Advances in Computers thread

[ScienceRocks]

Computer equal to or better than humans at indexing science
4 hours ago by David Tenenbaum

In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue computer beat chess wizard Gary Kasparov. This year, a computer system developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison achieved something far more complex. It equaled or bested scientists at the complex task of extracting data from scientific publications and placing it in a database that catalogs the results of tens of thousands of individual studies.

"We demonstrated that the system was no worse than people on all the things we measured, and it was better in some categories," says Christopher Ré, who guided the software development for a project while a UW professor of computer science. "That's extremely exciting!"

The development, described in the current issue of PLoS ONE, marks a milestone in the quest to rapidly and precisely summarize, collate and index the vast output of scientists around the globe, says first author Shanan Peters, a professor of geoscience at UW-Madison.

Read more at: Computer equal to or better than humans at indexing science

 

[ScienceRocks]

The Internet Of Things Is Reaching Escape Velocity

The frenzy around the Internet of Things (IoT) should be reaching its final countdown.

There has been a period of extraordinary activity in the IoT space since this original attempt at charting the ecosystem for TechCrunch.

While the Internet of Things will inevitably ride the ups and downs of inflated hype and unmet expectations, at this stage there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle.

The IoT is propelled by an exceptional convergence of trends (mobile phone ubiquity, open hardware, big data, the resurrection of AI, cloud computing, 3D printing and crowdfunding).

 

[ScienceRocks]

Global Internet Population Passes 3 Billion Mark

The global Internet population has come a long way but still has much further to go, with less than half the world connected.
The global population of Internet users topped the 3 billion mark as of June, according to the latest data from Internet World Stats.
That's up a healthy 26% from June 2012. In 2000, the early days of the Internet boom, just 361 million people were tapped in.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Engineers take big step toward using light instead of wires inside computers

Stanford engineers have designed and built a prism-like device that can split a beam of light into different colors and bend the light at right angles, a development that could eventually lead to computers that use optics, rather than electricity, to carry data.
They describe what they call an "optical link" in an article in Scientific Reports.

 

[ScienceRocks]

US Developing An Exascale Superconducting Supercomputer

"Computers based on superconducting logic integrated with new kinds of cryogenic memory will allow expansion of current computing facilities while staying within space and energy budgets, and may enable supercomputer development beyond the exascale

 

[ScienceRocks]

How will the 5G network change the world?

The global race is on to develop 5G, the fifth generation of mobile network. While 5G will follow in the footsteps of 4G and 3G, this time scientists are more excited. They say 5G will be different - very different.

If you're thinking, "Great, that's the end of my apps stalling, video faltering, and that everlasting load sign," then you are right - but that's only part of the story.

"5G will be a dramatic overhaul and harmonisation of the radio spectrum," says Prof Rahim Tafazolli who is the lead at the UK's multimillion-pound government-funded 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey.

That means the opportunity for properly connected smart cities, remote surgery, driverless cars and the "internet of things".

 

[ScienceRocks]

Storing quantum information for 30 seconds in a nanoelectronic device

The spin of an electron or a nucleus in a semiconductor naturally implements the unit of quantum information—the qubit. In addition, because semiconductors are currently used in the electronics industry, developing qubits in semiconductors would be a promising route to realize scalable quantum information devices. The solid-state environment, however, may provide deleterious interactions between the qubit and the nuclear spins of surrounding atoms, or charge and spin fluctuations arising from defects in oxides and interfaces. For materials such as silicon, enrichment of the spin-zero 28Si isotope drastically reduces spin-bath decoherence. Experiments on bulk spin ensembles in 28Si crystals have indeed demonstrated extraordinary coherence times. However, it remained unclear whether these would persist at the single-spin level, in gated nanostructures near amorphous interfaces. Here, we present the coherent operation of individual 31P electron and nuclear spin qubits in a top-gated nanostructure, fabricated on an isotopically engineered 28Si substrate. The 31P nuclear spin sets the new benchmark coherence time ( over 30 s with Carr–Purcell–Meiboom–Gill (CPMG) sequence) of any single qubit in the solid state and reaches over 99.99% control fidelity. The electron spin CPMG coherence time exceeds 0.5 s, and detailed noise spectroscopy indicates that—contrary to widespread belief—it is not limited by the proximity to an interface. Instead, decoherence is probably dominated by thermal and magnetic noise external to the device, and is thus amenable to further improvement.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Rewritable paper

