NEW NET Weekly List for 28 Aug 2012
Below is the final list of issues for the Tuesday, 28 Aug 2012, NEW NET (NorthEast Wisconsin Network for Entrepreneurism and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 PM weekly gathering at Sergio's Restaurant, 2639 South Oneida Street, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.
The ‘net
1.
How Facebook design
tricks people into trading away privacy http://boingboing.net/2012/08/26/how-facebook-design-tricks-peo.html “On TechCrunch, Avi Charkham provides an
excellent side-by-side comparison of an older Facebook design and the latest
one, showing how the service has moved to minimize the extent to which its
users are notified of the privacy "choices" they make when they
interact with the service. The Facebook rubric is that people don't value their
privacy ("privacy is dead, get over it,") and we can tell that
because they demonstrate it by using Facebook. But really, Facebook is designed
to minimize your understanding of the privacy trades you're making and your
ability to make those trades intelligently. All privacy offers on FB are
take-it-or-leave-it: you give up all your privacy to play Angry Birds, or you
don't play Angry Birds. There's no "give up some of your privacy to play
Angry Birds" offer, or "here's a game that's 95% as fun as Angry
Birds but requires that you only yield up the most trivial facts of your life
to play it" that we can test the market against. Charkham's five examples
from the visual interface design are very good evidence that FB isn't a
harbinger of the death of privacy; rather, it's a tribute to the power of
deceptive hard-sell tactics to get people to make privacy trade-offs they
wouldn't make in a fair deal…”
2.
Tripbirds relaunches as a
‘social hotel booking service’ based on Facebook and Instagram http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/08/28/tripbirds-relaunches-social-hotel-booking-service/ “Nobody has nailed ‘social travel’ yet, but
someone will eventually,” Tripbirds co-founder Ted Valentin told me a few
months ago. Last March, the company unveiled its social travel planning Web app
in public beta, hoping to entice travelers worldwide to sign up and start
planning trips based on recommendations they received from their friends (à la
Gogobot, Trippy and Wanderfly). That didn’t quite work out the way Tripbirds
was hoping, but rather than throw in the towel or keep hammering on a solution
looking for a problem that hasn’t been (even partially) solved yet, the team
decided to take the service offline and focus on one aspect of travel planning.
Today, Tripbirds is unveiling the fruit of its labor. The website combines a
traditional list of hotels with information from your social graph layered on
top of it, allowing you to see where your Facebook friends have stayed and give
you the ‘unofficial’ pictures of a hotel through Instagram photos…”
3.
Active in Cloud, Amazon
Reshapes Computing http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/technology/active-in-cloud-amazon-reshapes-computing.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all “Within a few years, Amazon.com’s creative
destruction of both traditional book publishing and retailing may be footnotes
to the company’s larger and more secretive goal: giving anyone on the planet
access to an almost unimaginable amount of computing power. Every day, a
start-up called the Climate Corporation performs over 10,000 simulations of the
next two years’ weather for more than one million locations in the United
States. It then combines that with data on root structure and soil porosity to
write crop insurance for thousands of farmers. Another start-up, called Cue,
scans up to 500 million e-mails, Facebook updates and corporate documents to
create a service that can outline the biography of a given person you meet,
warn you to be home to receive a package or text a lunch guest that you are
running late. Each of these start-ups carries out computing tasks that a decade
ago would have been impossible without a major investment in computers. Both of
these companies, however, own little besides a few desktop computers. They and
thousands of other companies now rent data storage and computer server time
from Amazon, through its Amazon Web Services division, for what they say is a
fraction of the cost of owning and running their own computers. “I have 10 engineers,
but without A.W.S. I guarantee I’d need 60,” said Daniel Gross, Cue’s
20-year-old co-founder. “It just gets cheaper, and cheaper, and cheaper.” He
figures Cue spends something under $100,000 a month with Amazon but would spend
“probably $2 million to do it ourselves, without the speed and flexibility…”
4.
Time Warner Cable invests
$25M to build 1Gbps fiber network http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57501699-93/time-warner-cable-invests-$25m-to-build-1gbps-fiber-network/ “Time Warner Cable announced Tuesday a $25
million investment to expand its fiber broadband network to businesses in New
York City. The new fiber network will be built in Brooklyn as well as to parts
of Manhattan such as the Financial and Flatiron districts. Last year, Time
Warner and the city of New York reached a franchise agreement in which Time
Warner said it would expand its fiber network to areas that don't currently
have access. The new service will offer speeds up to 1 gigabit per second, the
company said in a press release (not yet available online). The company will
target companies that have high data needs, such as design firms and technology
companies…”
Security,
Privacy & Digital Controls
5.
Apple wins $1-billion
verdict vs. Samsung over smartphones http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444358404577609810658082898.html “Nine jurors delivered a sweeping victory to
Apple Inc. in a…court battle against Samsung Electronics Co. awarding the
Silicon Valley company $1.05 billion in damages…Jurors Friday found that
Samsung infringed all but one of the seven patents at issue in the case…The
damage award is shy of Apple's request for more than $2.5 billion…Apple filed a
motion seeking a preliminary injunction against Samsung's products…the ruling…could
shape how smartphones and tablets are designed and the fortunes of companies
that make them. Apple's legal campaign is partly aimed at trying to beat back
the gangbuster growth of Android, the operating system created by Google…In the
second quarter, Android phones—which are made by many phone makers—represented
68% of smartphone shipments, while Apple's represented 17%...The only patent
the jury found Samsung didn't infringe relates to design of a tablet.
Throughout the trial, Samsung's lawyers frequently remarked that Apple
shouldn't be given a monopoly on a rectangle with rounded corners…” http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Apple-Samsung-Jury-Foreman-Says-Google-E-Mail-Was-3816620.php
“…The e-mails included an internal 2010
Samsung message describing how Google asked it to change the design of its
products to look less like Apple’s…“Certain actors at the highest level at
Samsung Electronics Co. gave orders to the sub-entities to actually copy,”
Hogan said. “So the whole thing hinges on whether you think Samsung was
actually copying. The thing that did it for us was when we saw the memo from
Google telling Samsung to back away from the Apple design…The entity that had
to do that actually didn’t back away,”…The Samsung e-mails presented as
evidence during the trial included a Feb. 16, 2010, internal message describing
minutes from a design meeting that was sent to “pass along only a few comments
from Senior Designer Cho who went into the Google meeting yesterday,”…“Since it
is too similar to Apple, make it noticeably different starting with the front
side,”…referring to one of Samsung’s tablets…”
6.
