Friday, April 22, 2011
Portable computer is 30 years old !
The Osborne 1, the world's first commercially produced computer designed to be portable, is 30 years old this month.
Adam Osborne, founder of the Osborne Computer Corporation, introduced the 11kg machine in April 1981, though it didn't go into mass production until June 1981.
Adam Osborne, founder of the Osborne Computer Corporation, introduced the 11kg machine in April 1981, though it didn't go into mass production until June 1981.
At the US top 20 years later: NSA Building $896.5 Million Supercomputing Center !
Exclusive: The spy agency aims to complete the powerful, energy efficient, secure High Performance Computing Center at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., by December 2015. Power requirements are 60 megawatts, equivalent to the power requirements of Microsoft's recently completed 700,000 square foot data center in Chicago, which itself is one of the largest ever constructed for cloud services.Interestingly enough, Apple has poached Microsoft's data center general manager Kevin Timmons, as Jobs' outfit gets serious about clouds.His last tweet: "Our team is continuing to evolve our modular building strategies for even more energy efficiency and we will continue to share our best practices with others in the industry." More recently, National Defense Magazine reported that China apparently hijacked more than 15% of the world’s Internet routes for about 18 minutes (what is it with 18 minutes, anyway?) and had the potential to listen in on vast amounts of traffic.
BAD HARDWARE: Conceived in December 2010 , to finish in 2015. It will consume energy efficient 60 MW of power supply ! What power would be used if it wasn't energy efficient?
BAD HARDWARE prediction on its max supercomputing power is: Peak 300 PFlops !
Bottom line: Future US President in 2016-2020 term should have at disposal a lot of intelligence and computing power for all kind of actions. World wide. In 1996 NSA had first ranked high performance SC in the USA. After 20 year NSA is at the top again. But the whole world top seems.
In 2016 NSA should be at the top again ! Current China 2,5 Petaflops leader will be dwarfed, being at least 100 times weaker. Design hint: 2,5 GB DRAM per core, conventional 48 cores.
Changing chip design on demand could allow TVs and other devices to upgrade their own hardware.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
International Fusion Energy Research Center Selects SGI to Support Petaflop Supercomputer
A trusted leader in technical computing, today announced that it has been selected to provide services and select products in support for a new 1.3 petaflop high performance computing (HPC) system being installed at the International Fusion Energy Research Center (IFERC) in Rokkasho, Japan.
SGI Prism XL and Sandy Bridge?
SGI Prism XL and Sandy Bridge?
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Invisible (th)ink
"These documents remained classified for nearly a century until recent advancements in technology made it possible to release them," CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said in a statement Tuesday.
BAD HARDWARE: "Invisible ink was rendered obsolete by digital encryption long ago, not in the last few years"
BAD HARDWARE: "Invisible ink was rendered obsolete by digital encryption long ago, not in the last few years"
ARM targets x86 architecture with Cortex-A15
Beam me up Scotty: Teleporting breakthrough
This process means we will be able to move blocks of quantum information around within a computer or across a network, just as we do now with existing computer technologies.
"If we can do this, we can do just about any form of communication needed for any quantum technology."
"If we can do this, we can do just about any form of communication needed for any quantum technology."
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq
Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show.
BAD HARDWARE: Invasion on Iraq was ready before any official finding on 9/11 events ?
BAD HARDWARE: Invasion on Iraq was ready before any official finding on 9/11 events ?
Monday, April 18, 2011
Intel and Micro announces 20nm NAND Flash
Intel and Micro announces 20nm NAND Flash
Expect to see even more affordable SSDs towards the end of this year or early next year, especially as the price of the SSD controllers for 2xnm NAND Flash are expected to have come down by then as well.
Expect to see even more affordable SSDs towards the end of this year or early next year, especially as the price of the SSD controllers for 2xnm NAND Flash are expected to have come down by then as well.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Researchers Advance Toward Hybrid Spintronic Computer Chips
Researchers here have created the first electronic circuit to merge traditional inorganic semiconductors with organic "spintronics" -- devices that utilize the spin of electrons to read, write and manipulate data.
Convert sewage to biofuel !
EDA tools for brain function simulation !
In perhaps the boldest presentation at ISPD, keynote speaker Louis Scheffer, a former Cadence Design Systems Inc. Fellow who is now at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, proposed adapting EDA tools to model the human brain. Scheffer described the similarities and differences between the functions of VLSI circuitry and biological neural networks, pointing out that the brain is like a smart sensor network with both analog and digital behaviors that can be modeled with EDA.
