БЛОГ

Archive for the ‘computing’ category: Page 818

Dec 1, 2015

Light-Bending Microchip Could Fire Up Quantum Computers

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics, time travel

For the first time, scientists have achieved infinite speeds on a microchip. Although this advance will not enable faster-than-light starships, the light-warping technology behind this innovation could lead to new light-based microchips and help enable powerful quantum computers, researchers said.

Light travels at the speed of about 670 million miles per hour (1.08 billion km/h) in a vacuum, and is theoretically the fastest possible speed at which matter or energy can travel. Exceeding this speed limit should lead to impossible results such as time travel, according to Einstein’s theory of relativity.

However, in a way, researchers have overcome this barrier for decades. [Warped Physics: 10 Effects of Faster-Than-Light Travel].

Read more

Dec 1, 2015

Researchers demonstrate world’s first 5G, 100 to 200 meter communication link up to 2 Gbps

Posted by in categories: computing, internet

Keysight Technologies, Inc., in collaboration with electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego, has demonstrated the world’s first 64 (8 × 8) and 256-element (16 × 16), 60-GHz silicon wafer-scale phased-array transmitter with integrated high-efficiency antennas for Gbps communications at 100 to 200 meters. With this demonstration, Keysight and UC San Diego have proven that a 5G communication link is not only possible, but can deliver record performance.

Keysight’s collaboration with UC San Diego builds on an earlier effort between the university and TowerJazz, which resulted in development of the industry’s first 64- and 256-element system-on-a chip (SoC) phased arrays operating at 60-GHz. Each wafer-scale SoC comprises a 60-GHz source, amplifiers, , phase shifters, voltage controlled amplifiers and high-efficiency on-chip antennas. The chips were designed to meet the needs of 5G high-performance Gbps data-rate communication systems with beamforming capabilities and for Aerospace & Defense systems.

Following the development of the phased-array SoCs, Keysight and UC San Diego set out to prove they could be used in a communications link. All work was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Keysight.

Read more

Nov 29, 2015

Watch a neural network describe what it sees on a stroll through Amsterdam

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience, robotics/AI

The results are mixed, of course, but it’s fascinating to watch the neural network make mistakes (and sometimes correct itself) in real time. The open source program being used is called NeuralTalk and was first unveiled last year, with the researchers providing updates on the network’s capabilities since. Other companies and institutions are working on similar technology. Last month, for example, Facebook unveiled a prototype neural network that’s intended to help blind people by describing pictures.

Read more

Nov 29, 2015

This Japanese schoolgirl looks so lifelike you won’t believe she’s not human

Posted by in category: computing

Meet Saya — the computer generated schoolgirl created by a tech-savvy Japanese couple.

Read more

Nov 28, 2015

Scientists have discovered a material that could create quantum optical computers

Posted by in categories: computing, materials, particle physics, quantum physics

When people talk about the next-generation of computers, they’re usually referring to one of two things: quantum computers – devices that will have exponentially greater processing power thanks to the addition of quantum superposition to the binary code – and optical computers, which will beam data at the speed of light without generating all the heat and wasted energy of traditional electronic computers.

Both of those have the power to revolutionise computing as we know it, and now scientists at the University of Technology, Sydney have discovered a material that has the potential to combine both of those abilities in one ridiculously powerful computer of the future. Just hold on for a second while we freak out over here.

The material is layered hexagonal boron nitride, which is a bit of a mouthful, but all you really need to know about it is that it’s only one atom thick – just like graphene – and it has the ability to emit a single pulse of quantum light on demand at room temperature, making it ideal to help build a quantum optical computer chip.

Read more

Nov 27, 2015

Quantum computers: a time-travelling boost

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics, time travel

In general relativity, closed timelike curves can break causality with remarkable and unsettling consequences. At the classical level, they induce causal paradoxes disturbing enough to motivate conjectures that explicitly prevent their existence. At the quantum level such problems can be resolved through the Deutschian formalism, however this induces radical benefits—from cloning unknown quantum states to solving problems intractable to quantum computers. Instinctively, one expects these benefits to vanish if causality is respected. Here we show that in harnessing entanglement, we can efficiently solve NP-complete problems and clone arbitrary quantum states—even when all time-travelling systems are completely isolated from the past. Thus, the many defining benefits of Deutschian closed timelike curves can still be harnessed, even when causality is preserved. Our results unveil a subtle interplay between entanglement and general relativity, and significantly improve the potential of probing the radical effects that may exist at the interface between relativity and quantum theory.

Read more

Nov 26, 2015

This is the Audi of the future, and it looks like a computer mouse

Posted by in categories: computing, electronics, transportation

“I believe the children are our future,” philosopher Whitney Houston once opined. Well, if she was talking about car design, she wasn’t wrong.

OK, not ‘children’ exactly. But certainly students. Audi has today unveiled the results of its ‘Design Universe’ think-tank, in which young designers at four top universities have explored how the Audi of tomorrow might look.

Take the car above, as an example. It’s called the Audi Quantum, and was designed by a pair of students at the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan. Looks suitably futuristic, no? There are retina scanners that, um, scan the driver’s retina and configure the interior settings before he or she climbs in.

Read more

Nov 26, 2015

Samsung now mass producing 128GB DDR4 modules using TSV interconnect technology

Posted by in category: computing

Samsung on Thursday revealed it is now mass producing memory modules boasting the largest capacity and the highest energy efficiency of any DRAM module. The 128GB DDR4 sticks in question were made possible by utilizing the through silicon via (TSV) interconnect technique.

Foregoing traditional wire bonding, the TSV technique involves grinding chips down to a few dozen micrometers, piercing them with hundreds of tiny holes and vertically connecting them with electrodes passing through the holes. Although not new, the advanced circuitry does allow for a significant boost in signal transmission.

The 128GB modules are comprised of 144 DDR4 chips arranged into 4GB DRAM packages (18 per side for a total of 36), each containing four 20nm 8Gb chips. Samsung says the modules have a special design in which the master chip of each 4GB package embeds the data buffer function, further optimizing performance and power consumption.

Read more

Nov 26, 2015

Arthur C Clarke describes the Internet

Posted by in categories: computing, internet

Watch Arthur C. Clarke describe the Internet — in 1974.

In ‘C for Computer’, first broadcast on 29 May 1974, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that by 2001 every household will have a computer and be connected all over the world. — with Arthur C. Clarke.

Read more

Nov 26, 2015

Blood Vessel Formation Mathematically Modeled

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

By combining experiments with computer simulations, scientists have come up with a mathematical model that explains blood vessel formation.

Read more