Supercomputers Are About to Get a Lot More Super
Knight-Ridder Wire Services (06/20/06) Boyd, Robert S.
To meet the challenge of processing the proliferating volume of military,
scientific, and technical data being amassed by new telescopes, climate
satellites, particle accelerators, and other instruments, the federal
government is leaning on computer scientists and engineers to ramp up the
development of faster, more powerful supercomputers. The U.S. government
wants to have a computer system capable of processing at least one
quadrillion calculations a second, or roughly a thousand times the capacity
of the most advanced current machines. IBM's Blue Gene/L, the fastest
system in the world today, measured a peak performance of 280 trillion
calculations per second, well short of the petascale systems the government
envisions. Petascale systems will be required to solve the major
scientific questions that confound scientists today, according to Henry
Tufo, a computer scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He
says, "Petascale systems will open up new vistas (for) scientists." To
address these computing needs, the NSF has called for proposals for the
development of the necessary infrastructure to prepare a petascale system
for deployment by 2010. The NSF identified problems that only a petascale
system could handle, such as simulating the trillions of proteins that
comprise living organisms, climate modeling, and the evolution of the
universe. The Department of Energy is also awarding $70 million in funding
for computer scientists to develop software and data-management solutions
for petascale computing, such as tools that would enable computers to
determine the 3-D structure of certain molecules that could be instrumental
in the fight against cancer and resources to overcome obstacles to its
nuclear fusion program.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Half-Terahertz Performance: Georgia Tech/IBM Team
Demonstrates First 500 GHz Silicon-Germanium Transistors
Georgia Institute of Technology (06/20/06)
Researchers from IBM and the Georgia Institute of Technology have
developed the first silicon-germanium transistor that can run at
frequencies greater than 500 GHz, indicating that devices based on silicon
germanium could have a higher peak performance than originally thought.
Prior to the breakthrough, the only integrated circuits capable of reaching
such speeds were made of costly III-V compound semiconductor materials.
"For the first time, Georgia Tech and IBM have demonstrated that speeds of
half a trillion cycles per second can be achieved in a commercial
silicon-based technology, using large wafers and silicon-compatible
low-cost manufacturing techniques," said John Cressler, Georgia Tech
professor of electrical and computer engineering. "This work redefines the
upper bounds of what is possible using silicon-germanium nanotechnology
techniques." The transistors achieved their peak speed at a temperature
451 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, however, and only operated at about 350
GHz at room temperature, though the researchers are confident that the
technology could eventually support frequencies that approach the Terahertz
range at normal temperatures. Low-cost silicon-based communication devices
that yield such extreme performance could have a major impact on emerging
markets and defense applications, Cressler said. The next step for the
researchers will be to explore the physical processes that give silicon
germanium its curious properties at extremely low temperatures. The
technology has been of great interest to the electronics industry because
infusing silicon with germanium can greatly boost performance while still
using conventional, low-cost manufacturing techniques. "This new speed
record provides encouragement to keep pushing forward on silicon-germanium
devices," Cressler said. "There is a lot more fruit available from
silicon-germanium technology if we invest the effort to get there."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Virtual Reality in a Real Lab
CNet (06/21/06) Terdiman, Daniel
One of the hottest research developments to have emerged from the
University of Washington's Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HITLab)
is the VirtuSphere, a large plastic sphere in which a person wearing a
head-mounted display is immersed in a virtual environment where the entire
visual experience is controlled by how the person moves his body and head.
If commercialized, the VirtuSphere could be used for applications such as
combat training or exercise. Much of the work at the HITLab, which was
founded in 1989 and quickly developed close partnerships with Microsoft,
Intel, and other major technology players, is medical research aimed at
finding cures or therapies for diseases, though many of the technologies
can also be applied to education, architecture, or construction. Today the
lab is one of the leading institutions researching virtual reality and
augmented reality technology, such as the HiSpace table, an apparatus that
enables people to move objects on a table by moving their hands through the
air. An infrared beam is projected at a large mirror from underneath the
table, and reflection is then captured by an overhead camera. Movements
above the table are then translated into instructions that manipulate
objects on the table, which itself is set up like a Windows desktop.
