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Water-cooled Aquasar supercomputer does math, heats dorm rooms

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 25th 2009 at 5:27AM

Not that we haven't seen this trick pulled before, but there's still something magical about the forthcoming Aquasar. Said supercomputer, which will feature two IBM BladeCenter servers in each rack, should be completed by 2010 and reach a top speed of ten teraflops. Such a number pales in comparison to the likes of IBM's Roadrunner, but it's the energy factor here that makes it a star. If all goes well, this machine will suck down just 10KW of energy, while the average power consumption of a supercomputer in the top 500 list is 257KW. The secret lies in the new approach to chip-level water cooling, which will utilize a "fine network of capillaries" to bring the water dangerously close to the processors without actually frying any silicon. While it's crunching numbers, waste heat will also be channeled throughout the heating system at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, giving students and dorm room crashers a good feel for the usefulness of recycled warmth.

Nanometer wars heat up, Toshiba and Intel enter unofficial race

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 22nd 2009 at 10:12AM

Think the megapixel race is bad? Now we've another to worry about, with both Toshiba and Intel hastily approaching 0.01nm technology in order to make chips faster, more nimble and smaller. According to undisclosed sources at Digitimes, Intel has actually canned production plans for its 45nm Havendale processors, which were originally slated to slip into machines later this year. The cause? It's heading straight to 32nm, reportedly hoping to ship its Clarkdale line in Q1 2010 with entry-level prices ranging from $60 to $190. In related news, Toshiba is joining the likes of IBM, Samsung and Globalfoundries in an effort to dish out chips based on 28nm process technology. Needless to say, the move is being made in an effort to "stay relevant in an area dominated by the likes of Intel Corp and Texas Instruments." Now, if only we could get one of these potent, low-power chips inside of a netbook, we'd be pleased as punch.

Read - Intel cans Havendale in move to 32nm
Read - Toshiba speeds to 28nm

NEC and Toshiba hop on IBM's Semiconductor Alliance train for the ride to 28nm

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 18th 2009 at 7:39AM

IBM seems seriously intent to beat Intel to the tiny, 28nm processor punch, and has enlisted even more help to get there first. After securing deals with Samsung, Globalfoundries, and a few other merry chipmakers in April, NEC and Toshiba are now joining in on the Semiconductor Alliance fun to create next-generation processors before the biggest name in current-generation processors. Goals are smaller footprints, lower power consumption, and of course greater performance. Mind you, that greater performance is still likely two years away from anything we can hope to buy.

WinFast HPVC1100 is world's first external SpursEngine encoder

by Darren Murph, posted May 12th 2009 at 8:53AM

Toshiba's Cell-based SpursEngine HD video co-processor has made plenty of appearances within monstrous gaming machines, but this marks the very first time where it has stepped out of the laptop chassis and into a portable enclosure. Granted, the language barrier is killing us here, but it seems as if the Leadtek WinFast HPVC1100 wraps a SpursEngine encoder into an on-the-go solution that can be lugged around with a standard laptop in order to churn through video while on set, in the field or on the road. Other specs include 128MB of RAM, a PCI-Express slot and a weight of 1.54 pounds; there's no word just yet on pricing or availability. One more shot is after the break.

[Via Akihabara News]

Continue reading WinFast HPVC1100 is world's first external SpursEngine encoder

IBM's Watson to rival humans in round of Jeopardy!

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 27th 2009 at 9:56AM

IBM's already proven that a computer from its labs can take on the world's best at chess, but what'll happen when the boundaries of a square-filled board are removed? Researchers at the outfit are obviously excited to find out, today revealing that its Watson system will be pitted against brilliant Earthlings on Jeopardy! in an attempt to further artificial intelligence when it comes to semantics and searching for indexed information. Essentially, the machine will have to be remarkably labile in order to understand "analogies, puns, double entendres and relationships like size and location," something that robotic linguists have long struggled with. There's no mention of a solid date when it comes to the competition itself, but you can bet we'll be setting our DVRs whenever it's announced. Check out a video of the progress after the break.

[Via The New York Times]

Continue reading IBM's Watson to rival humans in round of Jeopardy!

