Sony, Toshiba, NEC Electronics Develop 45nm Chip Platform

Sony, Toshiba and NEC Electronics Corp., said on Thursday they had jointly developed technology to mass produce cutting-edge chips.

The platform developed by the three Japanese companies will be used to make system chips, which combine multiple functions on a sliver of silicon, using 45-nanometre technology, the firms said in a joint press release. This technology was unveiled on December 13 (US Pacific Standard Time) at Session 27.2 of the 2006 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco, CA.

Chip makers worldwide are locked in a race to lower production costs on 90-, 65- and 45-nanometre chips, with the smaller circuitry widths allowing more power per chip for complex devices.

The three companies are developing a platform for low-power system chips, to be completed in early 2007.

Toshiba and NEC Electronics are also working to standardize technology to make advanced chips with circuitry width of 45-nanometres or finer with Fujitsu and Renesas Technology Corp.

The key elements of the new platform are a fully renovated MOSFET integration scheme, and a hybrid structure with a low dielectric constant (low-k) film that assures high performance and reliability.

The MOSFET integration process applies strained silicon technology to the transistor, utilizing crystal lattice distortion to induce performance-boosting local strain at key locations. Optimization of the strain boosts transistor performance to a level 30% faster than that achieved in the present generation of technology.

Application of a low-k film in the intermediate metal layer of the chip during the back-end process reduces parasitic capacitance and improves circuit performance. The three partners confirmed a dielectric gate film with an effective 15-year lifetime, a span surpassing the average lifetime of a high performance LSI. They also carried out tests of the platform and proved a layer yield of over 98% for the challenging back-end process, confirming that the technology achieves the reliability essential for mass production.

In addition, the partners have led the industry in applying immersion lithography technology with an ultra-high numerical aperture (NA) of over 1.0 to formation of the transistor node, achieving a cell with an area of 0.248 micron m2 in an ultra high density SRAM. The new cell is the smallest yet achieved.

The three companies are simultaneously developing two 45nm processes -- the current platform, which is ideal for high performance LSIs, as well as a platform for applications with low power consumption requirements, which is expected to be completed in early 2007.

[original post: www.cdrinfo.com]

Mind Controllable Robots: Too Late?

In the war between robots and humans, the humans just scored a major victory. Researchers at the University of Washington have successfully demonstrated a robotic interface operated through mind control. Utilizing an electrode cap (a non-invasive tool generating a noisy signal), mental powers commanded the robot to walk to a block, pick it up, and set it down in a designated area.

Hit the link for the video demonstration. Now we just need scientists to hone the "don't blow my head off with that laser" command and we'll be all set. – Mark Wilson

[original post: www.gizmodo.com]

Researchers speed up healing

By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer

High-tech UA bandage could be manufactured by 2008, professor says

The first clinical trials of a medical bandage that heals wounds faster concludes this month, bringing two University of Akron researchers closer to commercializing a product years in the making.

Professors Daniel Smith and Darrell Reneker used electricity to spin ultrafine polymer fibers while infusing them with chemicals that open a wound to oxygen.

The treated fibers reduce inflammation, kill bacteria and repair slow-healing wounds faster than conventional methods, Smith said.

The ``nanofiber bandage'' is particularly helpful for diabetics because the dressing releases nitric oxide gas, a natural chemical diabetics don't produce enough of, but one that is crucial for body repair.

As a bonus, the electrospun fibers are inexpensive, lightweight and elastic, and conform to any wound without sticking, he said.

The first human trials are winding up in Colombia. The South American country was chosen because it was easier to find people suffering parasitic lesions, a challenging wound that will highlight the bandage's strengths.

Smith and Reneker hope the results of those trials will win them FDA approval for clinical trials in the United States.

The university has found a Minnesota firm to make the bandages, but is encouraging the company to build the plant here.

The company, which Smith didn't want to identify yet, has a reputation for awarding plants to the areas where the technology is developed. He predicted the bandages will be ready for production by 2008 ``at the latest.''

``The company that makes these dressings will be making tens of millions of them, and that will require a lot of blue-collar workers,'' Smith said. ``And there's a good chance that work will be here.''

The university is working on other ``not-so-sexy'' nanofiber products, Smith said, and it's possible one factory could produce all of them.

