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Category: space – Page 226
MediaTek And NVIDIA Reportedly Co-Developing Snapdragon X Elite Competitor, Design To Be Finalized In Q3, Using TSMC’s 3nm Process
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite will eventually face competition in the ARM-based AI chipset space from MediaTek and NVIDIA, who have reportedly joined forces to co-develop a new SoC whose design is said to be finalized in the third quarter of this year. The upcoming silicon is said to support advanced technologies, including being mass produced on TSMC’s 3nm process, with the new entrant possibly competing with Apple’s M4 when comparing lithography.
The unnamed chipset from MediaTek and NVIDIA is rumored to fetch a price of $300 per unit, likely due to leveraging advanced nodes and packaging technologies
With the AI PC segment estimated to grow massively by 2027, MediaTek and NVIDIA want to pounce on this opportunity, giving this category a healthy dose of competition. The Taiwanese fabless semiconductor manufacturer has already received praise from Morgan Stanley analysts for its Dimensity 9,300, so there is no question that the company’s chip-making prowess has a gold-standard label. Add NVIDIA to the mix, and we could see an SoC that overtakes the competition in graphics performance, though Economic News Daily has not mentioned this.
Enhancing Boiling Processes for Lunar and Martian Exploration
How will liquids boil under reduced gravity, specifically on the Moon and Mars? This is what a recent project hopes to address as a team of researchers led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and working with Texas A&M University investigated the behavior of boiling liquids under reduced gravity using parabolic flights that are designed to simulate reduced gravity conditions. This project holds the potential to help researchers and future astronauts better understand how to manage boiling liquids during long-term space missions to the Moon and Mars where the gravity is one-sixth and one-third of the Earth’s, respectively.
From left to right: SwRI Research Engineer, Emilio Gordon, Texas A&M University Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Dr. Bonnie Dunbar, and SwRI Research Engineer, Dr. Eugene Hoffman, examine the experimental payload right before its parabolic flight on April 24th, 2024. (Credit: Southwest Research Institute)
“We have so little data about how boiling works in reduced gravity,” said Kevin Supak, who is a program manager at SwRI and the project lead. “Our experiment studies boiling in conditions that simulate lunar and Martian gravity levels using four different surfaces to examine how bubbles initiate and detach.”
Mars is blasting plasma out of its atmosphere into space
The Red Planet launches large bursts of plasma into space from its upper atmosphere, much like the sun’s coronal mass ejections, despite not having a global magnetic field.
By Alex Wilkins
OTPS seeks input from the lunar community to inform a framework for further work on non-interference of lunar activities
NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS) is asking members of the lunar community to respond to a new Lunar Non-Interference Questionnaire that will inform the development of a framework for further work on non-interference of lunar activities. There is no funding or solicitation expected to follow.
OTPS was created in November 2021 within the Office of the NASA Administrator to work transparently in collaboration across NASA and with the broader space community to provide NASA leadership with a trade space of data-and evidence-driven options to develop and shape NASA policy, strategy, and technology.
As dozens of countries and private sector companies have expressed interest in establishing lunar operations by the end of the decade, including many in the South Pole region, it will be critical to determine how to minimize interference and contamination in lunar activities. Deconfliction has been identified as an area of further work in Section 11 of the Artemis Accords and will be an area of increasing importance as the number of commercial and international actors operating on the lunar surface grows.