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 - Hitachi creates splash with water cooled P4 notebook >>> - Creating the Poor Man's Supercomputer >>> - New Chip Process Fuels 'Fantastic' Products >>> - When Chips Get Under Our Skin >>>
* Hitachi creates splash with water cooled P4 notebook By John Lettice Taken from : www.theregister.com
Hitachi has begun selling a wondrous-sounding water-cooled notebook computer
in Japan, according to a
report by IDG Tokyo correspondent Kuriko Miyake. The machine runs a
1.8GHz mobile Pentium 4, and has a flexible tube which carries water over
the chips in order to dissipate heat.
* Creating the Poor Man's Supercomputer
By
Kimberly Hill
It
costs less to make a cluster computer out of a group of personal computers
or workstations than to buy a supercomputer
That is why Ames Laboratory researcher David Turner developed "MP_Lite" -- a message-passing program, or library, that allows clusters of processors to relay messages more efficiently. "A group like ours," Turner told Newsfactor, "might purchase 100 PCs, run Linux on them, and connect them with a gigabit Ethernet." The MP_Lite library, he added, helps the computers to work together cooperatively on a single project. According to Turner, the program, developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's lab at Iowa State University, supports and enhances the basic capabilities that most software programs require to communicate between computers.
* New Chip Process Fuels 'Fantastic' Products
By
Jay Lyman Using simple, water-based chemistry, the new crystalline oxide film process eliminates the need for extreme temperatures and vacuum conditions -- an expensive part of making chips. Oregon State University researchers announced a breakthrough technology to produce crystalline oxide films that will allow scientists and engineers to "dream up some fantastic products." The films are widely used in the manufacture of electronics and computing components -- from microchips to batteries. OSU chemistry professor Douglas Keszler and OSU electrical and computer engineering professor John Wager coauthored a report on the technology, published in the journal Science. "If you have seen the movie 'Minority Report,' you saw a variety of fictitious transparent devices. We are trying to make them a reality," Keszler told NewsFactor. "For the longer term, the technique allows the preparation of materials that just could not be processed together in the past, such as organics and crystalline oxides. This new processing capability should lead to new devices that we have not even thought about," he added.
* When Chips Get Under Our Skin
By
Jay Lyman First, it was medical devices such as pacemakers. Now, some people are eager to have location and data storage chips buried under their skin.
The
recent decision of a Florida family to have an identification chip from
Applied Digital Solutions (Nasdaq: ADSX)
However, both privacy Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) legislative counsel Chris Hoofnagle told Wireless NewsFactor that privacy fears around implanted technologies are valid, arguing that once an implant exists, it may serve as an identifier to government or business -- or those with malicious intent. "A medical ID bracelet might be good, but would you want a direct marketers association to have access to that data?" Hoofnagle asked. "It gives government and organizations the ability to treat you differently." Hoofnagle added, "We know that identification can be used maliciously." Walker said he believes fictional depictions of technology implantation in humans eventually will become reality. "What we're really talking about here is a silicon life form," Walker said. "I really think, just like in Star Trek, that's going to happen."
Hieb said he worries about the psychological effects of connecting humans to
communication and data too closely. "We need to use technology to do what we
want to happen, not be wired 24 hours so we can talk on a cell phone
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