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Technology: Preparing for The Mark
Go to: News articles since Jan. 1, 2008
Future directions in computing
Nov. 14, 2007 - Computers of the future will move beyond silicon chips to an advanced concept known as "quantum computing."
- In a quantum computer data is not processed by electrons passing through transistors, as is the case in today's computers, but by caged atoms known as quantum bits or Qubits.
A simple working quantum computer was demonstrated last February by a Canadian company, D-Wave systems .
- Source: BBC
Intel Launching New Chip Lineup
Nov. 12, 2007 - Intel Corp. announces the release of its next generation of microprocessors. They are using a new manufacturing process that allows them to pack 40 percent more transistors into the chips.
- The most complex chips being launched Monday have 820 million transistors, compared with the 582 million transistors on the same chips built using the current standard technology.
- Source: MSNBC
- Meeting the man behind Moore's Law - BBC
15 reasons Facebook may be worth $15bn
Oct. 31, 2007 - Since Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.6% share of Facebook, the company could be worth $15 billion!
- So why does Microsoft think Facebook is worth $15bn? Here are 15 possible reasons....
- Source: BBC
Spy Flies All the Buzz at Washington, N.Y. Political Events
Oct. 9, ,2007 - Tiny spying robots that look like dragonflies have been seen recently at Washington and New York political events. It was not known who deployed the spies, but the technology has existed for some time. The government had robot spies during World War II, but they have been made smaller over the years.
- Source: Fox
Internet Pioner Vint Cerf on the Future of the Internet
Aug. 24, 2007 - Vint Cerf, a founding member of the Internet Society and Google's Chief Internet Evangelist, talks about the challenges of an ever-expanding internet.
- Source:BBC
Supercomputer steps up the pace
June 28, 2007 - IBM has launched the next generation of supercomputers with their Blue Gene/P. It is three times as fast as their BlueGene/L. It is capable of operating at 1,000 trillion calculations per second! It will be installed at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois later this year.
- The standard one petaflop Blue Gene/P comes with 294,912-processors connected by a high-speed, optical network.
- Source:
One Small Chip for a PC, One Giant Leap for Computing
Feb. 14, 2007 - Intel has a prototype chip with 80 microprocessor cores! Current technology has stretched to dual core, or even quad cores, but this chip, when finally available several years from now, will give PCs super-computer power. Hardware design is not the only obstacle to this vision. Software will have to work in a totally different way to utilize the capability of 80 cores. Most current software doesn't even use the capability of two or four cores.
-
- Source: Tech News World
TIME's Person Of The Year - YOU
Dec. 19, 2006 - TIME magazine considered Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the most interesting figure of the year, but decided that all of us who are users of the World Wide Web are really the biggest story. They say:
You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world
They mention massive user-controlled phenomena, including Wikipedia, YouTube, and MySpace.
- It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.
- Source: TIME
A town peeks behind Google's silicon curtain
June 14, 2006 - On the banks of the Columbia River in Oregon, Google is building a mammoth computing complex to maintain its supremacy in the world of search engines and related computer industries. Microsoft and Yahoo are both trying to unseat Google, but their new building, two football fields long will house the greatest collection of Internet servers in the world. Even before this addition, the Google server network is incredibly large.
- Today even the closest Google watchers have lost precise count of how big the system is. The best guess is that Google now has more than 450,000 servers spread over at least 25 locations around the world.
- Source: International Herald Tribune
Google patents free Wi-Fi
Mar. 28, 2006 - Google has filed for three patents related to offering wireless Internet access. This action fuels speculation that the company plans to offer free Wi-Fi networks across the nation.
- Source:Business 2.0 Magazine
Toshiba/MIT's "Global-Mind" Project
Mar, 2006 - Internet users all over the world (including you!) are invited to teach this massive Artificial Intelligence project the kinds of things that constitute "common sense."
- Source: MIT
Z Machine Sets Unexpected Earth Temperature Record
Mar. 13 - 2006 - The "Z Machine" created the highest temperature ever produced by man - in excess of two billion Kelvin - and released about 80 times the world's entire electrical power usage for a brief fraction of a second.
- Experiments with the Z Machine are helping to explain the physics of Solar flares, design more efficient nuclear fusion plants, test materials under extreme heat, and gather data for the computer modeling of nuclear explosions.
- Source:
College to study spray-on computer
Feb. 22, 2006 - North Dakota State University is working on a federally funded project to develop a spray-on mixture of nanoscale computer chips, diodes and other components to produce computer displays and data-collection devices. The University is working with MIT and HP technology on the four-year project.
- The material could then be painted, poured, sprayed and unrolled onto flat and flexible surfaces in exactly the amount and form needed.
- Source:In-Forum
- New paint blocks out cell phone signals - UPI
Games and Gadgets at the Consumer Electronic Show
Jan. 6, 2006 - Personal electronics keep getting smaller and more powerful! See some of the innovations.
- Source: AOL
Machines and objects to overtake humans on the Internet: ITU
Nov. 17, 2005 - According to a report from the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) there will soon be more electronic devices using the Internet (on their own) than there are humans using the Internet. The report, entitled "Internet of Things" predicts "ubiquitous computing" where refrigerators communicate with stores, laundry devices communicate with clothes, and RFID tags on people and in things will track our movements constantly.
- Source: Breitbart.com
Deal Reached on Managing the Internet
Nov. 16, 2005 - At a U.N. World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia, delegates had a heated debate about control of the Internet, but in the end they agreed to leave the U.S. in charge of the computers that regulate Internet traffic.
- Source: Yahoo
Macedonia leads world with wi-fi
Nov. 11 - With the help of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Macedonia, which was part of Yugoslavia, will become the first nation in the world to provide wireless internet access to all of its citizens. The project is aimed primarily at the country's 460 primary and secondary schools, but it will also help businesses.
- Source: BBC
Supercomputer doubles own record
Oct. 28, 2005 - IBM's Blue Gene/L computer at the US Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, already the most powerful in the world since last June, has doubled its speed to 280.6 teraflops (280.6 trillion calculations a second).
- Source:
This Laser Trick's a Quantum Leap
Oct. 4, 2005 - Australian Physicists have reached a milestone in the search for a way to produce a quantum computer. Such a machine will use light pulses instead of electrical pulses to store information, and will be exponentionally more powerful than today's computers. They devised a way to slow the speed of a laser beam and store the information in a crystal. The stored information can then be released into another laser beam. The crystal will be the "hard drive" of this future computer.
- Source:Wired
Coming soon: Googling the truth
Jun. 18, 2005 -
- Source:Guardian - UK
New technology uses human body for broadband networking
Mar. 21, 2005 - NTT, the Japanese communications company, says that its new technology, RedTaction, can use the skin to transmit data at speeds of up to 2Mbps. Electronic devices carried by a person only need to be close to the body, not in actual contact, to transmit information. It will be possible to link a mobile phone or MP3 player to a headset without using wires. And a person could transfer pictures from a digital camera to a computer, simply by touching the computer.
- And since data can pass from one body to another, you could also exchange electronic business cards by shaking hands, trade music files by dancing cheek to cheek, or swap phone numbers just by kissing.
- Source:Taipei Times
IBM, Sony, Toshiba to reveal ‘superbrain chip’
Feb. 7, 2005 - International Business Machines, Sony and Toshiba will unveil a "supercomputer on a chip" today at International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The new product, called "Cell" is a joint project of the three computer companies. It is understood to have at least four 64-bit microprocessor cores and is significantly faster than Intel and AMD chips.
- “This is probably going to be one of the biggest industry announcements in many years,” said Richard Doherty, president of the Envisioneering research firm. “It's going to breathe new life into the industry and trigger fresh competition.”
- Source:Financial Times
The future in your pocket
Jan 3, 2005 - Third generation (3G) cellphones bring much more than voice messages. The improved devices allow video messaging, internet connectivity, and many of the features previously found only on digital cameras.
- Source:BBC
Broadband On The Go
Dec. 2004 - WiMAX, a new wireless metropolitan area network(MAN), will make it possible to install an antenna on an existing cell site, which will allow high-speed connections to the Internet over distances of up to 30 miles.
That means that a fast connection will no longer require fiberoptics, copper cables or sophisticated telephone-line trickery. In fact, WiMAX's potential shines brightest in places that the technological powers have ignored, by jumping over the current "last mile" data pipelines.
- Source:Popular Mechanics
Fastest Computers
November, 2004 - IBM's Blue Gene/L Supercomputer maintains the honor of the world's fast computer. It is rated at 70.72 terraflops.
- Source:Top 500
Step Toward Universal Computing
Sept. 13, 2004 - QuickTransit, a new software emulator developed by Transitive Corp. of Los Gatos, California, allows applications to run "transparently" on multiple hardware platforms, including Macs, PCs, and numerous servers and mainframes.
- Source:Wired
Private craft soars into space, history
June 21, 2004 - Test pilot Mike Melvill became the first pilot of a private rocket plane, taking SpaceShipOne to an altitude of more than 100 kilometers (62.5 miles) -- the internationally recognized boundary of space. He then returned safely to the Mojave Airport. He called it an "almost a religious experience."
- Source:
Private space flight attempt takes off
June 21, 2004 - The first attempt to launch a private space ship is underway. SpaceShipOne will attempt to blast into a suborbital trip into space and then return to earth. The small space ship is being carried into the upper atmosphere by a specially designed airplane called White Knight.
- Aviation designer Burt Rutan, the project’s leader at Mojave-based Scaled Composites, told journalists he was comfortable with the risks associated with Monday’s flight.
The project has been funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who says he has spent “in excess of $20 million” on SpaceShipOne.
- Source:MSNBC
- Scaled Composites
Burt Rutan: Aviation pioneer
June 17, 2004 - Burt Rutan is an American businessman who is developing private space travel. His company, Scaled Composites, is the top contender to win the first "Ansari X-prize" of $10 million if they can be the first team to send a piloted, private spacecraft - it must have a crew of three - to 100 km (62.5 miles), twice in two weeks.
- Source:BBC
United States Targets Fastest Supercomputer
- Source:Information Week
Breakthrough sees brain cells talk to microchip
Feb. 20, 2004 -
- Source:The Globe and Mail
Intel Says Chip Speed Breakthrough Will Alter Cyberworld
Feb. 11, 2003 - A new pure silicon component has been developed by Intel that allows the transmission of data at speeds as much as 50 times faster than the previous switching record. The new chips can be mass produced from inexpensive materials, and will switch light like electricity.
- It will also make possible a new class of computing applications based on the possibility of transmitting high-definition video and images hundreds or even thousands of times faster than possible on today's Internet.
- Source:N.Y. Times
Web's inventor gets a knighthood
Jan. 6, 2004 - Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, has been awarded a knighthood for his pioneering work.
- Source:BBC
Uncovering a Key to Human Longevity
Jan. 6, 2004 - Resveratrol, a substance found in grape skins, may be a life-extending substance, once scientists discover how to deliver it in sufficient, safe quantities.
- Source:CBN
Computer 'will do 1000 trillion operations a second'
Nov. 18, 2003 - Battelle, the world's largest independent, nonprofit research organisation, is building a supercomputer that will be capable of 1000 trillion operations per second when completed in 2008. The computer, which is being built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, will be 300 times faster than a similar computer in Japan, called Earth Simulator. The Japanese computer can perform 35.8 trillion operations per second.
- Source:Sydney Morning Herald
Physicists smash internet speed record
Oct. 17, 2003 - Researchers gathered at the Internet2 Conference in Indianapolis, were told that the Internet land speed record has been broken.
- Scientists at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Switzerland sent the equivalent of a full-length DVD movie in about seven seconds.
They sent 1.1 terabytes of data over a special transatlantic fibre optic link to colleagues at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) on Oct. 1 at an average transfer rate of 5.44 gigabits per second (Gbps).
- Source:CBS
China hails its first man in space
Oct. 15, 2003 - China has become the third nation to send a human into space. Astronaut Yang Liwei was carried into orbit by a Shenzhou V spacecraft, propelled by a Long March 2F rocket.
- The craft is expected to orbit the Earth 14 times during its 22-hour flight before landing at 0700 local time on Thursday (2300 GMT on Wednesday).
- Source:BBC
Want a smaller PC that's 100 times faster?
- Source:IOL
Apple: New Power Macs world's fastest PCs
June 24, 2003 - Apple Computer introduced its new "G5" Computer with a new 64-bit microprocessor (made by IBM) that can handle twice as much data at once as traditional PC microchips.
- The maker of Macintosh computers also said that its new online iTunes music store had sold 5 million song downloads since its inception eight weeks ago.
- Source:CNN
Net speed record smashed
- Mar. 6, 2003 - A new speed test of Internet2, which connects colleges and universities, and may someday be available to others, produced the amazing data transfer of 6.7 gigabytes across 6,800 miles in less than one minute!
- The future of computing is super fast. The transfer was accomplished at an average speed of more than 923 megabits per second, or more than 3,500 times faster than a typical home broadband connection.
- Source:BBC
Z0BLXKHZWZONQFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2003/02/15/wsci315.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/02/15/ixworld.html">Chip is 400th the size of grain of salt
- Feb. 15, 2003 - A new memory chip is being developed, using a lattice of microscopic wires upon which individual molecules are placed. These molecules have the ability to store digital information.
- Dr James Ellenbogen, a physicist at the Mitre Corporation, a research institute based in Virginia, said a working memory the size of a human cell would be complete by the end of 2004.
According to Dr Ellenbogen, these chips could be stacked on top of one another, and it should be possible to store a gigabyte of information on a device the size of a grain of salt. To put this innovation into perspective, he said that the 16 kilobytes of memory that the original IBM personal computer had could be shrunk into the space of about eight human cells!
- Source:Telegraph - UK
IBM starts work on computer to rival the human brain
- Nov. 19, 2002- The U.S. government has ordered two new IBM computers, ASCI Purple and Blue Gene/L that will have a combined capacity equal to the 500 best of today’s computers.
- ASCI Purple, which will be built first and used to simulate nuclear tests, will be able to complete 100 thousand billion calculations per second — a speed known as 100 teraflops that some scientists say is comparable to the human brain.
The other computer, Blue Gene/L, will be even more powerful, with a maximum speed of 360 teraflops. It will be used by the US Department of Energy.
- Source:Times (UK)
Supercomputer for a day
- Nov. 5, 2002 - For one day, thousands of computers across Canada were interconnected to create a supercomputer that was used to tackle a problem in computational chemistry that would otherwise take years to complete. The project was conducted by the Canadian Internetworked Scientific Supercomputer (Ciss), and it illustrates how interconnected computers can make a big difference in the future.
- Source:BBC
Net beats books with children
- Oct. 5, 2002 - A study of children in the UK from ages through 16 indicates that they know more about the Internet than they do about books, and would prefer to use the internet for to do their homework.
- Six out of 10 youngsters questioned knew that "homepage" was the front page of a website - but only 9% could explain what the preface to a book was.
- Source:BBC
Customized supercomputer wins speed race
- July 22, 2002 - Japan now has the fastest supercomputer, the NEC-built Earth Simulator, which will be used in climate and earthquake studies. It performs 35.9 trillion calculations a second with 5,104 processors. One expert claimed that it is faster than all 15 of the biggest supercomputers in the United States combined.
- ASCI White, by contrast, performs 7.2 trillion calculations a second with its 8,192 microprocessors.
- Source:CNN
Wireless internet arrives in China
- July 8, 2002 - Hughes Network Systems is providing China with a 26 gigabit system that will use wireless equipment to provide broadband access to the Internet. At the present time about 33 million Chinese people use the internet. That is only about 3% of the population,
- Source:BBC
Australian Scientists Say They Have Successfully 'teleported' Data
- June 18, 2002 - Australian scientists have broken down a laser beam, encoded with data, and recreated it at another position in their laboratory.
- Their work replicates an experiment at the California Institute of Technology in 1998, but the Australian team believes their technique is more reliable and consistent.
The process is still far from teleportation of matter, but they believe the process will enable better encryption of information and faster computers.
- Source:Tampa Tribune
Japanese supercomputer takes world's fastest title from US
- Apr. 21, 2002 - As big as four tennis courts, NEC's Earth Simulator is the new champion of supercomputers. Using massively parallel processors, the computer complex runs at a speed of 35,600 gigaflops (billion mathematical operations per second) compared to its closest rival, IBM's ASCI White, which runs at a speed of 7,226 gigaflops. It creates a "virtual planet Earth" to predict climate patterns.
- Source:Ananova
HP Says Atom-Sized Computer Chips a Lot Closer
- Jan. 23, 2002 - Scientists at Hewlett-Packard and the University of California have patented a process for creating molecular computer chips. This technology could eventually result in "powerful computers which fit on the head of a pin with room to spare."
- HP said it was ahead [of IBM] on designing a complex nanochip as well as the parts and could be making nano-computers smaller than a bacterium, able to be weaved into a shirt, in the next decade or so.
- Source:Yahoo/ Reuters
- See also, - Press Release from Hewlet Packard. Details and patent numbers are given. There is also news that UCLA and UC Santa Barbara have joined to build the California NanoSystems Institute (http://www.cnsi.ucla.edu).
Wear Your Computer On Your Head!
- Jan. 21, 2001 - BBC's article, Prêt-à-porter computers
explains that, "Walking down the street with a small computer attached to your head," is no longer science-fiction. The Xybernaut company offers a wearable computer called Poma that features a 1", 3 oz., head-mounted display that gives you the impression that you are looking at a 15" monitor without loosing any peripheral vision. The separate CPU weighs only 10 ounces, and combines the functionality of the computer and a cell phone.
- Source: BBC
Vision of Digital Decade
- Jan. 8, 2002 - At a "pre-opening" for the 2002 Consumer Electronic Show, Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates called this the "Digital Decade." He said that...
- "now more than ever, technologies will continue to get smaller, faster and cheaper and will all connect with each other. ”In the new era,” said Gates, ”the success of any individual device will determine the success of other devices to which it connects.”
- Source: Consumer Electronics Show website
Fighting Terror with Technology
- Jan. 7, 2002 - Among the new products to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, there is a cute wrist watch for children that contains a satellite locator system. It communicates with GPS satellites to enable parents to find their kids if they stray. The show has many other examples of the use of technology to thwart danger and terrorism.
- Source:BBC
- GPS Personal Locator For Children - Wherify Wireless Location Services
A sneak peek at next year’s gizmos
- Jan. 1, 2002 - A variety of new hi-tech consumer products will be available in the new year. These include PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), Cell Phones, Internet Appliances, and combinations of them. Analysts predict that there will be gradual improvements in existing product lines, and not the introduction of many brand new concepts in the coming year.
- Source:MSNBC
- See an example: Danger Research's "Hiptop"
- The hiptop is a live device that seamlessly connects to wireless networks, providing consumers the freedom to browse the Internet, exchange instant messages, and send and receive email with attachments. Additional hiptop features include a full-featured phone, personal information management (PIM), entertainment applications, and a camera accessory.
Micro Optical Storage Device
- Data Play offers a tiny disk that can store 500 MB of data and costs just $5.00.
IBM loses supercomputer crown
- Nov. 30, 2001 - According to a new way of measuring "real world performance," Compaq's Terascale supercomputer is actually the fastest computer in the world, unseating the reign of IBM's Asci White.
- The Terascale can perform six trillion calculations per second, the equivalent of 10,000 desktop PCs.
- Source:BBC
Americans taking internet to heart
- Nov. 29, 2001 - A study shows that 75% of Americans now use the Internet, with more planning to go online soon. The average person is online 10 hours per week, and watches 4.5 hours less television now. The main use of the web is for education, not entertainment.
- Source:BBC
Teledesic Close to Naming Prime Contractor for Internet-in-the-Sky Network
- Sept., 2001 - According to the company's own website, this network of low altitude satellites will still be deployed. They have had to re-design to cut the costs from the initial plans, but are now close to naming a prime contractor for the global broadband project. When completed, Internet access will be available from any place on Earth through its network. It should be operational in 2005
- The company has received its Federal Communications Commission license and the necessary international spectrum allocation from the International Telecommunication Union to begin offering service on a global basis.
- See Teledisic's description of the system.
Brain Cells, Silicon Chips Are Linked Electronically
- Aug. 30, 2001 - Using snail neurons, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany have succeeded in producing tiny transistor chips that communicate with the neurons, and the cells were still able to communicate with each other. This is the first time that this type of experiment has worked.
- The advance is an important step toward a goal that is still more science fiction than science: to develop artificial retinas or prosthetic limbs that are extensions of the human nervous system. The idea is to combine the mechanical abilities of electronic circuits with the extraordinary complexity and intelligence of the human brain.
- Source: Washington Post
World’s fastest computer unveiled
- Aug. 22, 2001 - The long-awaited IBM ASCI White Computer was unveiled at the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Laboratories.
- The beast, built by International Business Machines Corp. from off-the-shelf processors with a souped-up version of its commercial operating system, AIX, weighs as much as 17 full-size elephants, takes as much cooling as 765 homes, and can do in a second what a calculator would take 10 million years, IBM says...
- The 10-year Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative, ASCI, is about half-way done. It aims to produce a computer that can simulate a nuclear explosion by 2005, with a machine that can do 100 trillion calculations per second, compared to ASCI White’s 12.3 trillion.
- Source: MSNBC
- Partners Unveil First Extreme Ultraviolet Chip-making Machine
Silicon Chips Go Flat Out
- July 4, 2001 - New slimmer, faster chips are being developed, especially for the cell phone and hand-held computer markets.
- Source: BBC
Is your TV set watching you?
- June 25, 2001 - New digital television technology is starting to accumulate information about what programs and commercials are being viewed in user's homes. This is similar to the "cookies" used by our computers when we surf the Internet.
- This new technology is expected to grow from 1 million to 6 million users this year, and to 61 million by the year 2005. There is serious concern that the capabilities of these new television sets will pose a threat to personal privacy.
- Source: MSNBC
E-mail users warned over spy network
- May 30, 2001 - After nearly a year of study of the US- UK Echelon spy network, Euro-MPs are warning that Emails should be encrypted unless one does not care that others know the contents.Echelon was established after WWII to provide ColdWar intelligence.
- Source: BBC
The Future of Privacy: Super Chips or Super Trouble?
- Apr. 16, 2001 - Journalist Michael Patrick discusses the potential good and bad uses of the latest advances in computer technology.
- This past week, scientists from three national research laboratories announced what they called a “critical breakthrough” in computer chip manufacturing.
- Source: Christianity.com News
Russians claim first 'brain' computer
- Apr. 16, 2001 - Russian scientists claim that they have produced a "thinking" computer, based on the latest models of neurophysiology and neuromorphology. They say that their computer has the same basic intellectual potential that the human brain has, and must be trained carefully "to make it a friend, not a criminal or an enemy."
- Source: The Age
The Superchip:
New Technology Allows Faster, Smaller Chips
- Apr. 11, 2001 - A joint project by three national labs: Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia, has resulted in a new technology that will allow the continued increase in computing power while decreasing chip size. Using ultraviolet light, the new chips can have transisotrs that are just 40 atoms wide!
- Powered by these chips, computers will complete 400 million calculations in a 50th of a second — 30 times faster than today's 1 gigahertz processors.
- Source: ABCNews
Spying From Space: U.S. to Sharpen the Focus
- Apr. 11, 2001 - The next generation of U.S. spy satellites will go into orbit in 2005. They will be able to target any spot on Earth within two hours or less, and will be able to track objects as small as a baseball anywhere on the planet. The cost for the program is estimated at $25 billion, making this program the most expensive venture ever mounted by U.S. intelligence services.
- Source: International Herald Tribune
X-Box steals the show
- Mar. 30, 2001 - Microsoft's X-Box game is due to be released soon. It will allow users to play games with others on the Internet.
- Source: BBC News
'Smaller, faster' computers possible
- Mar. 7, 2001 - British scientists have found a way to make silicon emit light, opening the door to faster and smaller computer chips. Information would be transmitted within the chip via light instead of wires.
- Source: BBC
Teleportation no longer a myth
- Jan. 31, 2001 - The science of teleportation, a component of quantum physics, is still at the earliest stages, but according to Anton Zeilinger, professor of experimental physics at Vienna University, scientists are making progress in that area. So far,only photons have been teleported or recreated remotely, but experiments are moving to the atom and even the molecule next.
- Source: Financial Times
Broadband Crosses Atlantic
- Jan. 13, 2001 - By the middle of 2002 a new underseas fiber optic cable will link the United States with France and England. It will carry data at the rate of 3.2 terabits (trillion bits) per second, and will cost approximately $1.2 billion. The fastest cable previously transmitted at the rate of about 1 terabits.
- Source: Business2
The Great Invention:
Could IT change the world?
- Jan. 12, 2001 - See our new section about the mysterious new invention.
Technology Benchmarks at the end of 2000
- The Power Mac G4 Cube - Supercomputer power in a personal computer - over 1 billion calculations per second, all in an 8" cube.
- The Pentium® 4 Microprocessor - 1.50 GHz of raw power
- PlayStation 2 - Even Sony's latest game machine is a powerful computer! It can draw 66 million polygons per second! Iraq, a country which is not allowed to purchase US supercomputers is buying thousands of PlayStation 2 games, presumably because they can be networked into a crude supercomputer which could be used for a variety of military applications.
- IBM's ASCI White- The biggest operational supercomputer is being reassembled at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It performs 1.23 trillion floating point calculations per second, and will be used to test nuclear weapons without explosions. The machine takes up two basketball courts worth of floor space, weighs 106 tons, and has 8,192 CPUs.
- IBM's Blue GeneA much more powerful computer is being built which will be 500 times faster than any computer in use today (40 times faster than the combined speed of the 40 fastest computers in the world today). It will be devoted to the gigantic task of modeling proteins in the study of the genetic code.
- Other supercomputer rankings
Nanocopters leave the drawing board
- November 23, 2000 - Microscopic machines with metal rotors and bionic motors have been created to operate within the human body and even within the cell! It will be years before the technology is perfected.
- The devices, no bigger than a virus
particle, could eventually move around the human body, ministering to its needs or
dispensing drugs. The metal rotors of the tiny machines are powered by the body's natural
fuel, a chemical called ATP.
- Source: BBC
- Also: Nanomachines get their orders
Behold the New Pentium 4
- Nov. 20, 2000 - The Pentium 4 is Intel's first complete re-design since the introduction of the Pentium. It can attain speeds of 1.5 Gigahertz, but it does this by multiprocessing, or handling more than one instruction at a time. This is very effective with software designed to anticipate the user's next command - such as graphics and multi-media, but not as good at improving the performance of typicl office programs - such as word processing and spreadsheets.
- Source: Wired News
COMDEX Fall
- Nov. 13-17, 2000, Las Vegas
- Latest news from the world's largest electronic convention, with one million square feet of displays
- MSNBC Coverage
Evidence of 'life after death'
- Oct. 23, 2000 - A scientific study of people who had been clinically dead, then brought back to life, reveals that some people experienced "feelings of peace and joy, time speeded up, heightened senses, lost awareness of body, seeing a bright light, entering another world, encountering a mystical being and coming to 'a point of no return'."
- Lead researcher Dr Sam Parnia, of
Southampton General Hospital, said nobody
fully understands how brain cells generate
thoughts.
- He said it might be that the mind or
consciousness is independent of the brain.
- Source: BBC
High tech gets religion
- Oct. 24, 2000 - The Potter's House in Dallas has dedicated a new 8,200 seat sanctuary. The $32 million project includes high tech innovations, such as power and data terminals at 200 seats, where worshippers may download sermon notes and power point presentations on their laptops, altar attendants with Palm Pilots, allowing immediate input of information on new members and prayer requests, and a language translation center, allowing for simultaneous input and output of church services in six languages.
- Source: Rocky Mountain News
Futurologists: change coming faster than
governments can cope
- Oct. 2, 2000 - A panel of futurists projected gloomy scenarios for the next 10 to 20 years. Technology will accelerate so much that by 2010, a lapel-size pin
will contain the same computing power as today's supercomputer.
- The Hart-Rudman Presidential Commission on the future of national security
(Phase II) asked 20 experts, including scientists, to look at the next two
decades in a way that would not be an extrapolation of what is known today.
They were divided into four groups of five, each with the same assignment.
There was unanimous agreement that the pace of technological change is
accelerating faster than the most far-sighted experts could see five years
ago. The participants also agreed that the next 10 years will bring more
technological change than the entire 20th century and that national
governments will not be able to cope.
- Economic wars, runaway immigration, bioterrorism, cyber attacks, and uncontrollable outbreaks of diseases dominated the thinking of the panel.
- Source: Virtual New York -Article by Arnaud de Borchgrave,chief executive officer of United Press
International
Future Shock 2
- Sept. 15, 2000 - Thirty years ago Alvin and Heidi Toffler gave us their amazing book, Future Shock. Now Toffler and others look ahead to the next 30 years, and ask "What's Next?"
- Source: Business2.0 - Sept. 26 issue
Scientists close in on elusive particle
- Sept. 6, 2000 - Scientists have thought for many years that a particle which they call the Higgs boson exists in the atom.
- Predicted over 30 years ago, the Higgs particle
gives other particles such as electrons their
mass. In a sense, other particles are swimming
through a sea of unseen Higgs bosons, which
cause a drag that shows itself as mass.
Researchers have observed a "handful of events" using the Large Electron Positron collider near Geneva that may lead to proof that the particle exists.
- Source: BBC
Go to: News articles before Sept. 1, 2000
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