Fulcrum buy could signal shift for Intel

SAN FRANCISCO-Intel's agreement to acquireFulcrum Microsystems Incfor an undisclosed sum could signal a significant change of direction for theworld's biggest chip maker toward providing a comprehensive high-performance,low power solution for data centers.

Fulcrum (Calabasas, Calif), aprivately held, fabless company, produces high bandwidth network switchingchips based on an asynchronous switching fabric for data center networkproviders. The acquisition of Fulcrum could give Intel a head start on anend-to-end solution for data centers.

"Intel is transforming from aleading server technology company to a comprehensive data center provider thatoffers computing, storage, and networking building blocks," said KirkSkaugen, Intel vice president and general manager of the company's Data CenterGroup, in a statement. Skaugen said Fulcrum's switch silicon complementsIntel's processors and Ethernet controllers and would enable Intel to offercustomers new levels of performance and energy efficiency while improving theeconomics of cloud service delivery.

Fulcrum, founded in 2000, waspreviously included on early integrations of the EE Times 60 Emerging Startupslist. The company has announced several rounds of venture funding over theyears totaling at least $55 million for the development of its clockless 10Gigabit Ethernet and 40 Gigabit Ethernet chips. Fulcrum's technology removesthe central clock, which can result in chips consuming less power whileperforming at gigahertz performance in standard commodity manufacturingprocesses.

Intel (Santa Clara, Calif) said theacquisition would fulfill an important component in the company's strategy todeliver comprehensive data center building blocks, from server processors andtechnologies to storage and networking.

The acquisition agreement remains subjectto the approval of Fulcrum Microsystems shareholders, as well as regulatoryapproval and other customary closing conditions, Intel said. It is expected toclose in the third quarter of 2011, the company said.

This story was originally posted by EETimes.

Fulcrum buy could signal shift for Intel

How memory is lost: Loss of memory due to aging may be reversible

ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011) — Yale University researchers can't tell you where you left your car keys -- but they can tell you why you can't find them.

A new study published July 27 in the journal Nature shows the neural networks in the brains of the middle-aged and elderly have weaker connections and fire less robustly than in youthful ones. Intriguingly, the research suggests that this condition is reversible.

"Age-related cognitive deficits can have a serious impact on our lives in the Information Age as people often need higher cognitive functions to meet even basic needs, such as paying bills or accessing medical care," said Amy Arnsten, Professor of Neurobiology and Psychology and a member of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience. "These abilities are critical for maintaining demanding careers and being able to live independently as we grow older."

As people age, they tend to forget things more often, are more easily distracted and disrupted by interference, and have greater difficulty with executive functions. While these age-related deficits have been known for many years, the cellular basis for these common cognitive difficulties has not been understood. The new study examined for the first time age-related changes in the activity of neurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the area of the brain that is responsible for higher cognitive and executive functions.

Networks of neurons in the prefrontal cortex generate persistent firing to keep information "in mind" even in the absence of cues from the environment. This process is called "working memory," and it allows us to recall information, such as where the car keys were left, even when that information must be constantly updated. This ability is the basis for abstract thought and reasoning, and is often called the "Mental Sketch Pad." It is also essential for executive functions, such as multi-tasking, organizing, and inhibiting inappropriate thoughts and actions.

Arnsten and her team studied the firing of prefrontal cortical neurons in young, middle-aged and aged animals as they performed a working memory task. Neurons in the prefrontal cortex of the young animals were able to maintain firing at a high rate during working memory, while neurons in older animals showed slower firing rates. However, when the researchers adjusted the neurochemical environment around the neurons to be more similar to that of a younger subject, the neuronal firing rates were restored to more youthful levels.

Arnsten said that the aging prefrontal cortex appears to accumulate excessive levels of a signaling molecule called cAMP, which can open ion channels and weaken prefrontal neuronal firing. Agents that either inhibited cAMP or blocked cAMP-sensitive ion channels were able to restore more youthful firing patterns in the aged neurons. One of the compounds that enhanced neuronal firing was guanfacine, a medication that is already approved for treating hypertension in adults, and prefrontal deficits in children, suggesting that it may be helpful in the elderly as well.

Arnsten's finding is already moving to the clinical setting. Yale is enrolling subjects in a clinical trial testing guanfacine's ability to improve working memory and executive functions in elderly subjects who do not have Alzheimer's Disease or other dementias.

How memory is lost: Loss of memory due to aging may be reversible

How memory is lost: Loss of memory due to aging may be reversible

ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011) — Yale University researchers can't tell you where you left your car keys -- but they can tell you why you can't find them.

A new study published July 27 in the journal Nature shows the neural networks in the brains of the middle-aged and elderly have weaker connections and fire less robustly than in youthful ones. Intriguingly, the research suggests that this condition is reversible.

"Age-related cognitive deficits can have a serious impact on our lives in the Information Age as people often need higher cognitive functions to meet even basic needs, such as paying bills or accessing medical care," said Amy Arnsten, Professor of Neurobiology and Psychology and a member of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience. "These abilities are critical for maintaining demanding careers and being able to live independently as we grow older."

As people age, they tend to forget things more often, are more easily distracted and disrupted by interference, and have greater difficulty with executive functions. While these age-related deficits have been known for many years, the cellular basis for these common cognitive difficulties has not been understood. The new study examined for the first time age-related changes in the activity of neurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the area of the brain that is responsible for higher cognitive and executive functions.

Networks of neurons in the prefrontal cortex generate persistent firing to keep information "in mind" even in the absence of cues from the environment. This process is called "working memory," and it allows us to recall information, such as where the car keys were left, even when that information must be constantly updated. This ability is the basis for abstract thought and reasoning, and is often called the "Mental Sketch Pad." It is also essential for executive functions, such as multi-tasking, organizing, and inhibiting inappropriate thoughts and actions.

Arnsten and her team studied the firing of prefrontal cortical neurons in young, middle-aged and aged animals as they performed a working memory task. Neurons in the prefrontal cortex of the young animals were able to maintain firing at a high rate during working memory, while neurons in older animals showed slower firing rates. However, when the researchers adjusted the neurochemical environment around the neurons to be more similar to that of a younger subject, the neuronal firing rates were restored to more youthful levels.

Arnsten said that the aging prefrontal cortex appears to accumulate excessive levels of a signaling molecule called cAMP, which can open ion channels and weaken prefrontal neuronal firing. Agents that either inhibited cAMP or blocked cAMP-sensitive ion channels were able to restore more youthful firing patterns in the aged neurons. One of the compounds that enhanced neuronal firing was guanfacine, a medication that is already approved for treating hypertension in adults, and prefrontal deficits in children, suggesting that it may be helpful in the elderly as well.

Arnsten's finding is already moving to the clinical setting. Yale is enrolling subjects in a clinical trial testing guanfacine's ability to improve working memory and executive functions in elderly subjects who do not have Alzheimer's Disease or other dementias.

How memory is lost: Loss of memory due to aging may be reversible

Wave power can drive sun's intense heat

ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011) — A new study sheds light on why the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is more than 20 times hotter than its surface. The research, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), may bring scientists a step closer to understanding the solar cycle and the Sun's impacts on Earth.

The study uses satellite observations to reveal that magnetic oscillations carrying energy from the Sun's surface into its corona are far more vigorous than previously thought. These waves are energetic enough to heat the corona and drive the solar wind, a stream of charged particles ejected from the Sun that affects the entire solar system.

"We now understand how hot mass can shoot upward from the solar interior, providing enough energy to maintain the corona at a million degrees and fire off particles into the high-speed solar wind," says Scott McIntosh, the study's lead author and a scientist in NCAR's High Altitude Observatory. "This new research will help us solve essential mysteries about how energy gets out of the Sun and into the solar system."

The study, published this week in the journal Nature, was conducted by a team of scientists from NCAR, Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab, Norway's University of Oslo, and Belgium's Catholic University of Leuven. It was funded by NASA. NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Jets and waves

The flow of mass and energy from the corona influences how much ultraviolet radiation reaches Earth. It also drives upper-atmospheric disturbances known as geomagnetic storms, which can disrupt technologies ranging from telecommunications to electrical transmission.

The new study focuses on the role of oscillations in the corona, known as Alfven waves, in moving energy through the corona.

Alfven waves were directly observed for the first time in 2007. Scientists recognized them as a mechanism for transporting energy upward along the Sun's magnetic field into the corona. But the 2007 observations showed amplitudes on the order of about 1,600 feet (0.5 kilometers) per second, far too small to heat the corona to its high levels or to drive the solar wind.

The new satellite observations used in the current study reveal Alfven waves that are over a hundred times stronger than previously measured, with amplitudes on the order of 12 miles (20 km) per second -- enough to heat the Sun's outer atmosphere to millions of degrees and drive the solar wind. The waves are easily seen in high-resolution images of the outer atmosphere as they cause high-speed jets of hot material, called spicules, to sway.

"The new satellite observations are giving us a close look for the first time at how energy and mass move through the Sun's outer atmosphere," McIntosh says.