The UA effort won a 2006 Innovation Award from NorTech, an economic development organization dedicated to spurring invention in Northeast Ohio.

[original post: www.ohio.com]

University Researchers Develop Multi-Terabyte DVD-size Disc

Technology shows great promise but still under long term research

Researchers at the University of Central Florida announced this week that they have developed a way to store massive amounts of data onto a disc roughly the size of a typical DVD. This sounds like another competitive format to Blu-ray or HD-DVD, but in fact, the new technology can store thousands of times that of a DVD.

The technique, say researchers, is called 3D multi-layered storage technology. Although this sounds similar to holographic storage, the technology relays on stacking ultra-thin recording layers on top of each other in a typical disc form factor. Using two lasers of different wavelengths, information can be recorded at ultra-high densities. While multi-layered discs are available today, there's an issue of cross-talk, which is when reading layer interferes with the reading or writing of another layer. According to the report:

The challenge scientists faced for years was that light is also used to read the information. The light couldn’t distinguish between reading and writing, so it would destroy the recorded information. Belfield’s team developed a way to use light tuned to specific colors or wavelengths to allow information that a user wants to keep to stay intact.

Professor Kevin D. Belfield and his research team at the university claim that they are able to solve the fundamental issue of layer interference by using two lasers of varying wavelengths (color). This way, interference is avoided, and multiple layers can be used on the same disc, allowing for massive amounts of data to be written in a small space.

Belfield and his team have received roughly $270,000 in grants for the research project. The team is busy trying to reduce the size of the device as well as make the system more economical. There's no word however on when the developing 3D technology will show up as a marketable prototype.

[original post: http://dailytech.com]

xRez - extreme high resolution images

xRez is a collection of insanely high resolution panoramic images in various categories covering natural and urban subjects. If you’re into zooming down into a gigapixel image to look up a person’s nostrils, then this is for you. Well OK, we exaggerate a tad. Awesome project though.

xRez is a consortium of digital artists committed to exploring new creative opportunites made available by the advent of extremely high-resolution gigapixel digital photography. We believe this is clearly the next revolution in photography, allowing photographic experiences with a deeper level of fidelity and impact than previously seen. Further, by combining powerful 3d tools and techniques appropriated from the visual effects field, possibilites arise of new imagery and animation that are truly novel and unprecedented.

[original post: www.redferret.net]

Google Starts Selling Domains For $10 Per Year

Google has entered the domain business with partners GoDaddy and eNom. An already crowded industry, Google has begun allowing people to register ‘.com’, ‘.net’, ‘.biz’, and ‘.info’ Web site addresses. Web sites that register their domains directly with Google for $10/year will automatically be setup to use Google Apps for Your Domain, which includes Google’s Page Creator (for easily making a Web site), Calendar, Email, and IM.
With this move, look for Google to tap more into the domain parking business using their Google AdSense for Domains product a bit more. I’d also imagine their Blogger product will integrate this announcement and allow you to easily setup a blog with your own domain for $10/year.

[original post: www.techcrunch.com]

Sony patents LED-infused, motion-tracking controller

While the PS4 might be "just around the corner," and Nintendo's Wiimote is sure to give you all the (potentially dangerous) controller flinging fits you can handle, it appears that Sony's giving the whole "controller innovation" thing another go. Sure, Sony's faced its fair share of lawsuits (hasn't everyone?), and had noticeable trouble with Dual Shock in particular, but the less-than-revolutionary SIXAXIS controller is apparently lacking a heavily-desired feature: motion tracking. We're fairly certain that Sony is watching its toes to make sure the next lawsuit to hit doesn't come from the big N, but its latest patent describes a "handheld controller having detectable elements for tracking purposes," which admittedly sounds awfully familiar. The design looks simply like a revamped version of the current SIXAXIS, with embedded LEDs on the front of the device and an "external camera (Sony's sensor bar patent?) to capture the movements" of the user. After combing through the patent jargon, there's little doubt that the goal here is to deliver a controller that allows gamers to maneuver and react with more than just button mashes, but whether or not this development will actually be realized (or if games / lawyers will end up supporting it) remains to be seen.

[original post: www.engadget.com]