Modelling cancer at home…without lifting a finger
Thanks to high-speed networks and powerful PC (and game systems), grid computing is now commonplace. A recently introduced effort, Cellular Environment in Living Systems @Home, aims to leverage idle processor time to calculate cancer cell metastasis and migration.
Mars’ Northern Basin may be the solar system's biggest crater
As the Phoenix prepares to characterize Martian soil using its onboard wet chemistry lab, researchers at MIT and NASA using advanced modeling techniques have reached a reluctant (and startling) conclusion about an enormous depressed region covering the northern hemisphere of the Red Planet.
Magnetohydrodynamic modeling is no game
The Sony PlayStation3 and its Cell Broadband Engine are a popular choice for researchers, from the new petaflop Roadrunner supercomputer to the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, which is successfully modeling the interaction of Earth’s magnetosphere and solar wind using 40 PlayStations.
Point, shoot, and compare: algorithm geolocates your shot
The digital image library is exploding, but few images have location notes. A new system from Carnegie Mellon estimates where a photo was taken by matching it against millions of GPS-tagged photos in the Flickr online database. The approach has worked far better than its developers expected.
Polymorphic chips provide security with diversity
Researchers at Rice Univ. say they've created microchips with multiple "selves". Called "n-varient" integrated circuits these chips are able to assume one identity or identities at a time in a way that is wholly dependent on the user's needs. In this way, say the developers, they can provide specific chips for specific needs that resistant to attacks from hackers.
“Saucy” software solves equations by seeking out symmetries
Processing complex equations often involves intensive number crunching, but it doesn’t have to. Programs now exist that convert problems into graphs and identify symmetries to save time. However, a Univ. of Michigan program called “saucy” goes further by recognizing the most important symmetries to solve.
Robofish swim like real fish—and school like them, too
Three robotic fish built by a Univ. of Washington team have trouble communicating with each other, even with sonar. What is fascinating is that because the robots were programmed to act like fish, only part of the message needs to get through for the aquatic machines to accomplish their tasks.
Supercomputer surpasses one quadrillion computations per second
The petaflop mark has been broken by a single computer, albeit one with more than 100,000 processing cores. The “Roadrunner” will be used to model the initial stages of nuclear weapon detonation, and represents a milestone for programmers who have successfully united three greatly different chip designs in a single machine.
How much information is out there?
It’s pretty clear the answer is a lot, but just how much is obviously a daunting question. The three-year effort out of the Univ. of California system will, in addition to quantifying the massive collection of data that cost-effective storage has stimulated, try to spot the uses of information that are driving network and data growth.
Data sharing enters a race against disease Past efforts at containing disease often came after the death and suffering of many people. The advent of quick information could help minimize that risk and respond more quickly to infectious disease, says IBM. A new web-based portal system introduces standardization and automation to health information.
Pollution forecasts go the way of meteorology More data isn’t always better. Coupling observational data with climate models can compound statistical uncertainties, a failing that has impact on industries meeting strict air-quality targets. A new mathematical algorithm from Argonne National Lab uses an ensemble approach that solves this problem.
Waging war on the zombie botnets of spam Automated servers sending out massive amounts of spam e-mails account for nearly all of the dynamic IP addresses used on the Internet, according to a Microsoft research team. Although their research did not offer a solution to spam, it did generate a tool, UDMap, that for the first time solves the dynamics of any IP address.
Future cars may understand what you’re driving at With companies everywhere looking to cash in a the world’s best captive audience—the automobile driver—a Stanford Univ. communications expert is attempting to quantify what exactly it is we’re looking for in our relationship with our cars.
Protein science enters the realm of online gaming Not every game involves defeating goblins or hijacking cars. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, for example, launched a multi-player game this week that asks players to create drug-fighting molecules. It’s the latest in a series of distributed computing efforts to understand proteins.
Climate modeling to require new breed of supercomputer Global climate represents a tremendously complex system. To model a cloud system at the 1-km scale today's R&D efforts would need a computer 1,000 times more powerful than exists today. Such a system would consume far too much energy, scientists have realized. To get around the problem Lawrence Berkeley Lab researchers have come up with a new approach.