Chemists at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) have fabricated a novel rewritable “paper” process in the lab, based on the color-switching property of commercially available chemicals called redox dyes.

Printing is achieved by using ultraviolet light to photobleach the dye, except the masked portions for the text on the paper. The prototype rewritable paper can be erased and written on more than 20 times with no significant loss in contrast or resolution.

The rewritable paper does not require additional inks for printing, “making it both economically and environmentally viable,” said Yadong Yin, a UCR professor of chemistry, whose lab led the research. “It represents an attractive alternative to regular paper in meeting the increasing global needs for sustainability and environmental conservation.”

 

[ScienceRocks]

New cheap NFC sensor can transmit information on hazardous chemicals, food spoilage to smartphone
2 hours ago by Anne Trafton

The MIT researchers' wireless chemical sensor. Credit: Melanie Gonick

MIT chemists have devised a new way to wirelessly detect hazardous gases and environmental pollutants, using a simple sensor that can be read by a smartphone.

These inexpensive sensors could be widely deployed, making it easier to monitor public spaces or detect food spoilage in warehouses. Using this system, the researchers have demonstrated that they can detect gaseous ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, and cyclohexanone, among other gases.

"The beauty of these sensors is that they are really cheap. You put them up, they sit there, and then you come around and read them. There's no wiring involved. There's no power," says Timothy Swager, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry at MIT. "You can get quite imaginative as to what you might want to do with a technology like this."

Read more at: New cheap NFC sensor can transmit information on hazardous chemicals food spoilage to smartphone

 

[ScienceRocks]

Cicret wristband turns your arm into a touch screen
By Stu Robarts
December 8, 2014

With wearables gaining some traction, smartphones and tablets are by no means the only mobile devices around nowadays. Now, though, Cicret is looking to take things a step farther and turn your arm into a smartphone.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Seagate’s first shingled hard drives now shipping: 8TB for just $260
Seagate 8217 s first shingled hard drives now shipping 8TB for just 260 ExtremeTech

Seagate, using its new shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology to cram more data into fewer platters, is preparing to launch an 8TB hard drive priced at just $260. For that low-low price (just over 3 cents per gig!) you get a three-year warranty and very low power consumption — but certainly not performance. This 8TB drive is all about long-term storage and backups — pair it with a new SSD like the Samsung 850 Pro or 850 Evo and you’d have a very flexible, cost-effective storage setup.

First, the speeds and feeds. This is a new range of hard drives that Seagate refers to as Archive HDD, where performance is eschewed in favor of reliability and power efficiency. There will be 8TB, 6TB, and 5TB models, and they’ll all come in Standard and Secure flavors (the Secure drives have a hardware encryption chip). The drives all spin at 5,900 RPM and have a 128MB cache, with an average read/write throughput of 150MB/sec (190MB/sec max). There’s a three-year warranty, and a fairly high MTBF (mean time between failures) of 800,000 hours.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Vivo X5Max takes thinnest smartphone crown
By Chris Wood
December 10, 2014
4 Pictures

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo has unveiled its latest smartphone, the X5Max. The handset has a stainless steel construction and high-end internals, but distinguishes itself by offering the thinnest build we’ve ever seen on a smartphone.

Vivo may not be one of the biggest names in mobile, but its 4.75 mm (0.19 in) build makes it the thinnest smartphone on the market. By comparison, the also-thin iPhone 6 measures in at 6.9 mm (0.27 in) – 45 percent thicker than Vivo’s new device.

