Tianhe-2 | Supercomputer

For the third consecutive time, Tianhe-2, a supercomputer developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, has retained its position as the world’s No. 1 system with a performance of 33.86 Pflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second) on the Linpack benchmark, according to the 43rd edition of the twice-yearly TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

Here is the complete Top 10 List:

http://top500.org/list/2014/06/

Wearable Authentication Device | Utilizes Your Electrocardiogram (ECG)

Bionym has developed the first wearable authentication device that utilizes a user's Electrocardiogram (ECG) to validate a person’s identity. The Nymi has two electrodes, one on the wrist and one on the top. To authenticate, a user must attach the Nymi, and then place their finger on the top electrode to complete the electric current. A user only needs to validate their identity once, until the Nymi is removed. The closed loop keeps the Nymi in an authenticated state, removing all need for repeated prompts (such as in fingerprint scanning or PIN requests).

Once authenticated, the Nymi communicates the user’s identity to a device (such as a smartphone, vehicle, elctronic lock, or even a smart environtment) using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The Nymi not only uses the BLE to reliably communicate with the world, but it also uses it to sense how far away it is from devices (proximity detection). The Nymi allows users to interact with the world as a person, not as a number.

via Bionym

Holovision: Life Size Hologram

via KICKSTARTER

X-47B: Unmanned Combat Air System

The X-47B is an unmanned combat air system carrier (UCAS) being developed by Northrop Grumman for the US Navy (USN). The strike fighter size unmanned aircraft is currently in its demonstration phase. The unmanned aircraft was first developed as part of the X-47 program.
Air worthiness of the X-47B unmanned combat air system demonstrator was developed at an estimated cost of $813m. The aircraft performed a successful initial test flight at Patuxent River, Maryland, in July 2012. The X-47B is expected to enter active naval service by 2019.

The video below demonstrates the first time any unmanned aircraft has completed a touch and go landing at sea.

An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator conducts a touch and go landing on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77)

MYO - Armband Gesture Control

The MYO armband lets you use the electrical activity in your muscles to wirelessly control your computer, phone, and other favorite digital technologies.

Using groundbreaking technology, MYO is able to measure electrical activity in your muscles instantly. The result is a seamless way to interact with computers, and a truly magical sense of control. Pre-order for $149.

1TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive

Kingston Digital, Inc., announced the DataTraveler® HyperX® Predator 3.0 USB Flash drive.
DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 is the world's largest-capacity USB 3.0 Flash drive as it will be available in a 1TB capacity later in Q1.

DT HyperX Predator 3.0 is the fastest USB 3.0 Flash drive in the Kingston® family, with speeds of up to 240MB/s read and 160MB/s write. It has also achieved SuperSpeed USB 3.0 certification.

Kingston currently has a 512GB capacity available for shipping.

via Kingston

IBM's "Next Five in Five"

2012 forecast of inventions that will change your world in the next five years; how computers will mimic the senses:

Touch:        You will be able to reach out and touch through your phone

Sight:          A pixel will be worth a thousand words

Hearing:      Computers will hear what matters

Taste:         Digital taste buds will help you to eat healthier

Smell:         Computers will have a sense of smell

Building a Smarter World

Super Computers

The 40th edition of the twice-yearly TOP500 list of the world’s top supercomputers was recently released this month. 

 Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Titan is a Cray XK7 system

The world’s fastest supercomputer is Titan, a Cray XK7 system installed at Oak Ridge, achieved 17.59 Petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second) on the Linpack benchmark. Titan has 560,640 processors, including 261,632 NVIDIA K20x accelerator cores.

The Sequoia supercomputer built by IBM 

Titan knocked Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Sequoia out of No. 1 and into second place. Sequoia, an IBM BlueGene/Q system, was No. 1 in June 2012 with an impressive 16.32 Petaflop/s on the Linpack benchmark. With 1,572,864 cores, Sequoia is the first system with one million or more cores.

 Fujitsu’s K computer

Rounding out the top five systems are Fujitsu’s K computer installed at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science (AICS) in Kobe, Japan (No. 3); a BlueGene/Q system named Mira at Argonne National Laboratory (No. 4);

Mira, the 10-petaflop IBM Blue Gene/Q 

and a BlueGene/Q system named JUQUEEN at the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany (No. 5), which was upgraded and is now the most powerful system in Europe.

JUQUEEN at the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany

The other new system in the Top 10 is Stampede, a Dell PowerEdge C8220 system installed at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas in Austin. It uses the brand new Intel Xeon Phi processors (previously known as MIC) to achieve its 2.6 Petaflop/s.

