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Category: computing – Page 146

A seed-sized signal amplifier chip could boost space communications

Smaller than a strawberry seed, this tiny signal amplifier was produced by the European Space Agency to fill a missing link in current technology, helping to make future radar-observing and telecommunications space missions feasible.

“This integrated circuit is a low noise amplifier, measuring just 1.8 by 0.9 mm across,” explains ESA microwave engineer David Cuadrado-Calle. “Delivering state of the art performance, the low noise amplifier’s task is to boost very faint signals to usable levels.”

It could in the future be employed for both radar-based missions—where the faint signals are the radar echoes received by the instrument after they bounce off Earth’s surface and travel back to the satellite—and telecommunications —where the communication signals coming from Earth are amplified by the satellite and sent back to Earth for broadband access or broadcasting services.

Metastable marvel: X-rays illuminate an exotic material transformation

A dry material makes a great fire starter, and a soft material lends itself to a sweater. Batteries require materials that can store lots of energy, and microchips need components that can turn the flow of electricity on and off.

Each material’s properties are a result of what’s happening internally. The structure of a material’s atomic scaffolding can take many forms and is often a complex combination of competing patterns. This atomic and electronic landscape determines how a material will interact with the rest of the world, including other materials, electric and magnetic fields, and light.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, as part of a multi-institutional team of universities and national laboratories, are investigating a material with a highly unusual structure—one that changes dramatically when exposed to an ultrafast pulse of light from a laser.

Dan Dennett on Patterns (and Ontology)

Dan dennett on patterns and ontology.

I want to look at what Dennett has to say about patterns because 1) I introduced the term in my previous discussion, In Search of Dennett’s Free-Floating Rationales [1], and 2) it is interesting for what it says about his philosophy generally.

You’ll recall that, in that earlier discussion, I pointed out talk of “free-floating rationales” (FFRs) was authorized by the presence of a certain state of affairs, a certain pattern of relationships among, in Dennett’s particular example, an adult bird, (vulnerable) chicks, and a predator. Does postulating talk of FFRs add anything to the pattern? Does it make anything more predictable? No. Those FFRs are entirely redundant upon the pattern that authorizes them. By Occam’s Razor, they’re unnecessary.

With that, let’s take a quick look at Dennett’s treatment of the role of patterns in his philosophy. First I quote some passages from Dennett, with a bit of commentary, and then I make a few remarks on my somewhat different treatment of patterns. In a third post I’ll be talking about the computational capacities of the mind/brain.

Anomalous Hall torque: ‘Brand new physics’ for next-generation spintronics

Our data-driven world demands more—more capacity, more efficiency, more computing power. To meet society’s insatiable need for electronic speed, physicists have been pushing the burgeoning field of spintronics.

Traditional electronics use the charge of electrons to encode, store and transmit information. Spintronic devices utilize both the charge and spin-orientation of electrons. By assigning a value to (up=0 and down=1), spintronic devices offer ultra-fast, energy-efficient platforms.

To develop viable spintronics, physicists must understand the quantum properties within materials. One property, known as spin-torque, is crucial for the electrical manipulation of magnetization that’s required for the next generation of storage and processing technologies.

The Year Ahead: Promise For Quantum Growth

IonQ fired the first shot in the M&A opportunities for quantum startups back in 2021, becoming the first publicly traded pure-play quantum computing company. In late 2024, IonQ filed to acquire Qubitekk as part of its strategy to apply distributed computer development as a means to progress toward a CRQC computer in data centers.

I predict that IonQ, among others in the space, has just begun its M&A program.

Expect to see acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures across geographies in the coming year, with several interesting possibilities in Europe.

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