Never content to let a paradigm remain a paradigm, DARPA has issued a broad agency announcement seeking the development of super-low-power, non-volatile logic integrated circuits that retain their computational states as well as their data even after their power supplies have been removed. Focusing on magnetic-moment-based approaches, the agency wants a new breed of portable electronics, sensors and UAVs that can compute even when the lights go out. Read more »
New light-emitting electrochemical cells could replace OLEDs
Graphene may brighten the future more literally than we had originally anticipated, besides merely revolutionizing electronics and Silicon Valley. Swedish and American researchers have transformed the one-atom-thick carbon material into a new, inexpensive lighting component that could give organic light diodes (OLEDs) a run for their money. Read more »
As technological tensions run high between the U.S. and China these days (see Google's recent dust-up with the party, etc.), the People's Republic has unveiled more details on its quest to phase U.S.-made processors from its microchip diet. China's next supercomputer - a Linux-running machine known as the Dawning 6000 - will run purely on Chinese processors, possibly before the end of this year. Read more »
Pre-orders start March 12
Apple aficionados and first-adopters will have to wait a bit longer than anticipated to get their hot hands on the iPad. The tablet computer's debut has been moved back to April 3 for the U.S., AP reports.
Apple originally gave a tentative "late March" rollout when it unveiled the iPad for the first time in late January. The company has not given reason regarding the delay, but at least one analyst suggested some production issues relating to possible component shortages for Hon Hai Precision, Apple's Taiwan-based supplier. Read more »
A glimpse of the post-silicon age; how does Graphene Valley sound to you?
Silicon Valley may want to update its name, because IBM has created graphene transistors that blow away the silicon competition. The transistor prototypes were made from sheets of carbon just one atom thick that could switch on and off at 100 billion times per second. The 100-gigahertz speed is about 10 times faster than any silicon equivalents, Technology Review reports.
The transistor creation is supposedly compatible with existing semiconductor manufacturing, and so experts anticipate a scaling-up process that could put transistors into high-performance imaging devices, radar and communication gadgets within the next few years. Graphene-based computer processors might take another decade at least. Read more »
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