Interior of the Alcator C-Mod fusion reactor at MIT, which was shut off on September 30th. Image: Bob Mumgaard/Plasma Science and Fusion Center/MIT MIT’s fusion program has fallen on hard times, but that hasn’t stopped it from smashing world records and keeping the dream of limitless, carbon-free energy alive. At an International Atomic Energy Agency summit in Japan this week, researchers involved with MIT’s Alcator C-Mod tokamak reactor announced that their machine had generated the highest plasma pressure ever recorded . Read more…
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MIT’s Fusion Reactor Broke a World Record Right Before the Feds Shut It Off
MojoKid writes: Intel’s latest generation of processors built on the Skylake architecture are efficient as well as seriously fast. The flagship, Core i7-6700K, is an interesting chip as it’s clocked at a base 4GHz, and can peak at 4.2GHz with Turbo Boost. Of course, as fast as the 6700K is, overclocking can always help take things to the next level, or at least temporarily explore future potential. In Chi-Kui Lam’s case, he did just that, and managed to break a world record for Intel processors along the way. Equipped with an ASRock motherboard, G.SKILL memory, and a beefy 1.3KW Antec power supply — not to mention liquid nitrogen — Lam managed to break through the 7GHz barrier to settle in at 7025.66MHz. A CPU-Z screenshot shows us that all cores but one were disabled — something traditionally done to improve the chances of reaching such high clock speeds. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
DARPA’s boffins have just set a new world record in computing with a solid-state integrated circuit that packs the power of a supercomputer into a single chip. You thought your six-core, 3.9 Ghz Mac Pro was a computational powerhouse? This single chip is around 250 times as fast. Read more… 
If your smoke alarm starts wailing and you’re not home to hear it, you’d better hope one of your neighbors does — or else you might come home to a smoldering pile of rubble. But with the Leeo smart night light, even if your nearest neighbor is miles away, you’ll be alerted to potential fires as soon as the alarm goes off. Read more… 
Windows Phone 8.1 is here , and with it comes not only with a notification center(!) but a brand new Halo-flavored voice assistant. But how does Cortana shape up against her competitors, who have a year or two of experience on her? Surprisingly well. Read more… 