digest-golf – Page 52

Intel’s 800Gbps cables headed to cloud data centers and supercomputers

Intel’s pitch for Silicon Photonics. Intel and several of its partners said they will make 800Gbps cables available in the second half of this year, bringing big speed increases to supercomputers and data centers. The new cables are based on Intel’s Silicon Photonics technology that pushes 25Gbps across each fiber. Last year, Intel demonstrated speeds of 100Gbps in each direction, using eight fibers. A new connector that goes by the name “MXC” holds up to 64 fibers (32 for transmitting and 32 for receiving), enabling a jump to 800Gbps in one direction and 800Gbps in the other, or an aggregate of “1.6Tbps” as Intel prefers to call it. (In case you’re wondering, MXC is not an acronym for anything.) That’s a huge increase over the 10Gbps cables commonly used to connect switches and other equipment in data centers today. The fiber technology also maintains its maximum speed over much greater distances than copper, sending 800Gbps at lengths up to 300 meters, Intel photonics technology lab director Mario Paniccia told Ars. Eventually, the industry could boost the per-line rate from 25Gbps to 50Gbps, doubling the overall throughput without adding fibers, he said. Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Intel’s 800Gbps cables headed to cloud data centers and supercomputers

Review: Mophie’s Space Pack doubles your iPhone’s battery, storage, and size

The Mophie Space Pack is an iPhone case with an integrated battery and 16 or 32GB of internal storage. Andrew Cunningham Specs at a glance: Mophie Space Pack Storage 16 or 32GB integrated NAND Ports MicroUSB 2.0 for charging Size 5.66″ 2.57″ x 0.63″ (143.76 x 65.28 x 16mm) Weight 2.80 oz (79.38g) Battery 1700mAh Warranty 1 year Starting Price $149.95 for 16GB, $179.95 for 32GB Compatibility iPhone 5 and 5S only. Not compatible with fifth-gen iPod touch or iPhone 5C. I bought one of Mophie’s external battery packs not long after we reviewed one in mid-2012 , and since then it’s become one of my favorite travel companions. My phone is in near-constant use while I’m traveling for work, whether I’m transmitting communications to the Ars Orbiting HQ , tethering my computer to my phone, or shooting some quick on-the-fly video or pictures without digging out my DSLR. The upside to an external battery pack is that I can plug pretty much anything into it, from an iPhone to an Android tablet to a Chromebook 11 . The bad thing is that you have to remember to have it on you, and you also need to carry around the necessary cables at all times. That’s where Mophie’s Space Pack comes in—it’s a revised version of the company’s Juice Pack battery cases with a twist. In addition to a 1,700mAh battery, it includes either 16GB or 32GB of storage that you can use to augment your iPhone’s internal storage. It’s not for everyone, but for some iPhone 5 and 5S users among you, it just might be able to kill three birds with one stone. The case The case slides on to your iPhone 5 or 5S. Pull the two parts back apart to get the phone out of the case. Andrew Cunningham The case itself is very similar to Mophie’s existing Juice Pack Plus or Juice Pack Air, the largest and second-largest battery cases the company sells. Its 1,700mAh battery is identical to the Air, and they share roughly equal physical dimensions and weight (the Space Pack is very slightly larger and heavier, but it’s hard to tell the difference). It comes apart in two pieces that slide onto the phone and interlock. The bottom of the case has a male Lightning connector that goes into the phone, but you charge the case itself with the same micro USB port that you might find in an Android or Windows phone or tablet. Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Review: Mophie’s Space Pack doubles your iPhone’s battery, storage, and size

