32-Core CPUs From Intel and AMD

Photograph: Courtesy of IntelIf your CPU has only a single core, it's officially a dinosaur. In fact,quad-core computing is now commonplace; you can even get laptop computers with four cores today. But we're really just at the beginning of the core wars: Leadership in the CPU market will soon be decided by who has the most cores, not who has the fastest clock speed.

What is it? With the gigahertz race largely abandoned, both AMD and Intel are trying to pack more cores onto a die in order to continue to improve processing power and aid with multitasking operations. Miniaturizing chips further will be key to fitting these cores and other components into a limited space. Intel will roll out 32-nanometer processors (down from today's 45nm chips) in 2009.

When is it coming? Intel has been very good about sticking to its road map. A six-core CPU based on the Itanium design should be out imminently, when Intel then shifts focus to a brand-new architecture called Nehalem, to be marketed as Core i7. Core i7 will feature up to eight cores, with eight-core systems available in 2009 or 2010. (And an eight-core AMD project called Montreal is reportedly on tap for 2009.)

After that, the timeline gets fuzzy. Intel reportedly canceled a 32-core project called Keifer, slated for 2010, possibly because of its complexity (the company won't confirm this, though). That many cores requires a new way of dealing with memory; apparently you can't have 32 brains pulling out of one central pool of RAM. But we still expect cores to proliferate when the kinks are ironed out: 16 cores by 2011 or 2012 is plausible (when transistors are predicted to drop again in size to 22nm), with 32 cores by 2013 or 2014 easily within reach. Intel says "hundreds" of cores may come even farther down the line.

Flying-high in 2050: The Airbus Concept Cabin

By Pawel Piejko

10:26 June 15, 2011

The Airbus Concept Cabin points to the future of air travel

Airbus engineers have outlined their vision of what passengers could expect from air travel circa 2050 - and it sounds like a lot more fun than today's cattle class experience. The Airbus Concept Cabin focuses on high levels of customization tailored to suit individual needs including auto-morphing seats and personalized entertainment. Passengers' body heat would also be harvested via the use of smart materials that integrate the electrical system and do away with the need for conventional wires.

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The Concept Cabin is an extension of the company's future plane design first canvassed last year. The transparent plane design would be lightweight, bird-bone-like structure, covered by bionic skin membranes.

Once on-board, a passenger would simply touch the wall to be identified by the plane's "neural network" which would then track the person and enable the auto-morphing seats, personalized digital access and automatic responses to personal needs.

Instead of traditional cabin classes, Airbus sees the aircraft interior as being divided into a number of zones. The "Vitalizing Zone" would cater for relaxation and well-being with massage and acupressure-enabled seats, antioxidant enriched air, mood lighting and a panoramic view of the sky. There would also be a "Smart Tech Zone" and an "Interactive Zone" which would imitate any possible social scene, meaning passengers could arrange a virtual business meeting, play a game of virtual golf, go virtual shopping, or read a bedtime story for their kids back at home.

The cabin would also be 100 percent recyclable and feature self-cleaning materials made from plant fibers.

"Our research shows that passengers of 2050 will expect a seamless travel experience while also caring for the environment," says Charles Champion, Airbus Executive Vice President Engineering.

The company says some of the Concept Cabin technologies are already in the development phase and the ideas presented in the concept will influence future designs.

The Airbus Concept Cabin project is to be showcased during the up-coming 49th International Paris Air Show (20 - 26 June, 2011) in the form of a 360-degree planetarium movie - we'll be sure to stop by for a closer look.

Airbus provides an overview of the 2050 plane in the following video:

Nintendo Wii U faster than PS3 and Xbox 360, but no Blu-ray on board

Nintendo Wii U: supports 1080p resolution, but no Blu-ray on board.

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Nintendo has announced that its Wii U gaming console will not feature a Blu-ray drive, and will instead stick to a proprietary disc format. Patent fees related to the technology are too high, the company explained. The Wii U will, however, compete with existing consoles in terms of hardware - it is equipped with a customized CPU from IBM and a GPU from AMD, and is rumored to be 50 percent faster than PS3 and Xbox 360.

Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata said in a recent investor Q&A event that enough people have already bought various devices capable of playing Blu-ray and DVD, and there's no need for such a functionality in the Wii U.

In terms of GPU, the Wii U is far from today's high-end PC standards, but it supports 1080p resolution and is said to offer more than other consoles already on the market. The new custom-designed 45-nanometer CPU comes courtesy of IBM, and reportedly makes for "extreme game play."