First human brain map.
First human brain map.
3D lithography
Intel researcher Tanay Karnik described floor-planning, power routing, input/output circuits, test and assembly of 3-D processors stacked on DRAM. And Bob Patti, cheif technology officer of Tezzaron Semiconductor, gave a side-by-side comparison of the improvements enabled by 3-D chip stacking, including 40 percent power reduction, a four-times density increase, over 300 percent performance boost, and 50 percent cost reduction.
Commercial of the century: Nuclear power is cheap, reliable, and safe
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
A Closer Look At Immersion Cooling For the Data Center
Windows already up and running on ARM architecture
Over at Microsoft’s MIX Developer Conference in sunny Las Vegas, Microsoft has demoed a new preview build of Internet Explorer 10 (which you too can take for a spin, if you feel so inclined), and also dropped a little premature Easter egg – the build of IE10, and the underlying Windows OS, were both running on a 1GHz ARM chip. Sneaky.
Back at CES Microsoft announced that they would be working hard to introduce support for the increasingly popular ARM architecture, which provides the foundation for the Qualcomm Snapdragons, Apple A5s and Samsung Hummingbirds of this world. Essentially if you own a mobile device, it’s almost certainly powered by an ARM-based chip.
Back at CES Microsoft announced that they would be working hard to introduce support for the increasingly popular ARM architecture, which provides the foundation for the Qualcomm Snapdragons, Apple A5s and Samsung Hummingbirds of this world. Essentially if you own a mobile device, it’s almost certainly powered by an ARM-based chip.
Year 2016: UHCP Petaflop in a rack
Nominal module power budgets in a rack.Component Module, Component Power, Module Power
Processor 2 55W 110W
Memory 16 9.2W 147.2W
NIC/Router 2 30W 60W
NVRAM 10 1.5W 15W
Total module power budget: 332.2 W
Total rack compute power budget: 42.5 kW .
Add some 15 kW for overall 57 KW power budget (for cooling and I/O).
BAD HARDWARE: Processing is only one third of module power consumption, though 22nm lithography is proposed !. We have radical programming model change here, but:
As recently as five years ago, no one would have thought the GPU maker would be at the cutting-edge of supercomputing. As it is now. For example NVIDIA.
Apple A5 processor should be different
The die size of the A5 in 45nm is therefore 2.3 x larger than the A4.
Apple is well aware of the costs of such a large SoC, but decided the overall system performance gains justify the increase in silicon.
Apple likely plans to venture further down the road of custom circuit design
Apple is well aware of the costs of such a large SoC, but decided the overall system performance gains justify the increase in silicon.
Apple likely plans to venture further down the road of custom circuit design
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
100 years: IBM, the Tech Company That Can Do No Wrong
Well, nothing wrong except PC.
IBM was founded in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corp. CTR's first products included a computing scale and a time clock to record workers' arrival and departure times
IBM was founded in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corp. CTR's first products included a computing scale and a time clock to record workers' arrival and departure times
New York Airport Jet Clips Smaller Plane's Tail at JFK Monday Night
A wing on one of the world's largest commercial jetliners clipped the tail of a small regional plane while taxing at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City Monday night, lifting up and spinning the smaller plane a full 90 degrees, officials said.
Red alert: Fukushima crisis raised to level 7 !!
Still no Chernobyl ?
Now 60 kilometers around Fukushima are not radiation safe any more. Tokyo is some 238 km apart.
Now 60 kilometers around Fukushima are not radiation safe any more. Tokyo is some 238 km apart.
Lord of the ring: Control your phone with a magnetic ring
These days smartphones let you do practically anything, but you still have to reach in to your pocket to use them.
Friday, April 08, 2011
2011 is the 20th anniversary of the first release of the Linux kernel
Since that time, the linux kernel, together with the GNU tools and a whole host of software has been developed by enthusiasts and professional programmers into an operating system that runs on tiny embedded systems right up to the world’s fastest supercomputers.
Delusional 3D !
"Currently 3D TV receivers, 3D games machines and 3D movie theatre screens create an illusion using left and right eye images reconstructed by the brain," says Kawata. "We are creating an optical field in 3D from the actual object in natural colour - there is no illusion."
