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Intel teaches Haswell the core values of teamwork, optimism
Sure you can make wild, individualistic boasts about having a 22nm fabrication process and three different GPUs, but that stuff counts for nothing without the magic of cooperation. The Amish know that and so does Intel, which is why its forthcoming Haswell cores will support Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX) -- a new instruction set designed to allow cores to work together more closely without hammering each others' fingers. TSX takes greater responsibility for the division of labor between cores at the hardware level, relieving the software programmer of some of this burdensome duty and hopefully allowing for finer-grained threading as a result. The system also relies on inherent optimism, with each core assuming that the others have handled their part of the work successfully. Inevitably, there'll be occasions when this happy belief gets splintered and a bad job has to be started again from scratch, but on average things should get done quicker and leave more energy for the barn dance.
ACU Optimist first student newspaper on the iPad
A day after Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad, Dr. Cheryl Bacon, chair of Abilene Christian University's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication vowed that the student newspaper would be the first to make it to the iPad. This week, ACU has accomplished that goal. The Optimist is a nearly century-old student newspaper publication of the JMC Network, the student media operation at Abilene Christian University. The iPad edition of The Optimist is a dynamically updating version of the print edition with multi-touch photo slide shows, content selectors, updated ACU Wildcat sports scores, and coolest of all, access to five years worth of Optimist archives all right from the iPad. The Optimist for iPad is part of ACU's Mobile Learning Initiative which explores the ways people are using mobile devices to enhance learning. ACU Optimist for iPad is a free download on the App Store.
