Mountain View (CA) - When we talk about processor performance, most of the performance typically comes from the depth of the pipeline, the number of cores, the size and the type of the cache or the   clock speed. However, we rarely here about the way how a processor actually communicates between these components and such technologies usually do not make it into marketing brochures. But Intel has an idea that could change this scenario: The company plays with the thought of integrating DRAM into the CPU.

One of the most important goals when designing a new chip is to keep the available processing units as busy as possible. One way to achieve this goal is to feed enough data into the cores as quickly as possible through improved inter-core communication. The progress from one processor generation to another is obvious: For example, while the 65 nm Kentsfield quad-core provided a bandwidth of about 8 to 9 GB/s, the 45 nm Harpertown chip offers 18-20 GB/s.  
 
At last week’s Research@Intel Day event, we spotted a technology that holds the potential to multiply the available bandwidth within a processor. In our opinion, this technology is actually the most impressive research we saw on that day. The reason why you may not have heard about this technology is because Intel did not specifically promote it and did not even mention it on its  “Demo Cheat-Sheets” given out to journalists and analysts.

A small research team inside Intel succeeded in reducing the size of DRAM cells to only two transistors and completely removing the capacitors. Conceivably, these two achievements could change the way how we will use DRAM in the future: For example, expensive and complex SRAM (static RAM) cells could be entirely removed from a CPU and replaced with DRAM.

In contrast to Intel’s two-transistor (“2T”) DRAM bit cell, SRAM usually requires six transistors per stored bit. Of course, there is also 1T-SRAM (which uses only one cell), but this type is very rare (and used for example in Nintendo game consoles such as the GameCube and Wii).

SRAM has some advantages over DRAM, including lower power consumption, higher speed and no need to be refreshed. However, SRAM is known to be much more expensive than DRAM and not as dense.

Intel said that it was able to fine tune its DRAM design and hit a physical clock of 2 GHz using a 65 nm manufacturing process. The resulting 2T-DRAM offers a stunning bandwidth of 128 GB/s. If Intel is successful to take the clock speed up to the level of its QX9770/9775 processors, the bandwidth would climb to 204.8 GB/s. In other words: Intel would gain more than a 10x improvement over its current L2 cache technology. More importantly: This approach would completely change the programming model since there are no longer any concerns over cache misses.

The scientists believe they will be able to use 45 nm High-k technology to match and exceed Intel’s existing clock speed design. And as a next step, DRAM cells are planned to be stacked into Intel’s Terascale processors. The Terascale processor itself may be seeing a migration to a massive number of x86 mini-cores – which, sooner or later, may reveal the successor of the architectures of Larrabee and Itanium. In case you are wondering: Yes, it looks like there will be a combination of a CPU and the upcoming GPU/accelerator.

Seeing 32nm wafers at Intel’s Research Day was nice, but at the end of the day, 32 nm is just another manufacturing process. DRAM on the processor is actually what would make the greatest difference in performance in our opinion. According to two scientists we talked to, the potential bandwidth would quickly introduce us to the era of Terascale. If software developers can access a low-latency  200 GB/s bandwidth, many of today’s parallel programming problems could be resolved, since a cycle-miss could be reduced to near zero.

TAKEN FROM www.tgdaily.com

Adobe AIR, a downloadable platform for running web-friendly apps on any operating system, is still pretty fresh on the market, but it already has a healthy number of applications in development or near completion. While many of them are simply desktop translations of web interfaces that were easy to use already, a handful of AIR apps truly make work and play easier, or just more interesting. Let’s take a look at 10 applications that make it worth the effort of downloading and installing Adobe AIR.

Note: Not every AIR app we’ve tested works nicely with the Linux alpha of AIR, so we’ve noted where at least one Linux system (Ubuntu 8.04) had problems running the app.

10. Pandora

(Windows/Mac only) The officially sanctioned desktop client for Pandora has awkwardly-placed ads and not a lot more features than the web client. Avoid a permanently-open tab and get right-click access to your favorite streams and artists with the Pandora desktop AIR client.

