Advances in Computers thread

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Sri Lanka to be first country in the world with universal Internet access

Sri Lanka may soon become the first country in the world to have universal Internet access. On July 28, the government of Sri Lanka signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Google to launch Project Loon, according to Sri Lanka Internet newspaper ColumboPage.
Google is providing high-altitude balloons, using the standard telco high-speed 4G LTE protocol, according to Project Loon project lead Mike Cassidy, in a video (below), “so anyone with a smart phone will be able to get Internet access. … “Since launching a handful of balloons in New Zealand at our Project launch in 2013 we’ve flown millions of test kilometers around the world trying to learn what it will take to provide connectivity to everyone, anywhere, with balloons.”
Project Loon began with a pilot test in June 2013, when 30 balloons were launched from New Zealand’s South Island and beamed Internet to a small group of pilot testers, Google notes. … “Looking ahead, Project Loon will continue to expand the pilot, with the goal of establishing a ring of uninterrupted connectivity at latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere.”*
“In a few months we will truly be able to say: Sri Lanka covered,” said Sri Lanka Foreign, Telecommunications and IT Minister Mangala Samaraweera.
Long-time Sri Lanka resident and telecommunications pioneer Arthur C. Clarke would be proud.

 

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Microsoft at Gamescom 2015: The Xbox One will soon be able to replace your DVR (and more announcements)
By Chris Wood - August 4, 2015 7 Pictures

Microsoft had a lot to say for itself at this year's E3, outing a host of new hardware, games and features. Well, it turns out that Redmond held back some big announcements for its Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany.

 

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New memory technology is 1,000 times faster
Intel and Micron unveil 3D XPoint, a new memory technology that is 1,000 times faster than NAND and 10 times denser than conventional DRAM.

 

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All optical communications could become over ten times faster with optical transistors 5000 times faster than silicon

Researchers have created a new "plasmonic oxide material" that could make possible devices for optical communications that are at least 10 times faster than conventional technologies. In optical communications, laser pulses are used to transmit information along fiber-optic cables for telephone service, the Internet and cable television. Researchers..

 

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Could the new Intel Micron 3D Xpoint be a breakthrough form of Phase Change Memory ?

Ron Neale, Independent Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Professional speculated on what the technical basis is for the new class of computer memory 3D Xpoint. 3D Xpoint has 128 gigabit array memory chips which is non-volatile (does not electricity to retain memory) and has 10s nanosecond read latency. Volume production at a fabrication...

 

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Electro-optical modulator is 100 times smaller, uses 100th of the energy consumption

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a modulator that is a 100 times smaller than conventional modulators, so it can now be integrated into electronic circuits. Transmitting large amounts of data via the Internet requires high-performance electro-optic modulators — devices that convert electrical signals (used in computers and cell phones) into light signals (used in fiber-optic cables).
Today, huge amounts of data are sent incredibly fast through fiber-optic cables as light pulses. For that purpose they first have to be converted from electrical signals, which are used by computers and telephones, into optical signals. Today’s electro-optic modulators are more complicated and large, compared with electronic devices that can be as small as a few micrometers.

 

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‘Plasmonic’ material could bring ultrafast all-optical communications

Researchers at Purdue University have created a new “plasmonic oxide material” that could make possible modulator devices for optical communications (fiber optics, used for the Internet and cable television) that are at least 10 times faster than conventional technologies.
The optical material, made of aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) also requires less power than other “all-optical” semiconductor devices. That is essential for the faster operation, which would otherwise generate excessive heat with the increase transmission speed.
The material has been shown to work in the near-infrared range of the spectrum, which is used in optical communications, and it is compatible with the CMOS semiconductor manufacturing process used to construct integrated circuits.

 

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Cheap, power-efficient flash memory for big data without sacrificing speed

There’s a big problem with big data: the huge RAM memory required. Now MIT researchers have developed a new system called “BlueDBM” that should make servers using flash memory as efficient as those using conventional RAM for several common big-data applications, while preserving their power and cost savings.
Here’s the context: Data sets in areas such as genomics, geological data, and daily twitter feeds can be as large as 5TB to 20 TB. Complex data queries in such data sets require high-speed random-access memory (RAM). But that would require a huge cluster with up to 100 servers, each with 128GB to 256GBs of DRAM (dynamic random access memory).
Flash memory (used in smart phones and other portable devices) could provide an alternative to conventional RAM for such applications. It’s about a tenth as expensive, and it consumes about a tenth as much power. The problem: it’s also a tenth as fast.

 

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China will upgrade supercomputer to 100 petaflops in 2016 instead of 2015 with applications like genomics and scramjet combustion

System designer for the multiple iterations of the Tianhe machines, Dr. Yutong Lu, revealed that the Tianhe-2 supercomputer will be receiving its upgrade in 2016. However, due to the trade restrictions, they won’t be boosting their supercomputer with more Xeon Phi cores. Rather, the novel architecture they developed will deliver the system...

 

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Samsung announces 16TB SSD

Not just the world's highest capacity SSD, but the world's highest capacity drive of any type. The PM1633 uses Samsung's new 48 layer V-NAND, itself a technical tour-de-force, and represents a new thrust in flash storage beyond performance: capacity.

 

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Samsung Pay will work with most US credit card readers starting in September
By Chris Wood


Samsung's new payment service, imaginatively named Samsung Pay, is set to arrive in the US next month. The service is designed for friction-free adoption, and will work "practically anywhere", making it easier for customers and business to use.