Another project under development at the lab is the "Magic Book," a
technology that brings the contents of a book to life for a reader wearing
virtual reality glasses. The computer powering the equipment superimposes
the reader's vision onto the information inside a box on the page, so that,
for instance, the reader might see an image of a princess while reading a
children's book. One of the lab's augmented reality projects, the virtual
retinal display, projects an image onto a human retina, enabling the user
to see an image superimposed on his natural field of vision.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Microsoft Sets Its Sights on Robots
IDG News Service (06/20/06) Niccolai, James
Microsoft has unveiled a preview of its new suite of software tools for
developing robots that it believes will have the same impact on the robot
market that Windows did on the PC market two decades ago. Microsoft says
robots are poised to take off, driven by inexpensive and abundant
high-performance hardware components, though a shortage of tools and lack
of a uniform software platform have impeded the market's development. Just
as Windows galvanized PC development, Microsoft says a common software
platform will mobilize a new wave of interest in creating robots and
compatible tools to support development. The new Robotics Studio suite
targets robot builders at all levels, from commercial and academic
developers to hobbyists working out of a garage. Microsoft has also said
that it will fund a robotics center at Carnegie Mellon University, slated
to open toward the end of the year. Microsoft's move could accelerate the
development of the robot market, though Sun Microsystems and others have
already rolled out robot development software packages. Robotics Studio
will offer information for other vendors on how to make their products
compatible with the software, and will run on devices with systems ranging
from 8-bit hardware to 32-bit multicore processors. The suite will support
development in the languages in Microsoft's Visual Studio and Visual Studio
Express applications: C#, Visual Basic .Net, JScript, and Iron Python.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Ambient Networking Solutions for Anytime, Anywhere,
Anyplace Communication
IST Results (06/20/06)
The WWI Ambient Networks project has developed a proof of concept
demonstrator that suggests seamless connectivity of different wireless and
mobile networks could become a reality. The cooperation of the different
networks would enable end users to select the best network for a particular
service or multimedia content, regardless of their location. The
IST-funded project has developed Smart Multimedia Routing and Transport
(SMART) technology, a prototype that is also designed to provide operators
with the network configuration and management necessary to support such
flexibility. "The comprehensive prototype will include multi-access
technologies that will give the user or networks the choice of using the
appropriate radio technology automatically, such as switching between
different flavors of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, Wideband
Code Division Multiple Access, Code Division Multiple Access, the Wireless
LAN, Bluetooth or a forthcoming 4G radio," says project coordinator Henrik
Abramowicz at Ericsson AB. "Users will be able to instantly connect
without a commercial contract." As the industry comes to agreement on
ambient networking concepts, mobile network service providers will have new
business opportunities in integrating user networks.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Scientists Taking Cues From Nature
Associated Press (06/19/06) Bluestein, Greg
A growing number of biologists is looking to apply the study of
evolutionary processes to areas of study such as robotics, where they the
hope is to make devices that can mimic human locomotion. "If you think of
organisms as products, all the bad ones have been recalled. Those that
have survived evolved over millions of years," said Marc Weissburg,
professor of biology at Georgia Tech and co-director of the Center for
Biologically Inspired Design, which the school opened last year. Weissburg
is at work on a project studying how a blue crab can devour a piece of
shrimp in 15 seconds despite the notable handicap of not being able to see.
