February 10, 2012

Good Morning,

Developers are boosting the speed of computers by an average of 20% via a new micro chip. Check out the details in the second article.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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China announces new launch rockets

BEIJING - China says it will debut a new generation of Long March launch rockets within the next five years to join its rocket fleet of satellite launchers. Long March-5, -6 and -7 will be non-toxic, low-cost, highly reliable, adaptable and safe carrier rockets, Yu Menglun of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in an interview with China's state-run news agency Xinhua. The Long March-5 rocket will use non-toxic and pollution-free propellant to put up to 25 tons of payload into low Earth-orbit or 14 tons into geosynchronous orbit, Yu said. The Long March-6, a high-speed launch vehicle, can put 1 ton into a sun-synchronous orbit while the Long March-7 has a maximum low Earth-orbit payload capacity of 13.5 tons and 5.5 tons of sun-synchronous orbit payload, he said. The new Long March models will be the latest in a line of launch vehicles dating back to 1956 when China first started the development of modern carrier rockers, Xinhua said.


New computer chip design boosts speed

RALEIGH, N.C. - U.S. researchers say a new technique in computer chip design can increase overall computer processor performance by an average of more than 20 percent. In the new design, graphics processing units and central processing units on a single chip, normally involved in separate processing activities, can collaborate, researchers at North Carolina State University said. GPUs were initially designed for the single function of executing graphics programs and are capable of executing many individual functions very quickly while CPUs, or the "brains" of a computer, have less computational power but are better able to perform more complex tasks. "Chip manufacturers are now creating processors that have a 'fused architecture,' meaning that they include CPUs and GPUs on a single chip," researcher Huiyang Zhou said in a university release Tuesday. "This approach decreases manufacturing costs and makes computers more energy efficient. However, the CPU cores and GPU cores still work almost exclusively on separate functions. They rarely collaborate to execute any given program, so they aren't as efficient as they could be." "Our approach is to allow the GPU cores to execute computational functions, and have CPU cores pre-fetch the data the GPUs will need from off-chip main memory," Zhou said. "This is more efficient because it allows CPUs and GPUs to do what they are good at. GPUs are good at performing computations. CPUs are good at making decisions and flexible data retrieval." The researchers said the new approach can improve fused processor performance by an average of 21.4 percent.


Genome of ancient humans sequenced

LEIPZIG, Germany - German researchers say they have completed the genome sequence of a Denisovan, a representative of an Asian group of extinct humans related to Neanderthals. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig said they were able to sequence the genome from a small fragment of a human finger bone discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. Denisovans, along with their cousins the Neanderthals, are the closest extinct relatives of currently living humans. The DNA sequencing confirmed the relationship of Denisovans to Neanderthals and to present-day humans, an institute release reported Tuesday. Researchers said the first complete genome sequence of an archaic human group will be a step forward in the study of extinct forms of humans. "We hope that biologists will be able to use this genome to discover genetic changes that were important for the development of modern human culture and technology, and enabled modern humans to leave Africa and rapidly spread around the world, starting around 100,000 years ago," Svante Paabo at the Max Planck institute said.


Report: Mind control of weapons possible

LONDON - Technological advances in neuroscience could allow future soldiers to control weapons systems simply by using their minds, British researchers say. The suggestion was part of a report released Tuesday by Britain's Royal Society on the possible benefits of neuroscience to military and law enforcement. So-called brain-machine interface devices already being used to allow paralyzed people to move computer cursors or control artificial limbs could one day connect soldiers' brains directly to military technology such as drones and weapons, the report said. "Since the human brain can process images, such as targets, much faster than the subject is consciously aware of, a neurally interfaced weapons system could provide significant advantages over other system control methods in terms of speed and accuracy," the report said. A U.S. researcher who took part in the study acknowledged he was uncomfortable knowing neuroscience could be used by the military. "As a scientist I dislike that someone might be hurt by my work," Vince Clark, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of New Mexico, told the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. "I want to reduce suffering, to make the world a better place, but there are people in the world with different intentions, and I don't know how to deal with that. "If I stop my work, the people who might be helped won't be helped. Almost any technology has a defense application."

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