Robot mass production by Toyota

Japanese concern Toyota announced plans of development for next 12 years. Company President Kazuaki Vatanabi says that in next 2 years robotics will be basic priority in development of concern. In 2010 Toyota will release wide range of robots-assistants dedicated to help humanity in most spheres - in production, at home, in hospital etc.

Company also presented 2 models of robots. One is a mobile assistant capable of free moving indoors, other is robot-musician capable to play music on violin and violoncello.

Vatanabi said:

"Our goal is to create robots highly helpful for many people in their everyday lives. Next 2-3 years we will test our robots in multiple uses. Those models, which passed tests successfully and acquire good reputation will be mass produced.

Researches render that robots will be of most use to elderly people.

Toyota hopes to draw specialists from universities to speed-up research&development.

Technorati Tags: Toyota,corporations,Japan,manufacturing,robots

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Physics Nobel Prize to Hard Drive Technology Pioneers

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded two men who discovered Giant Magnetoresistance effect in 1988. Albert Fert from France and Peter Grunberg from Germany have discovered GMR separately each from other.

This breakthrough permitted to create hard drives with much more density of information on the disks. Although Fert and Grunberg oppend GMR in 1988 there was no hard drives working on that effect till 1997.

The GMR effect was discovered thanks to new techniques developed during the 1970s to produce very thin layers of different materials. If GMR is to work, structures consisting of layers that are only a few atoms thick have to be produced. For this reason GMR can also be considered one of the first real applications of nanotechnology.

Technorati Tags: GMR , Giant Magnetoresistance Effect , Nobel Prize , Albert Fert , Peter Grunberg

Raytheon Develops World's First Polymorphic Computer

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 20, 2007 -- The world's first computers whose architecture can adopt different forms depending on their application have been developed by Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN).

The architecture of the MONARCH processor with key elements identified

Dubbed MONARCH (Morphable Networked Micro-Architecture) and developed to address the large data volume of sensor systems as well as their signal and data processing throughput requirements, it is the most adaptable processor ever built for the Department of Defense, reducing the number of processor types required. It performs as a single system on a chip, resulting in a significant reduction of the number of processors required for computing systems, and it performs in an array of chips for teraflop throughput.

"Typically, a chip is optimally designed either for front-end signal processing or back-end control and data processing," explained Nick Uros, vice president for the Advanced Concepts and Technology group of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. "The MONARCH micro-architecture is unique in its ability to reconfigure itself to optimize processing on the fly. MONARCH provides exceptional compute capacity and highly flexible data bandwidth capability with beyond state-of-the-art power efficiency, and it's fully programmable."

In addition to the ability to adapt its architecture for a particular objective, the MONARCH computer is also believed to be the most power- efficient processor available.

"In laboratory testing MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core Xeon chip by a factor of 10," said Michael Vahey, the principal investigator for the company's MONARCH technology.

MONARCH's polymorphic capability and super efficiency enable the development of DoD systems that need very small size, low power, and in some cases radiation tolerance for such purposes as global positioning systems, airborne and space radar and video processing systems.

The company has begun tests on prototypes of the polymorphic MONARCH processors to verify they'll function as designed and to establish their maximum throughput and power efficiency. MONARCH, containing six microprocessors and a highly interconnected reconfigurable computing array, provides 64 gigaflops (floating point operations per second) with more than 60 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth and more than 43 gigabytes per second of off-chip data bandwidth.

The MONARCH processor was developed under a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) polymorphous computing architecture contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems led an industry team with the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California to create the integrated large-scale system on a chip with a suite of software development tools for programs of high value to the Department of Defense and commercial applications. Besides USC major subcontractors included Georgia Institute of Technology, Mercury Computer Systems and IBM's Global Engineering Solutions division.

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems is the leading provider of sensor systems giving military forces the most accurate and timely information available for the network-centric battlefield. With 2006 revenues of $4.3 billion and 12,000 employees, SAS is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif. Additional facilities are in Goleta, Calif.; Forest, Miss.; Dallas, McKinney and Plano, Texas; and several international locations.

Raytheon Company, with 2006 sales of $20.3 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.