Windows 8 phones home,
tells Microsoft every time you install a program http://www.extremetech.com/computing/135010-windows-8-phones-home-tells-microsoft-every-time-you-install-a-program “Security researcher and blogger Nadim
Kobeissi has uncovered evidence that Windows 8 doesn’t just keep a local log of
installed programs — it phones home to tell Microsoft every time you install an
application. This is a significant expansion of a technology Microsoft
introduced in Internet Explorer 9, called SmartScreen. In IE9, Smartscreen was
an optional feature that would warn users if they ran a program that wasn’t
whitelisted/ lagged with a positive reputation according to Microsoft’s
servers. It was part of a wider initiative to encourage developers to sign
their code, and MS claimed that SmartScreen significantly reduced the chances
of downloading and installing malicious malware. Redmond decided to up the ante
in Windows 8. SmartScreen is now a system-wide defense technology, enabled by
default, and it tracks every program/application install on every PC…”
7.
Is eye scan technology
the future of airport security? http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-eye-scan-technology-20120824,0,4993492.story “Will the airport of the future be able to
verify the identity of passengers with a quick eye scan? Aoptix Technologies
Inc., a Campbell-based high-tech company, has developed iris scan technology
the company hopes can be used by the Transportation Security Administration to
verify passenger identification in a matter of seconds. To market, sell and
develop such technology, Aoptix announced last week it had acquired $42 million
in additional funding from investors, bringing the total amount it has raised
to $123 million since it launched in 2000. Aoptix’s scanning technology is
already used to identify passengers coming in and out of the international
departure lounge at London’s Gatwick Airport and for border control in Qatar…”
Mobile
Computing & Communicating
8.
Verizon and Sprint kill
the Google Nexus experience, stick with GSM model http://www.zdnet.com/verizon-and-sprint-kill-the-google-nexus-experience-stick-with-gsm-model-7000003176/ “I suspended my Verizon account for 90 days
while I focused on funding my new AT&T account with the Nokia Lumia 900 and
tried to figure out what I would do with my Verizon account (buy a new iPhone,
Windows Phone 8, Jelly Bean, or BlackBerry 10 device). The 90 days is up so I
just reactivated my service yesterday, I still have grandfathered unlimited
data, and was blown away that there is still NO Android Jelly Bean update for
the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. I now am much more sympathetic to Jason Perlow's
frustration with Android and as CNET's Maggie Reardon stated on Friday there is
still now word on when, and even if, Verizon or Sprint will release Jelly Bean
for the Nexus. Google revealed Jelly Bean in June and then back in early July
the update started rolling out to GSM/HSPA+ devices. Thus, AT&T and
T-Mobile customers are able to experience Jelly Bean on their Galaxy Nexus,
just as intended for the Nexus line. The upcoming T-Mobile unlimited data plan
combined with a GSM Galaxy Nexus looks to be an even more attractive option
now. I buy Galaxy Nexus devices with the intent of rooting them and installing
custom ROMs so I do have Jelly Bean on my Galaxy Nexus. However, the average
consumer shouldn't be required to hack their phone to get the latest and
greatest version of the operating system on their Nexus device and the lack of
timely updates through Sprint and Verizon is unacceptable…”
9.
Amazon Kindle Fire 2
launch set for Sept. 6? http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/amazon-kindle-fire-2-launch-set-for-september-6-1093278 “In a cryptic note sent to members of the
media, Amazon extended its hospitality to an airport hangar in Santa Monica,
Calif. on Sept. 6 where it may or may not unveil the Kindle Fire 2. The text on
the invitation is scant: "Please join us for an Amazon Press Conference."
The just-outside Los Angeles soiree could be for any number of things, but
industry insiders anticipate a big announcement to echo through the hangar's
halls. Though Amazon is cheekily keeping the details under wraps, the most
obvious assumption would be the unveiling of a new generation of Kindle Fire
tablets. TechRadar reported back in June that Amazon teased a new 7-inch and an
unheard of 10-inch Kindle Fire 2 model, with a source reporting both could see
the light of day sometime this summer. The 10-inch tab is reportedly set to run
a more powerful, "more competent" quad-core processor while both
large-display devices are said to be made of higher-quality materials and sport
more ergonomic designs…”
10.
Fujitsu Ultrabooks U772
and UH572 launched http://tech2.in.com/news/notebooks/fujitsu-ultrabooks-u772-and-uh572-launched/396112 “Fujitsu has launched two Ultrabooks -
Lifebook U772 and Lifebook UH572. As per an official statement, the new
Ultrabooks combine access to the latest mobile computing technology with the
power and connectivity to support all-day mobile working. Fujitsu claims to be
the first vendor to ship a new-generation Ultrabook with business class,
enterprise-standard features such as Intel vPro technology. It also offers
mobile security with features such as a fingerprint sensor and full disk
encryption (FDE) SSDs…The new flagship Fujitsu Lifebook U772 Ultrabook is
designed to appeal to employees who are now able to choose their own computer
because of “Bring Your Own Device” initiatives in the corporate workplace. The
company adds that the Lifebook U772 combines the portability and almost instant
boot up time of a tablet with the power and usability of a traditional
notebook, giving business users the best of both worlds. The Ultrabook comes
with an optional port replicator, which provides easy docking and connection to
the corporate network and peripherals. The 14-inch Lifebook U772 is less than
16mm thin and weighs 1.4kg. It comes with a red or silver shell and a frameless
display. The Lifebook U772 notebook is secured by Advanced Theft Protection
technology with Intel Anti-Theft and Absolute Computrace features, making it
possible to remotely locate a lost or stolen device, and to copy or delete data
remotely…The Lifebook U772 offers optional built-in 3G/ UMTS or 4G/ LTE support
to guarantee mobile connectivity even when outside the range of Wi-Fi hotspots,
and a strong magnesium shell, which the company claims makes it tough enough to
survive the daily knocks from being carried around in a handbag or backpack. It
also features an Anytime USB Charge functionality, because of which there is no
need to leave a Fujitsu Ultrabook running overnight just to power-up mobile
devices such as smartphones…”
Apps
11.
How Free Apps Can Make
More Money Than Paid Apps http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/26/how-free-apps-can-make-more-money-than-paid-apps/ “While building apps for Apple and Android
app stores can be highly lucrative ventures for developers, one of the hardest
decisions an app developer has to make is how to get the app to pay for itself.