Interestingly, the handset is powered by a 64-bit Snapdragon CPU, but runs a skinned version of Android 4.4 KitKat. The recently launched 5.0 Lollipop flavour of Google’s mobile OS is the first to support 64-bit processing, meaning the X5Max won’t be able to take full advantage of its chip unless Vivo pushes out an update somewhere down the line.

The X5Max is a sizeable handset, carrying a 5.5-inch 1,920 x 1,080 Super AMOLED display with 400 pixels per inch (PPI). The custom Android skin, which the company calls Funtouch, mimics the look of iOS 8, including quick settings that launch by swiping from the bottom of the screen (like iOS), as opposed to Android's swipe down from the top.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Is this a path to quantum transistors?

Physicists at the University of Michigan (U-M) and several other universities have discovered or confirmed several properties of the compound samarium hexaboride (SmB6) at low temperature that raise hopes for finding the “silicon” of the quantum era.

In an open-access paper in the journal Science, the U-M researchers say they provide the first direct evidence that samarium hexaboride (SmB6) is a “topological insulator” — a class of solids that are believed to conduct electricity like a metal across their surface, but block the flow of current through their interior.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Leave your wallet at home, Iowa is implementing digital driver’s licenses

Leave your wallet at home Iowa is implementing digital driver 8217 s licenses ExtremeTech

Here in the United States, we’re quickly hurdling towards a future where all you need to carry with you is a smartphone. No cash, no credit cards, and now no driver’s license needed. The state of Iowa will soon be releasing a dedicated app that will effectively serve as a complete replacement for the traditional plastic driver’s license, and other states will likely follow suit. Both police and airport security will accept this new digital license, so feel free to leave your wallet or purse at home.

Starting next year, this digital driver’s license will be an option for all Iowa drivers. It’s currently unclear as to which platforms will be supported, but it’s a safe bet that iOS and Android will be the priority. Will Windows Phone and Blackberry users be left out in the cold? That still remains to be seen, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them get snubbed. Of course, Iowa will continue to issue old-fashioned plastic licenses, so even those of us without smartphones will still be able to properly identify ourselves.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Microsoft lets US shoppers pay with Bitcoin
40 minutes ago

Microsoft began Thursday letting US shoppers at its online Windows Store pay with digital currency Bitcoin.

Bitcoin, traded in at market value through a partnership with payment processor BitPay, could be used to add money to Microsoft accounts that provide funds for buying games, music, video or applications for Xbox consoles or computers powered by the US technology titan's Windows operating systems.

"The use of digital currencies such as Bitcoin, while not yet mainstream, is growing beyond the early enthusiasts," Microsoft Universal Store corporate vice president Eric Lockard said in a blog post.

Read more at: Microsoft lets US shoppers pay with Bitcoin

 

[ScienceRocks]

HP Linux++ OS for Memristor servers 6 times the power and 10 times smaller than current computers
HP is planning to have working prototype of The Machine [memristor memory and logic and onchip optical networking] should be ready by 2016.

HP wants researchers and programmers to get familiar with how it will work well before then. They aim to complete an operating system designed for The Machine, called Linux++, in June 2015. Software that emulates the hardware design of The Machine and other tools will be released so that programmers can test their code against the new operating system. Linux++ is intended to ultimately be replaced by an operating system designed from scratch for The Machine, which HP calls Carbon.

The main difference between The Machine and conventional computers is that HP’s design will use a single kind of memory for both temporary and long-term data storage. Existing computers store their operating systems, programs, and files on either a hard disk drive or a flash drive. To run a program or load a document, data must be retrieved from the hard drive and loaded into a form of memory, called RAM, that is much faster but can’t store data very densely or keep hold of it when the power is turned off.

HP plans to use a single kind of memory—in the form of memristors—for both long- and short-term data storage in The Machine. Not having to move data back and forth should deliver major power and time savings. Memristor memory also can retain data when powered off, should be faster than RAM, and promises to store more data than comparably sized hard drives today.

