Month: May 2013

NVIDIA enables full virtualization for graphics: up to four remote users per GRID GPU

You probably won’t have noticed the following problem, unless you happen to be the IT manager in an architecture firm or other specialist environment, but it’s been an issue nonetheless. For all our ability to virtualize compute and graphical workloads, it hasn’t so far been possible to share a single GPU core across multiple users. For example, if you’d wanted 32 people on virtual machines to access 3D plumbing and electrical drawings via AutoCAD, you’d have needed to dedicate eight expensive quad-core K1 graphics cards in your GRID server stack . Now, though, NVIDIA has managed to make virtualization work right the way through to each GPU core for users of Citrix XenDesktop 7, such that you’d only need one K1 to serve that workforce, assuming their tasks were sufficiently lightweight. Does this mean NVIDIA’s K1 sales will suddenly drop by seven eighths? We couldn’t tell ya — but probably not. Filed under: Networking , Software , NVIDIA Comments

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NVIDIA enables full virtualization for graphics: up to four remote users per GRID GPU

Hands-on with Kwikset and UniKey’s Kevo keyless entry system

Kwikset and UniKey are set to update their home entry systems, which have remained largely unchanged since they were first invented more than a hundred years ago. Using a Bluetooth daughter card in the lock mechanism, a couple Bluetooth antennas and a clever app this lock opens by simply touching a finger to the outside of the housing when you approach the door. At its simplest, the companies’ Këvo system isn’t too unlike a keyless car entry system, though it takes advantage of your iPhone’s Bluetooth LE — Android and BB10 versions will arrive as soon as those platform’s stacks are sorted — or the included keyfob for the proximity technology. Security is handled through the phone or desktop app enabling you to share keys with your family as administrative users, normal users, one-off entry or even scheduled access. For those concerned about leaving your phone too near the door and thereby allowing anybody access, the system actually uses two antennas, one on the inside and one out. So should you stand behind the closed door the system won’t trigger access to those outside. Battery life for the four AAs is rated for a year, and you’ve no need to worry about being surprised by an outage, either: the system will notify you well in advance using the lock’s eight RGB LEDs or through the app. Pricing will be somewhere in the $199 range when it hits the shops, though sadly we don’t have an exact date to share. We’re pretty stoked to get a chance to check this system out for ourselves but until that time, check out the quick video of it in action below. Gallery: Kwikset and UniKey’s Kevo keyless entry system hands-on Filed under: Wireless Comments

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Hands-on with Kwikset and UniKey’s Kevo keyless entry system

Tim Cook confirms: Apple spending $100 million to build new Macs in Texas

Apple is looking to bring even more Mac production back to the states. Andrew Cunningham Last week, we learned that Apple was looking to devote about $100 million to bring the manufacturing of one of its Mac product lines back to the United States. At yesterday’s Senate hearings on the company’s untaxed overseas pile of cash, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the new Mac would be manufactured in Texas. The computer will also “include components made in Illinois and Florida and rely on equipment produced in Kentucky and Michigan.” Moving away from solid facts and into informed speculation, AllThingsD  notes that longtime Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn has facilities in Texas that may be used to build the new Mac. Apple is also building a campus in Austin, Texas, indicating that the company may continue to expand in the state. The new Mac is likely to be an updated version of one of Apple’s existing product lines—a new MacBook Air refresh looks possible for the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference next month—but we don’t know which just yet. If Apple were to move production of any of its product lines back into the country’s borders, it makes sense to start with Macs—they still sell well, but compared to the iPhone and iPad they make up a relatively small portion of Apple’s sales, and Apple has less to lose if there are hiccups. The company has been testing the waters with domestic production since at least the launch of the 2012 iMac. Some of these computers (including our 21.5-inch review unit  but  not our  27-inch review unit ) are (or were) already being made domestically, most likely nearer to Apple’s California headquarters . Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Tim Cook confirms: Apple spending $100 million to build new Macs in Texas

