Computers & Peripherals
IDBS, Thomson Reuters partner to transform biological content delivery
April 27, 2012 9:47 am | News | CommentsIDBS announced a partnership with the Intellectual Property & Science division of Thomson Reuters to transform how researchers access curated biological content and apply it to their research workflow.
Hubbub over content rights greets Google Drive
April 26, 2012 1:55 pm | by Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsShortly after Tuesday's release of the long-awaited Google Drive service, technology blogs and Twitter users were picking apart a legal clause that made it sound as if all the users' content stored in Google Drive automatically would become the intellectual property of Google Inc. As it turns out, the worries are probably unfounded.
Computing the best high-resolution 3D tissue images
April 24, 2012 4:01 am | News | CommentsReal-time, 3D microscopic tissue imaging could be a revolution for medical fields such as cancer diagnosis, minimally invasive surgery, and ophthalmology. University of Illinois researchers have developed a technique to computationally correct for aberrations in optical tomography, bringing the future of medical imaging into focus.
A divided Congress confronts a rising cyberthreat
April 23, 2012 8:44 am | by Donna Cassata and Richard Lardner, Associated Press | News | CommentsAs cyber attacks worsen and the tactics employed by hackers grow more nefarious, Congress is being asked to consider legislation to improve defenses for government, municipal, and corporate networks. However, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups are applying pressure from the other side, saying the rules would cost money without improving risk.
New institute to tackle 'data tsunami' challenge
April 19, 2012 6:19 am | by Louise Lerner | News | CommentsMany simulations and experiments already generate petabytes of data—a single petabyte is 2,000 times more data than you can fit on a typical laptop—and they will soon be generating exabytes. The Department of Energy’s newly established Scalable Data Management, Analysis, and Visualization (SDAV) Institute is intended to help scientists deal with the deluge of data.
Accelrys issues call to close innovation productivity gap
April 18, 2012 5:25 am | News | CommentsAs part of an all-industries challenge to speed innovation and reduce the time and effort required to commercialize new products, informatics and data management company Accelrys is introducing a scientifically aware enterprise platform that is designed to greatly improve the scientific innovation lifecycle.
Oracle focuses on Google emails in Android trial
April 17, 2012 4:54 am | News | CommentsGoogle and Oracle faced off in court in San Francisco on Monday, with Oracle intending to rely heavily on Google’s own internal emails to build its case. The dispute hinges on Oracle's allegations that Google's widely used Android software for mobile devices infringes on copyrights and patents that Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems Inc. for $7.3 billion in 2010.
New multicore chip hardware models avoid “deadlock”
April 13, 2012 4:49 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsMulticore chips are common, but chips of the future are likely to have hundreds or even thousands of cores. Software simulations will work up to a point, but hardware models facilitated by programmable chips that won’t get bogged down by resource requests will be required to test designs. A new system to improve the efficiency of such model has been developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer scientists.
Cyber security exercise puts laboratories to the test
April 13, 2012 4:40 am | News | CommentsRecently, Los Alamos National Laboratory hosted an information security exercise dubbed "Eventide" that put more than 100 participants from around the country into a maelstrom of sensitive data leaks and cracked network security. It’s hoped such trials by fire prepare the Department of Energy’s facilities to cope with eventual compromises of cyber integrity.
Google to split stock to keep power with founders
April 13, 2012 4:30 am | by Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsA new stockholder plan at technology company Google will effectively splits its stock price in half. The move improves the search giant’s short-term finances even as it seeks to preserve its long-term interests. The online search leader reported a 61% increase in its net income for the first three months of the year.
Human Machine Interface Systems for Specialized Machinery
April 12, 2012 8:54 am | Product Releases | CommentsEAO, a maker of human machine interfaces, is now offering custom-built human machine interface (HMI) systems and a full range of components ideal for use in special purpose machinery. EAO can design and manufacture all types of control panels or input devices.
Chips as mini Internets
April 10, 2012 3:37 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsThe data-routing techniques that undergird the Internet could increase the efficiency of multicore chips while lowering their power requirements, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology research.
Transactional memory: An idea ahead of its time
April 9, 2012 12:37 pm | News | CommentsNearly 20 years ago, two Brown University computer scientists were working on a largely theoretical problem: How could multiple parallel processors make changes to shared resources safely and efficiently? Their proposal—transactional memory—is sparking fresh interest as a new generation of processors seeks improved power and speed.