The research builds on ongoing efforts to study the connection between spicules and Alfven waves. Scientists have known about spicules for decades but were unable to determine if their mass got hot enough to provide heat for the corona until earlier this year, when McIntosh and colleagues published research in the journal Science that used satellite observations to reveal that a new class of the phenomenon, dubbed "Type II" spicules, moves much faster and reaches coronal temperatures.

The new study reveals the role of Alfven waves. These oscillations play a critical role in transporting heat from the Sun by riding on the spicules and carrying energy into the corona.

Photographing our nearest star

The critical satellite observations described in the study come from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, a package of instruments aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which was launched in 2010. The instruments boast high spatial and temporal resolution, enough to detect structures and motions across regions of the Sun as small as 310 miles (500 km) and generate images every 12 seconds at different wavelengths.

"It's like getting a microscope to study the Sun's corona, giving us the spatial and temperature coverage to focus in on the way mass and energy circulate." McIntosh says.

Now that the real power of the waves has been revealed in the corona, the next step in unraveling the mystery of its extreme heat is to study how the waves lose their energy, which is transferred to plasma. To do that, scientists will need to develop computer models that are fine enough in detail to capture how the jets and waves work together to power the atmosphere. By studying the Sun's underlying physics with these tools, scientists could better understand the Sun's 11-year sunspot cycle and its impacts on Earth.

Wave power can drive sun's intense heat

Apple's got its eye on mobile games

In the eye of the typical beholder, Apple's iPhone is simply a popular device, great for fun, on-the-go applications-and phone calls.

But mobile-game publisher Neil Young sees the iPhone as a catalyst for a revolution in entertainment that's beginning to spread from mobile devices to the home.

Users of the iPhone and Apple tablet iPad already are setting the pace for spending on games and other apps, so it "seems inevitable" that these devices will jockey for space on the TV, says Young, 41, who helped produce big-name video games at Electronic Arts before leaving to start his own company, NGmoco, in 2008.

"We are 12 to 24 months away from being able to disrupt the living room with experiences that you might be playing on an iPad version four, but projecting ... to a TV in your living room," he predicts. It'll be "every bit as good" as the experience of playing a high-end console game today, he adds.

With more than 200 million devices running Apple's mobile operating system-and 100,000 games available-Apple has transformed the traditional mobile-game marketplace. Spending on mobile games is expected to account for 15 percent of all spending on game software this year, rising to 20 percent in 2015, research company Gartner predicts.

That momentum has Apple flexing its muscles in the marketplace. And, because those who play games are more willing than downloaders of any other app to actually pay for content, analysts don't expect Apple's star to fade anytime soon. IHS/Screen Digest expects the sale of games in Apple's App Store to approach $2 billion worldwide in 2011, up about 75 percent from 2010. The closest mobile-games rival, Android Market, is forecast at $170 million for 2011, the firm says.

To be sure, console games played on systems such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 remain the dominant force in video games, accounting for about 40 percent of the projected $74 billion to be spent globally on games in 2011, Gartner says.

Hit video games still sell very well. First-person shooter game Call of Duty: Black Ops has earned Activision Blizzard more than $1 billion in sales since its November release. But sales of console games have plateaued in recent years, with mobile and online games supplying most of the industry growth.

Apple's ecosystem, which lets players shop for apps in the iTunes Store, benefits gamemakers and players, says IHS/Screen Digest analyst Jack Kent.

While more smartphone owners have Android-based devices (38 percent) than iPhones (27 percent), the Apple device has shown more growth recently as Android sales flattened among new buyers, according to research firm Nielsen.

IPhone gamers are dedicated, too, playing about 14.7 hours each month, compared with 9.3 hours monthly for Android-based mobile gamers and 4.7 hours for owners of other phones.

"IPhone and iPad users tend to be more voracious consumers of apps, which brings in more developers," says Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen.

Development of mobile games takes months compared with years for top-tier console games. That allows mobile-game developers to more quickly shift gears to meet players' desires.

A hot trend: Free games that let players buy virtual items, such as Zynga Poker and Tap Zoo, have begun dominating the App Store's top 10 grossing apps list, meaning that consumers are spending as much or more on items in free games than on paid games, according to Strategy Analytics AppTRAX.

"Business models are certainly shifting from a simply à la carte model to one focused more on engagement and getting users to buy virtual goods to enhance the game-play experience," says Strategy Analytics' Josh Martin. "This is a trend I expect will proliferate globally both on iPhone and very quickly move to other platforms."

Traditional video game powerhouses are responding to mobile games' momentum by adding new gimmicks and technologies to their devices. So far, those efforts have met with varying success. Nintendo's new handheld game system, the $250 Nintendo 3DS, offers glasses-free 3-D games, but sales have been slow since its March release.

Sony's motion-sensitive PlayStation Vita, expected to begin its global rollout this holiday season ($249-$299), has a state-of-the-art touch-screen that offers richer colors and uses less power, plus a rear touch-pad and built-in cameras. Also in the works: the PlayStation Suite, an initiative that includes an open operating system for creating games for Android phones and other PlayStation Certified devices, including the PS Vita and Sony Ericsson Xperia Play phone.

Among gamemakers, Activision Blizzard has announced Call of Duty Elite, an online service to connect Call of Duty players and provide improved features. Some features will be free, while others will require a paid subscription.

Some traditional gamemakers are hopping on the mobile game bandwagon. No. 2 publisher Electronic Arts has beefed up its mobile and online offerings with acquisitions of companies such as Chillingo (Angry Birds ), social-network game publisher Playfish (Restaurant City) Firemint (Flight Control) and PopCap Games (Bejeweled). An update to Firemint's latest game, Real Racing 2, lets players see the behind-the-wheel point of view on the TV, connected via an HDMI cable, while using the iPad 2 as a steering wheel and map.

With the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, Apple has "delivered on the promise of mobile," says Travis Boatman, senior vice president at EA Mobile. "It's like a blank canvas. It allows game designers to create any kind of interface they want for their game and change it on the fly, too. They are not constrained by the physical hardware, and that opens up a lot of innovation and new types of game play."

And social-gaming powerhouse Zynga, which made its name on Facebook and earlier this month filed for an IPO that could value the company at $20 billion, has brought games such as FarmVille to iPhone and iPad. It also recently announced plans to bring Words With Friends and Zynga Poker to Android devices.

Other long-term hard-core gaming developers that have embraced the iPhone include Id Software, which offers the new Rage HD, as well as redesigned mobile versions of classic first-person shooters Doom and Wolfenstein.

And Epic Games (Gears of War) even rejiggered its game development engine so mobile-game makers can use it. The studio's own game, Infinity Blade, which has surpassed $10 million in sales, got rave reviews for raising the bar in terms of high-quality graphics and game play.

Blockbuster, high-quality game releases aren't going away, they are "going everywhere," says Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski, repeating the mantra of fellow Epic executive Vice President Mark Rein. "When users get used to a certain caliber or quality of game, there's no going back."

As for Young, he comes by his iPhone devotion honestly. Even when he was working on console games for Electronic Arts, he queued up with millions of others to buy the first iPhone. "When I got the device and I took it home, I noticed very quickly that I wasn't using it really to make telephone calls," he says. "I was using it to browse the Web and look at my stocks, check my e-mail and watch video or listen to music."

The more time he spent with the iPhone, Young says, he realized "The device had this unique blend of usability and capability that was actually changing how I was using it and how much time I was spending with it."

When Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs introduced the App Store and the game-development tools in March 2008, Young says he knew "this was going to change the consumer's relationship with the content."

Three months later, he founded NGmoco ( next-generation mobile company) with a $5.6 million investment from venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. NGmoco launched its first two games-MazeFinger and Topple-in October 2008.

Three years later, Young and NGmoco are expanding to help developers redesign their iPhone games for Android devices and create iPhone games with their ngCore technology.

Sounding as much like an economics professor as a games enthusiast, Young continues to see games trending up. "There are hundreds of millions of people, if not billions of people, that play games," he says. "That is a good macro."

(c) 2011, USA Today.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Apple's got its eye on mobile games

Sony shows off two new unique Android tablets

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(PhysOrg.com) -- Sony has finally unveiled the S1 and S2; two uniquely shaped tablets, that it says, are for the more status minded buyer. Though both run the Android operating system, neither is shaped like the mostly etch-a-sketch designs currently on the market. The S1 has a folded back looking top that was designed to look and feel like a magazine that has been folded back. Company reps say that makes it more comfortable to hold in one hand. The S2 is a dual screen tablet embedded in a clam-shell case that can be opened and closed, making it look, as one observer at a recent press junket in New York described, like a sunglasses case.

The S1 and S2 will be the first tablets introduced by Sony into the United States, and both appear to be aimed at users who are both looking for something different and have the money to pay for it.

In addition to being more comfortable to hold, the added thickness at the top of the S1 means that when it’s laid on a table it tilts slightly towards the user, rather than at the ceiling, making it easier to read and type. Listed as a 9.4 inch tablet, the S1, which like the S2 will almost certainly be renamed before its official launch sometime in the fall, features both a USB and docking port.

