Monthly Archives: September 2009

Super-fast Computers – Would it be the Destiny of Future Computers?

  By ScienceProg | 30 September, 2009 - 8:27 am |
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Most of the computers in nowadays, are incredibly slow, if it compares with the super-fast computers, which are using light to process large amounts of data!

For your information, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is supplying the fund to two universities to establish a world-leading research programme on the fundamental science, which is known as “nanoplasmonic devices”.

Believe it or not, this research is considered as one of the costly research, as it is a £6 million research programme located at Queen’s University Belfast and Imperial College London. The project has been dated to launch on September 1, 2009.

Talking about nanoplasmonic devices, they’re a very tiny nanoscale metal structures. Honestly, it’s 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair and has the ability to guide or direct light!

The main objective of the project is to develop the super-computers that using light signals, instead of the electric currents used by today’s computers. For making it becomes a reality, the researchers are now building a raft of new metallic devices, including tiny nanoscale sources of light, nanoscale ‘waveguides’ to guide light along a desired route, and nanoscale detectors to pick up the light signals!

With the above advanced technology, the era of “Super-computers” is going to be arrived very soon… http://www.qub.ac.uk

The Development of Personal Robot 2

  By ScienceProg | 29 September, 2009 - 4:25 pm |
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Try to imagine, what’s the feeling, if you have a robot inside your home, which is able to perform multiple tasks in daily life? It sounds like a very cool robot to you, isn’t it?

Whether you’re notice it or not, many household in the United States and Japan have been using robot to help them doing some simple task, such as the Roomba vacuum that normally being used to clean up the dirt inside the house. Honestly, the Roomba vacuum is considered as one of the best iRobot vacuum in many households in U.S.!

PR2

As you see, this Personal Robot 2, which is also known as, “PR2” is an intelligent two-armed mobile robot that well-designed for mobile manipulation research and applications. PR2 has the size of a human and have the ability to perform tasks in everyday environments. (more…)

The First School of Small Robotic Fish is ready to swim in The Ocean!

  By ScienceProg | 24 September, 2009 - 9:47 am |
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The robotic technology has been pushed up to another higher level, when a group of MIT scientists made a school of small, robotic fish using handful of parts and a blend of polymers!

It’s one of the most exciting invention for the MIT scientists, as the fish moving and swimming through water like trout and tuna.

Kamal Youcef-Toumi and Pablo Vildivia Y Alvarado, both the developers of the robofish described that the new robofish are fully-equipped with sensors, as it uses to monitor the fish’s movement.

Robofish

Another interesting part of the research is they’re the first group to tailor different polymers in different parts of the body with different dampening and stiffness properties. Furthermore, the research group also trying to use the natural motion and behavior of the fish, so that they can replicate the fish’s motions!

Believe it or not, the first “Robotuna” version that was created at MIT in 1994 had more than 2,000 parts, including six motors, which is encased in its four-foot body. However, after a several times of renovation and modification, the new Robotuna models have less than 10 parts, including with one motor and the size are between five to eight inches long!

It’s a very encouraging breakthrough in the Robofish’s industry, the developers said they still have many experiments to go, before they can create a really tiny robofish, such as the anchovy or gold fish in the near future! [dsc]

The High-speed and Non-Volatile Universal Memory

  By ScienceProg | 23 September, 2009 - 9:02 am |
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In the past, the scientists have already said that they want to find the way to manufacture high-speed and non-volatile universal memory devices.

Guess what! A research group from the University of Southampton’s Southampton Nanofabrication Center discovered that the Nano electromechanical systems (NEMS) available within the new clean room, is the best method to create high-speed yet non-volatile computer memory!

Dr. Yoshishige Tsuchiya, the leader of the research group explained that the high-speed, non-volatile and low-power NEMS memory is the most suitable device, especially for pen drive devices for PICs and mobile applications. In this case, it means the computers can be quickly warmed up, once it being switched on and “sleep” switches to conserve energy, when it’s not in use!

In addition, Dr. Tsuchiya mentioned that he would combine conventional silicon technology with the NEMS concept. The research team had planned to use the new equipment to doing the “Beyond CMOS” (Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) experiment. Basically, the former involves integrating Nanoelectromechanical System (NEMS) into conventional electronic devices.

As a result, some of the advanced switches, memory and sensor devices could be easily produced and being used in the computer industry very soon![sciencedaily]