Hacking Conventional Computing Infrastructure
We started a project at Facebook a little over a year ago with a pretty big goal: to build one of the most efficient computing infrastructures at the lowest possible cost.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Firefox 4 really works great !
Illusion shakes vision science theory
"A lot of things that you see very clearly as 'being there' are actually products of your brain," says Anderson.
BAD HARDWARE: Seems we see a lot of illusions around . All the time?
BAD HARDWARE: Seems we see a lot of illusions around . All the time?
Oracle's Sun hardware business under threat?
Last week Gartner’s numbers came out and they indicated that Oracle server hardware volume dropped a whopping 40 percent in the 4th quarter and 32 percent for the year – in a market that was increasing at 17 percent. Current hardware market share has dropped below 7 percent and, in most markets, players below 10 percent are considered trivial.
32nm dies compared: Buldozer core vs Sand Bridge
Analyst: Intel's Q2 target may fall short
Intel is likely to set a sales target for the second quarter that falls below consensus analysts' expectations when the world's largest chipmaker reports first quarter results April 19, according to a Wall Street analyst.
Nikon D5100 D-SLR Debuts With Support for ISO 102,400
The camera also has a special effects more that can be applied to the movies recorded and it support up to ISO 102,400 when used in night vision mode.
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Mendel Fools: Russians to get 18 Petaflops supercomputer ?
The supercomputer to be developed jointly by the Palo Alto, California-based HP and an IT-taskforce created within the Skolkovo innovation hub near Moscow, is expected to have the power of 18 petaflops, or 18 quadrillion operations per second, the equivalent of combined power of 1.8 million regular laptops.
Windows PCs can be compromised by an IPv6 flaw ?
AN INSECURITY RESEARCHER has revealed that IPv6 can enable 'man in the middle attacks' on Windows PCs.
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BAD HARDWARE: Ipv6 use should secure PC not compromise them.
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BAD HARDWARE: Ipv6 use should secure PC not compromise them.
SpaceX plans world's most powerful rocket
Intel launches 10 cores Xeon E7 Series (Westmere EX) against Itanium
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Pastor hacker circumwented firewalls to get child pornography !
Hernando police said the computers in the library have software to keep people from viewing inappropriate material. However, investigators said the Hernando pastor managed to get around the filters and firewalls.
From Search Engines To Lunar Landers: Barney Pell’s Next Startup Is Moon Express
That plans to build lunar landing craft for commercial purposes.
BADHARDWARE> Search for platinum at Moon is now on. The company hopes to be conducting trials by 2013.
BADHARDWARE> Search for platinum at Moon is now on. The company hopes to be conducting trials by 2013.
TI to buy National Semi for $6.5 billion
Texas Instruments Inc. signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire National Semiconductor Corp. for $6.5 billion in cash, the company said Monday (April 4).
Secret spacecraft exposed peeking into Libya's warfare
X-37B is flying pretty low — one of the rare orbiters traveling beneath the International Space Station. “The lower you are,” an expert notes, “the higher resolution you can get in any imagery.”
BAD HARDWARE WEEK: And the easier you are to spot it from the ground.
BAD HARDWARE WEEK: And the easier you are to spot it from the ground.
IBM Nanoparticle Breakthrough Destroys Drug-Resistant Bacteria
Towards monopoly using bribe !
For example, in antitrust proceedings, it was recently discovered that Intel bribed Dell 6-BILLION dollars not to sell AMD computers.
Intel also bribed and threatend HP (with "hundreds of millions" - as described by the NY AG) to not buy more than 5% of their processors from AMD.
Intel also bribed and threatened IBM 130-MILLION to drop plans for an AMD product line.
Intel also bribed and threatend HP (with "hundreds of millions" - as described by the NY AG) to not buy more than 5% of their processors from AMD.
Intel also bribed and threatened IBM 130-MILLION to drop plans for an AMD product line.
Analyst: Intel Sandy Bridge Sales Low, AMD Reaping the Benefits
Intel's "Sandy Bridge" chips may not be ramping up notebook PC sales as much as expected, an FBR analyst says. Intel's chipset design flaw may be to blame, which could help AMD in the short term.
Coordinated DDoS attack brings Sony to its knees !!
Anonymous collective declares war on Sony, knocks PlayStation, PSN and Sony websites offline.