Often the “monetization strategy” — shorthand for “how will this app make
money?” — is left for last. It’s hard enough to get discovered by consumers
among the millions of already existing apps, not to mention convince people to
buy it. People increasingly prefer free, ad-supported apps for their tablets
and smartphones, yet many developers still aren’t sure how to tackle the free
vs. paid issue. Deciding when to charge for your app, and when to try an
ad-supported model, is one of the hardest decisions developers must make. Developers
have several monetization options available, each with its own requirements and
pitfalls. Before moving forward with a strategy though, there are a few of
questions an app developer should explore in order to answer the ultimate
question, “how can I monetize my app?”…As app markets across platforms explode,
developers are talking to each other to determine the best type of monetization
model to use. Most will tell you it’s a choice among four major options:
1. selling your app in the app store…2. offering a free, subscription-supported app…3. offering a free app, with in-app purchases…4. offering a free, ad-supported app…But the
choice really boils down to two strategies: getting paid by users or getting
paid by advertisers…”
12.
Flipboard Hits 20 Million
Users, 3 Billion Flips Per Month http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/28/flipboard-hits-20-million-users-3-billion-flips-per-month/ “…remember when Flipboard had 5 million
users? That was the official figure at the end of last year. It was also the
number that came out just as the social magazine app was launching on iPhone,
after having previously been an iPad-only app. And it was also six months
before the app arrived on Android. Well, apparently, the move to the smartphone
platform has been good for the company’s growth – today, Flipboard is
announcing new metrics, including a jump to 20 million users and a reach of
over 3 billion flips per month. The flips per month figure is an indication of
in-app activity. Readers in the app turn pages with their fingers and each of
these page-turns is designated as one “flip.” Before the iPhone app’s release,
the company was seeing 650 million flips per month. After, it was trending
towards 2 billion flips per month. Now cross-platform, it has climbed again to
3 billion. 1.5 million users log in daily, and they spend , on average, 86
minutes per month in the app. Nice metrics, if you can get ‘em, right? 75% of
readers connect their social networks in Flipboard, and perform a total of 14.5
million social actions (favoriting, liking, sharing, etc.) in the app per
month…”
13.
SkyDrive for Android
phones now available http://windowsteamblog.com/skydrive/b/skydrive/archive/2012/08/28/skydrive-for-android-phones-now-available.aspx “A few weeks ago we announced our intention
to release an official SkyDrive app for Android phones. Today we’re excited to
announce that the app is now available for download. We want to ensure that
you’re able to have your files accessible across the various devices you use—so
it’s important that we continue to extend the SkyDrive experience to the
devices you use every day. This new app for Android is similar to our mobile
apps for Windows Phone and iOS and is a key part of making sure your SkyDrive
files are accessible and shareable from all your devices. In building the new
SkyDrive app for Android, we wanted to ensure we kept the same intuitive design
of all SkyDrive experiences while also making use of Android design patterns
and conventional interactions, so this feels natural for people with Android
phones. In this release, SkyDrive is available for Android phones with access
to Google Play. The new app is designed to work best with Android 4.0 (Ice
Cream Sandwich)—though it’s also fully functional on Android 2.3 and above…”
SkyNet
14.
Google's Nexus 7 tablet
pops up in rare home-page ad http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57501546-94/googles-nexus-7-tablet-pops-up-in-rare-home-page-ad/ “Google really wants people to take a look at
its Nexus 7 tablet. The $199 tablet started popping up on Google's home page
today, a rare instance in which Google is actively promoting one of its own
products. It's similar to the way Amazon's front page is often dominated by
Kindle advertising. That Google would go to such lengths underscores the
company's desire to make a bigger dent in the burgeoning tablet market, one
still dominated by Apple's iPad. Given the traffic that goes through Google,
the home page would be one of the most coveted spots on the Web for advertisers.
The company, however, has traditionally resisted attempts to run advertisements
for paid products on its main page. Only the top part of the Nexus 7 peeks out
in a tease, along with a link to the 8GB version in its Google Play store…”
15.
Google Makes Voter
Registration Easy With TurboVote Partnership http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/08/google-makes-voter-registration-easy-with-turbovote-partnership/ “…Today Google announced the launch of its
Online Voter Guide, a portal that allows Google users to register to vote
easily. In addition to its YouTube Elections Hub and its Google Politics &
Elections site, this page will provide easy access to TurboVote, which lets you
register to vote, vote by mail, and sign up for emails and texts about the
upcoming election. TurboVote breaks voter registration down into a few
clickable steps. “To make it easy to navigate the rules and deadlines about
registering to vote and how to vote by mail, we put together an online voter
guide…”
16.
Search Google Drive Via
Chrome’s Omnibox http://www.conceivablytech.com/10306/products/search-google-drive-via-chromes-omnibox “…Some time ago, Google tricked me into using
its CloudConnect app, (not that I regret it entirely) a handy solution that
automatically stores Microsoft Office documents in Google Drive (previously
simply in the Google Docs folder). Since I love to write and writing
significantly contributes to our household income, CloudConnect is the main reason why there are thousands of
documents, the majority of them being outdated and rather useless today, stored
in my Google Drive. I am probably not the only one who thinks that handling and
managing Google Drive could and should be easier. One change recently arrived
courtesy of François Beaufort, a developer at Trapeze Media and a Chrome enthusiast.
He posted the OmniDrive Extension in the Chrome Web Store and is offering
probably the most useful feature for Google Drive users that Google should have
introduced with Drive right away. Following the installation of Drive, users
cans imply type “drive” in the omnibox and then search the contents of Drive
directly from the location bar without having to actively browse to Google
Drive and use the search bar over there. For people like me, this is an
incredibly useful feature…”
17.
Google Wallet to challenge
iPhone Passbook by storing ID, boarding passes http://www.mobileburn.com/20371/news/google-wallet-to-challenge-ios-passbook-with-id-boarding-passes-and-more “Aside from the payment and loyalty card
information that Google Wallet already stores, Google hopes to include boarding
passes, identification cards, and everything you'd find in a normal wallet. In
a Q&A session hosted on YouTube, Robin Dua, head of product management for
Google Wallet, said that Google wants Wallet to go beyond just mobile payments.
The company hopes to be the tool used to store all relevant consumer
information, including gift cards, travel itineraries, concert tickets, and
more. When asked how Google would go beyond its current payment options, Dua
said: "One of the types of things we're trying to do is make it easy for
airlines, transit providers, and other types of issuers of credentials to make
it super simple for them to get their credentials stored in the wallet...That's
the goal. We want you to be able to leave your leather wallet at home and carry
your phone and transact with that as your primary transaction device." Google
initially pitched Wallet as a way to ease the purchase process in stores. The
company now says it envisions Wallet growing to the point that it can be an
actual replacement for a wallet, and it will need to do more than just buy
sandwiches and coffee for that to happen…”
General
Technology
18.