9. eBay Desktop

For eBay deal hunters, the eBay Desktop is a time- and frustration-saving interface to the auction site’s search and purchase functions. Sellers have extremely limited functionality at the moment, something the official eBay developers are working on, but buyers get real-time auction prices and time-remaining counts, can click item-by-item on a search results page like a feed reader, and quickly flip through item photos. No refreshing at all, which for quick-trigger buying can make a serious difference.

8. Snackr RSS Ticker

Hardcore readers of important feeds won’t flock to the Snackr news feed ticker, but anyone who wants a passive scroll of hit-or-miss RSS feeds might just love it. You can dock or hide the ticker-tape-like scroll at your screen’s edges, import OPML files from your reader of choice, and customize what’s shown. (Original post).

7. DiggTop

(Windows/Mac only) Like Digg itself, the DiggTop app is really just an efficient means of procrastinating with popular web links. But DiggTop lets you filter by, and get alerts for, certain key words that show up on the social bookmarking site, and also grabs embedded videos and pictures in the links you hover over for convenient previews.

6. Doomi Task Manager

Don’t let its unfortunate name deter you from giving the elegantly simple to-do list app Doomi a try. Add tasks by simply typing and hitting Enter. Deadlines and seeing completed tasks are optional features. The app can sit in the background as a list, or roll up into a little bar. That’s all most people really need, but the author is looking to add custom color schemes and drag/drop reorganization to make it just a bit more convenient.

5. Twhirl Twitter Client

The Twhirl full-featured Twitter client adds enough features and convenience to the mini-messaging social network that it almost starts to seem, well, productive. Quickly browse your followers and those you’re following, direct message and reply with ease, get specific message alerts, and treat tweets like feed items with a “Mark all as seen” button. If you’re going to use Twitter during your workday, you might as well make it quick and simple.

4. Klok Time Tracker

There are lots of web sites that claim to make project and time tracking easy for freelancers and by-the-minute workers, but Klok really delivers intuitive tracking to the desktop. Set up your own project aspects or use a template like “Web” or “Writing,” then time your work by hitting the “Work On …” button. The best part may be the graphs, charts, and reports produced by the little app, which are commonly restricted on “free” tracking sites. (Original post).

3. DestroyFlickr

Ok, so there’s nothing in DestroyFlickr’s interface for the photo-sharing site that you can’t do on Flickr’s web page—it just won’t look as pretty, or move so quickly. DestroyFlickr (the name comes from a mind hack concept, not vengeance) shuttles quickly around Flickr streams, making downloads and uploads drag-and-drop “affAIRs,” and offering quick editing, commenting, and re-organization. The Darkroom-inspired black background focuses attention, and multi-account users can work in all their streams at once using workspaces. In other words, it’s simple for casual Flickr fans, but strong enough for power users.

2. ReadAir Google Reader client

(Windows/Mac only) There’s a lot to like about Google Reader’s features, but some folks can’t quite get used to reading their RSS in a browser (or just don’t dig the blue-on-white template itself). ReadAir, a Mac-styled desktop app, gives you the best of both worlds, putting your GReader material into a three-paned browser. They’ve added the j/k keyboard shortcuts that Adam lamented in his original post, and next up are custom themes for XP/Vista.

1. Google Analytics Reporting Suite

If you own a piece of web real estate, Google Analytics is, as Gina pointed out, a seriously useful tracking tool. The Analytics Reporting Suite puts all the great data tools offered up free by Google into an easy-to-navigate, all-in-one container. Move fluidly from unique visits to pageviews, escape the wait for new data pages to load, and quickly filter data for specific time spans. This kind of interface-improving app is precisely what Adobe AIR was built for.
Which AIR apps are worth the spot on your own desktop? What apps are you still waiting to see before committing to a download? Let’s hear both sides in the comments.

TAKEN FROM lifehacker.com

The most complex, “mind-boggling” crop circle ever to be seen in Britain has been discovered in a barley field in Wiltshire

APEX PICTURES

The circle is a coded representation of pi to the 10th significant figure

The formation, measuring 150ft in diameter, is apparently a coded image representing the first 10 digits, 3.141592654, of pi.

• Google Earth: Top 10 British crop circles

It is has appeared in a field near Barbury Castle, an iron-age hill fort above Wroughton, Wilts, and has been described by astrophysicists as “mind-boggling”.

