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The Wi-Fi Alliance branded its next-generation 802.11ah wireless protocol as Wi-Fi HaLow. It is targeted at the Internet of Things (IoT), which includes the smart home, connected car, and digital healthcare, as well as industrial, retail, agriculture, and smart-city environments. Unlike the older and more familiar 802.11 protocols, which mostly use the 2.4 or 5GHz bands, 802.11ah is a sub-gigahertz protocol that uses the 900MHz band. It has an enviable combination of characteristics.

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We may be fed a tale of ever expanding life expectancy, but while average lifespans may be rising maximum years are unchanged. If we want to keep extending the clock we need more than antibiotics and nutrition.

The easy work is done

While improving living standards and reducing infant mortality was not an easy job in itself, it extended years without fundamentally changing human biology. The incredible changes brought by the 20th century yielded longevity — but predominantly did so by lifting the majority closer to those luckier few. Even in the ancient world individuals seemingly lived over 80 years old; it was simply a rarer event to do so. You were significantly more likely to be felled by a disease beforehand, and many never reached such an advanced age as a result.

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Nvidia took pretty much everyone by surprise when it announced it was getting into self-driving cars; it’s just not what you expect from a company that’s made its name off selling graphics cards for gamers.

At this year’s CES, it’s taking the focus on autonomous cars even further.

The company today announced the Nvidia Drive PX2. According to CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, it’s basically a supercomputer for your car. Hardware-wise, it’s made up of 12 CPU cores and four GPUs, all liquid-cooled. That amounts to about 8 teraflops of processing power, is as powerful as 6 Titan X graphics cards, and compares to ‘about 150 MacBook Pros’ for self-driving applications.

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