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Blog – Page 11325

35 percent efficiency.

The cost of solar power is beginning to reach price parity with cheaper fossil fuel-based electricity in many parts of the world, yet the clean energy source still accounts for slightly more than 1% of the world’s electricity mix.

To boost global solar power generation, researchers must overcome some of the technological limitations that are preventing solar power from scaling up even further, which includes the inability to develop very high-efficiency solar cells – solar cells capable of converting a significant amount of sunlight into usable electrical energy – at very low costs.

A team of researchers from the Masdar Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) may have found a way around the seemingly inseparable high-efficiency and high-cost linkage through an innovative multi-junction solar cell that leverages a unique “step-cell” design approach and low cost silicon. The new step-cell combines two different layers of sunlight-absorbing material to harvest a broader range of the sun’s energy while using a novel, low-cost manufacturing process.

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UC Davis has developed the KiloCore, a CPU that has 1000 cores suited for parallel tasks like encryption, crunching scientific data, and encoding videos.

Processor technology has certainly come far, with a host of different materials and techniques being implemented to increase speed and power. And now, we have a new kind of development. A team of scientists at UC Davis made the world’s first 1000-core processor.

The team has unveiled the KiloCore, a CPU that has 1000 cores and all the speed that come with that kind of power. The chip has a maximum computation rate of 1.78 trillion instructions per second and contains 621 million transistors.

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This new computer system is 100 billion times more energy efficient than the most energy efficient conventional green supercomputer. Using only links and rotary joints, this “molecular mechanical computer” removes the need for parts that create friction and generate heat.

The trend for computing, and for technology in general, really consists of just one word: Smaller. Previously, technology that could fit on your desk was the rage. Then it became tech that fit in your bag. Then the palm of your hand. Now, scientists are playing with even smaller technology, down to the molecular size.

Scientists have developed a computer system that can, theoretically, be 100 billion times more energy efficient than the most energy efficient conventional green supercomputer. Using only links and rotary joints, this “molecular mechanical computer” removes the need for gears, clutches, switches, springs, and other parts that create friction and generate heat.

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