Source: Dailytech
100GB on a single Blu-ray Disc that will work with today’s machines, promises Hitachi
Throughout the life of the format, DVD has been primarily limited to at most two layers, keeping the format at a maximum storage space of under 9GB. The new high-definition formats, however, appear to have taken a page from hard disk drives when it comes at adding additional storage.
Just as how adding additional platters inside a hard disk drive provides more storage, optical media makers are finding ways to stack layers of readable surface inside a polymer disc to increase capacity. Hitachi revealed this week at CEATEC JAPAN 2007 that it has successfully developed a quad-layer Blu-ray Disc that is capable of storing 100GB of data.
Source: Dailytech
Researchers invent nanosheet polymer that is transparent and as strong as steel
If Star Trek and Wonder Woman were any indicators, high-strength transparent materials have been the stuff of science fiction for decades. If researchers at the University of Michigan have anything to say about it, new transparent materials will become a reality very soon.
Source: Dailytech
MIT students invent bio fuel cell that generates electricity from leaves and grass for $2
A team of student researchers at MIT have developed a device they hope will generate enough electricity to recharge a cell phone in developing nations where electricity is scarce. The device is based on the concept of using biomass to generate electricity.
The device was constructed by five MIT students under the team name BioVolt for the inaugural MIT and Dow Materials Engineering contest held Tuesday, September 25.
Source: Dailytech
Good news for those living in the southern hemisphere, the ozone hole may be shrinking
After reaching a record high in 2006, scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) reports that the ozone hole decreased by nearly a third in 2007. The agency also warned that the decrease is not a sign of permanent recovery, based on their research.
Ozone (O3) is a compound found in Earth’s upper atmosphere. It is found in high concentrations in the titular ozone layer which is part of the stratosphere. The ozone layer provides the essential function of protecting the Earth from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
Source: Dailytec , TGDaily
ioDATA drive promises vastly superior enterprise level read and write performance at a hefty price
Most computer users want faster hard drives to aide in faster boot times and application loading. Solid state drives (SSDs) promised to improve our load times and they did to some degree.
If a measly 64GB solid state drive just doesn’t cut it for your needs, Fusion-io has a new 640GB flash based hard drive that slips into a PCI-Express x4 slot. Fusion-io promises some very swift speeds from the drive in the neighborhood of 600 Mbytes/sec sustained write speed (4000Mbytes/sec random) and 800 Mbytes/sec sustained read (8,000 Mbytes/sec random).
Source: Dailytech
A joint venture between NEC Labs and Northwestern University’s Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science has done what many experts could not. The team created a software compression infrastructure that requires minimal amounts of additional power and processing. The software, called CRAMES (compressed RAM for embedded systems) is based on the standard LZ0 compression algorithm.
The memory in CRAMES-enabled devices is separated into two regions, one for standard memory storage and one for the compressed data. When an application requests data in the compressed storage area, the hardware stops the software, the operating system accesses the compressed data, decompresses it and then shuttles it into the uncompressed data area where the application can access it normally. The entire process is transparent to the application itself.
Source: Dailytech
A feature that you don’t expect to find on a mainboard is an embedded Linux environment. Phoronix says that the Linux environment is complete with a web browser and a Skype VoIP client. The Linux environment is ready to run within seconds of powering the mainboard up and requires no software installation.
Source: Dailytech
News on the solid state disk (SSD) front has been rather quiet in the past few weeks, but Ridata is making news today with the announcement of its new 32GB 2.5″ SATA SSD.
The new 32GB SSD is aimed at the mobile sector — as its 2.5″ form factor suggests — and has a MTBF of four million hours. Read speeds for the new drive are listed at 60MB/sec while the write speeds are pegged at a meager 48MB/sec.
Source: BBCNews
Scientists have come up with a new currency designed to be used by inter-planetary travellers.
It is called the Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination, or Quid.
It is designed to withstand the stresses of space travel and has no sharp edges or chemicals that could hurt space tourists.
Source: BBCNews
French scientist Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg of Germany have won the 2007 Nobel Prize for physics.
They discovered the phenomenon of “giant magnetoresistance”, in which weak magnetic changes give rise to big differences in electrical resistance.
Source: Dailytech
Sony announced today a new updated internal Blu-ray burner for PC. The new drive doubles the write speed as compared to previous Blu-ray BD-R burners inside computer systems. The new BWU-200S Blu-ray burner cuts burn time in half allowing a full 50Gb BD-R disc to be burned in about 45 minutes. Previous drives were 2x drives and the burn time was around 90 minutes for a BD-R disc.
The BWU-200S will be available directly from Sony in November for around $600 and is available for pre-order now.
Source: BBCNews
The mystery of how an animal has survived for 80 million years without sex has been solved by UK scientists.
A Cambridge team says the creature owes its existence to a genetic quirk that offers some recompense for prolonged celibacy.
Source: Dailytech
NEC and Aida Engineering today announced the companies have worked together to create a small and portable device DNA lab that is able to produce results in 25 minutes. The briefcase-sized, with measurements of 50cm x 20cm x 40 cm, is the first device of its kind in the world said Aida Engineering.
Source: Yahoo News
TOKYO (AFP) – A research group will be set up in Japan to develop optical technology that will replace the Internet Protocol as the global standard in communications, a report said Sunday.
The group will be established in November by the government-affiliated National Institute of Information and Communications Technology and private companies, the leading business daily Nikkei said.
It will aim to develop and commercialise in around 2015 a network that can transfer data at 10 gigabits per second, 10 times faster than the next-generation network due to be launched in Japan this year, the report said.
The optical network would allow as many as 100 billion devices to access it simultaneously and still enjoy extremely fast data-transfer speeds, the report said.
Source: Dailytech
Quantum computers are thought to be the future of computing as we know it. Super powerful in comparison to even the latest supercomputers, they could be used to crack heavy encryption, search giant databases in seconds, optimize complex systems and solve complex mathematical computations.
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