'Solid smoke'
material aerogel gets added strength
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19323091 “Aerogels have been around for a long time,
and have been described as "solid smoke" because they are so light. But
these traditional types - made from silica - are fragile and brittle. By
altering the composition and structure of these materials, scientists have now
produced aerogels that are hundreds of times stronger…Scientists use polymers,
a plastic-like material, to reinforce the networks of silica that extend throughout
an aerogel's structure…The new aerogels are up to 500 times stronger than their
silica counterparts…A thick piece actually can support the weight of a car. And
they can be produced in a thin form, a film so flexible that a wide variety of
commercial and industrial uses are possible." She said the new types of
aerogel could yield highly insulating clothing that would keep people warm with
less bulk than traditional "thermal" garments. It could also
potentially be used in the walls of fridges and freezers, reducing their
thickness and increasing storage space…”
19.
Microsoft
revamps logo for 1st time in 25 years
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2018975749_apusmicrosoftnewlogo.html “Microsoft's corporate logo has a new look,
setting the stage for a wave of products designed to cast the world's largest
software maker in a new light. The makeover unveiled Thursday marks the first
time that Microsoft Corp. has revamped its logo since February 1987. The
Internet was barely around then, and cellphones were considered a luxury. At
the time, Microsoft was putting the finishing touches on the second version of
its Windows operating system. Two of Microsoft's biggest nemeses - Google Inc.
co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin - were just 13 years old. And Apple Inc.
co-founder Steve Jobs was just in the second year of an 11-year exile from the
company that went on to invent the iPod, iPhone and iPad after he returned. By
revamping its logo, Microsoft is trying to signal that it has changed its
thinking and its products to cater to people who are interacting with
technology much differently than just a decade ago, let alone a quarter century…”
20.
IBM Unveils
New Mainframe Running on World's Fastest Microprocessor http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409036,00.asp “IBM may not be releasing a new smartphone or
tablet any time soon, but is making headlines with today's introduction of a
new line of mainframe computers that the manufacturer calls its "most
powerful and technologically advanced ever." The zEnterprise EC12
mainframe server is designed to allow users to quickly and securely sift
through hoards of data, which should be a cinch, considering the 5.5GHz
microprocessor powering the zEC12 is the fastest chip in the world, according
to IBM. Blood, sweat, and more than $1 billion in IBM research spending at 18
global labs was put into developing the zEC12, which the company touts as one
of the most secure enterprise systems ever courtesy of its Common Creteria
Evaluation Assurance Level 5+ security classification. It also carries a
tamper-resistant cryptographic co-processor…”
21.
Brother's new
speedy, pretty inkjet is a printer to get excited about http://dvice.com/archives/2012/08/brothers-new-wi.php “…we don't buy printers for their looks. We
buy them for their ability to print, scan and copy as fast and painless as
possible so we can get on with our lives. Brother's new Business Smart
MFC-J4510DW printer challenges drab conventional printer design with a minimal
and unassuming body, ultra fast color printing thanks to a landscape printing
process and a touchscreen that actually works. Ignore the ridiculous model name
— seriously, why can't anyone drop the long strings of letters and numbers
already? — and you'll find something that's rare for a printer: elegant design.
The MFC-J4510DW doesn't look like much with its stacked chassis, but that's
exactly the point. Brother designed this printer to fit into your home, do it's
job and not stick out like a sore thumb (made of excess plastic). As with
premium home electronics and appliances, Brother believes that the printer
should not only provide superb performance, but also beautiful design. You hear
that HP? Beautiful design. For printers. It goes without saying that the
MFC-J4510DW is a looker, for printer standards. How many times have you ever
heard anyone call a printer out for its aesthetics?...Like most printers today,
the MFC-J4510DW has a 3.7-inch touchscreen, but the difference is that it's
buttery smooth when it comes to responsiveness. It swipes and scrolls as well
as your iPhone or Android. As part of the company's philosophy to simplify the
user experience and make printers as intuitive and straight-forward as
possible, the MFC-J4510DW has a touch-sensitive number keypad that lights up
only when an action requires it and turns off when you don't. A little
convenience can really go a long way. Whereas most printers usually stow their
ink cartridges deep within the printer, the MFC-J4510DW's ink carts are easily
accessible in a little hatch in the lower right corner of the front of the
machine…” [Have you owned a Brother printer recently? If so, how did you like it
compared to your experiences with HP? This Brother prints 11 x 17s – what
competitor printers would you recommend that do 11 x 17s? – ed.]
22.
'Cyborg'
Tissues: Merging Engineered Human Tissues With Bio-Compatible Nanoscale Wires http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120826143610.htm “Harvard scientists have, for the first,
time created a type of "cyborg" tissue by embedding a
three-dimensional network of functional, bio-compatible nanoscale wires into
engineered human tissues. As described in a paper published August 26 in Nature
Materials, a multi-institutional research team led by Charles M. Lieber, the
Mark Hyman, Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Harvard and Daniel Kohane, a Harvard
Medical School professor in the Department of Anesthesia at Children's Hospital
Boston developed a system for creating nanoscale "scaffolds" which
could be seeded with cells which later grew into tissue…Beginning with a
two-dimensional substrate, researchers laid out a mesh of organic polymer
around nanoscale wires, which serve as the critical nanoscale sensing elements.
Nanoscale electrodes, which connect the nanowire elements, were then built
within the mesh to enable nanowire transistors to measure the activity in cells
without damaging them. Once complete, the substrate was dissolved, leaving
researchers with a net-like sponge or a mesh that can be folded or rolled into
a host of three dimensional shapes. Once complete, the networks were porous
enough to allow the team to seed them with cells and encourage those cells to
grow in 3D cultures…” [hello, Dr.
Frankenstein? – ed.]
23.
AMD Trying to
Bridge the Gap Between X86 and ARM
http://www.pcworld.com/article/261559/amd_trying_to_bridge_the_gap_between_x86_and_arm.html “Advanced Micro Devices is taking steps to
bridge the gap between x86 and ARM processors, and hopes to build a foundation
from which programs will operate on mobile devices like tablets independent of
architecture…The company is espousing the development of tools that blur the
line between processor and accelerator engines inside a chip, Papermaster said.
