TechFreep - Slashdot User

Submission + - New Robot Glides Through Intestines

Submitted by

TechFreep

on Saturday September 23, 2006 @11:25PM

TechFreep writes: "A robot that glides along a layer of mucus inside the human intestine could make medical examinations like colonoscopies less painful for patients, say Dutch scientists. They are working on a snail-inspired robot that should be far gentler on the gut's delicate lining.

Several research groups around the world are working on robots that can remotely explore the intestine but most of these use using tiny legs to pull themselves along (see Worm-inspired robot crawls through intestines).

"The legs of those devices need to exert pressure to grip the slippery intestine," explains Dimitra Dodou, from Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands. "We think our approach can reduce the risk of damaging the gut or causing pain because the pressure can be spread over a larger area."

http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn10 147&feedId=online-news_rss20"

Submission + - Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, DVD Triple-Standard Hybrid

Submitted by

TechFreep

on Monday September 18, 2006 @04:13PM

TechFreep writes: "Warner Brothers is undergoing development of a single-disc Blu-ray, HD-DVD and DVD hybrid as an elegant alternative to packing video stores with three copies of each film.

While Toshiba already as a triple-layer HD-DVD and DVD hybrid in the works, the new disc from Warner Brothers Studios is the first offering to bring Blu-ray functionality to the table.

Designed by top Warner engineers Alan Bell and Lewis Ostrover, the new hybrid disc works by stacking a Blu-ray layer on top of an HD-DVD layer. As both Blu-ray and HD-DVD use a blue laser with a 405-nanometer wavelength to read data, information for each format can be stored in the same medium. However, because Blu-ray data resides 0.1 nanometers beneath the disk surface and HD-DVD data is written at 0.6 nanometers deep, the two types of data can co-exist on the same side of a disc without interference."

Submission + - China Seizes 13 Million Pirated Discs

Submitted by

TechFreep

on Monday September 18, 2006 @12:18PM

TechFreep writes: "The Chinese government is waging a 100-day battle against software and media piracy, the largest such effort ever conducted.

After launching the effort on July 15, Chinese police and copyright officials have raided 537,000 illegal publication markets and distributors in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Liaoning Province. Of these, government officials have closed down 8,907 shops and street vendors, 481 publishing companies and 942 illegal websites.

[via TechFreep]"

Submission + - Google Establishes For-Profit Chairty Google.org

Submitted by

TechFreep

on Sunday September 17, 2006 @03:18PM

TechFreep writes: "Google plans to solve the problems of the world with its new Google.org, a billion-dollar for-profit philanthropy.

Google took a big stride for its Don't be evil mission statement today as Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page established Google.org, a for-profit charity aimed to fight Poverty, disease, and global warming. Already fueled with a billion of Google's US dollars, Google.org will perform all the functions of a traditional for-profit business, but will be directed entirely by philanthropic intentions

[via TechFreep]"

Submission + - Virgin Atlantic Bans Dell, Apple Laptops

Submitted by

TechFreep

on Saturday September 16, 2006 @05:50PM

TechFreep writes: "Amid a slew of incidents involving exploding Sony batteries, Virgin Atlantic announced that it won't allow passengers to carry any Apple or Dell laptops onto flights.

Virgin Atlantic Airlines announced yesterday that passengers with any Dell or Apple laptop will not be allowed to use a battery while on the flight.

The announcement, posted on Virgin's website, said that Passengers may carry on the laptop itself, but batteries must be properly wrapped and stowed away in carry-on for the duration of the flight. However, the airline provided no details as to what proper wrapping entails. For those who wish to use a laptop while on the plane, Virgin plans to provide power adapters on flights where outlets are available.

[via TechFreep]"

Submission + - IBM's Cell Processor: Not Just for PS3 Anymore

Submitted by

TechFreep

on Wednesday September 13, 2006 @02:16PM

TechFreep writes: "IBM has begun to distribute it's new line of high-powered QS20 Blade Servers based on the Cell Processor that it developed for the Playstation 3.

Today IBM announced a new line of high-powered QS20 Blade Servers intended for use in seismic research, encryption, digital image rendering and military surveillance applications. Each QS20 will include two nine-cored Cell Processors clocked at 3.2Ghz apiece, which were developed by along with Sony and Toshiba for Sony's upcoming Playstation 3 console. As Playstation 3 isn't scheduled for release until November, the QS20 will mark the first application in which the highly-touted Cell will be available to consumers.

While IBM has declined to acknowledge a price for the upcoming servers, due out September 27th, an announcement within the company suggested that the retail price for each until will begin at $18.995. Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has already claimed a number of the blades for use in a massive supercomputer, due out in 2007. While the actual specifications of the supercomputer have not been released, it will contain at least 16,000 of the Cell processors.

Unlike most consumer processors which contain one or two cores, each Cell processor consists of nine cores. The main core, called "Power Processor Element," performs all of the primary functions of the processor and acts as an interface for the eight other cores. These "other" cores, called "Synergistic Processing Elements," are each designed to perform a specific processing function within the chip. Because the chips are so complex, however, IBM claims the yield rate for manufacturing them is only 10-20%, meaning that of all the processors produced, only 10-20% will have 9 fully-functioning cores. With inherent production issues such as these, it's not difficult to see why the servers run the same price as a Mazda.

[via TechFreep]"

Submission + - China to Crank Out $125 PCs

Submitted by

TechFreep

on Wednesday September 13, 2006 @11:49AM

TechFreep writes: "A Chinese computer company hopes to sell low-cost PCs to schools and government agencies, but allegations of ripped-off processor designs might slow the effort.

Chinese-based ZhongKe Menglan Electronics Technology Co. will produce several thousand low-cost PCs to distribute to schools and local governments. The PCs, which will intially sell for $150 to $175, will run on Linux and include 256Mb of RAM, a 40 or 60GB hard drive, and a Godson-2 CPU clocked between 800Mhz and 1Ghz. If initial sales of the product are successful ZhongKe will begin mass production of the units for sale at around 125 US dollars.

However, the Godson-2 CPU included in the PCs have come under scrutiny as of late. BLX IC Design Corp., producer of the Godson-2, produced its first working prototype in 2005. The chip clocked at 500Mhz, and BLX at the time claimed the Godson's performance rivalled that of higher-clocked Pentium III CPUs. However, the chip's architecture has gotten attention around the industry for its similarities to the MIPS chip from MIPS Technologies Inc. According to market research group In-Stat, the Godson-2 is about 95-percent compatible with the MIPS R10000, which was introduced in 1995.

Previous versions of the Godson chip in the Godson-1 series were predominantly used in Routers and DVD players because of the chip's lower performance. The new 64bit architecture of the Godson-2, however, makes it suitable for more heavy duty applications such as ZhongKe's PCs and a Chinese supercomputer in 2008.

ZhongKe currently has 2000 orders for its cheap PCs from local schools, and deals that would send as many 10,000 of the computers to rural areas around Southeast Asia are currently under negotiation.

[via TechFreep"

Slashdot Top Deals