(c) www.shoutwire.com

Uni.Technology Tags: Processor, Raytheon, Polymorphic Computer, MONARCH

Google to Develop a Short Term Memory

by Marcus Yam

Google to make search logs anonymous after 18 to 24 months

Google is changing its policies on storing information about its users. Each time a user conducts a search on Google, a database logs his or her keyword search, IP address and certain other bits of data stored in cookies. Currently, this information is stored indefinitely, but the new policy, which Google plans to implement over the next few months, will make the data slightly more anonymous to protect the privacy of its users.

“Previously, we kept this data for as long as it was useful,” Google officials said in statement. “Unless we're legally required to retain log data for longer, we will anonymize our server logs after a limited period of time.”

Google says it will remove the last eight bits of a user’s IP address 18 months to 24 months following the initial recording of information. All the bits before it, however, will remain intact and may still give authorities good indication on the original user. Even with the last eight bits of an IP address unknown, it is still possible to determine the approximate location and internet service provider of the user.

“Logs anonymization does not guarantee that the government will not be able to identify a specific computer or user, but it does add another layer of privacy protection to our users' data,” Google said to the media.

The U.S. government has been putting pressure on search companies to keep records of user activities in an effort to maintain national security. Privacy advocates, on the other hand, are pushing in the opposite direction and lobby for companies such as Google to maintain no records at all.

“By anonymizing our server logs after 18-24 months, we think we're striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google's services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention practices,” the Google statement said.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Uni.Technology Tags: Google, Privacy

Intel suffered but AMD surged in 2006, iSuppli says

Press release, March 16; Rodney Chan, DigiTimes.com [Friday 16 March 2007]

It was a tale of two companies in the semiconductor industry in 2006, with leading chip supplier Intel suffering a revenue decline, while rival AMD nearly doubled its sales, according to iSuppli.

"For US microprocessor giant Intel, 2006 was the worst of times, as its global semiconductor revenue dropped by 11.1% from 2005," said Dale Ford, vice president of market intelligence for iSuppli. "The revenue decline, which was due to Intel's bleak performance in its core PC microprocessor and flash-memory businesses, erased nearly all of the company's sales gains from its strong year in 2005. Intel's 2006 revenue of US$31.5 billion was less than half a percentage point higher than its sales in 2004."

"For Intel's smaller US rival, AMD, 2006 was the best of times as it achieved a whopping 91.6% increase in revenue for the year, partly due to a major acquisition, but also because of strong gains in microprocessor market share," Ford added.

This robust increase in revenue caused AMD's ranking to rise to eighth place in 2006, up seven positions from the 15th rank in 2005.

The divergent performances of Intel and AMD came during a 2006 when global semiconductor industry revenue rose by 9.3% to reach US$260.2 billion, up from US$237.98 billion in 2005. This is slightly higher than the 9% growth iSuppli predicted in its preliminary market share estimate compiled in November and released in early December.

Intel in 2006 faced hard times in its microprocessor and flash-memory businesses, which together accounted for 83% of total company revenue last year. The company's combined microprocessor and flash revenue in 2006 fell to its lowest level since 2003 as Intel faced rising competitive pressure in those markets. The revenue decline resulted in Intel's market share falling to 12.1 percent, its lowest level since before 2000.

Meanwhile, AMD in 2006 gained PC microprocessor market share at Intel's expense. AMD's PC microprocessor revenue rose by 35.5% in 2006 and its market share in that product segment increased to 16.1%, up 5 percentage points from 11.1% in 2005.

AMD's revenue also was boosted substantially by its acquisition of graphics chip seller ATI Technologies in 2006.

Looking beyond Intel and AMD, 2006 was a banner year for the leading pure-play memory chip suppliers.

Memory supplier Hynix Semiconductor of South Korea leapt to the seventh-place position in 2006, up from 11th in 2005 as its revenue surged by an impressive 41.5%. Hynix's memory revenue growth of US$2.3 billion surpassed the US$1.8 billion memory sales increase posted by memory-chip leader Samsung Electronics in 2006.

Germany's Qimonda, a newly created pure-play memory company formed from the spin-off of Infineon's memory business, increased its revenue by 54.9% in 2006.

However, the fastest growing memory supplier in 2006 and the quickest expanding supplier among the world's top-25 chip sellers-was Japan's Elpida Memory. Elpida's revenue nearly doubled in 2006, rising by 98.6% from 2005. This caused the company's ranking to rise to 19th in 2006, up from 28th in 2005.

