Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 9


Super atoms The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has devised what it calls a super atom, a technology that could one day enable a new class of catalysts. TUM developed a cluster made up of 55 copper and aluminum atoms. The cluster looks like a crystal, but it actually has the properties of an atom or a heterometallic super atom. The super atom could one day be used to develop more cost-... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 18


Flexible nanowires The University of Glasgow has developed a new contact-printing system that prints and embeds silicon nanowires into flexible surfaces. The technology enables new forms of flexible electronics. It can be used to develop low-power circuits in flexible substrates, such as plastic, paper and fabrics. Researchers from the University of Glasgow have developed a new contact-p... » read more

Toward Defining Qubits


Quantum computing, by many accounts the future of high-performance computing, will be blazing fast, state-dependent, and it will require extremely cold operating temperatures. But beyond some general areas of agreement, comparing progress made by companies or different research groups is confusing. What's missing is a simple nomenclature to define some of the basic technology used in quantum... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: March 21


Making harder windows Using cubic silicon nitride materials, a team of researchers have developed a harder window that can sustain severe conditions. There is a demand for harder and stronger windows in various applications, such as engines, ball bearings, cutting tools and other others. To enable this technology, researchers used materials based on transparent polycrystalline ceramics. One... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 3


Paper-based bacteria battery Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have created a bacteria-powered battery on a single sheet of paper that can power disposable electronics. The manufacturing technique reduces fabrication time and cost, and the design could revolutionize the use of bio-batteries as a power source in remote, dangerous and resource-limited areas. ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: June 7


Intel’s spintronic spectrometer Intel and Stanford University have presented the first results for a technology called a ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectrometer. Initially invented and developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), FMR examines the properties of materials for spintronic-based memories. Today’s DRAMs store binary data in tiny capacitors. I... » read more

System Bits: Nov. 18


Phase transitions between liquid, gas Researchers from the University of Tokyo and Tokyo Institute of Technology reminded that materials change their form between three states -- solid, liquid, and gas -- depending on factors such as temperature and pressure. However, a phase transition does not necessarily occur between liquid and gas, and they can continuously transform from the one to the o... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: June 17


Nanotubes boost terahertz detectors Researchers at Rice University, Sandia National Laboratories and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed novel terahertz detectors based on carbon nanotubes that could improve medical imaging, airport passenger screening, food inspection and other applications. Unlike current terahertz detectors, the devices are flexible, sensitive to polarizatio... » read more

Fastest Computers On The Planet


The latest Green500 list (Excel spreadsheet here) was just released at the end of last month and heterogeneous systems now own the top of the list. The Top 10 systems all use a combination of Intel Xeon (mostly E5) processors paired with NVIDIA K20s. There are now 6 systems listed that have broken the 3,000 MFLOPS/W barrier and TSUBAME-KFC, belonging to the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s GSI... » read more

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