Other projects include the study of a worm's brain to develop sensors that
can detect scents, and the examination of a bat's ears to improve sonar
technology. In a project that could have a direct impact on robotics,
Robert Full, a researcher from the University of California, Berkeley, is
exploring the principles that keep four-, six-, and eight-legged creatures
standing upright. Critics argue that the few successes fall far short of
recouping the substantial development costs, but scientists in the field
claim that it is only a matter of time before they make a major
breakthrough that silences the critics. "If you think about true biology,
sensing and actuation are working at a really, really small scale," said
S.K. Gupta, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of
Maryland. "Thirty years ago we weren't able to construct anything at the
micro scale. I think recent advances that are taking place in the area of
micro-fabrication will help us tremendously."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Groups Push Alternate Net Neutrality Proposals
IDG News Service (06/20/06) Gross, Grant
Two days in advance of the Senate Commerce Committee's debate on the net
neutrality issue, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and New
Yorkers for Fair Use have released their own net neutrality proposals,
which aim to force broadband providers to treat all content equally on the
public Internet while permitting them to reserve portions of their network
for specialized offerings. CDT executive director Leslie Harris says her
organization would prefer a "narrowly tailored" series of net neutrality
regulations, though big broadband providers claim such measures are
unnecessary because there is no evidence of content discrimination. Harris
says the scarcity of broadband competition presents a "significant risk"
for such abuse. Under the CDT plan, Congress would be authorized to
watchdog the Internet for signs of discrimination, and broadband providers
would be allowed to offer tiered services such as broadband video while
maintaining equal treatment for all public Internet content and services.
New Yorkers for Fair Use member Seth Johnson's net neutrality proposal,
endorsed by David P. Reed and others, would also permit the provision of
tiered services, but their categorization as Internet services would be
disallowed if they discriminate against rival content. In an email, the
Johnson group said Congress has to elucidate the definition of Internet
connectivity. "IP-layer neutrality is not a property of the Internet. It
is the Internet," they wrote.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Artificial Intelligence Turns 50
Dartmouth News (06/19/06)
This summer Dartmouth College will host AI@50, a conference celebrating
the golden anniversary of the discipline of artificial intelligence. Fifty
years ago, researchers working on the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on
Artificial Intelligence hoped to improve machines' cognition and develop a
better general understanding of human intelligence. Today, the goals are
essentially the same, though intelligence research has splintered into
specialized areas of study such as learning, reasoning, and vision,
according to James Moor, Dartmouth philosophy professor and director of
AI@50. "When I'm asked whether computers will ever really mimic humans, I
say, 'yes and no,'" Moor says. "Yes, neural net computers are being built
that operate somewhat analogously to the brain and no, humans are
biological creatures with emotions, feelings, and creativity that are
unlikely to be fully captured by machines, at least for the foreseeable
future." Moor's research explores the differences and similarities between
humans and robots, examining the defining characteristics of creativity,
decision making, and machine brains. On one level, artificial intelligence
focuses on practical applications to develop expert computing and robotic
systems to help humans with a host of everyday tasks. On a more
philosophical level, researchers such as Moor are trying to answer big
questions about the nature of intelligence. Moor admits that artificial
intelligence has not yet lived up to its promise, as applications such as
language translation have proven to be far more difficult than anticipated,
though he believes that the field has a promising future.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Androids Dream of Soccer Glory
Wired News (06/19/06) Borland, John
The 10th annual RoboCup in Bremen, Germany, illustrates at once how far
robots have come and how far they have yet to go to imitate what on the
surface seems like simple human locomotion. RoboCup has a stated goal of
fielding a robotic soccer team that can beat the World Cup champions by
2050, though the spectacle of two robotic teams competing against each
other today testifies to the distance of that goal. Some observers said
that this was the first year that the action was actually interesting,
because the robots in previous years had trouble walking and the action was
slow. The tall, thin German robots called NimbRos are prone to falling
down after they kick a ball or collide with an opposing player, though they
can right themselves by pushing up with their elbows and shifting their
weight forward. The defending world-champion Osakans, however, are shorter
and thicker and again claimed the two-on-two title, though they were bested
by the German team in a penalty-kick challenge. Soccer is a useful
environment in which to test a number of skills that are key to developing
robots, such as behavioral programming, motion, and vision. The RoboCup
draws both two-legged humanoid robots and four-legged Aibo devices, which,
freed from the challenges of bipedal motion, are useful instruments to
examine responses to behavioral and environmental conditions. Researchers
contend that a vision system capable of doing more than simply recognizing
colors will be key to any breakthrough in the robots' ability to play the
game. "Every year the teams get better and better, but there's no quantum
improvements this year," said University of Freiburg professor Raul Rojas.