The S2, listed as a 5.5 inch tablet, actually provides a virtual 10 inch screen when the images on the two screens are used as one; it can be used either horizontally or vertically, which makes it ideal for reading eBooks in one direction and for use as a regular tablet in the other. Its big selling point is that it can be closed and put in a pocket, even if just barely.

Both tablets are based on the NVIDIA Tegra 2 system on a chip (SoC) and have been, according to Sony, optimized to provide a faster user experience. Oddly, the S1 doesn’t have cellular connectivity, and thus the only means for getting online is via WiFi. The S2 on the hand can’t connect via WiFi; users will connect using only AT&T’s (in the U.S.) wireless services. Another draw for these two tablets is that both will have a PlayStation Certification, which means both will be able to run the PlayStation games that have been ported to an emulator on Android systems.

Pricing for the two new tablets has yet to be announced.

© 2010 PhysOrg.com

Sony shows off two new unique Android tablets

UT Austin Villa wins World RoboCup championships in 3-D simulation

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The Virtual Nao, which is used in the RoboCupSoccer 3-D Simulation league, is generated by the Spark Generic Physical Multiagent Simulator (SimSpark). Credit: SimSpark

UT Austin Villa, a team of programmers led by University of Texas at Austin computer scientists Peter Stone and Patrick MacAlpine, has won the 2011 RoboCupSoccer championships in the 3-D simulation division.

The annual tournament, which was founded in 1997 to foster innovation in artificial intelligence and robotics research, was held last week in Istanbul, Turkey.

The UT Austin Villa team beat 21 other teams from 11 nations for the trophy. In the process they scored 136 goals and conceded none.

The key to victory, says Stone, was that he and his graduate and undergraduate students taught their robots to teach themselves.

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

This is a three-minute clip from the second half of the championship game in the 3-D Simulation league in RoboCupSoccer 2011. Credit: Peter Stone

"Most of the other teams used hand-coding," says Stone, associate professor of computer science. "They chose where to put the joints, how to tweak the walk. They tuned it by hand. We used the distributed computing cluster here in the department, which has hundreds of computers, in order to do machine learning. Every night we would have the robots practice. They would try walking one way and score themselves based on how quickly and how stably they could get to the ball and direct it toward the goal, and then the next night they'd do it again, trying different approaches and refining the ones that worked. About three weeks before the competition we came up with this walk that was suddenly able to beat anything we could see from the other teams."

The walk gave the UT Austin Villa players such an enormous advantage, says Stone, that he and his co-programmers were able to devote a considerable amount of each game to testing a pass-based strategy they knew would be less effective than the dribble-based strategy with which their robots scored most of their goals.

"We were thinking about next year," says Stone. "If other teams catch up to us on the walk, which I think they will, then it'll be much more about passing and positioning."

That kind of rapid advancement, says Stone, is the point of the Simulation League, which is the only one of the five leagues in the tournament that doesn't involve real nut-and-bolt robots. Instead, the games are played by two teams of nine autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) programs. The programs battle it out in a videogame-like environment.

Each "player" has to react, in real time, to the data being sent to it by its teammates and by the simulator, which models the physics of the real world and is constantly recalculating its datastream based on where the 18 different players are going, when they're bumping into each other, when they're falling down and where they kick the ball.

"It's one level abstracted away from the real world," says Stone, who also fields one of the top teams in the Standard Platform league. "The simulated robots don't have a vision sensor. Instead they're told their distance and angle from the ball and the goal, which is something you get from real robots only after some processing. They still have to figure out where they are on the field, however, and where their teammates are by combining data from each other. You still see them falling over when they get knocked into each other. They still have to learn how to walk, which is the biggest technical challenge in the real and simulation leagues."

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A screen shot of the soccer simulation with 9 vs. 9 Nao agents. The simulation is generated by the Spark Generic Physical Multiagent Simulator (SimSpark). Credit: SimSpark

Because it's not nearly as expensive to test simulated robots, and because much of the experimentation can be done in the wee hours, without humans around to pick up the robots that fall down, there's more time and less cost to trying out new strategies. And because RoboCupSoccer is fundamentally an academic enterprise, dedicated to advancing science, the novel strategies that succeed are published in academic journals, inspiring other teams to incorporate the advances.

"We actually introduced this idea of learning-based walks in the Standard Platform league back in 2004," says Stone, "and everybody started using it. But then the tournament switched from robot dogs to robot humanoids, which are less stable, so people went back to hand coded methods. Now that we've won the competition, I'd be really surprised if at next year's competition there aren't several teams that are walking like this, in the simulation league at least, and possibly in the other leagues as well."

The larger goal, says Stone, is one that's being accomplished every year, no matter who wins and loses. It's to improve the science and technology of autonomous robots so they can improve the world. With this broader goal in mind, RoboCup has expanded since its founding to include a variety of other tournaments. Teams in the RoboCupRescue tournament compete to master tasks that might aid in search and rescue in large-scale disaster situations. RoboCup@Home is oriented toward applications that can assist people in everyday life. And RoboCupJunior is for the kids (up to age 19).

RoboCup has already changed the world, says Stone, who is on the board of trustees of the organization and has been competing since the beginning. Robots first developed for the competition were recently deployed in Fukushima, Japan, after the nuclear reactor disaster. One of the early winners of the RoboCupSoccer tournament, a professor from Cornell University, isthe mastermind behind the robots that are now managing inventory and filling orders at the warehouses of companies like Amazon, Staples, Walgreens, Zappos and the Gap.

It's likely to be a while, says Stone, until intelligent robots are ubiquitous in our lives, folding our laundry and unloading our dishwashers. But other aspects of a Jetsons-like future aren't so far off, he predicts.

"If I had to guess about where robots are most likely to have a big real world impact, in the near future," he said, "I'd say it's on the roads. Autonomous cars. There's a clear task. Roads are well defined. The technology is getting close. There would be huge economic benefits, and huge social benefits in terms of allowing mobility to people who don't have it now."

Provided by University of Texas at Austin (news : web)

UT Austin Villa wins World RoboCup championships in 3-D simulation

Threatened by iPad, PCs start to look like tablets

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In this product image provided by Acer Inc., the Acer Iconia laptop is displayed. The Iconia, a Windows laptop that looks like any other when the lid is down. When you open it, you'll find two touch-sensitive screens and no keyboard, similar to a tablet computer. To type, you bring up a virtual keyboard on the lower screen. If you're not using the keyboard, Web pages can flow from the top screen to the bottom one.(AP Photo/Acer Inc.)

The response by computer makers to the iPad stealing sales from them: Make their PCs more like iPads.

The "if you can't beat `em, join `em" strategy" is prompting a wave of experimentation with the design of the laptop, which has been largely unchanged for two decades. Touch-sensitive screens and the use of Google's Android system for mobile devices are two ways the PC industry is adapting.

About 50 million tablets are expected to be sold this year, and that could double to as many as 100 million next year. PC shipments worldwide grew just over 2 percent in the second quarter, short of what research firms IDC and Gartner had expected. The popularity of tablet computers was one of the main reasons.

One way PC makers are countering the threat is with iPad-style tablets running Android, but these haven't seen wide success so far. And in trying to emulate the iPad, they're competing with not just Apple, but also with phone makers such as Motorola Inc., which are launching their own tablets.

So PC makers are offering hybrids that try to offer the best of both worlds. Some are tablet-like devices that come with keyboards, which the iPad doesn't have. Others are PC-like, combining the tablet's signature touch-screen with the ability to run heavy-duty Windows programs for photo editing and design.

Witness the Acer Iconia, a Windows laptop that looks like any other when the lid is down. When you open it, you'll find two touch-sensitive screens and no keyboard, similar to a tablet computer. To type, you bring up a virtual keyboard on the lower screen. If you're not using the keyboard, Web pages can flow from the top screen to the bottom one.

Another iPad-like laptop is the Dell Inspiron Duo. Its screen can be flipped around to face outward when the lid is closed. When folded that way, it works like a tablet.

Lenovo Group also sells a Windows laptop with a screen that can be detached from the keyboard to function as an Android tablet.

"We should learn some things from tablets," such as the iPad's user-friendly interface and the ease of installing software from outside parties, said Yang Yuanquing, the CEO of Lenovo, the world's fourth-largest maker of PCs.

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest maker of personal computers, is giving its PCs the ability to run applications written for its webOS software, which runs on smartphones and a tablet, the TouchPad.

In their experimentation, PC makers are reviving designs haven't been very successful in their previous incarnations. The laptop with a screen that detaches to become a tablet is an idea that dates to 2002, when a flurry of tablet computers debuted along with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Tablet Edition.

This earlier generation of tablet PCs didn't catch on because they were expensive and too heavy for comfortable use in tablet mode. "Windows Tablet Edition" wasn't much different from regular Windows, and it wasn't fully adapted for tablet use. Microsoft added more touch-oriented features when it released Windows 7 in 2009.

Even with the improvements in Windows, however, the PC faces hurdles in mimicking the tablet's design.