The white box will be equipped with a customized AMD Radeon GPU, apparently with a graphics chip similar to the one found in Radeon HD 4890, Japanese websiteGameWatch reports. It's a bit outdated, having been released in 2009, but still much better than those found in PS3 and Xbox 360. These details are yet to be confirmed.

Arvind Bhatia, an analyst with brokerage firm Sterne Agee, stated that some developers claim the Wii U is 50 percent faster than PS3 and Xbox 360.

The Nintendo Wii U (formerly referred to as the Wii HD) was unveiled last weekduring the E3 exhibition in Los Angeles. Its most distinctive aspect as of yet is the completely new touchscreen controller, which allows users to continue gaming even when the TV is turned off. The product is expected to be launched in 2012.

MIT designing system to protect implants against wireless attacks

By Ben Coxworth

16:08 June 15, 2011

Scientists from MIT are designing a wearable signal jamming system, to protect implantable medical devices (such as this pacemaker) from wireless attacks (Image: Lucien Monfils)

An assassin waits for his target to walk into range, then presses a button on a radio transmitter, causing the target's pacemaker to deliver a lethal dose of electricity. Such a scenario may be fictional for now, but as more and more medical implants are designed to wirelessly send and receive data, it becomes increasingly possible. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are certainly aware of the dangers of wireless attacks on implants, so they've developed a countermeasure - a wearable signal jamming device.

Many implantable devices are now wireless-enabled, so that doctors can check patients' vital signs, change the rhythm of pacemakers, the dosage of drug pumps, or make other adjustments. According to recent research, however, a hostile party could use that wireless capability to instruct those devices to harm the patient - and perhaps even kill them - from a distance.

The MIT team, who are collaborating with colleagues from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, believe that a small signal jamming device could prevent against such attacks. Called a "shield," the patient would wear it like a necklace or wristwatch. When doctors or other users of "authorized devices" wanted to send instructions to the implant, their devices' jammed signal would first go to the shield, which would authenticate and decode it, then send it along to the implant. Signals from unauthorized devices would simply stay garbled and useless.

Lab tests have already shown some promise, using second-hand implantable defibrillators, and standard radio transmitters acting as stand-ins for the shield. The technology is unique, in that the system is able to simultaneously send and receive a signal on the same frequency. The jamming signal is added to incoming signals, but if they are authenticated, it is then removed. Ordinarily, sending and receiving on the same frequency wouldn't be possible, but a unique signal processing system allows it to happen in this case.

Although some people might think that it would be simpler to just build an encryption function directly into the implants, this would require the devices to draw more power, and could alter their physical form. Emergency response crews would also be unable to communicate with a patient's implant, unless they were able to obtain that person's "secret code" - if the encryption was handled by a wearable shield, however, that shield could just be removed and disabled. Additionally, a shield could be used to protect existing implants, that weren't designed with attacks in mind.

One of the biggest challenges in developing the technology, it turns out, could be getting manufacturers to see the value in it. So far, there have been no reported wireless attacks on implants, and not many people are likely to see themselves as potential targets. That could change, however, as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission recently moved wireless implants onto a new frequency, that allows them to be accessed over longer distances.

Getac announces flagship X500 rugged notebook

By Ben Coxworth

16:08 June 15, 2011

 

Getac's range of rugged notebook computers continues to grow with the release of the company's new flagship X500. Aimed at Getac's core military customers, the X500 is designed to withstand the most extreme working conditions. With Intel Core i5-520M (2.4GHz) and Core i7-620M (2.66GHz) processor options, 2GB of RAM and the option of a NVIDIA GeForce GT330M MXM GPU with 512MB of VRAM, the X500 is also the most powerful ultra-rugged PC in the company's 22-year history.

The X500 sports a 15.6-inch 1366 x 769 QuadraClear sunlight-readable LED display with 1,000 cd/m2 of brightness. The display is also multi-touch capable and pressure sensitive, so it can be register touch input from just about anything, including gloved fingers. There's also a glide touchpad with scrollbar and full-sized, waterproof and backlit QWERTY keyboard of the mechanical membrane variety - a waterproof, backlit rubber keyboard is also available as an option.

Coming with Windows 7 the X500 can receive a performance lift on processor-intensive applications with the 2.66GHz i7 CPU able to be boosted to 3.33GHz thanks to Intel's Turbo Boost technology, while RAM can be upped from 2 to 8GB. The X500 comes with a 320GB HDD as standard, with an optional 160GB SSD also available. The multimedia bay can be filled with an optional Super multi-DVD, a second battery or a second HDD or SSD to operate as a RAID system.