Realistic Simulation Makes a Safe Impact on Train Design Swiss-based Stadler Rail Group produces about 700 light and commuter rail vehicles per year. All of its products meet stringent requirements governing safety equipment, strength of train units (cars and engines), and, above all, passenger and crew protection from the forces of impact.
Software Helps Researchers Answer Their Questions Faster Elsevier, a publisher of scientific, technical, and medical information products and services with U.S. headquarters in New York, N.Y., recently announced their launch of illumin8 (www.illumin8.com).
Preventive medicine for machines Doctors and patients alike are increasingly dependent on complex instruments for successful diagnosis, surgery and recovery. Keeping medical devices error-free is paramount—which is why post-market inspection efforts by federal agencies depends on sophisticated static analysis methods.
Data storage for 100 years: mission impossible? Even in the Ethernet age, the problem of storage data comes down to disk or tape. Accessibility, unfortunately, means we must use power-hungry mechanical disk drives. Computer engineers are now looking for ways to reduce energy use while ensuring long-term reliability.
The number crunchers are always hungry And they need to go on a diet. Less than 2% of America’s electric bill goes to computing, but semiconductors are wasteful, generating heat which needs more wattage to cool. Galled by this waste, detail-oriented computer scientists at Stanford Univ. have cooked up some solutions.
When software thinks it’s hardware, it’s a good thing Frustration for space scientists means failed electronics aboard a remote spacecraft. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) may hold the answer, says a computer engineer whose NASA-funded research has created a system that both detects and emulates damaged hardware.
First 3-D image of antibody gene takes shape The genome is a more than a set of codes, it’s a real occupant of the nucleus which, before now, hasn’t been modeled in 3-D. Computational geometry was used to render the structure of the immunoglobulin heavy chain locus.
Catching quakes before it’s too late With Tuesday’s news of a near certain major earthquake in California by 2037, the pressure is great for reliable prediction methods. Failing that, a new distributed computing solution lets users track earthquakes on laptops, helping to instantly warn people of an impending temblor.
Robots are getting so good, it’s creepy Reactions to Internet video of Nexi, MIT’s experimental robot full of expressions, range from awe to alarm (“That’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.”). Designed to eventually move about on self-balancing wheels like a Segway PT, Nexi is capable of a surprising array of expressions.
Kraken to invade Univ. of Tennessee Named after a mythical giant squid from sailors’ legends, the Kraken will be a Cray and AMD supercomputer operating at about 1 petaflops, making it one of the world’s most powerful machines. Designed to enhance TeraGrid, the project was enabled by a $65 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
Last Thursday, the R&D Daily made one of its occasional forays into the fast-paced world of semiconductor technology, specifically extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). According to new measurements from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the photoresists designed for use with this hotly-anticipated new technology are twice as effective is previously thought.
The discrepancy was caused by an older measurement method. Unfortunately, it’s not great news for EUV developers because it strongly indicates existing optics are only half as effective as previously thought.
However, judging from a recent conversations with technical leaders at Cymer, a major U.S. maker of radiation sources for semiconductor lithography, the rolling ball that is EUVL won’t be stopped anytime soon.
Cymer is one of just a few companies at the forefront of a race to develop a viable EUV scanner to replace existing 193 nm argon-fluoride-based devices which now dominate the semiconductor industry. Like other companies, it pushing to design a powerful light source in the about 13 nm wavelength range. So far, it has achieved 25 W of continuous power and intends to break 100 W by year’s end. And, like other companies, it must deal with the intense heat generated by such light and design robust optics which are efficient enough to achieve conversion goals.
Only with adequate conversion efficiency will developers of EUVL be in a position to deliver the performance needed when the market wants it.
It remains to be seen whether EUVL is the new standard in 2012 (the target date for widespread adoption of new scanners). But R&D Magazine will be closely following the progress of this and other technologies aimed at the next-generation of microchips; the push to keep us on the path of that oft-cited economic law of Gordon Moore will continue to surprise us.