Programmers will be able to write a program once, which will then be executable
either across x86 or ARM CPUs, or other graphics processors and accelerators
tied to security, video or data compression. The ability to bring a variety of
processing engines and programs will result in higher levels of realism and
interactivity on tablets, Papermaster said. A combination of client and cloud
will bring real-time interaction, and the processing engines will be needed to
bring natural interactivity through touch, voice and gestures, Papermaster
said. The CPU is just one engine, and devices will require more processing
units to handle the massive amounts of incoming data. AMD is already taking
steps in that direction by opening up its chip design to support external
processing cores. For example, the company in June said it would combine its
x86 processor with ARM's Cortex-A5 processor with TrustZone security technology
on a single chip for tablets and PCs…”
Leisure &
Entertainment
24.
Gaming performance with
today's CPUs; does the processor you choose still matter? http://techreport.com/articles.x/23246 “As you may know, a while back, we came to
some difficult realizations about the validity of our methods for testing PC
gaming performance. In my article Inside the second: A new look at game
benchmarking, we explained why the widely used frames-per-second averages tend
to obscure some of the most important information about how smoothly a game
plays on a given system. In a nutshell, the problem is that FPS averages
summarize performance over a relatively long span of time. It's quite possible
to have lots of slowdowns and performance hiccups during the period in question
and still end up with an average frame rate that seems quite good. In other
words, the FPS averages we (and everyone else) had been dishing out to readers
for years weren't very helpful—and were potentially misleading. To sidestep
this shortcoming, we proposed a new approach, borrowed from the world of server
benchmarking, that focuses on the actual problem at hand: frame latencies. By
considering the time required to render each and every frame of a gameplay
session and finding ways to quantify the slowdowns, we figured we could provide
a more accurate sense of true gaming performance—not just the ability to crank
out lots of frames for high averages, but the more crucial ability to deliver
frames on time consistently. Some good things have happened since we proposed
our new methods. We've deployed them in a host of graphics card reviews, and
they have proved their worth, helping to uncover some performance deficiencies
that would have otherwise remained hidden. In response to your feedback, we've
refined our means of quantifying the latency picture and presenting the info
visually. A few other publications have noticed what we're doing and adjusted
their own testing methods; even more have quietly inquired about the
possibility behind the scenes…”
25.
The Oatmeal has raised
over $1.1M for a Nikola Tesla museum http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/26/oatmeal-tesla-tower/ “Web comic The Oatmeal has raised an
extraordinary $1.1 million on Indiegogo to build a museum dedicated to
influential inventor Nikola Tesla. The Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman announced
a little more than a week ago that he would attempt to raise money to save the
site of the Wardenclyffe Tower. This tower in Shoreham, N.Y. was Tesla’s
incomplete masterpiece intended for trans-Atlantic wireless power transmission.
While the tower has since been demolished, Inman and others want the 16-acre
site for a museum. The United States doesn’t have a Tesla museum, so a “Nikola
Tesla Science Center” sounds like a smart idea. The project has raised more
than $1 million in nine days, and it now has more than $1.1 million in funds.
The project still has 35 days to go, so you can still donate…”
26.
Amazon’s Kindle-Only
Titles Downloaded Over 100M Times http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/28/amazons-kindle-only-titles-downloaded-over-100m-times/ “…Amazon has been crunching its own internal data
this week in order to tout the traction surrounding its various products. Only
yesterday, the company was talking about numbers related to its Prime two-day
delivery, and today it’s boasting about Kindle title downloads. The company now
says that its Kindle-exclusive books have been downloaded over 100 million
times, and the number of exclusives in its Lending Library catalog has grown to
include 180,000 books. That’s up from the 130,000 titles it had in April, for
comparison purposes, and up from the 75,000 books it had in January. Although
the number is, on the surface, just referring to the growth of Amazon’s
exclusive Kindle catalog, in reality it’s also another metric related to Amazon
Prime – the membership program which lets users pay on annual basis for access
to faster shipping and unlimited video streaming, among other things. Amazon
Prime members can borrow these Kindle-exclusive titles from the Kindle Owners’
Lending Library, and according to Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle
Content, customers have been doing just that, in droves. “They’re super
popular,” he says, “in less than a year they’ve been downloaded more than 100
million times.” In January, Amazon was talking about the 75,000 ebooks it had
available in the Lending Library, and these were being downloaded at a rate of
around 300,000 per month. In November, there were just 5,000 ebooks in the
Library. But as the library grew, so did the downloads…”
27.
Music streaming
Grooveshark app back in Google Play http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57502151-93/music-streaming-grooveshark-app-back-in-google-play/ “Music streaming service Grooveshark, whose
app was once booted after its the company became too controversial, said it
recently worked with Google to remove illegal apps that were doing something
even more alarming -- letting users download music for free. As a result, the
Grooveshark app has been allowed back into the store. Google unceremoniously
pulled Grooveshark from the store more than a year ago. The online service lets
users upload songs and then share them with other users, which upset some in
the music industry. After its ejection, Grooveshark noticed that other apps
illegally using Groveshark's name were allowing users to download music for
free, something Grooveshark claims it doesn't do. Grooveshark brought the
matter to Google to get the issue resolved…”
Economy and
Technology
28.
Isis Mobile-Payment
System To Debut In September After Delays http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-28/isis-mobile-payment-system-to-debut-in-september-after-delays.html “Isis, the mobile-payment joint venture
backed by AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA Inc., is on track
for a debut in September, following months of delays and a change in strategy
last year. VeriFone Systems Inc. (PAY), a maker of payment terminals that is
working on the project, is preparing for an introduction in Salt Lake City and
Austin, Texas, next month, Chief Executive Officer Doug Bergeron said in an
interview. Isis, which will let users pay for items at stores using their
mobile phones, had previously planned to roll out the service in the first half
of 2012. The joint venture tweaked its strategy last year, opting to use
credit-card companies to handle transactions rather than the carriers
themselves, and it’s taken time to ensure that payments can be made securely. “The
focus has been: Get it right, make sure it’s secure,” Brad Duea, senior vice
president of product management at T-Mobile USA, said in an interview. Isis
joins a growing cast of competitors, including Google Inc. and EBay Inc., in
vying to capitalize on mobile-payment transactions, which Juniper Research Ltd.
expects to rise almost fourfold in total volume to more than $1.3 trillion by
2017. The payment system relies on near field communication, or NFC, a
technology that lets users tap a phone on a cash register to make a payment…”
29.
Kleiner Perkins joins
Rock Health in sponsoring digital health startups http://gigaom.com/2012/08/28/kleiner-perkins-joins-rock-health-in-sponsoring-digital-health-startups/
“Venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers will be teaming up with the incubator program Rock Health
to sponsor digital health startups trying to disrupt the health care industry.
