IBM manufactures light-based ‘nanophotonic’ chips to let the terabytes flow

IBM manufactures lightbased 'nanophotonic' chips to let the terrabytes flow

IBM’s taken a large step toward computer chips that use photons instead of electrons by manufacturing the first 90nm silicon-based optical processing modules. It did so using the CMOS nanophotonics technology we first saw back in 2010, creating tranceivers capable of 25Gbps transfer speeds. By multiplexing a large number of those streams to a single fibre, “terrabytes of data” per second could flow between distant computer systems,” according to IBM. The 90 nanometer light circuits should allow data-hungry servers or supercomputers to scale up rapidly in speed “for the next decade, and at the desired low cost,” according to the researchers. It’s now primed for commercial development, meaning we could see an end to bottlenecks in systems “a few centimeters or a few kilometers” apart from each other. Check the PR for the detailed technical skinny.

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IBM brings the fight to counterfeiters with nano-sized authentication methods (video)

IBM brings the fight to counterfeiters with nanosized authentication methods

As counterfeiters continue to up their game, technology’s quest for the ultimate method of proving authenticity goes on. We’ve seen ideas at the nano level before, but IBM thinks its latest research might be so difficult to reverse engineer, that it’s impossible for forgers to reproduce. IBM scientist Dr. Heiko Wolf explains that the basic principle involves using the surface tension of water to orient nanorods on a stamp, which can then be printed onto any surface. These nanorods are so small that gravity alone isn’t enough to place the particles into predetermined patterns, such as corporate logos. IBM’s researchers have also patented a related nano-patterning method that uses fluorescent spheres that can take the color red, blue or green. These then arrange themselves in a completely random order, which is mathematically so difficult to replicate it’s known as PUF (physically uncloanable function). Both methods can be applied to a broad selection of objects, making them ideal candidates for anti-counterfeit detection for everything from diamonds to passports — all that’s needed to verify authenticity is an optical microscope. Don’t get your Picasso out of the vault just yet though, as it’s estimated that it’ll be another five years or so before the technology will find its way to market.

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Source: IBM Research

This Credit Card Prototype Is So Old It’s Made Out of Cardboard

In 1960, engineers set out to develop the technology that would convert our society into debt-crippled shopaholics. But before we all started wielding plastic, it was made out of cardboard—and now you can buy the original IBM prototype. More »

IBM supercomputer simulates 530 billion neurons and a whole lot of synapses

IBM supercomputer simulates 530 billion neurons and a whole lot of synapses

IBM Research, in collaboration with DARPA’s Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) program, has reached another brain simulation milestone. Powered by its new TrueNorth system on the world’s second fastest supercomputer, IBM was capable of crafting a 2.084 billion neurosynaptic cores and 100 trillion synapses — all at a speed “only” 1,542 times slower than real life. The abstract explains that this isn’t a biologically realistic simulation of the human brain, but rather mathematically abstracted — and little more dour — versions steered towards maximizing function and minimizing cost. DARPA’s SyNAPSE project aims to tie together supercomputing, neuroscience and neurotech for a future cognitive computing architecture far beyond what’s running behind your PC screen at the moment. Want to know more? We’ve included IBM’s video explanation of cognitive computing after the break.

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Via: Kurzweil AI

Source: SC12

Apple named Most Innovative Company of 2012 by Booz & Co

In their yearly list of most innovative companies in the world, the folks at analytical group Booz & Co. found with a survey of participants that Apple was the most innovative group – for the third year running. This year it appears that Apple made a substantial lead increase over either of its previous years in the lead, with a massive near-80-percent of respondents naming Apple as one of the most innovative companies in the world. This number is up from 70 percent of those questioned last year.

In second place is Google with 43 percent of respondents naming the company as one of their top three “most innovative” company choices – this “essentially unchanged” from last year’s report, so they say. Perhaps astoundingly, if you only read tech and gadget news, the third place spot in this list goes to 3M who, the study says, “may not make headlines often, but the company again took place, capturing the votes of just more than 15 percent of respondents.” Speaking specifically on Apple, the study speaks highly of the gap the company is making.

“This year, Apple didn’t just top the rankings (as it did the past two years); it increased its lead substantially. The company — which in August 2012 became the most valuable in history, measured by market capitalization — was named by almost 80 percent of respondents as one of the three most innovative companies in the world, up from 70 percent last year.” – Booz and Co.

The rest of the list you’ll find contains companies you’ll be quite familiar with, for the most part. After 3M is Samsung followed by GE, Microsoft, and Toyoya. In 8th place there’s a tie between Proctor & Gamble and IBM, while Amazon this year has kicked Facebook out of the top 10 ranking entirely.

This study also shows some information on Research & Development spending, showing Apple to have nearly doubled their spending on R&D over the past three years. Apple’s $2.4 billion in R&D is 2.2 percent of its sales and just over a third of what the national average is at 6.5 percent. Inside the overall Global Innovation 1000 list, Apple ranks 53rd for R&D spending while Google ranks 26th and Toyota ranks #1. Samsung ranks #6, if you’d like to know, while Microsoft edges them out in 5th place.

[via Booz & Co.]


