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Renesas Boasts of New Spin-Torque MRAM Tricks to Dramatically Lower IoT RAM Power Consumption

Semiconductor specialist Renesas has announced two new technologies designed to dramatically improve the efficiency of embedded devices built for the Internet of Things — by reducing the power required to write into RAM.

“With the accelerated spread of IoT technology in recent years, there has been strong demand for reduced power consumption in microcontroller units (MCUs) used in endpoint devices,” the company claims in its technology announcement. “MRAM requires less energy for write operations than flash memory, and is thus particularly well suited for applications with frequent data updates.”

“However, as demand for data processing capability surges for MCUs, the need to ameliorate the trade off between performance and power consumption increases. Therefore, further power consumption reduction remains a pressing issue.”

Flawed Diamonds May Provide Perfect Interface for Quantum Computers — Faster and More Secure

Flaws in diamonds — atomic defects where carbon is replaced by nitrogen or another element — may offer a close-to-perfect interface for quantum computing 0, a proposed communications exchange that promises to be faster and more secure than current methods. There’s one major problem, though: these flaws, known as diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers, are controlled via magnetic field, which is incompatible with existing quantum devices. Imagine trying to connect an Altair, an early personal computer developed in 1974, to the internet via WiFi. It’s a difficult, but not impossible task. The two technologies speak different languages, so the first step is to help translate.

Researchers at Yokohama National University have developed an interface approach to control the diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers in a way that allows direct translation to quantum devices. They published their method today (December 15, 2021) in Communications Physics.

“To realize the quantum internet, a quantum interface is required to generate remote quantum entanglement by photons, which are a quantum communication medium,” said corresponding author Hideo Kosaka, professor in the Quantum Information Research Center, Institute of Advanced Sciences and in the Department of Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, both at Yokohama National University. “.

Bill Gates won’t join the space race. He wants to eradicate malaria and tuberculosis instead

Some of the world’s richest men are squaring off in what’s become a rivalry for the ages — the space race. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the two richest men on the planet and the CEOs of SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively, have grand designs on the cosmos. They predict a universe where the internet is accessible from anywhere, humans are an interplanetary species, and rotating space stations host permanent residents.

But Bill Gates isn’t putting his wealth into these off-planet endeavors.

Gates, the fourth richest person alive, according to Forbes, has what he considers higher aspirations right here on Earth. While internet constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s proposed Project Kuiper aim to bring for-profit fixes to the world’s pressing connectivity issues, Gates told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Wednesday that more basic problems consume his time now.

Meta’s Latest Avatar System is Finally Available to Unity VR Developers

But there should be a system in metaverse where users can operate machines using internet.


Following an initial announcement eight months ago, Meta has released its latest avatar system for all Unity VR developers, including support for App Lab titles and limited support for non-Oculus platforms like SteamVR.

Update (December 13th, 2021): Meta today announced that its latest avatar system is finally available to all Unity developers. Formerly called Oculus Avatars 2.0—and now called Meta Avatars—the system brings a huge upgrade to avatar style and expressiveness compared to the company’s prior avatar systems.

The Meta Avatars SDK offers support for Unity-based VR applications on Quest and Rift, with limited support for non-Oculus platforms, like Unity VR apps built for SteamVR. Meta says that Quest apps on App Lab can make full use of the Meta Avatar SDK, just like those on the official store.

Report: 95% of tech leaders say that AI will drive future innovation

According to a newly released survey from nonprofit technical organization IEEE, about one in five respondents say AI and machine learning (21%), cloud computing (20%), and 5G (17%) will be the most important technologies next year. The study examines the most important technologies in 2022, the industries expected to be most impacted by technology in the year ahead, and anticipated technology trends through the next decade.

What industries are expected to be most impacted by technology in the year ahead? Technology leaders surveyed cited manufacturing (25%), financial services (19%), health care (16%), and energy (13%) as industries poised for major disruption.

Regarding the key technology trends to expect through the next decade, an overwhelming majority (95%) agree — including 66% who strongly agree — that AI will drive the majority of innovation across nearly every industry sector in the next one to five years. Furthermore, 81% agree that, in the next five years, one-quarter of what they do will be enhanced by robots, and 77% agree that, in the same timeframe, robots will be deployed across their organization to enhance nearly every business function, from sales and human resources to marketing and IT. A majority of respondents agree (78%) that in the next 10 years, half or more of what they do will be enhanced by robots.

Baidu, Pony AI granted China’s first licences to charge passengers for self-driving taxis in Beijing

Two operators including Chinese internet search giant Baidu have been given the green light to start charging passengers to use their autonomous taxis in Beijing.

Baidu and Pony AI became the first companies to be granted licences by mainland Chinese authorities to launch their driverless cab services commercially following successful trial periods.

On Thursday, the Beijing High-level Automated Driving Demonstration Area gave permission for Baidu and Pony AI to charge fees for their so-called robotaxis in a designated area of the capital covering 60 square kilometres.

China could surpass US in core 21st Century technologies within a decade: Harvard

They have cheap labour.


With China aggressively expanding in various fields like artificial intelligence, 5G networking, semiconductors, and more, it appears that the nation will be overtaking the US in 21st century technologies within just a decade.

The news arrives from a recent report from Harvard, which is titled “The Great Rivalry: China vs the US in the 21st Century” that was published by the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The report adds that “China’s rapid rise to challenge US dominance of technology’s commanding heights has captured America’s attention.” It further adds that in some areas China “has already become No 1. In others, on current trajectories, it will overtake the US within the next decade.”

With Cyber-Spirituality on the Rise in Silicon Valley, Will the Rest of the World Eventually Embrace It, Too?

I was recently interviewed by Magda Gacyk, San Francisco-based correspondent for Wyborcza, the most prestigious daily newspaper in Poland (akin to New York Times in the U.S.) and her article, that can be loosely translated “Prophecies of the Tech Spirituality: A New Gospel of Silicon Valley,” appeared in the last Saturday issue of November. Here’s our conversation…

#CyberSpirituality #SiliconValley #Singularity #Metaverse #Theogenesis #Cybergods #Cybertheism


“I do believe we are in the midst of a transition — intimated by the Internet — towards a more collective thinking, where the individual…