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Archive for the ‘computing’ category: Page 243

Nov 5, 2022

Finalmouse prototype keyboard leaks in a new video, features a CPU, GPU, and 4K display

Posted by in category: computing

Some of you might not be familiar with Finalmouse, but the company has been around for a few years and has gained quite a following for its carefully crafted and high-performing mice. The mice are coveted by consumers and professionals and if there is one drawback to the brand, it would be the limited releases that tend to sell out in seconds. At the beginning of the year, the company teased a keyboard in the works, and now, a video of a prototype has surfaced, showing off something truly unique.

Information about the prototype was posted to Twitter by Jake Lucky, showing off a video of the keyboard with some highly unique attributes. Furthermore, the video posted also has some extra tidbits about the device, like the keyboard will be self-powered by an integrated CPU and GPU, which only requires a single USB-C cable for operation. In addition, it will also have custom switch options and a custom 2K / 4K display which will be able to display custom graphics and animations. These graphics will apparently be available directly from Steam and will be powered by Unreal Engine 5. Finally, the construction will reportedly be quite sturdy thanks to its glass-stacked construction.

Nov 5, 2022

Starlink will introduce a data cap starting in December

Posted by in categories: computing, internet

Over the past couple of months, Starlink has branched out, offering its service in more ways than ever before. As more and more people sign up for its service, the network naturally gets a bit more strained and congested. Now it looks like Starlink is implementing a way to combat network congestion by creating a data cap.

According to The Verge, Starlink service will now have a data cap starting in December. Next month, residential customers will start off with a 1TB bucket of data that will be designated as “Priority Access.” Priority Access data will be used anytime the internet is accessed during the hours of 7 am to 11 pm. Once the data is depleted, users will encounter slower data speeds during peak hours. The bucket will be replenished at the top of every month, and customers will have the option to buy Priority Access data, but it will cost 25 cents per GB.

For the most part, this shouldn’t really affect many customers, as Starlink states that less than 10 percent of its users actually manage to hit this cap every month. In addition to a new data cap, the company will also be expanding its service to more parts of Alaska and also Canada, primarily focusing on the Northern areas. For areas in the region that aren’t yet covered, Starlink does have plans to expand to more areas in the first part of 2023.

Nov 5, 2022

Quantum Error Correction: Time to Make It Work

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

If technologists can’t perfect it, quantum computers will never be big.

Nov 5, 2022

How Computers Can Finally Detect Sarcasm

Posted by in category: computing

Ramya Akula and the tech that lets sentiment analysis spot mocking words.

Nov 5, 2022

The First Million-Transistor Chip: the Engineers’ Story

Posted by in category: computing

Intel’s i860 RISC chip was a graphics powerhouse.

Nov 5, 2022

3D-Stacked CMOS Takes Moore’s Law to New Heights

Posted by in category: computing

When transistors can’t get any smaller, the only direction is up.

Nov 5, 2022

Micron Is First to Deliver 3D Flash Chips with More than 200 Layers

Posted by in category: computing

Boise, Idaho-based memory manufacturer Micron Technology says it has reached volume production of a 232-layer NAND flash-memory chip. It’s the first such chip to pass the 200-layer mark, and it’s been a tight race. Competitors are currently providing 176-layer technology, and some already have working chips with 200+ layers in hand.

The new Micron tech as much as doubles the density of bits stored per unit area versus competing chips, packing in 14.6 gigabits per square millimeter. Its 1-terabit chips are bundled into 2-terabyte packages, each of which is barely more than a centimeter on a side and can store about two weeks worth of 4K video.

With 81 trillion gigabytes (81 zettabytes) of data generated in 2021 and International Data Corp. (IDC) predicting 221 ZB in 2026, “storage has to innovate to keep up,” says Alvaro Toledo, Micron’s vice president of data-center storage.

Nov 5, 2022

DRAM’s Moore’s Law Is Still Going Strong

Posted by in categories: computing, mobile phones

Memory and storage chip maker Micron Technology says it is shipping samples of the most bit-dense DRAM memory chips yet. Compared with its own previous generation, the 16-gigabit DRAM chip is 15 percent more power efficient and 35 percent more dense. Notably, Micron achieved the improvement without resorting to the most advanced chip-making technology, extreme ultraviolet lithography. The features that make up DRAM cells are not nearly as tiny as those on logic chips, but this advance shows that DRAM density could still shrink further in the future.

Micron says it is shipping samples of LPDDR5X chips, memory made for power-constrained systems such as smartphones. (LPDDR5X, unpacked: a revved-up twist on the low-power version of the fifth generation of the double-data-rate memory communications standard, capable of transferring 8.5 gigabits per second.) It’s the first chip made using Micron’s new manufacturing process, called 1-beta, which the company says maintains the lead it took a year ago over rivals, including Samsung and SK Hynix.

Manufacturing processes for DRAM and logic chips diverged decades ago, with logic chips shrinking transistors much more aggressively as the years went by, explains Jim Handy, a memory and storage analyst at Objective Analysis, in Los Gatos, Calif. The reason for the difference has to do with DRAM’s structure. DRAM stores a bit as charge in a capacitor. Access to each capacitor is gated by a transistor. But the transistor is an imperfect barrier, and the charge will eventually leak away. So DRAM must be periodically refreshed, restoring its bits before they drain away. In order to keep that refresh period reasonable while still increasing the density of memory, DRAM makers had to make some pretty radical changes to the makeup of the capacitor. For Micron and other major manufacturers, it now resembles a tall pillar and is made using materials not found in logic chips.

Nov 5, 2022

This Implant Turns Brain Waves Into Words

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, neuroscience

A paralyzed man who hasn’t spoken in 15 years uses a brain-computer interface that decodes his intended speech, one word at a time.

Nov 4, 2022

The Sci-Fi Dream of a ‘Molecular Computer’ Is Getting More Real

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

Chemists have long conceptualized tiny machines that could fabricate drugs, plastics, and other polymers that are hard to build with bigger tools.