Windows isn't a very friendly operating system for tablets, partly because it needs Intel-style processors to run on. These chips drain batteries much faster than the cellphone-style chips used in the iPad, with a core designed by ARM Holdings PLC. ARM chips can save power by turning off parts of themselves when they're not in use, among other tricks.

"A lot of what makes the iPad an iPad is the long battery life," technology analyst Rob Enderle said.

Windows-based PCs and tablet computers that use Intel chips need bigger batteries, which make the devices heavier. Even then, the batteries don't last as long as the iPad's. The Dell Inspiron Duo weighs 3.4 pounds, or two and a half times the weight of the iPad. It has four hours of battery life, compared with 10 on the iPad.

Microsoft is hard at work developing a version of Windows that will run on ARM chips, and it's expected to be ready next year. That means the next generation of laptops could match the iPad for weight and battery life.

But while waiting for the new software, PC makers are in an uncomfortable situation. The new software might be what they need, but in the meantime, they have to try other means to distract consumers from the iPad, such as borrowing tablet features. These experiments with laptop-tablet hybrids are unlikely to be as important as the advent of the new system, currently dubbed Windows 8. But something might stick, providing a model for the future of PCs.

"Right now the PC industry is fighting kind of a holding action," Enderle said.

More information:
Dell Inspiron Duo: http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-duo/pd

Acer Iconia: http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/iconia-home

Asus Eee Slate: http://bit.ly/oZTTPv

©2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Threatened by iPad, PCs start to look like tablets

SKorean students ditch paper for digital books

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In this Friday, July 15, 2011 photo, South Korean student Kim Jae-min, center, and his classmates use tablet PCs to study in a class at Sosu Elementary School in Gwesan, South Korea. The country is taking a $2 billion gamble that its students are ready to ditch paper textbooks in favor of tablet PCs as part of a vast digital scholastic network. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Outside the classroom a hot summer day beckons, but fourth-grade teacher Yeon Eun-jung's students are glued to their tablet PCs as they watch an animated boy and a girl squabble about whether water becomes heavier when frozen.

The small scene in this rural town is part of something big: South Korea is taking a $2 billion gamble that its students are ready to ditch paper textbooks in favor of tablet PCs as part of a vast digital scholastic network.

France, Singapore, Japan and others are racing to create classrooms where touch-screens provide instant access to millions of pieces of information. But South Korea - Asia's fourth-largest economy - believes it enjoys an advantage over these countries, with kids who are considered the world's savviest navigators of the digital universe.

A 2009 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-headquartered grouping of wealthy nations, found 15-year-olds in South Korea scored highest in their ability to absorb information from digital devices, beating runners-up New Zealand and Australia by a large margin.

At Sosu Elementary School in Goesan, principal Jo Yong-deuk speaks of a future in which his students interact in virtual reality with Ludwig van Beethoven and Abraham Lincoln. In the classroom, the children scribble answers in their tablet PCs with touchscreen pens as they watch the video clip explaining the scientific properties of frozen water.

"I liked this chapter, but my favorite clip is one where they show how flowers blossom and trees bear fruit in spring," 11-year-old Jeong Ho-seok said with a wide grin.

More than 60 primary, middle and high schools are now using digital textbooks as part of their curriculum, according to the state-run Korea Education and Research Information Service, which provides technical support for the program. Seoul believes it can finish the $2.1 billion program to build a single computer network packed with high-quality digital content by 2015. Replacing textbooks with tablet PCs will account for a quarter of that budget.

According to South Korean officials, France is handing out tablets in the Correze region and is pushing to expand digital material, while Japan began distributing tablet PCs in a primary school last year under a pilot program. Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore said on its website that Singapore began adopting tablet PCs in 2004.

But Kim Doo-yeon, a South Korean official leading the project, said his country will have no trouble competing.

South Korea is one of the most wired places on earth. More than 80 percent of South Korean households have broadband access to the Internet, according to the statistical office here. U.S. Web hosting company Akamai said earlier this year that South Korea enjoys the fastest Internet connection in the world. South Korea also ranks first in wireless broadband subscriptions, according to an OECD release last month.

Lee Sang-hyeob, a student at Sosu Elementary School, spends a lot of time at home playing online games and chatting with schoolmates. Another Sosu student, Jang Woo-dam, often surfs her school's website to see messages from friends.

The 2009 OECD study says there's a positive relationship between students' use of computers at home for leisure and their digital navigation skills. "Proficient digital readers tend to know how to navigate effectively and efficiently," the study said.

The study said students who read online more frequently also read a greater variety of print material and report higher enjoyment of reading itself.

Another telling example of the influence of the Internet on this nation of 50 million is the number of so-called PC rooms, or Internet cafes, which stood at 15,000 as of December last year, according to the PC room business association.

PC rooms, which usually operate around the clock, have long been the breeding ground for South Korea's so-called professional e-gamers, whose popularity has given birth to an industry dedicated to airing their matches and promoting high-tech gadgets through them.

Enchanted with games, Jeong Yu-jin, 16, has been teaching himself programming since he was a child and is now developing a game that warns of the consequences of global warming as a player clears stages filled with challenges like angry polar bears and crumbling glaciers.

"Technology is a way for me to turn my imagination into a reality," said the student at Korea Digital Media High School, one of many technology-oriented schools that have proliferated as electronics giants like Samsung have thrived.

Kim, the South Korean official leading the tablet PC project, said the country envisions a digital scholastic network for students to go beyond digital textbooks and national boundaries.

"In the future, all our students will be connected to a single computer network that allows them to also learn from teachers in other countries," Kim said.

Loaded with video, animation, photos, voices, songs and Web documents created by experts and by teachers and students, digital textbooks allow students to enjoy a custom-made learning experience, Kim said. Kids who fall behind in a regular curriculum can start from levels they feel comfortable with.

Young North Korean defectors struggling to adapt to South Korea could also benefit from having tablet PCs. More than 21,000 North Koreans, including children, have come to South Korea since the two countries' 1950-53 war. Many choose to study in special schools to catch up before they attend regular ones.

Those who study digital technology and education have been generally positive about introducing digital textbooks, but there have also been warnings that Internet addiction may deepen among South Korea's teenagers.

The number of students addicted to the Internet amounted to 782,000, or 12 percent of the total student population, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said last year. The government, worried by the problem, plans to increase the number of counselors dealing with Internet addiction to 5,500 next year.

"What is essential in digital learning is to promote as much interaction between teachers and students as possible, rather than just leaving the students to themselves," said Kwon Jung-eun, a senior researcher at the state-run National Information Society Agency.

©2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

SKorean students ditch paper for digital books

Samsung unveils new Galaxy tab to take on iPad

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A South Korean man uses his smart phone in front of an advertisement for Samsung Electronics' new tablet computer, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Seoul. South Korea's Samsung Electronics launched a new version of its Galaxy Tab in its home market in a bid to lure consumers away from Apple's iPad.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics launched a new version of its Galaxy Tab in its home market Wednesday in a bid to lure consumers away from Apple's iPad.

The release comes as the South Korean firm is in embroiled in a patent dispute with US giant Apple, which has seen both sides file infringement claims against the other.

Samsung, the world's second-largest mobile phone maker, also said it would in August launch an updated version of its Galaxy S smartphone in the US market, which is dominated by Apple's iPhone.

The company has already released its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in five overseas countries including the United States.

The tab, powered by Android's Honeycomb 3.1 developed for tablet PCs, features a 10.1-inch (25.6 cm) touchscreen display rather than the seven-inch display for the previous model.

It is the world's thinnest tablet, measuring 8.6 millimetres, Samsung said. The price will start at 671,000 won ($634) in the home market.

Samsung said the seven-inch tab was optimised for portability, while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was best suited for multimedia consumption and web browsing.

"It is very thin... and weighs just as much as a cup of takeout coffee," the company said in a statement.

The patent tussle between Samsung and Apple began in April when Apple filed a suit accusing South Korean firm of copying its smartphones and tablet computers. Samsung responded with a claim in Seoul alleging five patent infringements by Apple.

The California-based firm last month lodged a second lawsuit against Samsung with a district court in Seoul, asking for a sales ban on Samsung's latest products.

The US company escalated the row this month by asking the US International Trade Commission to block imports to the United States of some of the Samsung's smartphones and tablet computers.

(c) 2011 AFP

Samsung unveils new Galaxy tab to take on iPad

Inside the innards of a nuclear reactor: Tiny robots may monitor underground pipes for radioactive leaks

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A spherical robot equipped with a camera may navigate underground pipes of a nuclear reactor by propelling itself with an internal network of valves and pumps. Image: Harry Asada/d'Arbeloff Laboratory

As workers continue to grapple with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan, the crisis has shone a spotlight on nuclear reactors around the world. In June, The Associated Press released results from a yearlong investigation, revealing evidence of “unrelenting wear” in many of the oldest-running facilities in the United States.

That study found that three-quarters of the country’s nuclear reactor sites have leaked radioactive tritium from buried piping that transports water to cool reactor vessels, often contaminating groundwater. According to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the industry has limited methods to monitor underground pipes for leaks.