The tandem announced Tuesday that they are increasing the cash delivered to individual
startups in the program to $100,000. Kleiner’s investment comes as overall
investment in the healthcare sphere increases, with the impact of cloud and
tablet technology making its mark in a traditionally more staid field. In June,
a study by Rock Health found that investors had already poured $675 million
into healthcare companies receiving $2 million or more in investments, compared
with $968 million for similar companies the previous year. And according to
financial services firm Burrill & Company, digital health financing climbed
317 percent in the first half of 2012. Over the past two years, Rock Health has
supported 35 digital health start-ups in San Francisco and Boston…”
DHMN Technology
30.
Arduino gets
new remote management possibilities http://www.itworld.com/open-source/291353/arduino-gets-new-remote-management-possibilities “Users of the Arduino open-source platform
for home electronics do-it-yourselfers can now sign up for a communication
service from the Spanish mobile phone provider Télefonica that lets them manage
their projects remotely. The service also requires an updated Arduino GSM/GPRS
Shield that allows users to establish TCP communication with their boards over
a GPRS network. The updated version of the shield was announced at Campus
Party, an electronic entertainment event being held in Berlin Friday and
Saturday. The shield will be shown at Campus Party but does not yet appear to be
available for sale. Arduino is an open-source hardware platform based on a
microcontroller board as well as a development environment for writing
software. Enthusiasts use it for building and controlling small home
electronics projects that can have many purposes. A geeky gardener who is
worried about keeping up with watering the plants for instance can use Arduino
to control sensors that help care for an indoor garden. An Arduino-based system
can water the plants only when they're thirsty, turn on supplemental lights
based on how much natural sunlight is received and alert the gardener if the
temperature drops below a plant-healthy level…”
31.
3D printers:
10 machines for home manufacturing http://www.techrepublic.com/photos/3d-printers-10-machines-for-home-manufacturing/6379767 “The age of being able to print off anything
- from washing machine parts to shoes - in your home is approaching. For years
3D printers, which build solid objects layer by layer using computer models,
came with a price tag that made them unaffordable to anyone outside big
business. However in recent years homebrew 3D printer projects such as RepRap
in the UK and Fab@Home have demonstrated it's possible to build a 3D printer
for about $1,000. Today, there are a slew of 3D printers aimed at the home
market, many of which are based on the open-source RepRap printers.
TechRepublic has rounded up 10 machines for fabricating items at home. 3D
printing noobs should be aware that not only do many of these machines ship as
kits that have to be built by the user, most are more complicated to operate
than your standard 2D printer. Running costs are also not cheap. Most of the
printers build objects using filament, typically made of ABS or PLA plastics. A
one-kilogram coil of these plastics costs in the region of $70…”
32.
3D Composites
Can Make Parts Cheaper http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=248157&f_src=designnews_gnews “Engineers at the University of Exeter have
devised a new method for making aircraft and automotive components for short
money using additive manufacturing techniques (a frequent topic on our site)
and aluminum powders. Three-dimensional aluminum metal matrix composite
components are made by mixing a combination of relatively inexpensive powders
to cause a reaction and rapid solidification. This productes particles as small
as 50nm to 100nm that are distributed uniformly throughout the composite and
strengthen it. A reactive reinforcing material, such as iron oxide, also
contributes to the composite's strength. Liang Hao, a lecturer at the
University of Exeter's College of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical
Sciences, and Sasan Dadbakhsh, a doctoral candidate there, developed the
technique in the university's Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing. They say
the material and the manufacturing method can produce lightweight parts such as
pistons, drive shafts, suspension components, and brake discs for cars and
airplanes…”
33.
Melting
plastic powder together, one layer at a time http://hackaday.com/2012/07/27/melting-plastic-powder-together-one-layer-at-a-time/ “Here’s an interesting development in the
world of 3D printers: A rapid prototyping machine that melts plastic powder
together to create objects with extremely good resolution. The Blueprinter
works by drawing a 0.1 mm thick layer of plastic powder over the build
platform. After that, a very hot needle-shaped probe melts the plastic
together. This process continues at a rate of 10mm an hour on the z axis, and a
very precise plastic model eventually appears in the powder. There is no price
( or solid release date ) for the Blueprinter, but this 3ders.org article from
earlier this year tells us the price for the machine will be €9,995, with a
material cost of €49 per kg. Pricey, yes, but seeing as how the RepRap
community already has the techniques behind melting plastic down pat, it might
now be too hard to build your own plastic sintering printer…”
34.
FoldaRap: The
Folding 3D Printer http://technologywillsaveus.org/2012/07/foldarap-the-folding-3d-printer/ “…The FoldaRap is an open-source 3d-Printer,
easy to assemble, and most important : foldable to bring it anywhere! Main
features : Foldable…Made with robust aluminium extrusions…Max print volume of
140 x 140 x 140 mm (consumable : PLA filament of 1,75mm)…Easy to assemble…All
the electronics are safely enclosed in the base, connected via USB…Works with
open-source softwares that run on windows, mac, linux…Use common standards
formats of the industry (STL, AMF, OBJ)…Maker Emmanuel Gilloz is driven by his
experience at 3D printing meetups, where people carefully transport their
assembled machines together and learn 3D printing by doing it. 3D printers of
today are generally not that transportable and now Gilloz has addressed the
issue, and quite nicely too. Small enough to fit in our hand luggage if you so
wish!! FoldaRap is now a fundraising project on Ulule, where Gilloz hopes to
raise €6500, but currently he’s well beyond that…”
35.
The
'chemputer' that could print out any drug http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/21/chemputer-that-prints-out-drugs “Professor Lee Cronin is a likably impatient
presence, a one-man catalyst. "I just want to get stuff done fast,"
he says. And: "I am a control freak in rehab." Cronin, 39, is the
leader of a world-class team of 45 researchers at Glasgow University, primarily
making complex molecules. But that is not the extent of his ambition. A couple
of years ago, at a TED conference, he described one goal as the creation of
"inorganic life", and went on to detail his efforts to generate
"evolutionary algorithms" in inert matter. He still hopes to
"create life" in the next year or two. At the same time, one branch
of that thinking has itself evolved into a new project: the notion of creating
downloadable chemistry, with the ultimate aim of allowing people to
"print" their own pharmaceuticals at home. Cronin's latest TED talk
asked the question: "Could we make a really cool universal chemistry set?
