Hasta La Gadget!

The man on your left is Dr. Peng Ning — a computer science professor at NC State whose team, along with researchers from IBM, has developed an experimental new method for safely securing cloud-stored data. Their approach, known as a “Strongly Isolated Computing Environment” (SICE), would essentially allow engineers to isolate, store and process sensitive information away from a computing system’s hypervisors — programs that allow networked operating systems to operate independently of one another, but are also vulnerable to hackers. With the Trusted Computing Base (TCB) as its software foundation, Ping’s technique also allows programmers to devote specific CPU cores to handling sensitive data, thereby freeing up the other cores to execute normal functions. And, because TCB consists of just 300 lines of code, it leaves a smaller “surface” for cybercriminals to attack. When put to the test, the SICE architecture used only three percent of overhead performance for workloads that didn’t require direct network access — an amount that Ping describes as a “fairly modest price to pay for the enhanced security.” He acknowledges, however, that he and his team still need to find a way to speed up processes for workloads that do depend on network access, and it remains to be seen whether or not their technique will make it to the mainstream anytime soon. For now, though, you can float past the break for more details in the full PR.

Continue reading NC State researchers team with IBM to keep cloud-stored data away from prying eyes

NC State researchers team with IBM to keep cloud-stored data away from prying eyes originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading HTC Raider 4G arrives bearing South Korean LTE, looks a lot like the Holiday

HTC Raider 4G arrives bearing South Korean LTE, looks a lot like the Holiday originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We came, we saw, we conquered — and just like that, Intel’s Developer Forum was over. Much like years past, Chipzilla was proudly beating its own drum: we saw demos of Ivy Bridge and Haswell, a healthy helping of Ultrabooks and of course its high speed interconnect du jour, Thunderbolt. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t see a lot of other random, mind-stimulating otherness. Did you catch all the treasures we found lurking deep within the halls of this year’s show? Unfortunately, we can’t tell from here, so you better hop past the break for the full listing and find out.

Continue reading Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2011 wrap-up

Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2011 wrap-up originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Intel Developer Forum showcases the near-threshold voltage processor. Photo: Intel

Researchers at Intel debuted an experimental processor at the company’s developer forum this week, which could lead to devices with significantly lower energy consumption.

The chip — codenamed “Claremont” — is known as a near-threshold voltage processor, which allows transistors to operate at super-low, near “threshold” voltages to increase efficiency and decrease energy consumption. This level is very near the voltage at which transistors switch on and start conducting current, which is the “threshold” voltage.

In the demonstration, the experimental low-power processor was used on a PC running Linux OS, powered only off a solar cell the size of a postage stamp. The processor was used in conjunction with another experimental project, a concept DRAM called the hybrid memory cube, which is a super efficient memory interface.

“We used a solar cell in the demonstration to show how little power was required,” said Intel spokeswoman Connie Brown in an interview. “But it could run on anything that has power.” Like lemon juice, or perhaps a potato as Brown suggested. “The key message is the low power and how much more transistors would be power-efficient running at near-threshold.”

Several years of research have led to Intel’s near-threshold voltage-processor design. It’s heat-sink free, and rather than operating at those super low thresholds all the time, it switches into NTV mode (under 10 mW in power consumption) when its workload is light.

This means, rather than powering off completely, a device can stay on in an “ultra low-power state,” preserving active processes and open applications — “always-on” devices. The technology could even be used to develop “zero-power” architectures “where power consumption is so low that we could power entire digital devices off solar energy, or off the energy that surrounds us every day”, like vibrations or movements, ambient wireless signals or solar power.

NTV could find itself in a host of applications ranging from processors and mobile devices to embedded devices, appliances and automobiles.

Energy efficiency has always been a concern for device manufacturers and chipset makers, but as the hardware industry moves to mobile and more lightweight computing, it’s become a much bigger issue.

So far, Intel has had some difficulties finding its way into mobile devices because of power consumption issues. Its low-power competitor ARM has dominated in that area, even threatening to displace it as the processor in Apple laptops and desktops (according to rumor).

But Intel’s latest offerings, including its Atom processors and Oak Trail processors, have become much more efficient. Intel’s latest, the Tri-Gate 3-D “Ivy Bridge” transistor, also marks a major improvement, both in design, and in its 30 percent improvement in performance.

Photo: Intel

NTV is a significantly bigger step than these commercial processors. The technology results in a 5 to 10x improvement in energy consumption.

But it’s not without problems. When electrical noise is introduced, logic level readings can be inaccurate. So the challenge is to maintain a balance of performance versus efficiency.

“Most digital designs operate at nominal voltages — about 1V today. NTV circuits operate around 400 to 500 millivolts,” says Intel researcher Sriram Vangal in a blog post on the subject. Consistently running electronics at such low voltage levels is a challenge because the difference between a “0″ and a “1″ becomes very small (electrical signal-wise).

Intel’s experimental NTV processor may never find itself in an actual consumer product, Vangal says, but is an important stepping stone towards future processors that will.

We’ve been hearing about Qualcomm‘s next generation of 2.5GHz processors for a few months now, but the company’s quad-core future has now become a little bit clearer. Speaking at the Innovation Qualcomm event in Istanbul yesterday, Senior Vice President of Product Management Cristiano Amon confirmed that the chipmaker’s S4 line of silicon will be shipped to manufacturers by the end of this year and should appear in consumer products by the beginning of 2012. Available in single-, dual- or quad-core models, the new, 28nm additions to the Snapdragon family will also support Adreno graphics, 3D and 1080p HD, in addition to 3G and LTE connectivity. If all goes according to schedule, then, we could see a slate of S4-equipped handsets at next year’s Mobile World Congress in February, though we’ll try to contain our excitement until we get a more specific launch date.

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon roadmap, 2.5GHz CPUs coming early next year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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