Memory ICs were the key segment driving the growth of the overall semiconductor industry in 2006, with revenue in this area rising by 22.7%. A stronger-than-anticipated revenue increase in the fourth quarter boosted annual growth for DRAM to 35.2% in 2006.

(c) www.digitimes.com

Uni.Technology Tags: Intel, AMD, Semiconductor, Toshiba, Samsung, Rating

NVIDIA GeForce 8600-Series Details Unveiled

by Anh Huynh

NVIDIA prepares its next-generation mid-range and mainstream DirectX 10 GPUs

Earlier today DailyTech received it's briefiing on NVIDIA’s upcoming GeForce 8600GTS, 8600GT and 8500GT graphics processors. NVIDIA’s GeForce 8600GTS and 8600GT are G84-based GPUs and target the mid-range markets. The lower-positioned G86-based GeForce 8500GT serves as the flagship low to mid-range graphics card.
The budget-priced trio feature full support for DirectX 10 features including pixel and vertex shader model 4.0. NVIDIA has yet to reveal the amount of shaders or shader clocks though. Nevertheless, the trio supports NVIDIA SLI and PureVideo technologies.

NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS

 

NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT

NVIDIA touts three dedicated video engines on the G84 and G86-based graphics cards for PureVideo processing. The video engines provide MPEG-2 high-definition and WMV HD video playback up to resolutions of 1080p. G84 and G86 support hardware accelerated decoding of H.264 video as well; however, NVIDIA makes no mention of VC-1 decoding. G84 and G86 also feature advanced post-processing video algorithms. Supported algorithms include spatial-temporal de-interlacing, inverse 2:2, 3:2 pull-down and 4-tap horizontal, and 5-tap vertical video scaling.
At the top of the mid-range lineup is the GeForce 8600GTS. The G84-based graphics core clocks in at 675 MHz. NVIDIA pairs the GeForce 8600GTS with 256MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1000 MHz. The memory interfaces with the GPU via a 128-bit bus. The GeForce 8600GTS does not integrate HDCP keys on the GPU. Add-in board partners will have to purchase separate EEPROMs with HDCP keys; however, all GeForce 8600GTS-based graphics cards feature support for HDCP.
GeForce 8600GTS-based graphics cards require an eight-layer PCB. Physically, the cards measure in at 7.2 x 4.376 inches and available in full-height only. NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS graphics cards feature a PCIe x16 interface, unlike ATI’s upcoming RV630. GeForce 8600GTS-based cards still require external PCIe power. NVIDIA estimates total board power consumption at around 71-watts.
Supported video output connectors include dual dual-link DVI, VGA, SDTV and HDTV outputs, and analog video inputs. G84-based GPUs do not support a native HDMI output. Manufacturers can adapt one of the DVI-outputs for HDMI.
NVIDIA’s GeForce 8600GT is not as performance oriented as the 8600GTS. The GeForce 8600GT GPU clocks in at a more conservative 540 MHz. The memory configuration has more flexibility, letting manufacturers decide between 256MB or 128MB of GDDR3 memory. NVIDIA specifies the memory clock at 700 MHz. The GeForce 8600GT shares the same 128-bit memory interface as the 8600GTS. HDCP support on GeForce 8600GT is optional. The GPU and reference board design support the required HDCP keys EEPROM, however, the implementation is up to NVIDIA’s add-in board partners.
GeForce 8600GT-based graphics cards only require a six-layer PCB instead of the eight-layer PCB of the 8600GTS. The physical board size is also smaller too – measuring in at 6.9 x 4.376 inches. GeForce 8600GT-based cards do not require external PCIe power. NVIDIA rates the maximum board power consumption at 43-watts – 28-watts less than the 8600GTS.
The GeForce 8600GT supports similar video outputs as the 8600GTS, however, the 8600GT does not support video input features.
NVIDIA has revealed very little information on the GeForce 8500GT besides support for GDDR3 and DDR2 memory. It supports dual dual-link DVI, VGA and TV outputs as well.
Expect NVIDIA to pull the wraps off its GeForce 8600GTS, 8600GT and 8500GT next quarter in time to take on AMD’s upcoming RV630 and RV610.

(c)  www.dailytech.com

Uni.Technology Tags: nVidia, GeForce, RV630, RV610, GeForce 8600 GT, GeForce 8600 GTS, GPU, DirectX 10