Michael Reed, an astrophysicist, said: “The tenth digit has even been correctly rounded up. The little dot near the centre is the decimal point.

“The code is based on 10 angular segments with the radial jumps being the indicator of each segment.

“Starting at the centre and counting the number of one-tenth segments in each section contained by the change in radius clearly shows the values of the first 10 digits in the value of pi.”

Lucy Pringle, a researcher of crop formations, said: “This is an astounding development - it is a seminal event.”

Mathematics codes and geometric patterns have long been an important factor in crop circle formations. One of the best known formations showed the image of a highly complex set of shapes known as The Julia Set, 12 years ago.

TAKEN FROM www.telegraph.co.uk 

The best way to battle disease and bacteria in your garden is always through prevention. Part of prevention is making sure you practice sanitary gardening methods.

These include: always cleaning your tools when you are finished using them, treating or disposing of plants at the first sign of disease and properly clearing and preparing your soil for the next seasons’ crop.

However, even the most sanitary garden can sometimes become infected. Symptoms of bacteria include wilted leaves, brown spots on leaves and fruit, rotten stems and stinky fruit from the plant.

If your plant has a bacterial infection there are a few things you can do to treat it. First try to spray some compost tea on the leaves. That’s right! Compost tea does so much more than just fertilize.

If the compost tea fails to rid your plant of the bacteria, you are going to need to prune the areas that have been infected. Pay really close attention to the plant in question because if the bacteria has spread, which they do very quickly, you may need to dispose of the plant to prevent the bacteria spreading to other residents in your garden.

Unfortunately, bacteria is a problem that many gardeners face. Try to be vigilant and address the problem immediately to prevent the bacteria from spreading.

Good luck and happy gardening

taken from www.gardenmandy.com

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

These images were acquired by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander’s Surface Stereo Imager on the 21st and 25th days of the mission, or Sols 20 and 24 (June 15 and 18, 2008).

These images show sublimation of ice in the trench informally called “Dodo-Goldilocks” over the course of four days.

In the lower left corner, lumps disappear, similar to the process of evaporation.

June 19, 2008 — Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it.

“It must be ice,” said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. “These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it’s ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can’t do that.”

The chunks were left at the bottom of a trench informally called “Dodo-Goldilocks” when Phoenix’s Robotic Arm enlarged that trench on June 15, during the 20th Martian day, or sol, since landing. Several were gone when Phoenix looked at the trench early today, on Sol 24.

Also early today, digging in a different trench, the Robotic Arm connected with a hard surface that has scientists excited about the prospect of next uncovering an icy layer.

The Phoenix science team spent Thursday analyzing new images and data successfully returned from the lander earlier in the day.
TAKEN FROM http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/index.php

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2008 June 19  

The Star Streams of NGC 5907
Image Credit & Copyright: R Jay Gabany (Blackbird Observatory) - collaboration; D.Martínez-Delgado(IAC, MPIA),
J.Peñarrubia (U.Victoria) I. Trujillo (IAC) S.Majewski (U.Virginia), M.Pohlen (Cardiff),Explanation: Grand tidal streams of stars seem to surround galaxy NGC 5907. The arcing structures form tenuous loops extending more than 150,000 light-years from the narrow, edge-on spiral, also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy. Recorded only in very deep exposures, the streams likely represent the ghostly trail of a dwarf galaxy — debris left along the orbit of a smaller satellite galaxy that was gradually torn apart and merged with NGC 5907 over four billion years ago. Ultimately this remarkable discovery image, from a small robotic observatory in New Mexico, supports the cosmological scenario in which large spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, were formed by the accretion of smaller ones. NGC 5907 lies about 40 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Draco.

TAKEN FROM apod.nasa.gov

On Wednesday evening the Swedish parliament voted yes to a bill that allows FRA, National Defense Radio Agency, to monitor all phone traffic and e-mail traffic in the name of national security. Unlike the police, FRA can listen in on anyone for any purpose without a court order, bringing the level of personal integrity in Sweden to an all-time-low.