IBM, Samsung, Globalfoundries, and more looking to beat Intel to 28nm market

by Ross Miller, posted Apr 17th 2009 at 5:42AM

Sure, Intel's one-upping AMD in the 32nm department, but IBM and its merry band of Technology Alliance members -- including Samsung, STMicroelectronics, and AMD chipmakers Globalfoundries -- are looking to ramp up the competition and develop even smaller, low power 28nm processors before Intel gets a chance to size down. The group additionally promises migration plans for companies who've got 32nm on their roadmap and want to maybe shrink a few of the later, already planned models. Early risk production for the 28nm chips are planned for second half 2010, which means it's very unlikely we'll be seeing them in consumer gadgets until at least 2011.

Update: Lenovo leaks Pocket Yoga mystery netbook pics

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 16th 2009 at 9:00AM

The mysterious netbook that Engadget Chinese hepped us to from the floor of Lenovo's Beijing office now has a name -- if little else. Images have surfaced on the company's photostream with this bad boy in a number of compromising positions, showing off its convertible design and touchscreen stylus capabilities. Tantalizing, yes? That's it for details, but be sure to hit up that gallery for those red hot pics.

Update: The mystery is solved, folks. According to Johnson Li, the director of Lenovo's Beijing Innovation Center, the device is a two-year-old laptop design concept that features a leather exterior and detachable keyboard. You know what? We still want one.

[Via Electronista, Thanks Luigi]

Gallery: Lenovo Pocket Yoga netbook

Lenovo's VAIO P Reserve Edition?

by Thomas Ricker, posted Mar 11th 2009 at 4:26AM

What you're looking at is a genuine Lenovo device taken by a trusted source from inside of a showroom within ~~IBM's Beijing headquarters~~ Lenovo's Beijing office. The details sent to Engadget Chinese are brief so we can't tell you if it's a working model or not. Nevertheless, it bears all the hallmarks of a ThinkPad Reserve Edition with just a tad of VAIO P thrown in for taste... so to speak. A few more hurried shots at the break.

Update: Tipster clarified that the pics are from a showroom inside a Lenovo office, not IBM's Beijing HQ.

Continue reading Lenovo's VAIO P Reserve Edition?

IBM develops ZTIC USB stick for secure online banking

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 4th 2009 at 11:34AM

Among the goodies making their debut at CeBIT this week, ZTIC (Zone Trusted Information Channel) is a USB stick designed for secure online banking, even on your horribly malware-infected machine. Developed in Zurich by IBM, this guy opens an SSL connection with the bank's servers, keeping the data safely on its side of things (this guy has no storage of its own) and displaying the transaction on the hardware itself. Even if your connection is breached by a "man-in-the-middle" attack, the hacker's funny business will be exposed on the device's display, which comes equipped with a big red "panic" button -- just in case. Pricing and availability for banking institutions has yet to be determined, but we do have a boss video for you after the break.

[Via PC World]

Continue reading IBM develops ZTIC USB stick for secure online banking

IBM ThamesBlue supercomputer uncovers antediluvian English words

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 1st 2009 at 10:27AM

Granted, we could personally think of much more amazing ways to put supercomputers to work, but maybe there is some sort of benefit to humanity by knowing precisely what our ancestors' first words were. All that aside, the IBM ThamesBlue supercomputer has been tapped by language masters at the University of Reading in order to find that 'I,' 'we,' 'who' and the numbers '1,' '2' and '3' are amongst the most ancient across all Indo-European languages. Comically enough, it was also found that words like 'squeeze,' 'guts,' 'stick,' 'throw' and 'dirty' were also markedly archaic, which sure says a lot about how men in particular, um, don't evolve. At any rate, these new computational powers have reportedly opened up another 25,000 years or so of language study, so we suspect the folks on this project will be occupied for some time to come.