In all there are 23 systems with Petaflop/s performance on the latest list, just four-and-a-half years after the debut of Roadrunner, the world’s first Petaflop/s supercomputer. In spite of delivering petascale performance on applications, the Cray Blue Waters system at NCSA at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, chose not to submit a Linpack benchmark performance figure.

via Top500

Data Distribution Over 100 Gigabit Networks

During the SuperComputing 2012 (SC12) conference November 12-16, an International team of high energy physicists, computer scientists, and network engineers led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Victoria, and the University of Michigan, together with Brookhaven National Lab, Vanderbilt and other partners, smashed their previous records for data transfers using the latest generation of wide area network circuits. 

The international team reached a transfer rate of 339 gigabits per second (Gbps)— equivalent to moving four million gigabytes (or one million full length movies) per day, nearly doubling last year's record.

The team also reached a new record for a two-way transfer on a single link by sending data at 187 Gbps between Victoria, Canada, and Salt Lake City.

via SuperComputing 2012

Self-Healing Plastic Skin

Stanford researchers has created the first synthetic material that is both self-healing at room temperature and sensitive to touch--a breakthrough that could be the beginnings of a new kind of robot skin.

The researchers took a thin strip of the material and cut it in half with a scalpel. After gently pressing the pieces together for a few seconds, they found the material gained back 75 percent of its original strength and electrical conductivity. The material was restored close to 100 percent in about 30 minutes.

The researchers succeeded by combining two ingredients – the self-healing ability of a plastic polymer and the conductivity of a metal.

They started with a plastic consisting of long chains of molecules joined by hydrogen bonds – the relatively weak attractions between the positively charged region of one atom and the negatively charged region of the next.

“These dynamic bonds allow the material to self-heal,” said Chao Wang, a co-first author of the research. The molecules easily break apart, but then when they reconnect, the bonds reorganize themselves and restore the structure of the material after it gets damaged, he said. The result is a bendable material, which even at room temperature feels a bit like saltwater taffy left in the fridge.

The team’s goal is to make the material stretchy and transparent, so that it might be suitable for wrapping and overlaying on electronic devices or display screens.

[Stanford Engineering]

Digits: A Wrist-Worn Gloveless Sensor

From Oct. 7 to 10 in Cambridge, Mass., Microsoft researchers attending UIST 2012; the 25th Association for Computing Machinery Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology; will be sharing projects and ideas with an international gathering of scientists and practitioners focused on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

Microsoft Research’s work in "HCI" helps the company achieve its long-term vision of creating intuitive interfaces that not only revolutionize interactions between humans and computers, but that also empower people from of all walks of life. Digits is one of several research projects presented during UIST 2012 that help further this vision.

Mobility always has been one of the research team’s goals. To enable ubiquitous 3-D spatial interaction anywhere, Digits had to be lightweight, consume little power, and have the potential to be as small and comfortable as a watch. At the same time, Digits had to deliver superior gesture sensing and “understand” the human hand, from wrist orientation to the angle of each finger joint, so that interaction would not be limited to 3-D points in space. Digits had to understand what the hand is trying to express, even while inside a pocket.

Digits is meant to be a general-purpose interaction platform, and to prove the utility of the technology, both the Digits technical paper being presented during UIST 2012 and an accompanying video present interactive scenarios using Digits in a variety of applications, with particular emphasis on mobile scenarios, where it can interact with mobile phones and tablets.

via Microsoft Research

"First Retail 3-D printing store" in the U.S.

MakerBot, the unofficial leader of the hobbyist 3-D printing movement, has opened a consumer store located in the posh Manhattan neighborhood of NoHo.

The first full MakerBot retail experience in the world, will give customers the unprecedented opportunity to experience the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer, live and in-person. Stop in to watch MakerBots at work, learn about 3D design and 3D printing, and leave with an authentic MakerBot-made gift for you or someone you think is cool enough to have it.

via POPSCI

Swarm of 49 Hummingbird Quadrocopters

Ars Electronica Futurelab and Ascending Technologies, featured a world record forty-nine AscTec Hummingbird quadrocopters in a synchronized and choreographed, LED-lit dance. The 500 gram robots were carrying lights and had special radio receivers and slightly modified firmware, but otherwise, they apparently just relied on GPS for positional control.

via ieee spectrum

T(ether)

T(ether) is a novel spatially aware display that supports intuitive interaction with volumetric data. The display acts as a window affording users a perspective view of three- dimensional data through tracking of head position and orientation. T(ether) creates a 1:1 mapping between real and virtual coordinate space allowing immersive exploration of the joint domain.

The system creates a shared workspace in which co-located or remote users can collaborate in both the real and virtual worlds. This allows input through capacitive touch on the display and a motion-tracked glove. When placed behind the display, the user’s hand extends into the virtual world, enabling the user to interact with objects directly.