The bill was passed after it was debated in parliament, with 143 votes in favor, 138 opposed and 1 representative abstaining. Before the debate the situation was crystal clear. The four party government alliance would win the vote if all party members voted in favor of the bill, but with the seven seat majority the government currently holds, only four representatives had to vote against the party line in order for the bill to fail.

With all the editorials and statements regarding integrity, copyright and online-rights published during the last months by members of these parties, surely there would be four members of the parties that would follow their convictions rather than the party line? In fact, there were four representatives who have been crystal clear in these kinds of issues: Birgitta Ohlsson (Liberal Party), Karl Sigfrid (Moderate Party), Annie Johansson and Fredrick Federley (both Centre Party). They have profiled themselves on these issues and in some cases even campaigned on them. Surely, Fredrick Federley couldn’t let down his everyone of his voters?

Things proved more complex.

Leading up to Tuesday’s debate, the bill had been heavily criticized by journalists, pirates, lawyers, bloggers, all political parties’ youth organizations - as well as the head of the Swedish intelligence agency Säpo. Rick Falkvinge of The Pirate Party was one of the voices that spoke most strongly against the bill. Also, all of the four daily newspapers’ senior political editors were heavily opposed. Rumours had begun circulating that Karl Sigfrid was indeed going to vote against the bill while Fredrick Federley wrote an ambivalent blog post that indicated where this was heading.

The debate was intense with defense minister Sten Tolgfors of the Moderate Party showing his arrogance, ignorance and lack of understanding time and again (if the bill was not passed, he said, parliament would be risking the lives of Swedish UN troops in Afghanistan).

Towards the end of the debate, Fredrick Federley was on the speakers list. He pulled off a tear-filled act (including sentimentalities about his mother) in which he said he had to follow his conviction but at the same time didn’t want to let his party down. He motioned for the bill to be sent back to parliament’s defense committee for expanding the safeguards of individual rights. This was a carefully orchestrated piece of political theater designed to keep the government alliance together while at the same time allow the Centre Party (which until yesterday held high integrity and online rights) not to lose face. At this time, Federley knew that the bill was being reworked on an initiative from the Liberal Party to a new version that had a new authority controlling the controllers.

The original vote was due to be held on Wednesday morning and following an initiative from The Pirate Party, a crowd of hundreds was gathered in front of parliament to protest the bill and try to convince representatives to vote against it. The crowd was a mixture of pirates, the journalists’ union, the political parties’ youth organizations and worried citizens. Following the debate on Tuesday, the morning vote only considered if the bill should be sent back for revision and the vote was in favor.

In a farce of democracy, it was announced that the bill was to be revised in record time and a new vote be taken later in the evening. “I think the law needs to be re-written. It is not enough to create a few checks and balances … It is the law itself there is something wrong with,” Anders Eriksson, former Chief of Swedish intelligence agency Säpo, told Swedish radio before the vote.

By now, Fredrick Federley and Annie Johansson of the Centre Party had put themselves in a position where they could show to their voters that they had “improved” the bill while at the same time they could vote for the revised version to the happiness and joy of their party colleagues. So, what about the other possible nay-sayers?

According to the buzz on the blogs, Karl Sigfrid of the Moderate Party had decided to vote against the bill and was taken into a party meeting where 30 representatives from the Moderate Party along with party leader and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt were on a speech list, bashing him one after the other until he couldn’t take it anymore.

And the remaining? Birgitta Ohlsson of the Liberal Party was as lame as her Centre Party counterparts: She abstained her vote, according to an interview in Dagens Nyheter “with respect to my liberal consciousness and to my voters but also to my party colleagues”.

When the FRA bill version 1.01 was brought back into the chamber on Wednesday evening, the outcome could only go one way. The Government parties along with PM Fredrik Reinfeldt had decided that this bill should go through and with the internal critics effectively silenced the bill was voted through, plunging Sweden into DDR era lack of privacy. How the bill is compatible with Human Rights (The right to respect privacy, family, home and correspondence) will be decided later in the court of the European Union where a number of opposition representatives will bring it to be tried.

The only liberal voting according to her ideology rather than her party line was Camilla Lindberg of the Liberal Party. In an editorial in today’s Expressen she explains why: “My loyalty is with my voters. And with myself and my conviction. I couldn’t get myself to vote in favour of the bill, regardless of the arguments from my colleagues and the last-minutes improvements. [...] If the surveillance poses a threat for integrity and freedom without having a proved positive effect, I can’t support such a bill.”