That breakthrough could come in the form of a 51-inch tall robot developed
at the Technical University of Darmstadt named Lara. Instead of motors,
Lara has sleek wire muscles that respond to the heating and shrinking
effects of electrical pulses.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
The Engine Ain't Broke But Should We Fix It?
Financial Times: Special Report (06/21/06) P. 5; Bradbury, Danny
Critics of the Internet charge that it is not evolving quickly enough to
address the emergence of major threats, such as denial-of-service attacks,
viruses, and worms. Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf says the architecture was
designed to support a "dumb" network, and that it was built simply to route
a wide range of traffic indiscriminately. Cerf acknowledges that while the
Internet was built for adaptability, he and his colleagues had no way of
anticipating how commercial models would evolve and adapt, citing what
began as the use of email as a marketing tool but eventually gave rise to
an email-authentication industry built around protecting users from spoofed
email. Because it simply verifies where an email is coming from, email
authentication does not protect against mail generated from botnets,
networks of commandeered computers controlled remotely. "Spammers have
become early adopters of this technology. Most spam is now sent via
botnets from infected machines with perfectly valid authentication
records," said F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen. Meanwhile, HTML, now 17 years
old, is showing its age, and companies such as Microsoft and Adobe are
working to replace it with more intelligent markup languages that could
enable sophisticated animation or allow users to complete purchases without
having to submit multiple forms, for instance. Critics charge that such
"improvements" could bring their own share of problems, and call for
industry-wide standards to ensure cohesive development, which Cerf
dismisses as an attempt by companies to grab market share that would
undermine innovation. The World Wide Web Consortium is leading the
Semantic Web initiative to make searches more intelligent by giving Web
content meaning. Cerf says that any attempt to overhaul the Internet
should be seen as an incremental upgrade, rather than a replacement,
because the network cannot simply be shut down overnight for repairs.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link to Publication Homepage
to the top
Schools Get Ambitious With Game Degrees
Investor's Business Daily (06/20/06) P. A5; Riley, Sheila
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has joined the ranks of colleges and
universities offering students an opportunity to major in game design and
development. This fall, the school in Troy. N.Y., is offering a major in
game and simulation arts and sciences through its School of Humanities and
Social Science, in an effort to provide students with an education that is
not limited to writing code. Interactive narrative and theater will be
among the required classes that students take, along with advanced calculus
and artificial intelligence, and students can graduate with a double major.
The second major can have nothing to do with game design, research, or
business. The program is designed to please parents who may have concerns
about their son or daughter majoring in game design and development, as
well as potential employers who want their hires to know more than just
games. "What we've tried to do is really include all the elements that go
into educating a future leader in the game industry," says James Watt,
professor of communication and director of RPI's Social and Behavioral
Research Lab. The video game market looks promising, with games now being
written for mobile phones, handheld devices, and other wireless gadgets.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link to Publication Homepage
to the top
H-1B Pay Drags Down All Salaries
EE Times (06/19/06)No. 1428, P. 1; Roman, David
The Department of Labor reports that H-1B workers might be earning as much
as 23 percent less than American engineers in comparable positions, and
Labor Condition Applications (LCA) suggest that they might drive down
salaries for other electronics professionals. While LCA statistics do not
reflect actual salaries, EE Times used LCA data to determine that H-1B
workers are paid less than their American counterparts on average, which is
illegal, according to the Labor Department. "There are plenty of studies,