Intel Ivy Bridge Chips

Your wait is almost over for the next-generation chip, Ivy Bridge. The new chip from Intel promises better battery life and performance improvements.

Ivy Bridge processors should be announced in the 4th week of April, between April 22 and April 28. The announcement will include only quad-core models: mobile Core i7 and Core i7 Extreme families, desktop Core i7, Core i5-3570K, i5-3570T, i5-3550, i5-3550S, i5-3450 and i5-3450S. The announced chips will be available for sale on April 29, and the reviews and benchmarks should be published on the same day.

Dual-core Ivy Bridge Core i3 chips are expected later in the year, in the third quarter--just in time for holiday shopping.

Intel calls Ivy Bridge a tick+. While CPU performance steps forward, GPU performance sees a more significant improvement - in the 20 - 50% range.

Perfect for ultrabooks and smoking fast laptops.

PCWorld
AnandTech
CPU World 

Practical Qubit Computers

Scientists at IBM Research have achieved major advances in quantum computing device performance that may accelerate the realization of a practical, full-scale quantum computer. For specific applications, quantum computing, which exploits the underlying quantum mechanical behavior of matter, has the potential to deliver computational power that is unrivaled by any supercomputer today.

How Quantum Computing Works

The most basic piece of information that a typical computer understands is a bit. Much like a light that can be switched on or off, a bit can have only one of two values: “1″ or “0″. For qubits, they can hold a value of “1” or “0” as well as both values at the same time. Described as superposition, this is what allows quantum computers to perform millions of calculations at once.

One of the great challenges for scientists seeking to harness the power of quantum computing is controlling or removing quantum decoherence – the creation of errors in calculations caused by interference from factors such as heat, electromagnetic radiation, and materials defects. To deal with this problem, scientists have been experimenting for years to discover ways of reducing the number of errors and of lengthening the time periods over which the qubits retain their quantum mechanical properties. When this time is sufficiently long, error correction schemes become effective making it possible to perform long and complex calculations.

IBM has created a high-coherence 3D qubit that retains its state for up to 100 microseconds, or 0.1 milliseconds. This is stable enough that engineers can now shift their focus to scaling up the number of qubits to create a quantum logic computer.

NASA Power Downs Last Mainframe

This month marks the end of an era in NASA computing. Marshall Space Flight Center powered down NASA’s last mainframe, the IBM Z9 Mainframe.

NERD BOTS

Adopt-a-Bot, get updates as to where we are now.

via NERD BOTS

Soundmachines

Rather clever device or as they have called it, an instrument for performing electronic music.

Three units, which resemble standard record players, translate concentric visual patterns into control signals for further processing in any music software. The rotation of the discs, each holding three tracks, can be synced to a sequencer.

This is what you get:

Rare Earth Elements – Critical Resource for High Technology

Rare earth elements are used for nuclear batteries, lasers, magnets, portable x-ray machines and aerospace components. But they are also used for your everyday items: laptops, cars, smartphones, TVs, LCD displays, light bulbs, optical networks, and cameras.

China produces over 97% of the world’s rare earth supply and has announced plans to reduce its export quota to 35,000 tons per year in 2010–2015, ostensibly to conserve scarce resources and protect the environment.

Rare earths — a block of seventeen elements in the middle of the Periodic Table (pictured below) — are not rare, but are very hard to obtain commercially. Generally, rare earth elements are only found in minute quantities in mineral deposits of clay, sand, and rock (earths!), which must then be processed to extract the rare metals — an expensive process, and also costly for the environment as billions of tons of ore must be mined and refined to yield just a few tons of usable rare earths.

Recycling electronic waste is an option to get back the throw-away elements or using technology that does not require these elements, like graphene. The end all, after they have depleted and ravaged China’s supply, is to find another source. We must quench the unsatiable thirst for our gadgets.

The United States Geological Survey is actively surveying southern Afghanistan for rare earth deposits under the protection of United States military forces. Since 2009 the USGS has conducted remote sensing surveys as well as fieldwork to verify Soviet claims that volcanic rocks containing rare earth metals exist in Helmand province near the village of Khanneshin. The USGS study team has located a sizable area of rocks in the center of an extinct volcano containing light rare earth elements including cerium and neodymium. It has mapped 1.3 million metric tons of desirable rock, or about 10 years of supply at current demand levels. The Pentagon has estimated its value at about $7.4 billion.

Rare earth elements are not exchange-traded in the same way that precious (for instance, gold and silver) or non-ferrous metals (such as nickel, tin, copper, and aluminum) are. Instead they are sold on the private market, which makes their prices difficult to monitor and track.

Read more: Wiki, Rare Elements via U.S. Geological Survey, ExtremeTech