HP’s simulations suggest that a server built to The Machine’s blueprint could be six times more powerful than an equivalent conventional design, while using just 1.25 percent of the energy and being around 10 percent the size.

I am amazed.

 

[ScienceRocks]

http://www.newscient...ml#.VInZjdLF_To

A New Scientist investigation reveals Google's grand plans for its quantum computer, as well as the first hints about what's really going on under its hood.

THEY could be the most powerful computers in the world – so perhaps it's no surprise that the biggest internet company on the planet is testing one out.

Last year Google purchased a quantum computer from D-Wave Systems in British Columbia, Canada, currently the only firm claiming to sell chips powered by exotic physics. However, this claim is controversial; some say D-Wave has yet to fully demonstrate its chips' quantum capabilities. Now a New Scientist investigation reveals Google's future plans, as well as the results of its recent tests to address the quantumness controversy.

In theory, quantum computers offer a huge advantage over ordinary PCs. Regular computers code information in binary bits that are either on or off – 0 or 1. But a quantum "qubit" can be both at the same time. This could let quantum machines crunch through certain problems, like searching a database, at blistering speeds even compared to a supercomputer. Such zippy calculation is an attraction for companies like Google that deal with large volumes of data.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Samsung and Apple team up on 14nm, chips expected in 2015
Samsung and Apple team up on 14nm chips expected in 2015 ExtremeTech

The will-they-won’t-they dance between Apple and TSMC was a long-running tech story years before it became shipping reality. After reported test runs on 28nm and a long negotiation process, TSMC finally won Apple’s business for its brand-new 20nm node. This lock, however, appears to be short-lived — Apple and Samsung are reportedly planning a launch on Samsung’s 14nm technology later this year.

A new report from Korea IT states that Samsung began manufacturing on Apple’s new A9 SoC yesterday, which would fit an introduction timeline for later next year. Samsung had previously given guidance that it expected to begin 14nm production in the near future, but hadn’t specified whether or not it would win back Apple’s business.

The longstanding litigation between Apple and Samsung often seemed to suggest that the Cupertino-based smartphone manufacturer might abandon its Korean foundry altogether, but the benefits of the new process node apparently outweigh lingering mutual dissatisfaction over rounded corners and design elements. Samsung’s foundry business took a hit when Apple shifted its A8 orders to TSMC, but cutting the 20nm node altogether appears to have paid off.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Project Loon works with France's space agency to develop next-gen balloons
Project Loon works with France s space agency to develop next-gen balloons

Project Loon has come a long way since Google X started working on it in 2011: its balloons can now stay afloat for 100 days, for one, and it has recently gained a partner carrier in Australia's Telstra. Now, France's space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), has revealed that it's been collaborating with the semi-secret lab for a year now to take this moonshot to the next level. Apparently, the agency is helping Mountain View analyze data from ongoing tests, as well as design its next-gen floating hotspots. Google, on the other hand, will help CNES conduct long-haul balloon flights to the stratosphere.

"No single solution can solve such a big, complex problem. That's why we're working with experts from all over the world, such as CNES, to invest in new technologies like Project Loon that can use the winds to provide Internet to rural and remote areas," said Mike Cassidy, the Google VP in charge of the project. CNES has a long history researching stratospheric balloons (50 years, according to its announcement post) and continues to release around 20 per month.

 

[ScienceRocks]

The bracelet that turns your ARM into a touchscreen: Cicret projects emails, videos and games onto skin

From Apple’s forthcoming smartwatch to the Fitbit, there is fierce competition to get consumers hooked on wearable devices.

And soon there will be a bracelet that turns your skin into a touchscreen using a tiny built-in projector.

Wearers of the of the Cicret bracelet will be able to check an email or watch a film that’s projected onto their forearm, and control the picture by using their skin like a touchscreen.

Read more: Cicret projects emails videos and games onto skin Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook