Resistive random-access memory (RRAM) is something various electronics companies have been working on for years, but now Panasonic seems to be ready to be the first to start mass-producing the next-generation memory chips, according to a report in Japan’s biggest business daily The Nikkei.
The new memory type can retain stored data over time even when it’s not powered, it’s much faster and more eco-friendly than flash memory chips, for example
Lithography is the enabling technology behind almost all geek pursuits. Making chips that have more processing power, use less power, or have a smaller footprint depends on being able to form a sharp image of the small features on a silicon wafer.
The problem is that images are always blurred at some level, creating a lower limit to the size of the smallest feature. In a sort of Hail Mary approach to science, researchers began turning to the world of quantum mechanics for assistance. Amazingly enough, it turned out that entangled photons could help. In principle, imaging with groups of n entangled photons will give an image that is approximately n times sharper than possible using standard approaches. As with all bits of theory, though, this had a number of assumptions and potential gotchas. Now it seems that one of those gotchas is a show-stopper.
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Is quantum lithography dead on arrival?
What if you could put your baby on hold for twenty years? Would you do it? Scientists have now been able to achieve just that.
Imagine being born at the age of 20. Doctors at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Virginia have made history by implanting a 20 year old frozen embryo and having it successfully brought to term.
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Embryo Frozen for 20 Years Gets Born
The inner core of our planet is roughly as big as the Moon, and we can only guess what’s going on deep inside our planet. We might now have an answer…and it’s even more volatile and weird than we thought. More
A new test set to hit the market in Britain in the next year aims to tell patients how long they have to live, and naturally that’s not happening without controversy. The test measures a person’s telomeres, those structures found on the tips of chromosomes. The length of telomeres apparently correlates with how fast a person is aging biologically, and hence researchers want to offer individuals some insight into just how much longer their bodies can hold up. More
Hundreds of billions of planets the size of Jupiter are floating alone in space, or are so very far from their host stars that those stars aren’t easily identifiable as associated with the planets. From the NY Times:
“It’s a bit of a surprise,” said David Bennett, a Notre Dame astronomer, who was part of the team. Before this research, it was thought that only about 10 or 20 percent of stars harbored Jupiter-mass planets. Now it seems as if the planets outnumber the stars…
Planetary astronomers said the results would allow them to tap into a whole new unsuspected realm of exoplanets — as planets outside our own solar system are called — causing scientists to re-evaluate how many there are, where they are and how they are created, even as astronomers immediately began to ponder whether the new planets in question are in fact floating free or just far from their stars, at distances comparable to those of Uranus and Neptune in our own solar system.
“Either there is a large population of Jupiter-mass planets far from their star, or, yes, there are a lot of lonely planets out there,” said Sara Seager, a planetary theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Billions of Lonely Planets, Adrift in Space” (Thanks, Jody Radzik!)
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Billions of planets, alone in space?
Ah, so it’s all coming together now. Following a report on Warner Music inking a cloud-streaming deal with Apple, CNET has followed up with fresh information that sees three more major record companies jumping on board. Citing “multiple music industry sources,” we’re told that EMI Music is the latest addition to Apple’s cloud music portfolio, while Universal Music and Sony Music are close to sealing the deal to permit this rumored iCloud service. If true, such endorsement will no doubt add pressure on Google and Amazon over their cheeky, license-free cloud streaming offerings — not a bad way to fend off competition, though it’s not clear how much money’s involved. Guess we’ll know more at WWDC next month.
Apple gets cozy with EMI, Universal, and Sony over cloud music licensing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 May 2011 23:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
We’ve seen flexible OLEDs and OLED lighting solutions before, but none of them conjured our sweaty club-hopping fantasies quite like this concept from Universal Display Corporation (UDC). The flexible OLED makers weren’t particularly forthcoming on the specs for this color-changing apparatus, but we can tell you that it uncoils and recoils with the help of a motion sensor, and requires very little energy to power — note that tiny wire supplying 100 percent of the required juice. UDC used this flashy lamp specifically to show off its own brand of low-energy flexible white OLED lighting, which means you won’t see it popping up in B.E.D. anytime soon (if ever), but it certainly has us thinking of new ways to light up our nights. Gratuitous amounts of bouncing and beaming can be found after the break.
Continue reading UDC shows off serpentine OLED lamp concept at SID 2011 (video)
UDC shows off serpentine OLED lamp concept at SID 2011 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 May 2011 20:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Whether or not D-Wave has actually built a quantum computer is still a matter of debate (though, a study authored by the company and published in Nature claims to prove its success) but, whatever it is these crafty Canadians have created, you can order one now and start crunching qubits with abandon. The D-Wave One is the first commercially available quantum computer and, while its 128-qubit processor can only handle very specific tasks and is easily outperformed by traditional CPUs, it could represent a revolution in the field of supercomputing. As D-Wave scales up to thousands or tens-of-thousands of qubits, complex number theory problems and advanced cryptographic systems could crumble before the mighty power of quantum annealing… or at least give us faster Google searches. Just out of curiosity, we contacted D-Wave to see how much we’d have to cough up for a quantum desktop of our own, but we’ve yet to hear back.
Update: Joseph passed along an e-mail from the company with a little more information, including a price: $10,000,000. Yep, ten large, and we’re not sure that includes the liquid helium required to keep it cooled.
D-Wave One claims mantle of first commercial quantum computer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 May 2011 16:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Life’s Good gang warned us with the written word about its super fantastic, ultra-high resolution Advanced High Performance In-Plane Switching (AH-IPS) displays. Of course, written resolution claims merely provide verisimilitude; viewing is the only way to discern their veracity. We saw the screens, ranging from a petite 3.5 inches to a prodigious 84-inch panel, at SID 2011 and were impressed enough to begin scheming ways to get a wall of these for Engadget HQ. Unfortunately, we don’t know how many dollars LG wants for its plethora of panels or when they’ll go on sale, but you can bet we’ll keep you posted. If our impressions and that mouthful of a moniker haven’t sold you on the awesomeness of AH-IPS, then take a gander at the gallery and let the pixel-packed pics persuade you.
LG’s new ultra-high resolution AH-IPS displays, simply stunning at any size originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 May 2011 18:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