First OS X 10.9.3 beta improves support for 4K displays

An OS X 10.9.3 beta running in Retina mode on what appears to be a 39-inch Seiki 4K display. 9to5Mac OS X 10.9.2 was just released last week, but Apple has already begun testing for version 10.9.3, and the update will apparently come with some goodies for users of 4K displays. According to a report by 9to5Mac , the new update enables HiDPI “Retina” scaling on 4K displays that didn’t offer the option in previous OS X versions. It’s possible to enable HiDPI display modes on any monitor in OS X with some tweaking, but Apple is apparently interested in supporting Retina-style output on high-resolution monitors by default. Apple made a big 4K push with its new Mac Pro, which can support up to three 4K displays at once thanks to its twin GPUs and six Thunderbolt 2.0 ports. However, the company doesn’t yet make its own 4K Thunderbolt Display—current Mac Pro buyers can add $3,600 32-inch Sharp 4K displays to their orders, or they can bring their own monitors. 9to5Mac’s testing was conducted with what appears to be a 39-inch Seiki Digital display , which as of this writing can be had on Amazon for $500 (though it doesn’t support a 60Hz refresh rate at 4K). According to others who have installed the new beta , 10.9.3 also apparently enables 60Hz 4K output on the 2013 Retina MacBook Pros. The Intel and Nvidia GPUs that power these MacBooks were previously capable of 60Hz 4K output when running Windows, but were limited to lower refresh rates in OS X. Higher refresh rates make for a smoother, more pleasant viewing experience, and are especially useful when editing movies, playing games, or in any other activities where response time is important. Those with older Macs likely won’t see 60Hz 4K support even after installing the update—the 2013 Retina MacBook Pros and 2013 Mac Pro are the only systems that support the requisite DisplayPort 1.2 spec. iMacs, MacBook Airs, and the Mac Mini will need to wait for a Thunderbolt 2 upgrade before they can drive high-resolution displays at the higher refresh rate. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Black holes cheat on the Eddington limit to export extra energy

The shocked gasses of the micro quasar are structured in the same way as those of this actual quasar. NASA, ESA, S. Baum and C. O’Dea (RIT), R. Perley and W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Black holes got their name because they have such intense gravity that, once inside their event horizons, not even light can escape. Somewhat ironically, they’re also some of the brightest objects in the Universe. That’s entirely because of things that happen outside of the event horizon. There, the hole’s intense gravity draws matter into a disk and raises it to very high energies. The disk emits lots of light on its own and sends out jets of high energy particles that emit even more as they interact with the surrounding interstellar material. But this process has a limit—literally called the Eddington limit. At some point, the radiation emitted by the black hole starts driving off the surrounding matter, effectively cutting off its own food supply. You can view the Eddington limit as the point where matter intake is optimal; below it, the hole can swallow more than the environment’s feeding it, while above, matter is being driven off before it can be eaten. Now, thanks to new observations of a black hole in the Southern Pinwheel galaxy (Messier 83), researchers have found that the Eddington limit isn’t an absolute cap on the amount of energy a black hole can emit out into its surroundings. Their observations suggest that this particular black hole sends out almost as much energy in the form of accelerated particles. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

ESA’s Gaia mission set to survey the galaxy with biggest camera in space

An artist’s rendering of what Gaia will look like when deployed in space. ESA After its successful launch in December, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia has now taken up its position in orbit and is ready to survey the skies. With the help of two onboard telescopes focused onto the largest-ever camera sent to space, the space observatory is expected to catalog nearly one billion stars throughout its 5-year mission. ESA’s Gaia will map stars in the Milky Way. It will do this by measuring the brightest billion objects and determining their three-dimensional distribution and velocities. It also has the ability to measure the temperature, mass, and chemical composition of each of the objects. The brightest objects won’t necessarily need to be very bright in order to be included in the catalog. Gaia will be able to discern objects up to 400,000 times dimmer than those visible to the naked eye. And the positional accuracy of its measurements are akin to measuring the width of a human hair at a distance of 500 km. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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ESA’s Gaia mission set to survey the galaxy with biggest camera in space

World of Warcraft’s $60 level-boosts reflect important economic reality

That’s only 67 cents per level. ORDER NOW! WoW Insider In games, as in life, the only truly nonrenewable resource is time. Thus, anything that saves a player time in getting something they want will have some important real-world value. World of Warcraft seems to finally be acknowledging this basic economic fact of life, letting players pay $60 to instantly level any character all the way up to level 90 in its upcoming expansion. Blizzard announced back at Blizzcon 2013 in November that players who purchased the upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion would be able to instantly level a single character up to level 90 as a free bonus, thereby gaining the ability to take part in new content that’s balanced for characters from level 90 to the new level cap of 100. Then, in January, the company said it was also “testing out a feature that gives you the option to purchase a character upgrade directly,” allowing players with multiple characters to get the instant boost without, say, buying multiple copies of the expansion (which isn’t yet available for preorder). Last week, WoW Insider noticed a “Level 90 character boost” item briefly listed in the in-game shop during server maintenance before being quickly removed. The asking price on the listing: $60. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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World of Warcraft’s $60 level-boosts reflect important economic reality

