conventional – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Quantum encryption is now fast enough for voice calls

Quantum encryption is theoretically a dream for security, as you can’t even inspect the data without altering it. However, it’s currently several times slower than the conventional kind, which makes it impractical for voice calls or streaming video. Science may have come to the rescue, though: researchers have developed a quantum encryption key distribution system that promises to be five to 10 times faster than existing methods, or roughly on par with conventional encryption when run in parallel. The trick was to cram more data into each photon. Normally, you can only encode one bit per photon by using a weak laser. The team discovered that it could encode two bits by tweaking the release time of photons and using high-speed photon detectors to track these changes. Effectively, they’re giving photons properties they couldn’t have before. There’s a lot of effort left before this becomes practical, not the least of which is the size: a transmitter/receiver combo would be about as large as a computer. It’s more realistic than you might think, mind you. All the parts beyond the single-photon detector are readily available, and it could even be used for “free space” (read: over the air) transmissions. Eventually, there may be a time when you could hold a secure voice chat knowing that even the most determined spy couldn’t listen in. Via: Phys.org Source: Science Advances

Tesla reveals a sleek solar panel built for your existing roof

Tesla’s home energy efforts might be centered around its solar roofs , but it knows that not everyone can (or wants to) rip up their roof just to bring renewable energy to their home. To that end, the company is offering a first glimpse at Panasonic-made solar panels that would go on top of your existing roof. Unlike many aftermarket options, this would be relatively slick and unintrusive — the panels have “integrated front skirts and no visible mounting hardware.” While it’ll be patently obvious that you have solar energy on your roof, it shouldn’t be the eyesore you sometimes get with conventional designs. The company is taking requests for custom price quotes right now, but it tells Electrek that production for the 325W modules should start sometime in the summer. You’ll have to be patient if you’re determined to escape the conventional power grid. However, this is definitely not a secondary project for Tesla. The firm says that it’ll use these panels for all new residential projects (outside of tiles), so you’re really looking at the future of Tesla’s mainstream energy tech. Via: Electrek Source: Tesla

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Tesla reveals a sleek solar panel built for your existing roof

Self-assembling wires could lead to faster processors

There’s a very real fear that processor speed upgrades will slow to a crawl as it becomes increasingly difficult to make denser chips. Don’t tell that to a team of researchers at MIT and in Chicago, though — they’ve devised a chip-making technique that could keep Moore’s Law relevant for a while longer. Their approach produces much finer wires by letting them partly assemble themselves, rather than relying on the very deliberate (not to mention slow) ultraviolet or scanning processes used to make chips today. The team starts out with the conventional process of using an electron beam to etch patterns on a chip, but that’s where much of the familiarity ends. The next step is to lay down a mix of two polymers that naturally separate themselves into patterns. When you place a protective polymer coating on top of those polymers, you force them to self-assemble in a dense, vertically oriented way that produces four wires where there would usually be one. There’s a long way to go before you see this method put into practice. Thankfully, it promises to be relatively simple. You could use existing chip lithography techniques, and it wouldn’t be difficult to add the coating process. This would use well-understood materials, to boot. As such, there’s a real possibility that companies could build very dense (that is, denser than 10nm ) chips without throwing out their current technology, leading to speed and energy improvements that once seemed unrealistic. Source: MIT News , Nature

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Self-assembling wires could lead to faster processors

USB-C’s new audio spec could get rid of your headphone jack

Like it or not, the effort to get rid of the headphone jack is well underway. The USB Implementers Forum has published its long-expected Audio Device Class 3.0 specification, giving device makers the standard they need to pipe sound through USB-C ports on everything from phones to PCs. And the organization isn’t shy about its goals, either — this is mainly about letting companies removing the ages-old 3.5mm port, according to the Forum. In theory, that means slimmer devices, better water resistance and opening the “door to innovation” through room for other features. We’re not sure everyone will buy that last argument, but there are some advantages to the spec that are worthwhile even if the headphone jack is here to stay. Aside from offering better digital audio support (such as headphones with custom audio processing), the USB-C sound spec improves on earlier USB approaches with power-saving measures and keyword detection. In other words: a company could take advantage of USB audio without hurting your battery life as much as before, and it should be easier to implement voice recognition. This doesn’t mean that every company will embrace 3.5mm-free hardware with the same enthusiasm as Apple or Motorola . After all, Samsung used its Galaxy Note 7 introduction to make a not-so-subtle dig at Apple’s then-rumored decision to drop the headphone jack on the iPhone 7. However, the USB-C spec may nudge vendors who were thinking about ditching the conventional audio socket and were just waiting for official support to make their move. Via: AnandTech Source: USB Implementers Forum (PDF)

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USB-C’s new audio spec could get rid of your headphone jack