Shift to 450 mm wafers may wait two nodes for the 10 nm node in 2015-2017 according to Intel researcher

The 10-nm process node appears to be the ideal point for the adoption of manufacturing on 450-mm diameter wafers, according Leonard Hobbs, head of research for Intel Ireland. Speaking at the Industry Strategy Symposium here (ISS Europe) he also indicated that the transition could not come sooner and could be pushed later, depending on the …

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Progress to a vaccine against Alzheimer’s and stroke

Researchers led by Dr. Dan Frenkel of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Neurobiology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences are working on a nasally-delivered 2-in-1 vaccine that promises to protect against both Alzheimer’s and stroke. The new vaccine repairs vascular damage in the brain by rounding up “troops” from the body’s own …

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Increasing processor efficiency by “shutting off the lights”

Die micrograph of the fully integrated DC-DC converter chip. Image courtesy of Wonyoung Kim. Harvard – Plug-and-play multi-core voltage regulator could lead to “smarter” smartphones, slimmer laptops, and energy-friendly data centers. To promote energy-efficient multitasking, Harvard graduate student Wonyoung Kim has developed and demonstrated a new device with the potential to reduce the power usage …

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Virgin Galactic Announces World’s First Commercial Contracts to Send Researchers to Space

Virgin Galactic’s signed contract with the Southwest Research Institute is the first such agreement to fly scientists into space (over 100 kilometers or 328,000 feet above the Earth), enabling valuable microgravity, biology, climate and astronomy research. As part of the contract announced today, SwRI has made full deposits for two researchers to fly on Virgin …

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Thin Coating of nanowires will boost thermoelectric effect

Significant Reduction of Thermal Conductivity in Si/Ge Core−Shell Nanowires We report on the effect of germanium (Ge) coatings on the thermal transport properties of silicon (Si) nanowires using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. Our results show that a simple deposition of a Ge shell of only 1 to 2 unit cells in thickness on a single …

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Carnival of Nuclear Energy 41

The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 41 is up at cool Hand Nuke Nuclear Green looks at the challenges for the mass deployment of renewable energy Canadian Energy Issues tell us that “The Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) has narrowed its focus recently, and is now looking at realistic and practical ways to use nuclear heat …

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Poverty Statistics and estimates and definitions

The World Bank is the most commonly used source of statistics on poverty. They define poverty as having purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita income from 2005 statistics of less than $1.25 per day. There has been criticism of the 2005 PPP statistics based on the collection of data for China and India from cities …

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Infinera achieves One Terabit per Second Data Rate on a Single Integrated Photonic Chip

A single PIC can integrate upwards of fifty optical components that would otherwise each require a separate package. Infinera achieved a record one trillion bits per second (1 Terabit/s) speed on a single integrated indium phosphide chip. Infinera’s latest photonic integrated circuits (PIC) is at the heart of a new 10-channel receiver, each channel operating …

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China Godson Chip Roadmap and 15 other technology projects

The Godson-3A chip was implemented in a 65 nanometer process and ran at 1 GHz to deliver 16 gigaflops of floating point oomph. The chip has 425 million transistors, an area of 174.5 square millimeters, and burned only 10 watts under load. The chip included two 16-bit HyperTransport ports (licensed from Advanced Micro Devices), 4 …

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