Can we 'app' chemistry?" "Basically," he tells me, in his office
at the university, with half a grin, "what Apple did for music, I'd like
to do for the discovery and distribution of prescription drugs."…A couple
of years ago, Cronin was invited to an architectural seminar to discuss his
work on inorganic structures. He had been looking at the way crystals grew
"inorganic gardens" of tube-like structures between themselves. Among
the other speakers at that conference was a man explaining the possibilities of
3D printing for conventional architectural forms. Cronin wondered if you could
apply this 3D principle to structures at a molecular level. "I didn't want
to print an aeroplane, or a jaw bone," he says. "I wanted to do
chemistry."…He shows me the printer, a nondescript version of the £1,200
3D printer used in the Fab@Home project, which aims to bring self-fabrication
to the masses. After a bit of trial and error, Cronin's team discovered that it
could use a bathroom sealant as a material to print reaction chambers of
precisely specified dimensions, connected with tubes of different lengths and
diameters. After the bespoke miniature lab had set hard, the printer could then
inject the system reactants, or "chemical inks", to create sequenced
reactions. The "inks" would be simple reagents, from which more
complex molecules are formed. "If I was being facetious I would say that
to find your inks you would go to the periodic table: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen,
and so on," Cronin says, "but obviously you can't handle all those
substances very well, so it would have to be a bit more complex than that. If
you were looking to make a sugar, for example, you would start with your set of
base sugars and mix them together. When we make complex molecules in the
traditional way with test tubes and flasks, we start with a smaller number of
simpler molecules." As he points out, nearly all drugs are made of carbon,
hydrogen and oxygen, as well as readily available agents such as vegetable oils
and paraffin. "With a printer it should be possible that with a relatively
small number of inks you can make any organic molecule," he says…The scale
and architecture of the miniature printed "lab" could be
pre-programmed into software and downloaded for use with a standard set of
inks. In this way, not only the combinations of reactants but also the ratios
and speed at which they combine could be ingrained into the system, simply by
changing the size of reaction chambers and their relation with one another;
Cronin calls this "reactionware" or, because it depends on a
conceptualised sequence of flow and reorientation in a 3D space, "Rubik's
Cube chemistry". "What we are trying to do is to combine the notion
of a reaction with a reactor," he says. "Conventionally the reactor
is just the passive space or the environment in which a reaction takes place.
It could be something as simple as a test tube. The printer allows it to be a
far more active context…”
Open Source
Hardware
36.
Can Open Source Hardware
Companies Survive Clones? http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/24/can-open-source-hardware-companies-survive-clones/ “In theory, this Kickstarter project aiming
to sell a sub-$2,000 MakerBot clone shouldn’t be that much of a big deal. The
MakerBot Replicator, one of the first (and best) home 3D printers in the world,
is an open source product, and as such, anyone with a little wood, some
soldering experience, and a dream should be able to build one – or a hundred
and one. But in practice the Kickstarted project, called the TangiBot, is
nearly an exact replica of the MakerBot. What happens when an open source
project begets its competitors and, more important, what does it mean for the
open source hardware ethos in general if people flock to copies at the expense
of the original? The TangiBot, built by Matt Strong, is supposed to be “a clone
of a popular open source 3D Printer” with “the same performance and features at
a roughly 33% discount.” He aims to sell it at $1,299 for a dual extruder model
(so you can print in two colors simultaneously). Compare this to $1,999 for a
dual-extruder MakerBot. Strong will find his savings by manufacturing in bulk
in China, something MakerBot has thus far avoided. “Just to be clear, there is
nothing illegal, sneaky or underhanded going on here. Everything is legal and
fair. This is simply the way open source designs work…” http://www.wired.com/design/2012/08/tangibot-makerbot-clone/
37.
Beautiful Eventorbot: A
new open-source 3D printer http://www.3dprinter.net/beautiful-eventorbot “Here’s yet another open source 3D printer in
development. There are so many garage 3D printers now that we don’t write-up
every one, but it’s a beauty and he’s got such great photos of it, we wanted to
show it to you. It’s called the Eventorbot, found on Thingiverse, which the
developer calls “simple with less materials.” The simplicity results in fewer
plastic parts in a stronger structure. The hiding of all wires makes for a
really stunning look. It’s so nice to see printers that don’t look like erector
sets. He will have a complete parts list and the STL files for all the plastic
parts uploaded within the week. In fact, I just read an update on the Facebook
page this morning that said, “I can work on the STL files or the parts list
later tonight. Which one do you guys prefer first?” You’ll be able to build
this baby for between $300 and $500…”
38.
Four Open Source 3D
Printable Mason Jar Lids http://www.treehugger.com/green-home/four-open-source-3d-printable-mason-jar-lids.html “In the not too distant future we’ll be able
to 3D print replacement parts for things that break, make art that matches our
taste, toys to play with and design objects to fill our needs around the house.
Personal 3D printers like the Thing-O-Matic and people like Alex English of
Proto Paradigm are helping democratize manufacturing. Alex has released a
useful set of 3D printable lids for canning jars to help around the kitchen. 1.
Mason Jar Lid…2. Mason Jar Fruit Fly Trap…3. Mason Jar Straining Lid…4. Mason
Jar Large Strainer…”
Open Source
39.
PC-in-a-Keyboard Comes
with Ubuntu Linux Preloaded http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/261487/pcinakeyboard_comes_with_ubuntu_linux_preloaded.html “…Uncovered last week by Liliputing, the
Diablotek U310 includes an Intel Atom D525 1.8GHz dual-core processor along
with 1MB L2 cache and 2.5 GT/s DMI. With support for Intel hyper-threading
technology, the 104-key device packs 2GB DDR3 RAM as well as a 500GB SATA
2.5-inch hard drive. Offering 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and integrated 10/100 Fast
Ethernet LAN, the U310 also features an onboard Intel Graphics Media
Accelerator 3150 and Azalia audio codec with two built-in speakers. USB 2.0,
serial, and audio ports are provided for easy connection to a wide variety of
PC peripherals, including an external DVD or CD drive. A USB mouse is included.
Perhaps best of all, of course, is that the U310 comes preloaded with Ubuntu
Linux, one of the most popular free and open source operating systems out
there. On Amazon, it's priced at $239 with free shipping…”
40.