IBM patents bullet dodging bionic armor

by Ross Miller, posted Feb 14th 2009 at 12:24AM

Your science fiction fantasy may be coming a reality, if IBM has anything to say about it. The company was recently granted a patent for bionic body armor, originally filed last March, that's intended to bestow the wearer the power to dodge bullets. The device works by constantly emitting electromagnetic waves that bounce off any fast-moving projectiles, and it uses the data to calculate risky trajectories. If the object in question is determined to be a threat, muscle stimulators activate and cause the wearer's body to contort in such way to avoid being hit. It works under the idea that a sniper typically fires from a distance, given the armor time to detect the oncoming bullet and react accordingly. Check out an image of from IBM's filing after the break. Here's hoping it can detect lasers, too.

[Via The Firearm Blog; thanks, Chris!]

Continue reading IBM patents bullet dodging bionic armor

Study finds horrible working conditions at Microsoft, Dell ODM factory

by Laura June, posted Feb 11th 2009 at 9:46AM

Despite the fact that the world economy is suffering from cutbacks in nearly every job sector, factory workers in places such as the Meitai factory in Dongguan City, Guangdong, China -- which assembles and produces keyboards for companies including Lenovo, Microsoft, Dell, HP and IBM -- have been relatively insulated from the downturn, and their jobs secure. The National Labor Committee has conducted a covert operation to investigate the working conditions at the factory, however, and found them to be less than acceptable. The workers -- who arguably are not compensated very well to begin with -- are cheated out of wages for negligible wrongdoing, forced into overtime, fed food that even a Dickens character would refuse, work twelve hours a day seven days a week, and sleep in dorms which are "primitive" (yes, workers live at the factory). The report that the NLC has compiled is quite long, detailed, depressing, and begins, ironically, with a Bill Gates quote. Hit the read link for the full story.

Update: It looks like the source material at the read links is only working intermittently.

[Via Boing Boing]

Lenovo's American CEO steps down, Chinese leadership returns

by Thomas Ricker, posted Feb 5th 2009 at 4:53AM

After leaving Dell to become chief executive of Lenovo, Bill Amelio is stepping down from his post as CEO. Amelio joined Lenovo to help with the integration of IBM's PC business. The so-called "amicable" departure comes with the announcement of a quarterly loss three-times higher than expected. The US executive has been replaced by Lenovo's Chairman Yang Yuanqing who will continue to live and work from Lenovo's North Carolina office -- Yang's board leadership duties will now be assumed by Lenovo's co-founder, Liu Chuanzhi. That puts Lenovo back into the hands of executive Chinese leadership as it attempts to recapture ground given up to HP and Acer in corporate sales. And with IT budgets slashed in a bid to keep corporations afloat, the executive changes are meant to accelerate Lenovo's strategy to dominate China's PC market, grow its business into emerging markets (specifically India and Russia), and expand upon its burgeoning sales to individual consumers. Seems like a reasonable move to us.

[Via Bloomberg]

IBM's Sequoia: 20x faster than the world's fastest supercomputer

by Thomas Ricker, posted Feb 3rd 2009 at 2:53AM

Roadrunner? Pfff, your chart-topping 1.105 petaflops are laughable. IBM just announced its 20-freaking-petaflop Sequoia supercomputer due for delivery by 2012. While supercomputer speeds have steadily increased year-over-year, a near 20x jump in calculations per second since the last world ranking is unheard of, even if the system has yet to come on-line. Slated to spend its life simulating nuclear explosions, Sequoia will use 45-nm (PowerPC, presumably) processors with 16 cores per chip for as many as 4,096 processors per rack. That's a total of 1.6 million cores assisted by 1.6 petabytes of memory. Perhaps all this processing power might help IBM understand the futility of its Lotus Notes strategy.

IBM develops computerized voice that actually sounds human

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 2nd 2009 at 8:46AM

If there's one thing that still grates our nerves, it's automated calling systems. Or, more specifically, the robotic beings that simply fail to understand our slang and incomprehensible rants. IBM's working hard and fast to change all that, with a team at the company's Thomas J Watson research division developing and patenting a computerized voice that can utter "um," "er" and "yes, we're dead serious." The sophisticated system adds in the minutiae that makes conversation believable to Earthlings, and it's even programmed to learn new nuances and react to phrases such as "shh." The technology has been difficulty coined "generating paralinguistic phenomena via markup in text-to-speech syntheses," and while exact end uses have yet to be discussed publicly, we can certainly imagine a brave new world of automated CSRs.