including my own, that show this disparity in wages," said Norm Matloff,
computer science professor at the University of California, Davis, claiming
that the low salaries argue against employers' claims that they resort to
H-1B workers only when unable to find qualified Americans. "Otherwise,
salaries would be rising." A study of LCAs for electronics engineers,
electrical engineers, and computer hardware engineers revealed that H-1B
workers in each of those professions earn less than the average annual
salary for those jobs as reported by the Labor Department, lending credence
to the oft-repeated argument that underpaid foreign workers are an anchor
on wages across the IT industry. Intel and IBM, which respectively employ
3,000 and 2,500 H-1B workers, both claim that their compensation is
structured in accordance with the prevailing wage. President Bush called
the current H-1B cap of 65,000 a "problem" in February, and the Senate has
voted to raise the annual limit to 115,000 for fiscal 2007; the House has
yet to take up the issue. Critics of the caps argue that they undermine
U.S. innovation because they are met almost immediately, forcing companies
to farm out work overseas. Some economists argue that the number of H-1B
visas is far too small to have an overall effect on wages in the technology
industry.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Interview: Why DNS Defences Need Bolstering
IT Week (06/19/06) Muncaster, Phil
Albert Gouyet, the vice president of marketing for Nominum, describes the
security threats to the Domain Name System (DNS), which tend to be
overlooked, he says. The security threats to the DNS have the potential to
erode users' trust in the Internet, which will affect the visible Web
presences of governments and companies, Gouyet says. There are new DNS
vulnerabilities being exploited each quarter, and companies "don't spend
enough time reviewing [the DNS] like they do auditing the network security
layer," he says. These threats can be mitigated with DNSsec, which
authenticates IP addresses. The Swedish government is implementing DNSsec
for the .se domain name, and the United States is also looking to adopt
DNSsec. DNSsec requires an upgrade to the DNS servers and it takes
multiple levels of cooperation in order to work properly. "You must have
people sign their domain names, and DNS service providers must upgrade
their servers to recognize when the signatures are there and when they are
not," Gouyet says.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Money Granted for Digital Preservation
Stanford Report (06/14/06)
Stanford University's CLOCKSS program, a collaborative endeavor to develop
a large-scale repository to archive digital scholarly resources, will
receive about $700,000 in funding over three years from the Library of
Congress. To ensure that the research community will still be able to
access scholarly content in the event of a disaster, the CLOCKSS program
will establish a "dark" archive that will only be accessible once a
specific trigger event has occurred. Based on the open-source LOCKSS (Lots
of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) project begun at Stanford in 1999, CLOCKSS, or
Controlled LOCKSS, builds on the earlier initiative to produce a
cost-effective tool for libraries to ensure the preservation of their
digital resources. When the scientific community began to publish articles
exclusively in digital formats, it became evident that libraries would have
to develop systems so that those digital resources would be as
well-protected as printed materials. Taking a lesson from history, LOCKSS
director Victoria Reich says the burning of the Library at Alexandria
illustrates the importance of keeping copies in more than one place.
CLOCKSS uses the same technology as the LOCKSS program, and both are based
on the assumption that local library collections serve as memory
organizations. CLOCKSS has a distributed architecture so that no single
entity has complete control over the archive or the ability to compromise
its materials. Users will be able to access materials once a trigger event
(the resource is orphaned by its owner or becomes subject to an extended
business interruption, for example) occurs and the request is reviewed by a
group representing the larger community. Once the trigger event occurs and
the review board agrees to grant access, the resource will become available
for all users.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
How Much Do We Need to Know?
New Scientist (06/17/06) Vol. 190, No. 2556, P. 54; Huang, Gregory T.