Read More

 

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Researchers create soft, weavable LED fibers for truly flexible wearable displays

Electronic displays for integration with clothing and textiles are a rapidly developing field in the realm of wearable electronics. However, flexible LEDsdesigned to form part of an elastic or deformable coating for clothing or apparel – even displays specifically designed to be directly bio-compatible – still rely on a hard substrate on which to layer the appropriate electroluminescent material. Now researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have created a fiber-like LED that can be directly knitted or woven to form part of the fabric itself.
"Our research will become a core technology in developing light emitting diodes on fibers, which are fundamental elements of fabrics," said Professor Choi, head of the research team at the School of Electrical Engineering at KAIST. "We hope we can lower the barrier of wearable displays entering the market."

 

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LG shows off impossibly thin television

Big-screen televisions have been getting thinner and thinner, while they get bigger and bigger.
Now, LG has come up with what some are calling an impossibly thin television.
Under the division LG Display, the electronics company showed off a "wallpaper" concept television recently.
It has been making the rounds at tech shows around the world, including back in May in New York City.
It is less than a millimeter thick, weighs just over 4 pounds and is made of OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes) CNET reported.
It sticks to the wall thanks to a magnetic mat. To move the TV, you just peel it off the mat.

 

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Kat Walk omnidirectional VR treadmill lets you walk, jump, and sit freely
By Stanley Goodner - August 13, 2015 5 Pictures

Virtual reality headsets, such as the Samsung Gear VR, are becoming more commonplace as manufacturers augment hardware, researchers improve technology, and designers create more virtual experiences. But if you want full-body virtual immersion, treadmills are one way to go. And the latest omnidirectional treadmill, the Kat Walk, provides greater freedom of movement with less constraints.

 

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Samsung shoots for the phablet limelight with the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 edge+
By Chris Wood - August 13, 2015 8 Pictures

So far, Samsung's 2015 top-tier smartphones have impressed, offering great build quality, stunning looks and great cameras. Now that we're heading towards the end of the year, it's time to turn to the phablet side of things. Gizmag is on the ground at the launch event in New York with the company outing two new smartphones – the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+.

 

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Google Research Boosts Deep Learning Detection with GPUs

GPUs are being used in neural network training and for near-real time execution of complex machine learning algorithms in natural language processing, image recognition, and rapid video analysis. Pedestrian detection is one of those areas where, when powered by truly accurate and real-time capabilities, could mean an entirely new wave of...


Reprogrammable optic chip has complete flexibility in processing of photons and is a pathway to quantum computing

Researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in Japan, have developing an optical chip that can process photons in an infinite number of ways. It's a major step forward in creating a quantum computer to solve problems such as designing new drugs, superfast database searches, and performing...

 

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Researchers develop optical chip that can process photos in infinite number of ways; chip could complete tasks and solve problems beyond the scope of today's supercomputers

Researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in Japan havedeveloped an optical chip that "can process photons in an infinite number of ways". Thanks to this capability it is a possible contender to replace the general purpose computer microprocessors we use today in our PCs. Due to the possibilities opened up by quantum computing, such chips could complete tasks and solve problems that are beyond the scope of application of today's most powerful supercomputers.
A University of Bristol press release says that its fully reprogrammable chip brings together previous quantum experiments and will be able to "realise a plethora of future protocols that have not even been conceived yet". The chip design will facilitate quick and easy testing of quantum science theories and quantum computing experiments.
Project leader Dr Anthony Laing explained "A whole field of research has essentially been put onto a single optical chip that is easily controlled. The implications of the work go beyond the huge resource savings. Now anybody can run their own experiments with photons, much like they operate any other piece of software on a computer. They no longer need to convince a physicist to devote many months of their life to painstakingly build and conduct a new experiment." This ability was demonstrated by the research team as reportedly they "carried out a year's worth of experiments in a matter of hours".

 

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DARPA sees future in vacuum tubes
By David Szondy - August 15, 2015 1 Picture

In today's world, vacuum tubes or radio valves seem as dead as high button shoes and buggy whips, but DARPA sees them as very much the technology of the future. As part of a new program, the agency is looking to develop new tube designs and manufacturing techniques for use in tomorrow's high-powered communications and radar systems.

 

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The Promise Of 5G

The evolution of personal communication has fundamentally altered the everyday lives of most people on our planet. Armed with a smartphone connected to a seemingly infinite ocean of information, entertainment and applications, many of us cannot remember a time when we weren’t dependent on our mobile devices and networks for most of our daily needs.
In fact, the latest smartphone models can help us read this article while downloading a file, chat with a colleague on Skype, check our email and use an app to make dinner reservations — and even prepare driving directions to the restaurant.
But they would be useless and pretty dumb without the true brain, which resides deep in the network of the carriers. The network and the data centers that contain it are the true brain of any complex operation.
Not long ago, most carriers only provided voice and text services using 2G networks. But the ability to be in communication anytime, anywhere and with almost anyone transformed our society in ways we’re seeing all around us today.

 

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Helping Siri hear you in a party

A device that emulates the brain's “cocktail party effect" and could be built into future smartphones

Duke University engineers have invented a device that emulates the “cocktail party effect” — the remarkable ability of the brain to home in on a single voice in a room with voices coming from multiple directions.
The device uses plastic metamaterials — the combination of natural materials in repeating patterns to achieve unnatural properties — to determine the direction of a sound and extract it from the surrounding background noise.
“We think this could improve the performance of voice-activated devices like smartphones and game consoles while also reducing the complexity of the system,” said Abel Xie, a PhD student in electrical and computer engineering at Duke and lead author of the paper.