Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, May 26, 2008

Samsung announces crazy fast 256GB SSD, our knees buckle

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/298054922/

Filed under: Storage

Uh oh, Samsung's just announced their first 256GB SSD. Not that you needed to know anything more than that to trigger salivation, but the MLC-flash SATA II drive has speeds of 200MBps read and 160MBps sequential write. Not like we'll be able to afford it or anything, but they'll be available come September, with a 1.8-inch version due in Q4.

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NVIDIA might get even deeper into the embedded CPU game

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/298212031/

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Okay, they're only embedded ARM chips, but le Inq is reporting that NVIDIA's prepping not just the the Tegra APX 2500 we heard about before, but also a second line of high performance embedded CPUs. Supposedly the forthcoming CSX 600 / 650 will run in the 700-800MHz range, and be capable of 1080p / 24fps video playback. We'll give these guys until, say, 2010 before they're jockeying for AMD's spot at number two in desktop processors.

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Physicists develop plastic semiconductors for laser diode use

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/298267579/

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Not to get all scientific on you or anything, but a team of Imperial physicists have just figured out a way to use plastics in laser diodes. For the uninitiated, scientists have been unable to make plastic semiconductor laser diodes because they had not yet found / developed "any plastics that could sustain a large enough current whilst also supporting the efficient light emission needed to produce a laser beam." Now, however, that obstacle has reportedly been overcome by making minor tweaks to a given plastic's chemical structure, and the resulting material will transport charges some 200 times better than before without impeding its ability to emit light. By the sound of things, the crew behind the breakthrough isn't quite ready to offer up the solution to manufacturers, but with a bit more work, we suspect that notion will change.

[Via Slashdot]

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Friday, May 23, 2008

LG Develops Largish Double-Sided LCD [SID 2008]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/296027042/lg-develops-largish-double+sided-lcd

We've seen double-sided LCDs before, but they're generally quite small and prototyped for cellphone use. This week, LG is showing off a prototype that's conceivably TV-sized at (an admittedly still small) 15 inches. Running a resolution of 2048 x 1536 and offering a four-color sub-pixel arrangement (red, blue, green and white), we could only imagine the implications of a tablet PC that could otherwise be a normal laptop (without an awkward Exorcist maneuver) or a TV that could accommodate Gears of War 2 and Grey's Anatomy at the same time. Of course, even if the product were released, you know they'd just charge double for the privilege. [Tech-On]

Google Adds Climate-Change-Predicting Layers to Google Earth [Environment]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/296119050/google-adds-climate+change+predicting-layers-to-google-earth

Google has teamed up with the British Government to create a couple of really interesting new environmental layers to Google Earth based on climate change estimates for the next century or so.

The first layer, produced from the data supplied by the Hadley Centre depicts CO2 concentrations spanning from November 1999 forward to October 2099. Along the time line, annotated place markers pop up to provide information on the impact of global climate change for specific regions and links to external resources on the topic.
The second layer, utilizing data provided by The British Antarctic Survey, documents the Antarctic ice shelves retreat since 1940 and constructs a projected regression through June 2099. The layer is covered with dates of specific discoveries and documents the retreats of 10 different ice shelves.

The layers are available now if you're interested in finding out just how screwed we'll all be without sunscreen in a few years. [Google LatLong via PSFK]