AOL to sell over 800 patents to Microsoft
April 9, 2012 8:32 am | News | CommentsIn a reflection of how patents have become a hot commodity in the high-tech industry in the last few years, AOL Inc. has agreed to sell 800 of its patents and license others to Microsoft Corp. for about $1.06 billion in cash. The news sent AOL shares to their highest level in a year.
Opening the gate to robust quantum computing
April 9, 2012 7:51 am | News | CommentsScientists have overcome a major hurdle facing quantum computing: How to protect quantum information from degradation by the environment while simultaneously performing computation in a solid-state quantum system.
Online tool helps assess intellectual property awareness
April 4, 2012 4:39 am | News | CommentsA new online tool can help small companies and entrepreneurs evaluate their awareness of intellectual property (IP)—trade secrets, company data, and more—and learn how to protect it. The NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office teamed up to create the IP Awareness Assessment, which is available at no cost to users.
Nanoscale magnetic media diagnostics by rippling spin waves
April 3, 2012 12:04 pm | News | CommentsMemory devices based on magnetism are one of the core technologies of the computing industry, and engineers are working to develop new forms of magnetic memory that are faster, smaller, and more energy efficient than today's flash and SDRAM memory. They now have a new tool developed by a team from NIST, the University of Maryland Nanocenter, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.
Penn to lead $10 million project on computer-assisted programming
April 3, 2012 7:36 am | by Evan Lerner, University of Pennsylvania | News | CommentsThe University of Pennsylvania will lead a $10 million National Science Foundation project to make computer programming faster, easier, and more intuitive. Dubbed ExCAPE for Expeditions in Computer Augmented Program Engineering, the project is a collaborative effort that will involve multiple research institutions, partners in industry, and educational outreach to the next generation of computer scientists.
Rice University, IBM partner to bring first Blue Gene supercomputer to Texas
April 2, 2012 11:31 am | News | CommentsRice University and IBM announced a partnership to build the first IBM Blue Gene supercomputer in Texas. Rice also announced a related collaboration agreement with the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in Brazil to initiate the shared administration and use of the Blue Gene supercomputer, which allows both institutions to share the benefits of the new computing resource.
Scientists collaborate to create computational model of human tissue
April 2, 2012 9:02 am | News | CommentsComputer scientists and biologists in the Data Science Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a rare collaboration between the two fields to pick apart a fundamental roadblock to progress in modern medicine. Their partnership has uncovered a new computational model called "cell graphs" that links the structure of human tissue to its corresponding biological function.
R & D caucus highlights NSF's tie to innovation
April 2, 2012 5:32 am | News | CommentsLast Friday, the National Science Foundation held a congressional briefing to call attention to its research successes, particularly the process of bringing relevant fundamental research from the laboratory to the marketplace. Particular attention was called to Small Business Innovation Research grant beneficiaries, some of whom shared their success stories at the briefing.
Students develop app to help children with severe autism
March 29, 2012 9:09 am | News | CommentsStudents in a Purdue University service-learning program have developed an application for Apple's iPad that helps children with severe autism learn how to communicate. The app, called SPEAKall!, allows the children to construct sentences by choosing photos and graphic symbols.
Researcher tests performance of diverse HPC architecture
March 29, 2012 8:50 am | News | CommentsSurveying the wide range of parallel system architectures offered in the supercomputer market, an Ohio state University researcher recently sought to establish some side-by-side performance comparisons.
Supercomputing the difference between matter and antimatter
March 29, 2012 5:26 am | News | CommentsAn international collaboration of scientists has reported a landmark calculation of the decay process of a kaon into two pions, using breakthrough techniques on some of the fastest supercomputers. This is the same subatomic particle decay explored in a 1964 Nobel Prize-winning experiment performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory, which revealed the first experimental evidence of charge-parity violation.
Electroactive polymer key to durable full-screen Braille displays
March 27, 2012 9:51 am | News | CommentsA team of North Carolina State University researchers are one step closer to creating a workable, affordable full-screen Braille computer display that would allow the blind to scan Web pages in much the same way that sighted people do.