In its standard configuration the X500 boasts a range of I/O ports, including three USB 2.0 ports, one USB/eSATA combo port, two RS-232 serial ports, two PCMCIA ports, an ExpressCard, SmartCard, dual RJ-45 ports, HDMI and VGA outputs. Custom options include the addition of USB 3.0 ports, fiber optic connections, RS-485 or a high-powered Wi-Fi booster.

Military-certified for extreme conditions, the X500 is MIL-STD-810G certified for ruggedness and shock protection, MIL-STD-2169B certified for High Altitude Magnetic Pulse (HEMP), boasts an IP65 rating for protection from water and dust, and has UL1604 certification to ensure it can be safely operated in the presence of potentially flammable or explosive materials. The X500 is also NightVision-ready for working under the cover of darkness using night vision goggles, and is EPEAT gold certified.

The X500 measures 16.1 x 11.41 x 2.56-inches (410 x 290 x 65 mm) and weighs 11.68 lbs (5.3 kg) in its standard configuration. It will be available from Getac from July 6 with prices ranging from US$4,999 to $6,599, depending on configuration.

Batcopter Flies Along With Bat Swarms, Helping Researchers Study Bat Behavior Up Close

Every night in Texas, vast swarms of Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from caves to dine, swarming in dense clouds and plucking huge amounts of insects out of the air. They dip, swirl and turn on a dime to chase their prey, while somehow avoiding collisions with each other. To study how they do this, bat researchers from Boston University built a quadcopter to fly with them and purposefully get in their faces.

The “Batcopter” was a home-built quadcopter made of carbon-fiber hunting arrows, packing foam, bamboo and bird netting, among other everyday tools. It was operated with OpenPilot Copter Control, an open-source UAV platform. The copter recorded the bats’ responses using three ground-based high-speed FLIR cameras and an airborne 3D HD GoPro camera.

In better understanding the mechanisms of bat flight, researchers hope to inform models controlling UAV flight, explains Boston University’s Kenn Sebesta, who built the batcopter.

The first batcopter was built from towel racks purchased at Home Depot, and while it worked well in Boston, the aluminum frames proved too heavy to fly at Texas’ higher altitudes. Sebesta and his crew raided local hardware stores and an ammunition store in rural Texas to find lighter materials, settling on the arrow shafts, twine, zip ties and foam to fashion Batcopter 2.0.

The rotors were covered with bird netting to ensure they didn’t hurt any bats who ventured too close. The team also had to design a support structure so the bats couldn’t push the netting into the rotors, disabling the craft.

Sebesta explains his team’s designs in great detail over at the OpenPilot forums, and in a blog posting at BU’s Mechatronics Lab.

Batcopter 2.0 easily penetrated clouds of swarming bats, gathering data until the motors overheated in the Texas sun. The bats seemed to fan out to avoid the copter as it penetrated their swarm:

Robot map Generator

Final Year Project
National University Of Computer And Emerging Sciences (FAST-NU) Lahore, Pakistan
BS(Telecommunication Engineering) Final Year Project.

This Project is based on a toy car with its two DC motors, one for forward and backward motion and one for turning front wheels left and right. The robotic car’s power is provided by an onboard 12volts 2Ah re-chargeable battery along with three 9V commercially available batteries. Other components used are: two ATMEL AT89C52 microcontrollers, two PING ultrasonic sensors, EESM3 Opto-coupler, BC4 Bluetooth Module, H-bridges and a Bluetooth Dongle connected to the computer. ATMEL AT89C52 is the main control unit on the car. PING ultrasonic sensors are used to measure the distance to the front and the side wall. EESM3 Opto-coupler is used to count the number of revolution of the car’s wheel. BC4 Bluetooth Module and Bluetooth dongle is used for wireless communication between robotic car and the associated PC. H-Bridges drive the DC motors as dictated by the microcontroller pins.

For details e-mail: himran1990@gmail.com

Graspy is the first PR2 robot that can read handwritten text

On May 24, 2011, in Robotics, Technology, by Mike Jefferson


Folks from University of Pennsylvania have achieved a great step when it comes to robotics. Engineers using the Willow Garage PR2 robot have manged to teach the PR2 robot to read.

Windows Phone 7 Mango details announced by Microsoft

On May 26, 2011, in Cell Phones, by Garish Wasil


As you all know, Nokia has partnered with Microsoft and have signed a contract for using Windows Phone 7 OS on all of its upcoming smartphones. Well, there have been a lot of noise over that for some time now and finally Microsoft has announced details of the upcoming first Windows Phone 7 powered Nokia Smartphone.

Pioneer AppRadio runs iOS apps in your car – including Google Maps

Pioneer has launched a new car stereo, but unlike your typical car stereo, this one is alot more sophisticated and versatile – it should prove to be a bit hit.