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Archive for the ‘computing’ category: Page 507

Jul 31, 2018

Teenager Finds Classical Alternative to Quantum Recommendation Algorithm

Posted by in categories: computing, information science, quantum physics

18-year-old Ewin Tang has proven that classical computers can solve the “recommendation problem” nearly as fast as quantum computers. The result eliminates one of the best examples of quantum speedup.

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Jul 30, 2018

What Comes After Silicon?

Posted by in categories: computing, materials

Silicon is the king of the computing world. Almost all commercial integrated circuits have been based on silicon and, for the most part, on a single basic process called complementary metal oxide (CMOS).

But the end of silicon may be in sight. Even industry giant IBM acknowledges that silicon’s days are numbered. But why? And what’s going to replace it?

There is a whole raft of new materials and partial replacements for silicon in the offing. But I could have written that very sentence two decades ago—maybe even as far back as 1980. Yet silicon remains dominant.

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Jul 30, 2018

These 9 Incredible Images Are a Mind-Boggling Remind of How Far Technology Has Come

Posted by in categories: computing, internet, mobile phones, quantum physics

Sometimes, while waiting for quantum computers to become a thing, or complaining that your stupid laptop keeps dying on 5 percent battery, it’s easy to forget just how far technology has come over the past 50 years.

Sure, we can all list off a whole bunch of innovations that have changed the way the world works — the Internet, smartphones, radio telescopes — but it’s hard to really put that kind of change into perspective.

Thankfully, pictures often speak louder than words, and so below are nine photos that’ll make you stop and raise your *praise hand* emojis to the sky in honour of the scientists and engineers that have got us where we are today.

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Jul 30, 2018

A Case for Neural Augmentation

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, engineering, neuroscience

Hopefully in the future, when somebody tells you they will be making an appointment with a surgeon for an augment, they will come back smarter. The world will be a better place for it.

Reprinted with permission from the author.

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Jul 30, 2018

DARPA has an ambitious $1.5 billion plan to reinvent electronics

Posted by in categories: computing, military

The US military agency is worried the country could lose its edge in semiconductor chips with the end of Moore’s Law.

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Jul 28, 2018

Breakthrough could triple the energy collected by solar to 60% efficiency

Posted by in categories: computing, habitats, solar power, sustainability

Current solar cells are able to convert into electricity around 20% of the energy received from the Sun, but a new technique has the potential to convert around 60% of it by funneling the energy more efficiently.

UK researchers can now ‘funnel’ electrical charge onto a chip. Using the atomically thin semiconductor hafnium disulphide (HfS2), which is oxidized with a high-intensity UV laser, the team were able to engineer an electric field that funnels electrical charges to a specific area of the chip, where they can be more easily extracted.

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Jul 27, 2018

Finally, a Problem Only Quantum Computers Will Ever Be Able to Solve

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Computer scientists have been searching for years for a type of problem that a quantum computer can solve but that any possible future classical computer cannot. Now they’ve found one.

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Jul 26, 2018

I Can’t Wait to Break Samsung’s First ‘Unbreakable’ Display

Posted by in categories: computing, military, mobile phones

Samsung proudly announced today that its “unbreakable smartphone panel” has been certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). This means this ultra durable display is much closer to very profitable things like military and automotive contracts. But let’s be serious. Somebody’s gonna find a way to break this thing, and I hope it’s me.

The new display owes its anti-destructive tendencies to a couple of innovations. Samsung says that the OLED panel has “an unbreakable substrate.” (A substrate is basically the coating that holds the display’s organic material, cathodes, and diodes together.) Additionally, the Samsung display uses a flexible new type of plastic that won’t crack like glass. So you can supposedly drop it, smash it, and bend it without breaking the display.

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Jul 26, 2018

Sony Wants Your Next Smartphone to Have a 48MP Camera

Posted by in categories: computing, food, mobile phones

By providing an ultra-high native resolution chip with built-in binning of pixels, Sony hopes to let smartphone users have their cake and eat it too — both amazing detail and good low-light performance.

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Jul 24, 2018

Microsoft debuts free quantum computer programming katas

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Microsoft yesterday released its new Quantum Katas, a free open source project that’ll teach you how to develop for quantum computers.

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