BERO Open Source Robot
Asking For Funding On Kickstarter http://thedroidguy.com/2012/08/bero-open-source-robot-asking-for-funding-on-kickstarter/ “A very small startup established in New York
city, Reality Robots Limited, has announced a brand new Kickstarter project
with the goal to create a
“multi-motor-wireless-animated-mobile-robotic-toy-platform.” The device has
been called “BERO,” and to control it Reality Robotics is planning to create a
open source application that will run on the Android operating system. This
BERO device is based off of a Google Bug Droid robot that was observed during
the Maker Faire just last year. The inventors haven’t been able to get a
confident response one way or another from Google regrading the use of the
Google Bug Droid form, so it sounds like they are getting ready to move forward
with some different options. The startup company has developed six different
variants of the BERO device based on the funding level you decide on
Kickstarter…”
41.
The White House releases
its first open source app on Github http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/24/white-house-open-source/ “…the White House is definitely not doing
business — or government, rather — as usual. The U.S. government has released a
repository of open source code that allows citizens to create and vote on
petitions, the same functionality that drives WhiteHouse.gov. In September
2011, President Barack Obama made this commitment: Among our commitments, we’re
launching a new online tool — called “We the People” — to allow Americans to
directly petition the White House, and we’ll share that technology so any
government in the world can enable its citizens to do the same. Today the White
House fulfilled that commitment, as a repository of source code was made public
on Github. The web application allows users to create accounts, log in, set up
petitions, and vote…”
Civilian Aerospace
42.
As commercial
space race intensifies, SpaceX, Virgin find they have company http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/08/as-commercial-space-race-intensifies-spacex-virgin-find-they-have-company/ “…Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft
team held its Program Implementation Plan Review in Colorado this week, the
first milestone in its CCiCap list. CCiCap is phase 3 of NASA's Commercial Crew
vehicle development program, intended to foster commercial rides to the
International Space Station for NASA astronauts. Passing that first milestone
was worth $30M to Sierra Nevada. It advances the company toward the first drop
test and free flight of the Dream Chaser Engineering Test Article, a version of
the craft specifically built for testing, in November…SpaceX completed its COTS
(Commercial Orbital Transport Services) agreement this week with a
certification from NASA, clearing the way for SPX-1, its first standard cargo
flight to the International Space Station (the earlier flight was a test loaded
with non-critical supplies). SpaceX Cargo Resupply Services flights, at $133M,
will cost far less than deliveries launched by Russia, Japan, or the European
Space Agency. The next flight has been bumped into early October by another
rocket launch, and won't be sent off before October 8 at 8:12pm. Wet dress
rehearsals (loading up the rocket with propellants on the stand and staging
countdowns) should begin within the next week…Orbital Sciences was also slated
to fly its Antares rocket for the first time in early October, but there's no
word yet on whether the traffic jam that's holding up SpaceX will bump them
again. Antares is Orbital's COTS vehicle and a competitor of SpaceX's Falcon.
It has been delayed several times due to launchpad construction at the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia. If all goes
well, Antares will carry a Cygnus cargo spacecraft to orbit on its second
flight, in a few months, in a test very similar to the one performed by the
SpaceX Dragon earlier in the year, when it rendezvoused with the International
Space Station…”
43.
Google Lunar
X Prize; first tethered test ‘flight’ for White Label Space lunar lander http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/teams/white-label-space/blog/tethered-flight-test-1 “…A short duration hovering test hop was
conducted. Objectives for the test were: Test the ground, flight command and data
logging systems…Demonstrate that the vehicle has sufficient thrust to actually
liftoff…Record orientation data to see how the IMU coped with the flight…All
objectives were successfully achieved. The photo below shows the vehicle at the
point of lift off. Video will be posted shortly…” http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/teams/white-label-space
Supercomputing
& GPUs
44.
Cray to Add NVIDIA Kepler
GPUs to Its Next-Generation 'Cascade' Supercomputer http://www.equities.com/news/headline-story?dt=2012-08-16&val=386853&cat=tech “…Cray Inc. today announced that its
next-generation supercomputer code-named 'Cascade' will be available with
NVIDIA Tesla GPUs based on the next-generation NVIDIA Kepler GPU computing
architecture…Adding the NVIDIA Tesla Kepler-based GPUs, which are designed for
computationally intensive HPC environments, into future versions of our Cascade
system will give our customers the flexibility to choose from a variety of
powerful accelerator options.' In June, Cray announced that the Cascade
supercomputer will be available with the new Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. With
these new offerings, Cray customers will be able to customize a Cascade
supercomputer with innovative processor technologies that best meets the high
performance computing (HPC) needs of their scientific applications. NVIDIA
Tesla GPUs and Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors will be available in future versions
of Cray's Cascade supercomputer…The system will feature major advancements to
the Cray Linux Environment, Cray's HPC-optimized programming environment, and
the next-generation Aries interconnect chipset. Cascade will also feature
support for Intel Xeon processors-a first for Cray's high-end systems. 'Cascade
will be the first system to combine three key technologies: the latest Intel
Xeon CPUs, Cray's next-generation Aries system interconnect, and new Tesla
Kepler-based GPUs, the highest performance, most energy-efficient accelerators
ever built…”
45.
AMD Unveils Teraflop GPU
with ECC Support http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2012-08-08/amd_unveils_teraflop_gpu_with_ecc_support.html “Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has launched
six new FirePro processors for workstation users who want high-end graphics and
computation in a single box. One of them promises a teraflop of double
precision performance as well as support for error correcting code (ECC)
memory. The new offerings also includes two APUs (Accelerated Processing Units)
that glue four CPU cores and hundreds of FirePro GPU stream processors onto the
same chip. The straight-up GPU-based cards are the FirePro W9000, W8000, W7000
and W5000…They are based on AMD's new Graphics Core Next Architecture, which
according to the company is their "first design specifically engineered
for general computing." Application development is supported via C++ AMP
(Accelerated Massive Parallelism) and OpenCL, two open standard languages that
are meant to offer an alternative to NVIDIA's CUDA programming framework. The
top-of-the-line W9000 and W8000 are the ones built to chew on heavy-duty
numeric codes such as CAD, CAE, medical imaging, and digital content creation,
while also providing enough graphics muscle to drive up to six 30-inch
displays. Both are double-slot cards that support the newer, faster PCIe Gen3
interface. Performance-wise, the W9000 and W8000 are rather impressive beasts.
The W9000 is the one that will deliver a double precision (DP) teraflop of peak
performance. If only 32 bits of precision are required, this same chip will
provide a whopping four teraflops in single precision (SP). That outruns
NVIDIA's fastest Tesla GPU (665 DP gigaflops and 1330 SP gigaflops) by a fair
margin…”
*****
posted by myDigitechnician at 28.8.12
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