College Students Invent a Shoe That Generates Electricity with Every Step

Undergraduate mechanical engineering students at Rice University built a shoe that recovers and stores energy generated by walking. This energy could be used to power small electronic devices, such as cell phones: The Agitation Squad – Carlos Armada, Julian Castro, David Morilla and Tyler Wiest – decided last fall to focus their attention on where the rubber meets the road to create a shoe-mounted generator. Another device to draw energy from the motion of the knee had already been developed and patented and led them to analyze other sources of energy. Working with the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Shriners Hospital for Children in Houston, the team determined the force at the heel delivered far more potential for power than any other part of the foot. “We went to the lab and saw the force distribution across the bottom of your foot, to see where the most force is felt,” Morilla said. “We found it would be at the heel and at the balls of your toes, as you push off. We went with the heel because, unless you’re sprinting, you’re letting gravity do the work.” […] The prototypes deliver an average of 400 milliwatts, enough to charge a battery, in benchtop tests (and a little less in walking tests, where the moving parts don’t move as far). They send energy through wires to a belt-mounted battery pack. A voltage regulator keeps it flowing steadily to the battery. The PediPower hits the ground before any other part of the prototype shoe. A lever arm strikes first. It is attached to a gearbox that replaces much of the shoe’s sole and turns the gears a little with each step. The gears drive a motor mounted on the outside of the shoe that generates electricity to send up to the battery. You can watch a video of their device at the link. Link -via Inhabitat

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College Students Invent a Shoe That Generates Electricity with Every Step

Quantenna’s new chip turns 802.11ac Wi-Fi up a notch

Quantenna announces the first 4×4 (quad-stream) 802.11ac chipset. The new chipset, which offers a cap speed of 1.7Gbps, is slated be used in products later this year. [Read more]        

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Quantenna’s new chip turns 802.11ac Wi-Fi up a notch

The Real-Life, $150 Star Trek Tricorder Is One Step Closer To Reality

Late last year we told you about Scanadu and its real-life tricorder, called the SCOUT . Within 10 seconds of direct contact to your left temple, the SCOUT analyzes, records and spits back your vitals, including temperature, respiratory rate, ECG, blood pressure (systolic, diastolic), stress and oximetry levels. Today, Scanadu is announcing three upgrades to Spock’s once futuristic tool, in addition to an update to Project ScanaFlo, a disposable urine analysis device. Read more…        

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The Real-Life, $150 Star Trek Tricorder Is One Step Closer To Reality

This 1.5TB Laptop Drive Is the Most Memory-Dense You Can Buy

While SSDs are blisteringly fast, they still can’t offer the capacities that the humble hard disk provides. Especially this one, because with 1.5 TB squeezed into its tiny little frame, it’s the most memory-dense drive you can buy right now. Read more…        

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This 1.5TB Laptop Drive Is the Most Memory-Dense You Can Buy

Microsoft talks about Xbox One’s internals, while disclosing nothing

Here’s the money shot: the back of the console has a power connector, HDMI in and out (for the purposes of hooking your cable box up to the console), optical audio out, two USB ports, the Kinect port, an IR Out port, and an Ethernet jack. Kyle Orland The Xbox One is full of technology and after its big reveal, Microsoft talked a little about what’s going into the console, giving some tidbits of info about what makes it tick. Hardware Microsoft says that the Xbox One has five custom-designed pieces of silicon spread between the console and its Kinect sensor. It didn’t elaborate on what these are. There’s a system-on-chip combining the CPU and GPU, which we presume to be a single piece of silicon, and there’s at least one sensor chip in the Kinect, perhaps replacing the PrimeSense processor used in the Xbox 360 Kinect, but what the others might be isn’t immediately clear. Possibilities include audio processors, on-chip memory, and USB controllers. One of the key questions about the AMD-built, 64-bit, 8-core SoC is “how fast is it?” At the moment, that’s unknown. Microsoft claims that the new console has “eight times” the graphics power of the old one, though some aspects of the new system are even more improved; for example, it has 16 times the amount of RAM. Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Microsoft talks about Xbox One’s internals, while disclosing nothing

Power utilities claim ‘daily’ and ‘constant’ cyberattacks, says report

U.S. Congressmen Ed Markey and Henry Waxman pen a report outlining the increased hacks on power grid computer systems, saying that one utility receives about 10,000 attempted cyberattacks per month. [Read more]        

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Power utilities claim ‘daily’ and ‘constant’ cyberattacks, says report