

Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands and the University of Central Florida (CREOL) in the USA, report in the journal Nature Photonics the successful transmission of a record high 255 Terabits/s over a new type of fibre allowing 21 times more bandwidth than currently available in communication networks. This new type of fibre could be an answer to mitigating the impending optical transmission capacity crunch caused by the increasing bandwidth demand.
Our data hungry societyDue to the popularity of Internet services and emerging network of capacity-hungry datacentres, demand for telecommunication bandwidth is expected to continue at an exponential rate. To transmit more information through current optical glass fibres, an option is to increase the power of the signals to overcome the losses inherent in the glass from which the fibre is manufactured. However, this produces unwanted photonic nonlinear effects, which limit the amount of information that can be recovered after transmission over the standard fibre.

TU e-researchers demonstrate record data transmission over a specially fabricated fibre

 

[ScienceRocks]

Breakthrough in molecular electronics paves the way for DNA-based computer circuits in the future

In a paper published today in Nature Nanotechnology, an international group of scientists announced the most significant breakthrough in a decade toward developing DNA-based electrical circuits.
The central technological revolution of the 20th century was the development of computers, leading to the communication and Internet era. The main measure of this evolution is miniaturization: making our machines smaller. A computer with the memory of the average laptop today was the size of a tennis court in the 1970s. Yet while scientists made great strides in reducing of the size of individual computer components through microelectronics, they have been less successful at reducing the distance between transistors, the main element of our computers. These spaces between transistors have been much more challenging and extremely expensive to miniaturize – an obstacle that limits the future development of computers.

Read more at: Breakthrough in molecular electronics paves the way for DNA-based computer circuits in the future

 

[ScienceRocks]

Tiny microfridge could be installed directly on future chips to help cool qubits or other detectors

Cutting-edge electronic cooling devices work by having hot electrons tunnel from a metal to a superconductor, carrying heat with them. A new design, which has a “drain” for removing hot particles in the superconductor, has cooled a micrometer-sized metal slab from ∼150 millikelvin (mK) to a record temperature of less than 30 mK. Devices based on this scheme could potentially be installed directly on a chip for cooling qubits or ultrasensitive low-temperature detectors.

The basic structure in these electronic coolers consists of two NIS (normal metal-insulator-superconductor) junctions. When voltage is applied, relatively high-energy (hot) electrons flow out of the metal and into one superconductor, while lower-energy (cooler) electrons flow in from a second superconductor. Using this technique, previous work has been able to cool a small metal piece from 100 to 40 mK. However, the scheme’s cooling potential is diminished by heat leaking back into the metal, in particular, from hot “quasiparticles” (electron-hole pairs) that reside in the superconductors.

 

[ScienceRocks]

New research lights the way to super-fast computers

New research published today in the journal Nature Communications, has demonstrated how glass can be manipulated to create a material that will allow computers to transfer information using light. This development could significantly increase computer processing speeds and power in the future.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news...super-fast.html

 

[ScienceRocks]

Artificial intelligence is now affordable. Use it to work smarter

I’m barely old enough to have been taught how to find content the old way – using library directories and the Dewey Decimal System. Things changed quickly during my middle and high school years. By the end of it, I could do almost all my research from one starting point:

In college we were encouraged to be more rigorous, leveraging directories of research papers, like JSTOR and ProQuest — but more and more of my bibliographies were dominated by URLs rather than page numbers. The internet has grown to give us all the information we need, accessible in seconds.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Microsoft rolls out Skype for web browsers

Microsoft on Friday released a test version of Skype that lets people make Internet calls from web browsers, eliminating the need to install special applications.

"It's perfect if you prefer using the web rather than an app: perhaps you're sitting at a computer that doesn't already have Skype downloaded," Microsoft said in a blog post.

"Or maybe you're on the go and using an Internet cafe or hotel computer whilst on vacation where you can't download Skype at all."

Skype for Web will be available to a small number of existing users at first and will be rolled out globally in the coming months, according to Microsoft.

Read more at: Microsoft rolls out Skype for web browsers

 

[ScienceRocks]

MIT can now use E. coli DNA to store up to 455 exabytes of self-replicating data per gram
MIT can now use E. coli DNA tape recorders for living and replicating data storage ExtremeTech

DNA microchips can now encode arbitrary digital information at a density of over at 700 terabytes per gram. That number could be pushed much higher, theoretically even as high as 455 exabytes per gram. Cold hard storage capacity like that is great, but what if that kind of power could be integrated with something more alive — something like a single cell, or for that matter, integrated into every cell.