In a recent interview, pioneering computer scientist Bill Joy discussed
his ongoing campaign to implement mechanisms to keep technology out of the
hands of people who would use it to destructive ends, what is sometimes
known as an asymmetric threat. Earlier this year, Joy's venture capital
firm announced that it will launch a $200 million program to fund
initiatives in biodefense and pandemic preparation. Joy describes the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as "essentially a collision of early 20th-century
technology: the aeroplane and the skyscraper." Today's technology could be
far more destructive, he warns, citing the availability of gene sequences
and pathogens on the Internet that could be used to cause a pandemic. Joy
criticizes scientists who continue to publish sensitive biological data on
the Web, and argues that there needs to be a public-policy initiative that
limits the availability of information without stifling innovation. The
$200 million project investigating biodefense and pandemic preparedness has
begun to study bird flu, and Joy hopes that it will continue to promote
research in antivirals, surveillance, and rapid diagnostics. Joy predicts
an extension of Moore's Law that will increase chip capacity by a factor of
100, with a corresponding drop in prices, which he hopes will translate
into improved educational tools. To meet the demands of an urban
population projected to more than double to 6 billion this century, Joy
says that scientists will have to look to new materials, such as carbon
nanotubes, to create fuel cells, produce clean water, or generate ethanol
for transportation. Joy is optimistic that the human race will survive the
next 100 years, though he believes that the possibility of a severe
pandemic is very real, and that the only way for humans to fully understand
the extent of the threat of a pandemic is to live through one.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link to Publication Homepage
to the top
Scholars Begin to Begin to Profit From Software
Invention
Chronicle of Higher Education (06/23/06) Vol. 52, No. 42, P. A35; Foster,
Andrea L.
The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa has sold a patent for a software
application that is able to identify the computer user based on the pace at
which the individual presses and releases lettered keys on a keyboard as he
or she types. The software is somewhat similar to research presented at
ACM's annual conference on communications security in November. At the ACM
convention, researchers from the University of California at Berkeley
discussed software that analyzes keystroke sounds in order to determine the
identity of the computer user. Marcus E. Brown, an associate professor of
computer science at Alabama, and his former graduate student Joey Rogers
developed the software 13 years ago, but the university encountered some
setbacks over the years in its effort to patent and market their invention.
Brown, an expert in human-computer interaction, says the software could be
used with a password to verify the identity of a computer user, and that
the application could be integrated into an operating system to work in the
background.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link to Publication Homepage
to the top
Sneak Peek At Cellphone Future
IEEE Spectrum (06/06) Vol. 43, No. 6, P. 15; Boyd, John
Five years ago third-generation (3G) cell phones were supposed to become
an exciting multimedia tool, but instead they turned into a disappointment
because of limited bandwidths. Network operators have since moved on and
are looking toward next generation (4G) technology that integrates voice
and data transmitted at high speeds. NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile
phone company, recently transmitted 2.5 Gbps of packet data in a downlink
to a moving vehicle. DoCoMo used bandwidth more effectively as well as
multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO). "In terms of our research
progress in [4G] wireless technology, we are satisfied," says Seizo Onoe at
DoCoMo's R&D Center. "I believe we are at the top level, globally. But we
will probably face many difficult challenges in the development phase and
in commercializing the system." Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein analyst
Kirk Boodry says he is not impressed with the progress of 4G, since he
predicts the technology will probably not be implemented until 2013. The
4G system has potential to offer a powerful multimedia experience, but it
needs a new infrastructure first.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Slow Forward
Discover (06/06) Vol. 27, No. 6, P. 46; Bodanis, David
An apparent acceleration in the speed of technological innovation actually
belies the continuing long-term use of the same fundamental technology,
according to former Oxford lecturer and author David Bodanis. He
attributes this dependence to higher corporate investment in current
technology with a proven track record, a phenomenon he terms the "Greenspan
effect." "America is changing so slowly compared with many countries in
East Asia precisely because we have so much invested in our success this
far," Bodanis writes. "When a technology is central to our life, who's
going to shut it down for uncertain, aiming-in-the-dark upgrades?" Bodanis
also cites the mess the patent system has become, thanks to excessively
broad patents that create a minefield of legal obstacles companies must
negotiate to use and build on existing inventions, as a further choker of
innovation. Another possible hindrance to innovation is the proliferation
of advanced communications technology such as cell phones, which
increasingly clamor for users' attention and eat up precious time that
might be better utilized researching fresh ideas. Bodanis concludes that a
number of factors are combining to erode the diversity of research the
world over, which in turn stifles innovation. Such factors include the
spread of broadband, less and less student interest in the hard sciences as
a career choice (at least in the United States), security and immigration
concerns discouraging foreign talent from coming to America to study, and
the growing economic power of other countries spurring top foreign
researchers in the United States to come home.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link to Publication Homepage
to the top