“We have 104 reactors in this country,” says Harry Asada, the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of MIT’s d’Arbeloff Laboratory for Information Systems and Technology. “Fifty-two of them are 30 years or older, and we need immediate solutions to assure the safe operations of these reactors.”

Asada says one of the major challenges for safety inspectors is identifying corrosion in a reactor’s underground pipes. Currently, plant inspectors use indirect methods to monitor buried piping: generating a voltage gradient to identify areas where pipe coatings may have corroded, and using ultrasonic waves to screen lengths of pipe for cracks. The only direct monitoring requires digging out the pipes and visually inspecting them — a costly and time-intensive operation.

Now Asada and his colleagues at the d’Arbeloff Laboratory are working on a direct monitoring alternative: small, egg-sized robots designed to dive into nuclear reactors and swim through underground pipes, checking for signs of corrosion. The underwater patrollers, equipped with cameras, are able to withstand a reactor’s extreme, radioactive environment, transmitting images in real-time from within.

The group presented details of its latest prototype at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

Cannonball!

At first glance, Asada’s robotic inspector looks like nothing more than a small metallic cannonball. There are no propellers or rudders, or any obvious mechanism on its surface to power the robot through an underwater environment. Asada says such “appendages,” common in many autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), are too bulky for his purposes — a robot outfitted with external thrusters or propellers would easily lodge in a reactor’s intricate structures, including sensor probes, networks of pipes and joints. “You would have to shut down the plant just to get the robot out,” Asada says. “So we had to make [our design] extremely fail-safe.”

He and his graduate student, Anirban Mazumdar, decided to make the robot a smooth sphere, devising a propulsion system that can harness the considerable force of water rushing through a reactor. The group devised a special valve for switching the direction of a flow with a tiny change in pressure and embedded a network of the Y-shaped valves within the hull, or “skin,” of the small, spherical robot, using 3-D printing to construct the network of valves, layer by layer. “At the end of the day, we get pipelines going in all … directions,” Asada says. “They’re really tiny.”

Depending on the direction they want their robot to swim, the researchers can close off various channels to shoot water through a specific valve. The high-pressure water pushes open a window at the end of the valve, rushing out of the robot and creating a jet stream that propels the robot in the opposite direction.

Robo-patrol

As the robot navigates a pipe system, the onboard camera takes images along the pipe’s interior. Asada’s original plan was to retrieve the robot and examine the images afterward. But now he and his students are working to equip the robot with wireless underwater communications, using laser optics to transmit images in real time across distances of up to 100 meters.

The team is also working on an “eyeball” mechanism that would let the camera pan and tilt in place. Graduate student Ian Rust describes the concept as akin to a hamster ball.

“The hamster changes the location of the center of mass of the ball by scurrying up the side of the ball,” Rust says. “The ball then rolls in that direction.”

To achieve the same effect, the group installed a two-axis gimbal in the body of the robot, enabling them to change the robot’s center of mass arbitrarily. With this setup, the camera, fixed to the outside of the robot, can pan and tilt as the robot stays stationary.

Asada envisions the robots as short-term, disposable patrollers, able to inspect pipes for several missions before breaking down from repeated radiation exposure.

“The system has a simplicity that is very attractive for deployment in hostile environments,” says Henrik Christensen, director of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Christensen, who was not involved in the work, observed that robots such as Asada’s could be useful not only for monitoring nuclear reactors, but also for inspecting other tight, confined spaces — sprawling city sewer pipes, for example. “One would like to have a system that can be deployed at a limited cost and risk, so an autonomous system of minimal size is very attractive,” he says.

Provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news : web)

Inside the innards of a nuclear reactor: Tiny robots may monitor underground pipes for radioactive leaks

Apple unleashes Lion, updates MacBook Air

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the OSX Lion operating system at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California 2010. Apple on Wednesday unleashed its new Lion operating system, running it on updated, more powerful versions of its MacBook Air ultra-thin laptop.

Apple on Wednesday unleashed its new Lion operating system, running it on updated, more powerful versions of its MacBook Air ultra-thin laptop.

A slew of Apple product releases came as the California company's stock rose on the back of record high net profit and revenue in the quarter ending June 25.

Lion is the latest version of the Macintosh computer operating system and boasts more than 250 added features including handling multi-touch controls.

Sales of Macintosh computers dramatically outpaced the overall market in the recently-ended quarter and Lion is expected to further ramp up interest in Apple products.

Lion will be pre-installed on new Macintosh computers and is available for download as an update from the Mac App Store for $30.

"Lion is the best version of OS X yet, and we're thrilled that users around the world can download it starting today," said Apple senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller.

Updated MacBook Air laptops feature speedier Intel processors, backlit keyboards, and quicker data ports.

MacBook Air models range in price from $999 to $1,599 depending on processor speeds, memory and other features.

Apple also introduced a Thunderbolt Display that serves as a docking station and a high-quality desktop screen for a Mac notebook computer. Thunderbolt Display will be priced at $999 when it hits the market some time in the coming two months, according to Apple.

(c) 2011 AFP

Apple unleashes Lion, updates MacBook Air

Samsung delivers world’s first virtual desktop monitor with Cisco Universal power-over-ethernet technology

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Last week at Cisco Live in Las Vegas, Samsung Electronics unveiled the world’s first zero client monitor using Cisco Universal Power Over Ethernet (UPOE) technology, heralding a new era of virtual desktops that will help businesses conserve energy and reduce cost and complexity. The Samsung NC220 monitor with Cisco UPOE powers and connects individual monitors via the network to a “virtualized” central server that executes all tasks and applications, offering businesses a flexible and convenient cloud computing alternative to the traditional workstation setup.

Samsung designed the NC220 with its new LED BLU technology, which offers bright and clear pictures on an ultra-slim, eco-friendly design—and markedly reduces energy consumption when compared with conventional CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) monitors. Such innovations have allowed Samsung to remain the undisputed global leader in monitors for 19 straight quarters, according to a recent report from market research firm IDC.

This easy-to-deploy, easy-to-maintain desktop virtualization system reduces IT burden at every step. Software and security updates can be deployed in minutes from a centralized location, eliminating the need to service each individual workstation. Additionally, the Cisco UPOE technology is designed to enable that both data and power can be supplied through a single Ethernet cable, allowing for easier installation and more flexibility when configuring an office space.

The addition of Cisco UPOE increases flexibility and choice for businesses by extending network power resiliency, at reduced costs compared to traditional power infrastructure, to an unprecedented range of devices. Cisco UPOE can supply up to 60 watts of power—twice as much as existing power-over-Ethernet technologies, which is currently restricted to 30 watts.

“Cisco UPOE doubles the amount power delivered over the Ethernet to support many more devices, including the Samsung zero client desktop virtualization devices,” said Jeff Reed, vice president of Cisco’s Unified Access Business Unit. “Now the same Ethernet cable that provides network access will power Samsung’s industry leading virtual desktop devices—dramatically simplifying deployment and management of these devices.”

Enterprises can save additional energy by implementing Cisco’s EnergyWise to better manage and monitor the power consumption of IT devices powered and connected to their Cisco network.

Zero client monitors like the Samsung NC220 are server-based monitors for businesses’ cloud computing systems. These products eliminate the need for local CPU, memory and storage at each individual workstation; instead, the monitor is connected via the network to a central server that executes tasks traditionally handled by a desktop PC. Samsung and Cisco have been working togetherto embed the Cisco UPOE on the Samsung NC220 since the two companies entered into an alliance earlier this year.

Provided by Samsung

Samsung delivers world's first virtual desktop monitor with Cisco Universal power-over-ethernet technology

US approves its first 'tablet' for federal workers

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Photo illustration of a Blackberry Playbook tablet. Blackberry's PlayBook electronic tablet has been approved for use in all US federal government agencies, becoming the first tablet to get certified, developer Research in Motion said.

Blackberry's PlayBook electronic tablet has been approved for use in all US federal government agencies, becoming the first tablet to get certified, developer Research in Motion said.

The Waterloo, Canada-based RIM said its PlayBook, which has an 18-centimeter (seven-inch) high definition screen, received Federal Information Processing Standard certification, which is delivered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Under the Federal Information Security Management Act, which was passed shortly after the September 11 attacks, all computer tools used by the federal government must meet federal certification standards.

"This certification demonstrates our continued commitment to meeting the needs of security-conscious organizations and enables the US federal government to buy with confidence knowing that the PlayBook meets their computing policy requirements for protecting sensitive information," said Scott Totzke, who runs Blackberry's security division at RIM.

The Playbook, which has a camera on the front and back, is an alternative to Apple's iPad.

It has been sold in the United States and Canada since mid-April.

The certification provides a needed lift to the company, which announced in June that it would face an unspecified downsizing during the current quarter.

RIM's most famous product, the Blackberry, is already well-established in the US government. President Barack Obama is a big fan, and uses a version modified to meet his security requirements.

(c) 2011 AFP

US approves its first 'tablet' for federal workers

Samsung Series 5 Chromebook irons out kinks

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Consumers shopping for a PC have a new choice: laptops running Google's Chrome OS operating system.