Everything you wanted to know about the security-focused Blackphone

BARCELONA, SPAIN—Here at Mobile World Congress, Silent Circle and Geeksphone have just announced more details on the Blackphone , a phone focused on security and privacy. “Blackphone” seems to be both a product and a company, as in the company Blackphone will provide updates and support for the product Blackphone. Having been cofounded by Phil Zimmerman, the creator of PGP e-mail encryption, the company has tons of security talent. Blackphone was announced about a month ago, but this is the first time we’re getting details on just what the Blackphone is and how it works. First to be announced were the specs of the Blackphone. The hardware is being built by Geeksphone , and the current specs are a 2GHz quad-core SoC, a 4.7-inch “HD” IPS screen, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, 8MP rear and 1.3MP front cameras, and HSPA+ and LTE connectivity. Blackphone notes that “certain specifications are subject to change” but the Geeksphone CEO said that any change would be “better,” and that the goal is to offer a premium phone. At $629 for a contract-free, unlocked phone, the cost is certainly in line with that goal. Blackphone notes that it “does not use proprietary hardware in any way,” which will allow it to release source code for “as much of the Blackphone code base as possible.” While Geeksphone is handling the hardware, Silent Circle is handling the software. The Blackphone runs a Google-less version of Android called “PrivatOS.” Besides removing the user-tracking Google parts, most of the Blackphone’s security and privacy advantages seem to come from the integration of Silent Circle apps. The suite of apps mentioned at the event were the existing Silent Phone and Silent Text apps, and a new product called “Silent Contacts.” Silent Phone and Silent Text encrypt your phone calls, text messages, and file transfers to other users of the apps. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Everything you wanted to know about the security-focused Blackphone

Mt. Gox, once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, shuts down

Mt. Gox As of late Monday evening, the embattled Bitcoin site Mt. Gox appears to have pulled the plug entirely in the wake of sustained DDOS attacks and the “transaction malleability” problem that has plagued other websites. The site is gone and the company’s Twitter account appears to have been erased entirely. Ars’ requests to Mt. Gox for comment were not immediately returned. Bitcoin’s trading price has been steadily declining since the beginning of 2014, and as of this writing is hovering around $470 and falling . Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Next-generation Broadwell NUCs coming late 2014, says leaked roadmap

Ivy Bridge NUC on top, Haswell NUC on the bottom. What will the next one look like? Andrew Cunningham Intel’s “Next Unit of Computing” (NUC) mini desktops are apparently one of the few segments in the PC industry actually seeing some growth, and a new roadmap leaked by FanlessTech shows that Intel is already planning the next versions. According to the roadmap, Intel is planning three new NUC models based on next-generation Broadwell chips, all scheduled to launch toward the end of 2014. FanlessTech [ars_story_side post_id=”397297″][/ars_story_sidebar]Two of the new NUC models are targeted at consumers, and will use next-generation Core i3 and Core i5 CPUs codenamed “Rock Canyon.” Like the current Haswell NUCs, they will include USB 3.0, mini HDMI, and mini DisplayPort outputs. The mini DisplayPort outlets can power either a 4K display or three lower-resolution displays simultaneously. The mSATA slot that current NUCs use for their SSDs will be replaced by an M.2 slot , which can provide faster storage speeds via the PCI Express bus. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an IR sensor will both be built in, as will a bay for a standard 2.5-inch hard drive. The most interesting departure from current NUCs will be swappable lids, which can add either NFC or wireless charging capabilities to the NUCs. The idea of using a desktop as a wireless charging pad isn’t entirely new—we saw a desktop or two that offered this capability at this year’s CES—but a NUC-sized box could serve as a nice wireless charging pad for smartphones and tablets. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Netflix packets being dropped every day because Verizon wants more money

Anthony Fine The battle over who should pay to carry Netflix traffic is heating up again, and one of the main players blames Verizon’s greed for the poor performance that many consumers see when trying to watch streaming video. Cogent Communications CEO Dave Schaeffer made his case in an interview with Ars yesterday, saying Verizon is refusing to upgrade the infrastructure that carries Internet traffic from one network to another unless outrageous demands for payment are met. The network connections between Cogent and Verizon, crucial for carrying streaming video and other content to Verizon’s home Internet customers, “are full,” Schaeffer said. “They are more than full. They are so full that today a significant amount of packets are being dropped between the networks.” Read 39 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Netflix packets being dropped every day because Verizon wants more money

Ken May

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