Researchers at MIT’s Synthetic Biology Center have just succeeded in writing multiple analog streams of real-time environmental data into the genetically transformed hardware of a distributed population of bacterial cells. Corresponding author Timothy Lu is calling their new technology a “DNA tape recorder” because the data can be written, erased, and rewritten into virtually any location within the genomes of the cell population. These memories are not only stored for the collective lifetime of the population, but can be passed on from generation to generation.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Nvidia’s Tesla K80 dual-GPU offers 24 GB graphics memory
By Chris Wood
Nvidia s Tesla K80 dual-GPU offers 24 GB graphics memory
November 17, 2014

The Tesla K80 offers twice the power of its K40 predecessor

Nvidia has unveiled its latest graphics offering in the form of the Tesla K80 dual-GPU. The new card, which is designed for professional applications, doubles the performance of its K40 predecessor, and packs some impressive specs including a full 24 GB graphics memory.

The first thing to note about the K80 is that it’s most certainly not designed to sit in a gaming rig. While its high-end specs might make it look like the perfect fit for a top-tier desktop PC, it’s actually designed for more serious uses. The card is geared towards difficult computational tasks that make use of high performance computing (HPC) applications, common in fields such as quantum chemistry and astrophysics.

According to Nvidia, the K80 offers 10 times higher performance than the fastest CPUs on the market when it comes to engineering and science applications. In terms of specs, it offers dual GPUs, each packing 12 GB GDDR5 RAM, for a total of 24 GB graphics memory. There are 4,992 CUDA parallel processing cores on board, allowing for 480 GB/s memory bandwidth. It’s also compatible with the company’s GPU Boost technology, which is designed to scale the GPU clock, increasing performance with specific professional applications.

 

[ScienceRocks]

IBM developing 150-petaflops supercomputers for national labs

New "data-centric" architecture deals with Big Data by embedding compute power everywhere data resides
November 14, 2014

IBM today (Nov. 14) announced that the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded IBM contracts valued at $325 million to develop and deliver “the world’s most advanced ‘data-centric’ supercomputing systems” at Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge National Laboratories to advance innovation and discovery in science, engineering and national security.”

The world is generating more than 2.5 billion gigabytes of “big data” every day, according to IBM’s 2013 annual report, requiring entirely new approaches to supercomputing.

Repeatedly moving data back and forth from storage to processor is unsustainable with the onslaught of Big Data because of the significant amount of time and energy that massive and frequent data movement entails, IBM says, so the emphasis on faster microprocessors becomes progressively more untenable because the computing infrastructure is dominated by data movement and data management.

To address this issue, for the past five years IBM researchers have pioneered a new “data centric” approach — an architecture that embeds compute power everywhere data resides in the system, allowing for a convergence of analytics, modeling, visualization, and simulation, and driving new insights at “incredible” speeds.

IBM OpenPOWER Systems: greater than 100150 petaflops

 

[ScienceRocks]

Artificial intelligence is now creating its own magic tricks

You might not have to be a professional magician to come up with clever tricks in the near future. Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have developed artificial intelligence that can create magic tricks (specifically, those based on math) all on its own. Once their program learns the basics of creating magic jigsaws and "mind reading" stunts, it can generate many variants of these tricks by itself. This could be particularly handy if you like to impress your friends on a regular basis -- you could show them a new card trick every time without having to do much work.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Google’s internet-beaming Project Loon can now launch up to 20 balloons per day

Project Loon, Google’s high-speed internet-beaming balloons bringing connectivity to remote areas, now has an ability to launch up to 20 balloons per day. According to a Google+ post, this is possible because the autofill equipment has improved and the time to fill the balloon has come down under 5 minutes.

The balloons can now last up to 10 times longer in the stratosphere, than they did in 2013 and a lot of them have lasted over 100 days – with 130 days being a record. According to the post, the amount of air taken to fill up one Project Loon balloon is equivalent to filling up 7000 party balloons and that took a lot of time. But with the advanced autofill method that process has been sped up.

 

[ScienceRocks]

http://gizmodo.com/s...cule-1661571223

An international team of researchers has managed to turn a single molecule into a flash storage device. The whole device is actually three molecules. Two of those hold the hold electrons that act as storage, and they live inside of the third, a nanometer-wide metal oxide molecular cage. For this particular experiment, the researchers used tungsten as the cage and selenium trioxide molecules holding extra electrons for the storage.

 

[ScienceRocks]

India Set to Beat US as Largest Internet Market

November 20, 2014 at 9:12 am

Buoyed by strong growth in Internet consumption on mobile devices, the number of people online in India is forecast to touch 302 million by the end of this year, overtaking the US as the second-largest Internet market in the world.

According to a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, the number of Internet users in India is expected to grow 32 percent to 302 million this year from 213 million at the end of December last year.