The first Chromebooks went on sale last month and more are expected. I've been testing out Samsung's Series 5 Chromebook with Wi-Fi and 3G. I like it, but it has some significant shortcomings that will make it unsuitable for many users except as a secondary computer.

Chrome OS is built around Google's Chrome Web browser. When users log on to a Chromebook, they don't see a standard PC desktop; instead, they see a tabbed browser window. Rather than using separate applications to check email, compose documents or send instant messages, everything you do in Chrome OS has to be done within the browser.

The advantage is that Chrome OS is a much more streamlined operating system than Windows or Mac OS. Startup and shutdown can be done in less than 20 seconds or so, and resuming from standby mode is nearly instantaneous.

Chrome OS is also theoretically much more secure than standard laptops. Because Chromebooks are designed to be connected to the Internet, little data is stored on the machine itself. And because everything is focused on the browser - which Google updates frequently - there's less chance of a malicious program running in the background.

Not being able to run "native" programs other than the browser itself may seem like a limitation, but these days you can do a lot with a browser. I used to run multiple programs at once on my Windows PC, including a Web browser, Outlook for checking email and keeping track of appointments, Word for composing articles and Excel for creating spreadsheets. Now I typically do most of those things in my Web browser, thanks to online services such as Gmail and Google Docs.

Google has set up an application store for Web apps for Chrome OS, including games like "Angry Birds." But because the operating system is built around the Chrome Web browser and includes Adobe's Flash, you can use it to access a wide swath of applications and services on the Web.

When Google unveiled Chrome OS last fall, neither the operating system nor the hardware it ran on was ready for prime time. Chrome OS was buggy and lacked key features such as support for external drives, and the prototype laptop's trackpad responded only intermittently when I tried to click on something.

Chrome OS and Chromebooks have come a long way since then. The operating system now supports external drives, so you can plug in a flash drive or an SD card in a dedicated slot and pull up pictures or other files. And I ran into no problems with the trackpad on Samsung's Chromebook.

I did run into some performance issues, however. Initially, various applications, including Flash, crashed. And I repeatedly got error messages warning me that particular browser tabs had died.

Google representatives said the underlying problems have now been fixed in a new update, and I haven't encountered them since.

I really liked the design of the Chromebook. It's thin and light, weighing in at just 3.3 pounds. It has a full keyboard, a bright 12-inch screen and a battery that lasted a full work day in my testing.

Another nice feature: The top-end Chromebook includes a built-in antenna to connect to the Internet via Verizon's cellphone network that allows users 100 megabits of free data each month. That can be useful when users aren't around a Wi-Fi hotspot.

All that said, the Chromebook has limitations. Chrome OS still doesn't support VPN, so you can't use the Chromebook to connect to the many corporate networks that require it. What's more - and this was a big one for me - Citrix doesn't yet have a plug-in for Chrome OS. That means you can't use a Chromebook to run virtual versions of Windows apps delivered over a network - which is how we at the newspaper access our publishing system.

Google says that both VPN and Citrix support are coming soon.

And there are still plenty of applications that don't yet run under a Web browser. You can't run sophisticated photo or audio editing software on Chrome OS. And you won't be able to play the latest PC games.

The lack of native apps presents another big problem because many Web apps won't work unless you're online. That can make the Chromebook all but unusable if your Net access is down or if you are out of range of a data connection.

Chrome OS also doesn't natively recognize many popular file formats. For example, I couldn't use it to watch videos I made on my older digital camera because they were recorded in the AVI format.

And the operating system has other less serious but sometimes annoying limitations. One big one for me: Chrome OS doesn't allow you to adjust how quickly a character repeats when you hold down its key.

For those reasons, the Chromebook won't work as the primary PC for many consumers. But for those who only want a PC to surf the Web, send email and play casual games, the Chromebook is definitely worth a look.

---

SAMSUNG SERIES 5 CHROMEBOOK:

-Likes: Thin, lightweight design; speedy startup and shutdown; full keyboard; long-lasting battery

-Dislikes: Lacks support for VPN, Citrix; lack of support for native apps and paucity of Web apps that can be used offline; doesn't support many popular file formats

-Specs: 1.66 GHz Intel Atom processor; 2GB memory; 16GB flash drive; 12.1-inch screen

-How much: $429 for Wi-Fi only model; $499 for model with Wi-Fi and 3G

-Web: chromebook.com

More information: Troy Wolverton is a technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News.

(c) 2011, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Samsung Series 5 Chromebook irons out kinks

Lenovo unveils Android Netflix tablets, plus Win 7 model

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IdeaPad K1

It's a tough time to announce new tablet computers, after Apple's phenomenal quarterly report, but Lenovo is unveiling three new models taking aim at the iPad.

Two are based on Google's Android 3.1 operating system and have Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processors. They have 10.1-inch diagonal touch screens and weigh 1.65 pounds.

Lenovo calls them the first Android Honeycomb tablets "certified for Netflix." The streaming video application comes bundled with the tablets, which also have HDMI output for playing Netflix movies in high definition on a TV or large monitor.

Netflix video content also plays on the tablets' 1280 by 800 resolution screen.

The consumer-oriented IdeaPad K1 will be generally available in August for $499 for a 32 gigabyte model.

It also has a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera and 2 megapixel front-facing camera for chat sessions.

Lenovo also noted the device can be used to "browse all websites and watch online videos with ease" because it supports Adobe Flash 10.3, unlike Brand A.

A business-oriented ThinkPad Tablet with 16 gigabytes of storage will cost $479 or $509 with a digitizer pen when it becomes available in August. Models with 3G wireless will be announced later and will cost more.

It also has HDMI out - "for connecting to external projectors and displays" - plus a USB port and full-size SD slot.

Lenovo also announced a Windows 7 model with a similar design, but an Intel 1.5 gigahertz processor inside and solid-state drives with 32 or 64 gigabytes of capacity. It weighs 1.75 pounds and has a USB 2.0 port, Micro SD card reader and a slot for a cellular data card.

Called the P1, the Windows tablet will be available in the fourth quarter. Lenovo isn't yet disclosing its price (or whether it also has the HDMI out capability). I'll bet the same hardware will also be available with Windows 8 before too long. Maybe it will even be the reference hardware shown at Microsoft's developer conference in September.

(c) 2011, The Seattle Times.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Lenovo unveils Android Netflix tablets, plus Win 7 model

Video: Festo's Smartbird robot featured at TED conference

(PhysOrg.com) -- Robotics company, Festo, showed off the near four-month old creation, Smartbird robot, at the 2011 TEDGlobal Conference in Edinburgh.

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

Markus Fischer, a Smartbird project leader, unveiled live demonstrations along with a brief talk about the robotic seagull.

With the help of an on board motor, Smartbird, modeled after the herring gull, can flap its wings and fly.

From a company whose inventions also include a pair of robotic penguins and an elephant’s trunk, Festo’s Smartbird really soars.

More information: http://www.physorg … t-video.html

via IEEE

Video: Festo's Smartbird robot featured at TED conference

Review: ViewPad 10 features Windows and Android

In this July 21, 2011 photo, the ViewSonic ViewPad 10 tablet computer is displayed, in Atlanta. The ViewPad 10 is a dual-boot tablet that comes with both Windows and Android operating systems. (AP Photo/ Ron Harris)

(AP) -- Viewsonic's new tablet has a unique solution for consumers who are still clinging to Microsoft's Windows, even as Google's Android operating system gains traction: It offers both.

The ViewPad 10 is a dual-boot unit. It can launch either Windows 7 or Android as you start the computer.

Out of the box, the specs are impressive. The ViewPad has a 10.1-inch display, which is larger than the iPad's 9.7 inches. It weighs less than two pounds, has built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and is stuffed with a relatively fast Intel 1.66 GHz processor. It costs $599 for the 16-gigabyte version, and $679 for double the memory.

The ViewPad has a built-in camera. The resolution is just 1.3 megapixels, well short of what the iPhone and other smartphones offer. So, don't expect great images.

The device also features a mini VGA port, a standard audio jack, two USB ports and a MicroSD card slot. It's pretty full-featured for a tablet.

The computer comes with Windows 7 Home Premium installed, and I updated the test unit with version 2.2 of Android, also known as Froyo.

I spent some time with Android first, as I was already familiar with that environment as an owner of an Android-powered phone from HTC. The ViewPad didn't present as rich an experience as the phone, primarily because the graphical interface that presents the shortcuts, widgets and navigation on the tablet isn't as advanced as those on smartphones. HTC's smooth "Sense" environment for phones, for example, is among the best-of-breed for presenting the Android tools and apps.

Moreover, the apps shortcut on the tablet didn't present the full offering of apps available on Google's Android Market. Instead, it took me to a much smaller selection at something called "AndAppStore." A direct link to the full slate of those Market apps would have been better, but the device appears to be hamstrung.

Google does not allow the Android Market to be pre-installed on Android 2.2 tablets with screen sizes larger than seven inches. And Viewsonic has no current plans to update the ViewPad beyond that version of the operating system. So there's an impasse that leaves the ViewPad wanting.

