Week 41: The Rise Of Security At DAC


All potential attendees interested in security topics should know one thing—the Wednesday keynote on hacking automobiles, while sure to be compelling, will only scratch the surface of security-related content at DAC. Another presenter will talk about how increasing demand for “connected life on the go” and “Internet-enabled everything” opens up a wide variety of security issues for Io... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 16


Space DSA NASA's Physical Science Research Program is taking directed self-assembly (DSA) technology to new heights. On the International Space Station, astronauts are exploring the development of nanoparticles suspended in magnetorheolocial (MR) fluids. MR fluids, which are a new class of smart materials, self-assemble into shapes in the presence of a magnetic field. With the technology, r... » read more

IoT Turns To Dust


The current thinking for the [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"] is that a single or bi-directional interface will be attached to just about everything. It will be an amalgamation of hardware and software that will sense whatever we want, assess it anyway we want, and send it anywhere we want—or where someone else wants. "There has probably never been a more exciting time to work ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 4


World’s fastest IC amplifier Northrop Grumman has set a record for the world’s fastest integrated circuit amplifier. The record has been recognized by officials from Guinness World Records. The amplifier uses 10 transistor stages to reach an operating speed of one terahertz, or one trillion cycles per second. This surpassed the company's own record of 850 billion cycles per second set i... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 28


Making graphene from cooked sawdust The University of Birmingham has found a new and cheap way to make nanostructured carbon materials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene. The magic formula? Common sawdust. Sawdust is made up of cellulose and lignin. Researchers can convert this biomass material into nanostructured graphitic carbon in a single step. [caption id="attachment_15639" alig... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 30


Muscle-on-a-chip Harvard University has developed a human airway muscle-on-a-chip as a means to test new drugs for the treatment of asthma. There is an urgent need for a new breakthrough in this arena. The majority of drugs used to treat asthma have not changed in 50 years, according to researchers at Harvard. Asthma affects nearly 25 million people in the United States alone. Asthma, ac... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 16


Making sounds with atoms What is the sound of one hand clapping? Perhaps a better question is what is the sound of an atom? Chalmers University of Technology has demonstrated the ability to make a sound with an atom. More specifically, researchers have made acoustic waves with an artificial atom. In doing so, researchers have demonstrated quantum physics with sound taking on the role of lig... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Aug. 19


28nm brain chips DARPA-funded researchers have developed a 28nm chip that mimics the brain. The low-power chip is inspired by the neuronal structure of the brain. Designed by researchers at IBM under DARPA’s Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) program, the chip consists of 5.4 billion transistors. Built on Samsung’s 28nm foundry process, the chip has ... » read more

New Winners And Losers


During DAC 2013, Robert Colwell of DARPA said he was attempting to prepare the U.S. Dept. of Defense for what he believes is the cataclysm caused by the end of [getkc id="74" comment="Moore's Law"]. He asked the question, “What happens when we don’t have a new technology that doubles the number of transistors every couple of years?” Colwell believes that power is the primary reason why... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 1


Portable laser weapons For years, the U.S. military has been developing high-energy laser (HEL) weapons. But the massive size, weight and power requirements of laser systems limit their use on many military platforms. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has made a breakthrough in its so-called Excalibur program. The program will develop laser weapons that are 10 times ligh... » read more

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