The Internet user base in the country is further estimated to grow to 354 million by June 2015.

http://www.exactqas....nternet-market/

 

[ScienceRocks]

Researchers Announce Advance in image-Recognition Software.

Two groups of Scientists, working independently, have created artificial intelligence software capable of recognizing and describing the content of photographs and videos with far greater accuracy than ever before, sometimes even mimicking human levels of understanding.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/s...ugh-in-content-recognition-software.html?_r=3

 

[ScienceRocks]

DARPA creates first 1THz computer chip, earns Guinness World Record

DARPA, the US military’s R&D division, has been awarded a Guinness World Record for creating the world’s fastest solid-state chip, clocked at one terahertz — or 1,000 gigahertz, if that’s easier to digest. DARPA’s chip handily beats out the previous record holder, which was only capable of a paltry 850GHz. Computers and radio systems that operate up in the terahertz range have some very interesting and powerful properties, from the creation of hand-held tricorders and security scanners, through to wireless networks that are hundreds of times faster than 2.4 and 5GHz WiFi.

Still, the creation of transistors that are capable of switching at 1,000GHz, however, is exciting. This doesn’t mean that you’re going to magically start seeing computers that operate in the 1THz range — the power requirements and heat dissipation would be utterly insane — but we can at least begin to sketch a roadmap towards a future where everything from computers, to networks, to surveillance and medical imaging are supercharged way beyond what is currently possible.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Low-cost 2D-printed ‘paper electronics’
Could make health care and other uses more accessible
November 21, 2014

An international team of scientists has developed a fast, low-cost way of making low-cost medical electronic touch sensors by printing conductive silver nanowire inks directly on paper, using a 2D programmed printing machine.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Intel promises 10TB+ SSDs thanks to 3D Vertical NAND flash memory

November 21st, 2014 at 5:54 pm - Author: Anton Shilov

At present solid-state drives with extreme capacities are very expensive and even the best of them cannot match high-capacity hard disk drives for nearline storage applications. However, thanks to the evolution of NAND flash memory in general, and 3D vertical NAND (3D V-NAND) in particular, the situation may change soon and SSDs with 10TB or higher capacities will become reality.
Intel Corp. revealed at its Investor Meeting 2014 event this week that in the second half of 2015 its joint venture with Micron Technology – Intel Micron Flash Technologies (IMFT) – will start mass production of 3D vertical NAND flash memory chips with up to 256Gb (multi-level cell, 2-bit-per cell) or 384Gb (triple-level cell, 3-bit-per cell) capacity. 3D V-NAND flash memory chips will feature 32-layer vertically stacked cell arrays that are “interconnected” using four billion through silicon vias (TSVs).

 

[ScienceRocks]

Intel roadmap update: Skylake on track for 2015, will debut alongside Broadwell-K
Intel roadmap update Skylake on track for 2015 will debut alongside Broadwell-K ExtremeTech

Intel has unveiled new details of its product roadmaps for 2015 and beyond, and it’s now clear that the company is pushing Skylake full steam ahead, despite Broadwell’s exceptionally late arrival. Intel now expects to introduce a bevy of 14nm products based on both architectures in 2015, with additional 14nm Atom hardware replacing Bay Trail as well.

First, a bit of a mea culpa is in order — I initially predicted that Skylake could slip into 2016 based on the Broadwell delay and the unlikely prospect that Intel would launch multiple architectures within the same year. It’s now clear that the company does intend to go this road, though it’s still possible that it will arrange its introductions in a manner that doesn’t leave Skylake overwriting just-launched Broadwell hardware.

Desktop and mobile
Here’s how the introduction is going to happen, courtesy of ZDNet:



Core M (Broadwell’s ultra-mobile flavor) is already shipping in a few early devices and will ramp up through the end of the year. By this coming spring, it’ll have branched out and taken over the product stack Haswell currently occupies, with fifth-generation refreshes for the entire laptop/convertible market. In the back half of 2015 we have new budget product launches, including Braswell (more data on that in a moment), and finally Skylake with its new architecture on 14nm.

That’s it for Intel’s official statements. According to WCCFTech, Intel will also launch new desktop parts next year, with a Core i7 5000 unlocked CPU (Broadwell-K) and a second set of desktop SKUs dubbed the Core i7-6000 family, or Skylake-S. Broadwell-K is reportedly compatible with the Z97 family of chipsets that are already shipping, while Skylake-S will require a new motherboard.

Broadwell is the 14nm refresh of Haswell, with a die shrink and a handful of minor improvements to the CPU, but not much more. Skylake, in contrast, is the full architecture refresh — so what are its (rumored) features?