Challenges of Exascale Computing by Nvidia Chief Scientist (45 pages) Instruction level parallelism (ILP) was mined out in 2000. Historic scaling is at an end! To continue performance scaling of all sizes of computer systems requires addressing two challenges:Power and Programmability. Much of the economy depends on this. Now voltage is held nearly constant Halve …
Stem cell researchers in Hong Kong and the United States are trying to grow spare parts for the human heart that may be ready for tests on people within five years. (H/T Fightaging) Scientists have already made basic heart muscle from stem cells, but the Hong Kong-led team wants to refine it so it can …
Sales of smartphones will exceed 420 million devices in 2011, accounting for nearly 28 percent of the entire global handset market. With the introduction of more affordable “entry-level” smartphones, IMS Research predicts that annual sales will surpass one billion devices by the end of 2016, accounting for one of every two mobile handsets sold. Apple …
This scanning electron microscope close-up shows how the components of a nanodiamond device are cantilevered above a surface of the electrical insulator silicon dioxide. (Davidson Lab) A team of electrical engineers at Vanderbilt University has developed all the basic components needed to create microelectronic devices out of thin films of nanodiamond. They have created diamond …
Steve Perlman’s team is testing a new kind of wireless network that he says can fit thousands of times more data into the same amount of radio spectrum as a conventional one. The approach is known as DIDO, for distributed input distributed output, and is currently being tested around Palo Alto, California, and in rural …
Arxiv – Longer-Baseline Telescopes Using Quantum Repeaters (14 pages) We present an approach to building interferometric telescopes using ideas of quantum information. Current optical interferometers have limited baseline lengths, and thus limited resolution, because of noise and loss of signal due to the transmission of photons between the telescopes. The technology of quantum repeaters has …
The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 62 is up at Idaho Samizdat Atomic Insights – A little radiation can delay cancer until after you are dead There is an article titled Toward Improved Ionizing Radiation Safety Standards from the July 2011 issue of Health Physics, a peer-reviewed journal about radiation safety. The article explains in clear, …
A Calgary-based research and development company says it has developed a number of “breakthrough” technologies that would reduce costs in the oilpatch while at the same time being environmentally-friendly. Derya Yinanc, chief executive and chairman of Quantum Ingenuity Inc., said the company is in negotiations with “multiple major energy firms.” Quantum Ingenuity has achieved breakthroughs …
COSCO Dalian (a subsidiary of China Ocean Shipping Group) evaluated two mooring lines made with Dyneema®, the world’s strongest fiber aboard one of its VLCC (Very Large Crude Container) vessels In January 2008, the COSPEARL LAKE became the world’s first VLCC vessel to be 100% equipped with mooring lines made with Dyneema®. There were, in …
n a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, regenerative medicine is called the “next evolution of medical treatments.” The report says the field not only “holds the realistic promise of regenerating damaged tissues and organs in the living body” but “empowers scientists to grow tissues and organs in the laboratory and …
A 54 page presentation describes the status of China’s pebble bed reactor project, which we have been following. The foundation has been laid and most components have been ordered. DONG, Yujie of the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET), Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Presented at the Interregional Workshop on Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technology …