You could try to install a more recent version of Android, such as Honeycomb, on your own. But it requires advanced technological skills, and there's no guarantee from the manufacturer or Google that the ViewPad will perform well.

Once apps are launched, they work as expected. They're quick to start up and easy to use. But most apps for Android are designed for a smaller display, not something as large as the ViewPad. The 10.1-inch display size, in most cases for me, was wasted on the Android side of this dual-boot device.

The better half of the ViewPad is Windows 7.

It ran fast and was pretty intuitive about responding to the right icons, scroll bars and objects on the display that I was trying to touch. It was a new experience for me to navigate the Web in Firefox by swiping across the screen. It fared well - better than surfing for content on the Android side.

When it came to more intricate programs, interacting with the tablet was challenging.

You could try to edit photos with Adobe Photoshop for Windows, but you'd be making the task much harder than it would be in a traditional mouse and cursor environment. Trust me, I tried.

Every erroneous tap propelled me into a wrong window or menu that had to be backed out of and started over. The first thing that came to my mind was to undo an action with "CTRL+Z", but the keyboard wasn't there unless I swiped it onto the screen from its little hidden perch in a corner of the display.

I'll leave Photoshop, and a few other detail oriented tasks, for traditional computers with real keyboards. Tablets, at this stage, are better for content consumption than content creation.

Despite my success with a variety of Windows experiences (movie watching, Gawker reading, Flickr photo browsing and Facebook time-crushing) the tablet experience begs for apps. Better apps. Finger-friendly apps.

Browsers work to deliver this content, but full-fledged apps brewed up especially for human digits work better. They're designed with bigger touchable regions and fewer (if any) tiny scrolling controllers.

It's swell of Microsoft to make Windows 7 touch-friendly, but the company needs to fashion a tablet-specific version of its operating system to compete with Android and iOS.

Is dual-boot for the tablet worth it? Not really at this point. Android is best left to phones. But with a few improvements or perhaps a dedicated tablet operating system, Windows will fit in quite nicely in this growing computer segment.

©2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Review: ViewPad 10 features Windows and Android

Bionic microrobot mimics the 'water strider' and walks on water (w/ Video)

Scientists are reporting development of a new aquatic microrobot that mimics the amazing water-walking abilities of the water strider — the long-legged insect that scoots across the surface of ponds, lakes and other waterways. The bionic microrobot incorporates improvements over previous devices of this kind that position it as a prime candidate for military spy missions, water pollution monitoring, and other applications, the scientists say. Their study appears in the journal, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

"Walking on the water surface is a dream of humans, but it is exactly the way of life for some aquatic insects," Qinmin Pan and colleagues note, citing water striders, mosquitoes, and water spiders. This is due largely to their highly water-repellent (superhydrophobic) legs. Other scientists have made tiny aquatic devices based on the water strider with the hope of developing bionic robots that can monitor water supplies, conduct military spy missions when equipped with a camera, and perform other tasks. But until now, no one has found a way to make water-walking robots that are practical, agile, and inexpensive.

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

The scientists describe progress on a new robot, with a body about the size of a quarter; ten water-repellent, wire legs; and two movable, oar-like legs — propelled by two miniature motors. "Because the weight of the microrobot is equal to that of about 390 water striders, one might expect that it will sink quickly when placed on the water surface," the report noted. However, it stands effortlessly on water surfaces and also walks and turns freely.

More information: ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2011, 3 (7), pp 2630–2636 DOI: 10.1021/am200382g

Provided by American Chemical Society (news : web)

Bionic microrobot mimics the 'water strider' and walks on water (w/ Video)

测试一下

测试一下

Fulcrum buy could signal shift for Intel

SAN FRANCISCO-Intel's agreement to acquireFulcrum Microsystems Incfor an undisclosed sum could signal a significant change of direction for theworld's biggest chip maker toward providing a comprehensive high-performance,low power solution for data centers.

Fulcrum (Calabasas, Calif), aprivately held, fabless company, produces high bandwidth network switchingchips based on an asynchronous switching fabric for data center networkproviders. The acquisition of Fulcrum could give Intel a head start on anend-to-end solution for data centers.

"Intel is transforming from aleading server technology company to a comprehensive data center provider thatoffers computing, storage, and networking building blocks," said KirkSkaugen, Intel vice president and general manager of the company's Data CenterGroup, in a statement. Skaugen said Fulcrum's switch silicon complementsIntel's processors and Ethernet controllers and would enable Intel to offercustomers new levels of performance and energy efficiency while improving theeconomics of cloud service delivery.

Fulcrum, founded in 2000, waspreviously included on early integrations of the EE Times 60 Emerging Startupslist. The company has announced several rounds of venture funding over theyears totaling at least $55 million for the development of its clockless 10Gigabit Ethernet and 40 Gigabit Ethernet chips. Fulcrum's technology removesthe central clock, which can result in chips consuming less power whileperforming at gigahertz performance in standard commodity manufacturingprocesses.

Intel (Santa Clara, Calif) said theacquisition would fulfill an important component in the company's strategy todeliver comprehensive data center building blocks, from server processors andtechnologies to storage and networking.

The acquisition agreement remains subjectto the approval of Fulcrum Microsystems shareholders, as well as regulatoryapproval and other customary closing conditions, Intel said. It is expected toclose in the third quarter of 2011, the company said.

This story was originally posted by EETimes.

Fulcrum buy could signal shift for Intel

Synopsys gathers Virtio, VaST, CoWare into Virtualizer

Synopsys today announced release of the Virtualizer toolset: a virtual system prototyping platform that brings together tools thecompany acquired from Virtio (virtual prototyping for software development),VaST (subsystem models), and CoWare (hardware-software coverification).

The announcement is more than a simple rebranding of theacquired product lines, according to Director of Product Marketing MarcSerughetti. Virtualizer includes the previous tools, but adds new models,assembles the capabilities into a single OSCI TLM 2.0-based environment, andprovides links into Synopsys's HAPS hardware prototyping system, instruction-set-levelprocessor simulators, and analysis tools, including some third-party softwaredebug and analysis products.

The concept, Serughetti said, is to create an environmentin which a design team can assemble a virtual system prototype, includingmodels at different levels of abstraction. Then designers can create whateverviews of the system they need-behavioral, transaction-level, instruction-level,RT-level, or a mixture-to perform a simulation or analysis run.

Synopsys has added tools for model creation and debug,and also application-specific reference designs. Both are intended to getvirtual system prototypes up and running quickly. There are also VirtualizerDevelopment Kits: pre-configured subsets of the full Virtulaizer package forspecific tasks such as software development, SOC verification, or systemtesting.

The announcement leaves out a great many details, such aswhat models are available, descriptions of the model-builder/debugger andvarious analysis tools, the mechanism for linking models at different levels ofabstraction for simulation or-especially-analysis, and just how the user goesabout instrumenting and controlling such a multimode prototype. It appears thatthe system may be assembled on a TLM 2.0 backplane, but that is not explicitlystated in the product materials.

What is clear is that Synopsys is attempting to meet thedisparate needs of early software development and SOC architecture verificationin the chip-design world, the needs of software developers working in theLinux/Android world, and the needs of system prototyping teams in specificapplications such as automotive and aerospace, all from a single tool set.Given the tendency of tools to become application-specific as they move fromconception into actual use, this could be a challenging and resource-consumingeffort for the EDA giant. But clearly it is a move in concert with Cadence'sand Mentor's increasing emphasis on system, and especially software,development needs. Virtualizer and some of the Development Kits are availablenow.
Synopsys gathers Virtio, VaST, CoWare into Virtualizer

The next transistor: planar, fins, and SOI at 22 nm

The race is on to redefine the transistor. Processdevelopers working on 22-/20-nm logic processes appear to be scrambling tointroduce new kinds of transistors for this node. Intel has made a huge fanfareover their tri-gate device. Many researchers are pushing finFETs. A powerfulgroup of mainly European organizations, including ARM and US-based Globalfoundries,is serious about fully-depleted SOI (fdSOI.) And recently, start-up Suvolta andFujitsu described yet another alternative.

All this might appear fascinating for device designers, andirrelevant to chip designers. But decisions on transistor design will haveprofound downstream impacts-from the craft of cell design to the work ofphysical-design teams, and even to the logic designer's struggles with powerand timing closure.


What'sthe problem?

Why are process engineers so determined to upset the applecart? The short answer is short-channel effects. Pursuit of Moore's Law hascontinually shrunk the channel length of the MOSFET. This contraction improves transistor density and, other factor fixed, switching speed. The problem isthat shortening the channel plays havoc with those other factors-about a dozendifferent havocs, actually, that get lumped under the label of short-channeleffect. Most of these we can summarize by a generalization: as the drain getscloser to the source, it gets harder and harder for the gate to pinch off thechannel current (figure 1, below). The result is sub-threshold leakage current.Figure 1: As channel length shrinks, the electrical characteristics of the channel go wrong.

