drag2share: Koomey's law heckles Moore's in the post-PC world

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/15/koomeys-law-heckles-moores-in-the-post-pc-world/

Around the same time most years, (2007, 2009, 2010), someone heralds the death of Moore's law. This time it's Stanford University's Dr. Jonathan Koomey, who has found that energy efficiency roughly doubles every two years. With the rise of mobile devices, we care less if our phones and tablets can outpace a desktop and more about if a full charge will last the duration of our commute -- reducing the importance of Moore's law. Historically, efficiency has been a secondary concern as manufacturers built ever faster CPUs, but Koomey believes there is enormous room for improvement. In 1985, Dr. Richard Feynman calculated an efficiency upper limit of Factor 100 Billion -- since then we've only managed to achieve Factor 40,000. Let's just hope Quantum Computing goes mainstream before next autumn so we can get on with more important things.

Koomey's law heckles Moore's in the post-PC world originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: West Virginia's 'Quiet Zone' becomes refuge for those on the run from wireless technology

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/15/west-virginias-quiet-zone-becomes-refuge-for-those-on-the-run/

There's a 13,000-square-mile section of West Virginia known as the Quiet Zone where there's no WiFi, no cell service, and strict regulations placed on any device that could pollute the airwaves. Those unique conditions are enforced (and aided by the surrounding mountains) to protect the radio telescopes in the area from interference, and it's hardly anything new -- as The Huffington Post notes, Wired did an extensive profile of the zone back in 2004 (the area itself was established in 1958). But as the BBC recently reported, the Quiet Zone is also now serving as something of a refuge for people who believe that wireless technology makes them sick -- a condition sometimes called Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (or EHS). Those claims are, of course, in dispute by most medical professionals, but that apparently hasn't stopped folks from calling the local real estate agent "every other week or so" to inquire about a place in the zone.

[Image courtesy NRAO]

West Virginia's 'Quiet Zone' becomes refuge for those on the run from wireless technology originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon roadmap, 2.5GHz CPUs coming early next year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/15/qualcomm-unveils-snapdragon-roadmap-2-5ghz-cpus-coming-early-ne/

We've been hearing about Qualcomm's next generation of 2.5GHz processors for a few months now, but the company's quad-core future has now become a little bit clearer. Speaking at the Innovation Qualcomm event in Istanbul yesterday, Senior Vice President of Product Management Cristiano Amon confirmed that the chipmaker's S4 line of silicon will be shipped to manufacturers by the end of this year and should appear in consumer products by the beginning of 2012. Available in single-, dual- or quad-core models, the new, 28nm additions to the Snapdragon family will also support Adreno graphics, 3D and 1080p HD, in addition to 3G and LTE connectivity. If all goes according to schedule, then, we could see a slate of S4-equipped handsets at next year's Mobile World Congress in February, though we'll try to contain our excitement until we get a more specific launch date.

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon roadmap, 2.5GHz CPUs coming early next year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Powermat and Duracell forming joint venture to 'globalize wireless charging'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/15/powermat-and-duracell-forming-joint-venture-to-globalize-wirele/

Duracell has been in the wireless charging business for quite a while now with its myGrid devices, but it's about to make a fairly drastic change of course. Its parent company, Proctor & Gamble, announced today with Powermat that the two companies intend to form a new joint venture in an effort to "advance and globalize wireless charging." That new venture will be called Duracell Powermat, and it's expected to begin operation early next year. As a result of the new arrangement, P&G also intends to make an equity investment in Powermat, although there's no word yet on how the deal will affect everyone's favorite pun-based superhero, Power Matt. The official press release is after the break.

Continue reading Powermat and Duracell forming joint venture to 'globalize wireless charging'

Powermat and Duracell forming joint venture to 'globalize wireless charging' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Intel reveals 'Claremont' Near Threshold Voltage Processor, other conceptual awesomeness at IDF (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/15/intel-reveals-claremont-near-threshold-voltage-processor-othe/

Thought Intel was done busting out new slabs of The Future at IDF? Wrong. Justin Rattner, the firm's chief technology officer, just took the stage here in San Francisco in order to showcase a trifecta of new concepts, all of which were borne out of research in Intel Labs. The first, and perhaps most notable, is the Near Threshold Voltage Processor (code-named "Claremont"), which relies on novel, ultra-low voltage circuits that dramatically reduce energy consumption -- like EnerJ, but not. How so? Well, by "operating close to threshold, or turn-on voltage, of the transistors," it's able to scream when needed or scale back dramatically (below ten milliwatts) when the workload is light. If you're curious as to just how low that is, we're told that it's low enough to keep running while powered only by a solar cell the size of a postage stamp. Sadly, the research chip isn't destined to become a product itself, but Intel's hoping that the knowledge gained could lead to "integration of scalable near-threshold voltage circuits across a wide range of future products, reducing power consumption by five-fold or more and extending always-on capability to a wider range of computing devices."

As for demos? A smattering of multicore / multiprocessor sessions aided Intel in upping its bragging rights, and we were informed that coding for multicore setups is "easier than the press makes out to be." The outfit also took the opportunity to release a Parallel JS engine to the open source crowd, adding data-parallel capabilities to JavaScript to purportedly "speed up browser-based services such as computer vision, cryptography, and 3D games by up to eight-fold." Furthermore, a newly revealed Hybrid Memory Cube -- complete with seven times better energy efficiency than today's DDR3 memory -- was also unwrapped. More details can be found in the links below, and we've got your unveiling video embedded just beyond the break.

Gallery: Intel reveals Near Threshold Voltage Processor, other conceptual awesomeness at IDF (video)

Continue reading Intel reveals 'Claremont' Near Threshold Voltage Processor, other conceptual awesomeness at IDF (video)

Intel reveals 'Claremont' Near Threshold Voltage Processor, other conceptual awesomeness at IDF (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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