TAKEN FROM torrentfreak.com

Predicting the future is a rough gig. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible. Psychics, Tarot Card readers, Sylvia Browne and your local weatherman have been more or less swindling people into believing that tomorrow can be forecasted beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Image by Hoyasmeg

Last Tuesday, seemingly out of nowhere, a huge lump of cement hurtling from the sky crashed through a suburban Moscow home, creating a large hole. But what was the cause? Why, it was the Russian Air force attempting to change the weather of course!

Yes, the relatively common practice of cloud seeding ended in an unfortunate yet hilarious example of how sometimes we shouldn’t mess with the weather. The Russians have been using cloud seeding as a way to prevent rainy weather during important national holidays. On June 12th, the Russian Air Force sent up 12 planes carrying silver iodide, liquid nitrogen and cement powder to seed clouds above Moscow and empty the skies of moisture.

Ground Based Silver Iodide Generator by Esteban9

“A pack of cement used in creating … good weather in the capital region … failed to pulverize completely at high altitude and fell on the roof of a house, making a hole about 80-100 cm (2.5-3 ft),” police in Naro-Fominsk told agency RIA-Novosti. Weather specialists said this is the first time in 20 years that this has occurred. The homeowner was not injured, but their pride was. They refused a $2,100 offer from the Air Force to fix the damage, but the home owner declined and stated she would sue for damages and compensation of moral suffering instead.

This wasn’t the first time that cloud seeding failed in some way. In 2006 during the G8 Summit in Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin dispatched fighter jets to seed the skies over St. Petersburg so that it wouldn’t rain on the city. Putin was hoping that the seeding would push the rain towards Finland instead, yet alas, the G8 Summit was drenched anyway. Organizers showed their lack of confidence by supplying rain coats beforehand, which proved popular when the rain came pouring down.

Cloud Seeding is extremely popular in places like the People’s Republic of China which uses the method to produce rainfall in usually arid areas. China also plans to use cloud seeding in Beijing just before the 2008 Olympic Games in order to clear the air of pollution.

The United States also uses cloud seeding to increase precipitation in areas experiencing drought, to reduce the size of hailstones that form in thunderstorms, and to reduce the amount of fog in and around airports. Several countries have looked at cloud seeding as a way to increase snowfall on mountain ranges so that ski seasons can be more sustainable.

While cloud seeding has shown to be effective in altering cloud structure and size, and converting cloud water to ice particles, it’s more controversial, as to whether cloud seeding increases the amount of precipitation at the ground. Part of the problem is that it is difficult to discern how much precipitation would have occurred had the cloud not been “seeded.” In other words, it is hard to ascertain additional precipitation from seeding from the natural precipitation variability, which is frequently much greater in magnitude. Nevertheless, there is more credible scientific evidence for the effectiveness of winter cloud seeding over mountains (to produce snow) than there is for seeding warm-season cumuli form (convective) clouds.

Cessna 210 with cloud seeding equipment by Christian Jansky

Silver iodide can cause temporary incapacitation or possible residual injury (e.g., chloroform) with intense or continued but not chronic exposure. However, studies by Sierra Nevada of California have shown that the exposure to silver iodide from cloud seeding is less dangerous than exposure from tooth fillings. Notwithstanding this, cloud seeding can be dangerous in other ways. The USAF proposed its use on the battlefield in 1996, although the U.S. signed an international treaty in 1978 banning the use of weather modification for hostile purposes. After the Chernobyl disaster, Russian military pilots seeded clouds over Belarus to remove radioactive particles from clouds heading toward Moscow. So while the current environmental impact is limited, cloud seeding can be used as a hostile measure.

While this method has proved successful in various roles, we should acknowledge that areas that would normally be receiving precipitation won’t because of man-made weather patterns. Using cloud seeding to increase precipitation in usually arid environments can change ecosystems and cause damage to the local habitat for a number of animals. While it is nice to spend the day outside in the sun, we also need those dreaded rainy days as well. I’d rather it rain water than cement on my house, how about you?

TAKEN FROM