This battle against leakage current has been going on sinceat least the 90-nm node. The point of the whole high-k/metal-gate (HKMG)transition was to give the gate more control over the channel current withoutletting gate leakage get out of control. But by the 22-nm node, many arearguing, the planar MOSFET will have lost that war. There will be no way todeliver adequate leakage control at adequate performance. "With HKMG weaddressed gate leakage," one expert said. "Now we have to address channelleakage."

 

Planarone more time?

Not everyone agrees that the planar MOSFET is history. Principalamong the dissenters is TSMC, which stated in February that it would use planartransistors in its 20-nm foundry process. There are strong arguments for thisposition, also held-with one major caveat-by Globalfoundries. Designers arefamiliar with short-channel planar MSOFETs, for all their shortcomings. Thisshould make rescaling of cell libraries and hard IP blocks relativelystraightforward. Leakage and threshold variations may be worse than at 28 nm,but the design community has tools, including aggressive power management,variation-tolerant circuits, and statistical timing analysis, to cope withthese problems. And when all the issues are on the table, a foundry must dowhat its lead customers-FPGA vendors, networking IC giants, and to some extentARM-ask of it.

Still, there is much skepticism. "TSMC stated that theywould use a replacement-metal-gate planar process at 20 nm," observed NovellusVice President Girish Dixit, "but that determination may have changed. HKMG cancontrol leakage, but a planar transistor will still have inferior I-on/I-offcharacteristics." If TSMC's early adopters find themselves at a competitivedisadvantage because of the planar transistor, they may force the giant into afinFET half-node. The confrontation would most likely arise in the mobilemarket, where ARM's fabless silicon partners will face competition from Intel'sAtom processor, newly rejuvenated by that company's 22-nm tri-gate process.

 

Therise of the fin

The next-transistor debate matriculated from a decade in thecloistered but technically accurate halls of process engineering conferences tothe public forum with Intel's May announcement of their 22-nm so-calledtri-gate process. The roll-out, probably intended to counter ARM's growingmomentum in the mobile space rather than to advance the discussion in circuit design,significantly reduced the signal-to-noise level about new transistortechnology.

Intel's tri-gate device is a finFET, pure and simple.Industry experts dismiss Intel's attempts to claim a significant difference. Assuch, it is one instance of a decade-old, industry-wide attack on short-channeleffect-an effort that began at industry consortium IMEC at about the same timeas it did at Intel. "Everyone in the industry has been developing finFETtechnology," one process expert said. "The difference is in what they havechosen to announce."

All finFET programs-indeed, all the approaches tonext-transistors-rest on a single concept: the fully-depleted channel. Loosely,the concept is to give the gate so much control over the electric field in thechannel that the gate can deplete the channel of carriers entirely. This ofcourse eliminates the dominant conduction mechanism in the channel, and ineffect turns the transistor off.

But how to do that? In a planar device, the depth of thechannel and effects from the junction formed between the drain and the siliconaround it alter the electric field in the channel and interfere with depletion.Somehow you have to make the channel thin enough and far enough from the drainjunction to permit the gate to fully deplete the conduction region.

Figure 2: Fins can be incredibly small and delicate, but details of shape and aspect ratio determine transistor characteristics.The finFET solution is to stand the channel on its edge,above your choice of either the silicon surface or an insulating oxide layer,and to drape the HKMG gate stack over the resulting fin like a wet blanket.This fin-shaped channel is very thin (figure 2, right) and working from three sides,the gate can successfully create a depletion region that blocks the channelentirely.

The finFET gives circuit designers a V-I curve they've onlybeen able to dream about since 130 nm. But it also brings issues. One is simplybuilding the devices. "Making the fins, and preserving them through subsequentprocessing steps, are hard tasks," warned Applied Materials Silicon SystemsGroup Vice President and CTO Klaus Schuegraf. "You must etch over the edges oftall structures, uniformly dope complex 3D surfaces, and lay down all thedifferent films in the gate stack so that they conform exactly to the surfaceof the fin. These requirements bring about many changes in materials, and somechanges in equipment. The number of mask layers won't change much, but thenumber of processing steps will certainly go up."


Continue reading: Fins and the rest of us





The next transistor: planar, fins, and SOI at 22 nm

MediaTek goes to startup for charging tech

LONDON - Fabless communications chip company MediaTek Inchas entered into technology transfer and licensing agreement with WiTricityCorp, a spin off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on wirelesscharging.

MediaTek (Hsinchu, Taiwan) said it will collaborate withWiTricity (Watertown, Mass) on the development and marketing of chips optimizedfor WiTricity's patented technology for wireless charging over distance.WiTricity was founded in 2007 to commercialize technology developed by companyfounder Professor Marin Soljacic.

MediaTek said it will create wireless charging technologyaimed at mobile handsets, tablet computers, game controllers, digital cameras,and personal navigation devices, but did not say when the technology would beavailable for purchase.

The idea of wireless charging has been pursued by a numberof companies and usually involves a form of inductive loop connection betweenmains supply and a receiver unit built into the handset. In this way phones andtablets could be charged as the sit on a suitably engineered tray or platter.

"Our vision is to enable mobile devices to be totallywireless - no charging cords needed," said David Ku, chief financialofficer and spokesperson for MediaTek, in a statement. "Wireless chargingwill become an essential built-in function for next generation mobiledevices," he added.

"Space inside a smart phone is some of the mostvaluable real estate in the world. MediaTek's semiconductor solutions canminimize the cost and device space required for wireless charging functionality,"said Eric Giler, CEO of WiTricity, in the same statement.

This story was originally posted by EE Times.

MediaTek goes to startup for charging tech

Apple still can't keep up with iPad demand

SAN JOSE, Calif - Fifteen months after the iPad waslaunched, Apple still can't keep up with demand for the popular tablet.

"This is a good problem--demand is fantastic,"said Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer in a conference call announcingrecord quarterly revenues and profits.

But it's still a problem, one of a handful Apple would nottalk about in detail. The company also alluded to "a future producttransition" which is one reason why it is forecasting a decline in salesfor its fall quarter.

The good news is Apple sold 9.25 million iPads in the lastthree months, double the number of the previous quarter and three times as manyas in the same quarter last year. The bad news is it could have sold more if itcould have made them.

"In the first weeks of July supply improved so thatsome SKUs in some countries are now in supply/demand balance," said Cook,refusing to forecast when the company would be able to meet global demand."We are working very hard to get as many units to customers as wecan," he said.

Cook also dodged a question about whether the company wasdiversifying its base of manufacturing partners beyond Foxconn that operatescity-sized factories for Apple in China. Supply chain management is "partof our secret sauce, so I don't want to share too much about it," he said.

An explosion at a Foxconn plantin China was expected to impact iPad manufacturing.

Tablets are cannibalizing notebook sales, but Cook did notquantify the effect. "We believe some customers chose an iPad instead of aMac, but even more chose an iPad over a Windows PC and there's more Windows PCsto cannibalize than Macs," he said.

Scattered showersahead?

Looking ahead, Apple predicts its revenues will fall from$28 billion this quarter to $25 billion next quarter while gross margins slipfrom 41 to 38%. The company expects iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales to continue torise, but alluded to a "future product transition which we are not goingto talk about" expected to be a drag on sales and margins.

Two thirds of the margin decline will come from "adifferent product mix" in the fall quarter, said Peter Oppenheimer,Apple's CFO. The rest of the decline would come from the future product transitionand increased marketing expenses for the back-to-school quarter, he said.

The product transition may come from the shift to iOS 5, duesometime this fall. If the launch comes late in the quarter it might slowiPhone and iPad sales until systems supporting it are released.

Apple also faces a Mac transition with a new version of itsoperating system, dubbed Lion, coming July 20.

The company may also be due for a refresh of its iPod linewhich continues to decline in sales by double digits. The newest member of thefamily, the iPod Touch, now makes up half the sales in the area.

Still on the distant horizon is a full blown Web-connectedTV product from Apple. To date it has released two major versions of Apple TV,a set-top box for streaming Web video, but no iTV product.

"Apple TV continues to do well, but we still call it ahobby here because we don't want anyone to think it's another leg of the stoollike the iPhone," said Cook. "We continue to invest in it because wethink there is something there," he said.

The best news for Apple is iPhone sales continue to grow,hitting 20.34 million in the last three months. Apple added 42 iPhone carriersin 15 countries in the last quarter, with much of the overall sales growthcoming from emerging markets such as Brazil, China, Mexico, and the MiddleEast.

"These are markets that Apple historically has not beenstrong in," said Cook.

Greater China--including Hong Kong and Taiwan--continues toexpand rapidly as a market for Apple, growing six-fold to $3.8 billion in salesin the current quarter compared to the same period last year. The region added$8.8 billion to Apple's sales in the last three quarters, Cook said.

"This has been a substantial opportunity for Apple, andI firmly believe we are just scratching the surface," said Cook.

Component supply also looks rosy to Apple. "Mostcomponents are in a positive supply situation with prices falling at or abovehistorical trends except hard disk drives that are constrained and thus facingless price declines," Cook said.

This story was originally posted by EE Times.

Apple still can't keep up with iPad demand