Friday, March 23, 2007

University of Edinburgh crafts energy efficient FPGA supercomputer

Considering that ATI and NVIDIA don't seem to be making any substantial strides in reducing the amount of energy required to run their products, it's a tad surprising to hear of an entire supercomputer running a bit leaner than the competition. Hoping on the ever-growing green bandwagon, University of Edinburgh developers are at it again, this time crafting an uber-speedy machine that's reportedly "ten times more energy efficient and up to 300 times faster than its traditional equivalents." Based on field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), the chips are not only very difficult to program, but they can currently only be used "to perform very specific tasks." Of course, the creators are more interested in the extreme number crunching and power saving abilities than anything else, and while no commercial uses have been identified just yet, the machines could purportedly be used in fields such as "drug design, defense and seismology." [Via CNET]

Read More...

thin-shaped light weight which uses LED back light

2007.3.20   The liquid crystal display product for note PC of the thin-shaped light weight which uses LED back light   About line-up


   The toshiba Matsushita display technology corporation (president: Masaru Osamu Fujita), because thin shape, light weight, low electric power consumption is actualized for note PC as a liquid crystal display, LED (the light-emitting diode) 10.4 types, and 10.6 type liquid crystal displays which use back light were developed anew. Because of this, product line-up conversion was done at picture size of principal 7 types of 8.9 type ~13.3 types.  This corporation in 2005 October in the one for beginning note PC 11.1 type WXGA types of LED back light adoption commercialized in the world, started expanding the product line-up of liquid crystal display of the LED back light which combines ever since this corporation individual low temperature polysilicon technology.  LED back light, thin shape, light weight, high brightness, low is a merit of electric power consumption former CCFL (the cold cathode tube) in comparison with type. In addition, because it becomes with the mercury less, because it is kind in environment, drive voltage is low, it has possessed the merit which is superior in the design aspect and the safe aspect. Furthermore, vis-a-vis impact and the vibration it has possessed high durability.  As for picture size of the latest line-up with 8.9~13.3 type, as for resolution it is XGA and WXGA and WXGA+. It is, the product of the environmental correspondence which such as the light weight conversion is superior on the specification aspect, thin-shaped conversion of PC and long haul conversion of battery drive as a one for note PC of the Mobile use which is done to carry.  For PC of this corporation as a liquid crystal display product, it is the schedule where production ratio of LED back light type exceeds 50% on 07 latter halves.  In addition, other than adoption of LED back light, use of the thin-shaped glass below 0.3mm, in addition reduction and optimum arrangement design of the component are done for lightening, in the product of 10.4XGA with 120g and 12.1XGA 135g is actualized. And, we actualize thickness 2.5mm level because of this with the liquid crystal display product. While and, light weight, assuring thin-shaped conversion, it actualizes the high brightness of 200~300cd/m2 regarding brightness.  At this corporation, in order for us to be able to answer the needs of the customer precisely, continuation thin shape, the usability improvement of Mobile PC is supported positively by the fact that the product which actualizes lightweight/low electric power consumption consecutively is added to line-up. [The liquid crystal display product line-up for note PC of LED back light use]

Picture size

Picture prime

Mass (g)

Brightness (cd/m2)

Electric power consumption (W)

26cm (10.4 types)
1024×768/XGA
120
240
2.4
31cm (12.1 types)
1024×768/XGA
135
300
3.1
23cm (8.9 types)
1280×768/WXGA
130
200
2.9
27cm (10.6 types)
1280×768/WXGA
150
300
2.8
28cm (11.1 types)
1366×768/WXGA+
146
240
3.7
31cm (12.1 types)
1280×800/WXGA
183
300
3.5
34cm (13.3 types)
1280×800/WXGA
225
300
4.0

Information of press release statement (contents of quotation for finished goods/specification and service, ahead inquiring, it is), information as of announcement day such as URL. Because notice dying there are times when it is modified, please acknowledge beforehand. Ahead the up-to-date inquiring, we ask from the inquiry of the top page.

Read More...

Alaska Department of Revenue vaporizes $38 billion account

The Last Frontier is no stranger to computer failure on a noteworthy scale, but the latest mishap far exceeds the severity of yet another e-voting failure. A quick-fingered technician at the Alaska Department of Revenue reformatted a hard drive while handling "routine maintenance work" that contained an account worth $38 billion -- yeah, with a B. To make matters exponentially worse, he / she also deleted the backup drive for reasons unbeknownst to mere men, and we can probably assume that at least a few individuals in the department suffered a near-heart attack when they found the backup tapes completely unreadable. The only remaining proof of the oil-funded account was in 300 boxes of paperwork, which had to be digitized yet again by staff members working incredibly long hours completing work that had just been done a few months earlier. Incredibly, no one was reportedly punished for the incident, and while the recovery efforts were actually finished in just six painstaking weeks, the damage inflicted by a few careless keystrokes totaled $220,700 in excess labor costs. Ouch. [Via Fark]

Read More...

Tyan's 40 CPU Core Personal Supercomputer -- now shipping

Sure, you probably don't currently have a need for 256 gigaflops of processing power in your home. Rest assured, you will -- just as certain as the day when robots will care for our children and decorate our Christmas trees. So go 'head, raid the education fund and future proof your domicile by picking up a TYANPSC T-650 series computer from Tyan -- "PSC," as in Personal SuperComputer. Prices start at just $20,000 for a 40 CPU Core (10x quad-core Intel Xeons) system configurable with up to 60GB of RAM and a power draw of just 15A. And it's "portable" in the same way a refrigerator is portable: it has wheels. Who knows, maybe you can put those spare cycles to use by solving the traveling salesman problem. Better yet, join Engadget's Folding@Home team for some hardcore protein folding fun. [Via 64-bit-computers]

Read More...

SilverBrook Designing World's Fastest Printer

SilverBrook may be a no-name in the world of tech (they've never released a single product), but all that can change if this baby comes to fruition—it's a super-fast "memjet" printer capable of shooting out two pages per second. Memjet refers to the technology behind the printer, which is a cousin of the inkjet. The difference is that this memjet printer uses a print head that spans the width of a standard-size page. The printer is expected to debut for $200. Smells like vaporware, but I hope it's not.

Read More...