Apple named Most Innovative Company of 2012 by Booz & Co is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Cleveland Clinic and IBM team up to make Watson a Doctor (video)

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Medical research facility Cleveland Clinic and IBM are teaming up to develop ways to let supercomputer Watson become a useful tool for doctors. The machine’s ability to analyze language and scour its database for answers is hoped to offer quicker and more exhaustive diagnoses for patients. As modern medical students spend less time memorizing diseases, they’re focusing on learning how to think critically and navigate the huge amount of available data. Big Blue is also hoping that the Jeopardy champion will learn how to digest a person’s medical records in order to match up their history with maladies. We’re just nervous that someone will give Watson a telepresence robot and send him out onto the wards — you’d be worried about his bedside manner if you’ve seen his ruthless quizzing manner.

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Cleveland Clinic and IBM team up to make Watson a Doctor (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IBM claims chip breakthrough using carbon nanotubes

IBM has reported that they’re making great strides on developing a new technology that will continue to make chips smaller, while also making them continually faster at the same time. Using carbon nanotubes, IBM scientists have been able to build hybrid chips with more than 10,000 working transistors.

It’s said that the point in time when technology will reach a plateau as far as getting smaller and faster will come at some point, meaning that Moore’s Law won’t last forever. Even though Moore’s Law has lasted almost a half-century so far, it’s said to only be around until around 2020, give or take a few years.

If you’re not familiar with Moore’s Law, it’s basically an observation of sorts where the number of transistors that can fit onto an integrated circuit doubles roughly every two years. The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore and was coined by computer scientist and former Caltech professor Carver Mead.

IBM’s carbon nanotube discovery is huge, especially considering that chip makers have not yet found ways to improve chips beyond the next two or three generations. Not only will carbon nanotubes allow chip makers to build smaller transistors, but they’ll be able to increase the speed at which those transistors can be turned on and off. However, it’s not said when the new technology will be ready, but it most likely won’t be for a few more years at least, since it’s still in its early development stages.

[via New York Times]

Image via Flickr


IBM claims chip breakthrough using carbon nanotubes is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


IBM Labs develops ‘initial step’ towards commercial fabrication of carbon nanotubes

IBM Labs team develops 'initial step' towards commercial fabrication of carbon nanotubes

Commercialization of carbon nanotubes is one of the holy grails of next-gen computing, and IBM thinks it’s made crucial steps toward making this a reality. This isn’t the first time that we’ve heard such a claim, of course, but IBM’s considerable resources will make this particularly interesting. The specific problem it’s been tackling is placing enough semiconducting nanotubes together to be useful in commercial chips, with current attempts being more in the hundreds, rather than billions that would be required. The new approach uses ion-exchange chemistry that allows controlled placement of nanotubes at two orders of magnitude greater than before, with a density of roughly a billion per square centimeter. To achieve this, the nanotubes are mixed with a soap-like substance that makes them water-soluble. Next, a substrate comprising two oxides and a hafnium oxide “trench” is immersed in the soap-solution, which results in the nanotubes attaching to the hafnium oxide canals with a chemical bond. Simple when you think about it! IBM hopes that as the materials and method are readily accessible now, that industry players will be able to experiment with nanotube technology at a much greater scale. Though, as we’ve become accustomed, there’s no solid timescales on when this might realistically unfold.

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IBM Labs develops ‘initial step’ towards commercial fabrication of carbon nanotubes originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IBM announces Smarter Energy Research Institute, aims to improve energy grids (video)

IBM announces Smarter Energy Research Institute, aims to improve energy grids (video)

IBM is no stranger to energy concerns, and now its founded the Smarter Energy Research Institute in partnership with Canada’s Hydro-Québec, the Netherlands’ Alliander, and the US’ DTE Energy to help build a better grid. The partnership will leverage Big Blue’s computing and analytic oomph to help the utility companies predict and detect anomalies within infrastructure, identify areas of the grid that need to be developed, integrate new energy sources and increase efficiency among other improvements. What’s this mean for you? For one, power outages should be less frequent and shorter lived when they do occur. Thanks to the distributed nature of the project, research will be spread throughout IBM’s worldwide network of research labs. If you’d like to hear more details straight from the folks involved, hit the jump for a video and the full press release.

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IBM announces Smarter Energy Research Institute, aims to improve energy grids (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cassette tape makes a return to the data storage scene

Many years ago, when it came to making backup of your computer data and hard disks came in sizes of 4MB (while costing hundreds of dollars), a far cheaper way for organizations to ensure their digital data remains preserved would be to used cassette tape recorders. These might be slow and clunky, but they had two main advantages – they’re far cheaper compared to hard disks, and had a whole lot more storage space. IBM and Fujifilm has taken a second look at data storage cassettes and decided to develop working prototypes, and such data storage cassettes are said to be able to hold up to 35TB of data each, and are up to 200 times more efficient compared to standard hard drives.

These prototypes, despite holding up to 35TB of data, measure extremely small. We’re talking about dimensions of just 10cm x 10cm x 2cm! Large data centers seem to be the best bet when it comes to looking out for customers of such a data storage device, and the average home consumer might just want to consider this to perform weekly or monthly backups of their work.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: A software bug helped Deep Blue psych Kasparov out , IBM’s Mira computer gears up to create an entire universe,