text: California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers say they have developed self-healing integrated chips that can automatically repair themselves. During testing, the researchers destroyed various parts of the chips by zapping them with high-powered lasers, and then observed as they developed a work-around in less than a second. We “blasted half the amplifier and vaporized many of its...
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  One ring to rule them all! You guessed it, I’m a Tolkien fan but that is not what this is about. In an effort to remove of the most insecure method of security, the password, Google engineers and working on rings that can be used to log into a computer or account. The idea is that by using personal hardware for security, you remove the dangers of people reusing passwords or writing them down. While...
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  IBM scientists report success in patterning an array of carbon nanotubes on a silicon wafer and their application in the construction of hybrid chips with more than 10,000 functioning transistors. The scientists say their breakthrough promises to guarantee the sustained shrinkage of basic digital switches for more than 10 years. Stanford professor Subhasish Mitra says the advance also would likely boost...
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  Ready for a terminator style HUD to “enhance” the real world? According to 9to5google.com, Google will be releasing these by the end of the year. The glasses will be Android-based, have a 3G or 4G data connection. They will also include motion and GPS sensors enabling a unique navigation system that uses “head tilting to scroll and click.” The project is being developed by Google...
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  Around this time last year, I was walking around the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) in Austin, TX. I was awed at the #9 fastest supercomputer at the time, Ranger (see photo). Ranger is a 579.4 teraflop computer. The fastest computer at the time was Jaguar, a Cray machine located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. It was capable of about 2.3 petaflops and only one year later, we had...
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