All your base are belong to US !
PSN Might Be Interrupted Throughout the Day Today 4/4/2011
AMD Bulldozer Will Bring Socket Shift To PCs
AMD's new CPUs are still months away, but Gigabyte has revamped its current AMD lineup to add support for them anyway.
Both the Llano APUs and Bulldozer CPUs are expected to show themselves at Computex, which kicks off in Taiwan at the end of May.
State of the CPU: AMD and Intel sockets and upgrade options compared
Both the Llano APUs and Bulldozer CPUs are expected to show themselves at Computex, which kicks off in Taiwan at the end of May.
State of the CPU: AMD and Intel sockets and upgrade options compared
Monday, April 04, 2011
GE's Immelt defends nuclear industry safety record !
Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt defended the nuclear industry's safety record on Monday during a trip to Tokyo to show support to the operator of a stricken nuclear plant using reactors designed by the U.S. conglomerate.
Gagarin lied too !
Another event was equally secret, but planned. When Vostok reached an altitude of 7 km, Gagarin ejected and parachuted to the ground. This neatly solved the problem of how to touch down safely. But it created a new problem: the Soviets wanted to claim the altitude record, but the rules said the pilot had to land inside his craft. The truth of how Gagarin met Anna Takhtarova 2 km from Vostok's crater would have been a propaganda disaster. They had to lie.
Anna Takhtarova and her granddaughter, Rita, were weeding potatoes near the village of Smelovka on 12 April 1961 when a man in a strange orange suit and a bulging white helmet approached across the field. The forest warden's wife crossed herself but the girl was intrigued. "I'm a friend, comrades. A friend," shouted the young man, removing his headgear. Takhtarova looked at him curiously. "Can it be that you have come from outer space," she asked. "As a matter of fact, I have," replied Yuri Gagarin.
At 07:55 UTC, when Vostok 1 was still 7 km from the ground, the hatch of the spacecraft was released, and two seconds later Gagarin was ejected. At 2.5 km (8,200 ft) altitude, the main parachute was deployed from the Vostok spacecraft. Two schoolgirls witnessed the Vostok landing and described the scene: "It was a huge ball, about two or three metres high. It fell, then it bounced and then it fell again. There was a huge hole where it hit the first time."
BAD HARDWARE WEEK: This story of Gagarin's return to Earth after orbiting the planet, the most important flight since the Wright brothers' at Kitty Hawk, was widely disseminated, not least because of its symbolism – a Soviet hero being welcomed home by his fellow peasants, a wise mother and a child of the future. It is probably true in essence, though the details changed with each retelling. But some facts were hidden. One was kept secret for more than a decade, except for an extraordinary occasion when Gagarin risked everything to tell the truth to a man he held in the highest regard – a man who was a Cold War enemy: the Royal Navy's top test pilot. More about special case ejections here.
The Martin-Baker MK 14 seat is microprocessor controlled, with thermal batteries for power.
Funeral industry feels recession.
CNN's Richard Roth reports on the high costs of dying in the midst of a recession, and cremation's new popularity.
Japan Nuclear Plant Crisis Could Last Months !
Engineers pinned their hopes on chemicals, sawdust and shredded newspaper to stop highly radioactive water pouring into the ocean from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant Sunday as officials said it will take several months to bring the crisis under control, the first time they have provided a timetable.
Flush Away Crappy Code with Fusion-io
As noted by FastCompany, it's a high risk, high reward promotion aimed at raising awareness of Fusion-io in Europe.
SQL developers know that crappy code is a fact of life. The existence of crappy code isn't always a reflection on the programmer. With finite resources, and a myriad of management comprises to be considered, coders have to make hard choices that sometimes compromise quality. But that doesn't alleviate the impact of crappy code on our lives. When the festering mess finally starts to stink up the office, it can take tens, if not hundreds of hours to clean up. Hence the "scatalogical silliness," er, game and contest.
Samsung Wide IO Memory for Mobile Products - A Deeper Look
Following this wide I/O DRAM launch, Samsung is aiming to provide 20nm, 4Gb wide I/O mobile DRAM sometime in 2013.
AMD, GlobalFoundries revise wafer deal
A move that could give AMD a better deal, at least on 32nm wafers in 2011. As part of the deal AMD appears to be transitioning more of its business in chip sets and graphics processors to GlobalFoundries and away from TSMC.
