Travel Blog

Her us a good travel blog. nice photos lots of information..

http://miiraj.blogspot.com

HD VMD - 40GB Multilayer Optical disc - It Costs a fraction of Blu Ray !!

The developer of a maverick high-density DVD format is planning to release a player that costs a fraction of the price of devices using the mainstream Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats.

London-based New Media Enterprises announced its Versatile Multi-layer Disc (VMD) format at Cebit earlier this year. It uses low-cost red lasers used in existing DVD players but, as its name suggests, can squeeze up to 40GB on a single disc by stacking the data at different levels. The player, launched at the Mipcom digital-content show in Cannes, will cost about $175 (£95), which compares very favourably with the competing formats.

Samsung’s BD-P1000 Blu-ray player has already debuted in the UK with a £1,000 price tag. Toshiba expects to have its HD-DVD players on the market in November and December, with the HD-E1 and HD-XE1 models costing €599 (around £400) and €899 (around £600) respectively.

However, New Media Enterprises’ product seems unlikely to dent the market for Blu-ray and HD-DVD players, because deals have already been signed with major Hollywood and European companies to sell titles in those formats. New Media Enterprises said at Cebit that it would initially target the Chinese and Bollywood markets – the latter, in particular, is very big in Britain. A spokeswoman for the company said that other content providers had shown interest and a deal with one German company is expected to be announced shortly. New Media Enterprises’ player will be available in some European countries in December, with availability throughout Europe in January.

Mi-iraj, A miraculous journey..

A travel site there r so many links to top travel sites
You will find it interesting..

http://travellinks.tk

Massive Array of Idle Disks-MAID

MAID is an array of hard drives combined to work as a single point of storage. Scalability is therefore not an issue. At present the smallest of the Copan's available systems is 28 terabytes, nad the largest is 200 terabytes. The space used by the largest capacity array that Copan produces is just one suare metre, thus saving hume amount of space.
MAID will be used where there is a need to archive large amount of data scaling up in terabytes. It also provides quick access to large amount of data.
MAID consumes less power and hence produces less heat. This is possible becoz, when data is not accessed the harddisks go into idle mode thus making it more energy efficient. MAID allows the data storage in structured formats like SQL, MS Access and also in unstructured data formats like Word and Powerpoint.

This technology when becomes more dominant will soon replace the present hosting servers with lots of features and also we can find most of the data warehouse shifting to this new technology.
read more:
http://www.bitpipe.com/tlist/MAID.html

Coming Soon Mobile Broadband Internet

In a move that could well be the beginning of Internet access through mobile Broadband, Hutchison Whampoa has forged a group of global Internet companies, and handset makers - Nokia and Sony Ericsson, to globally launch Broadband mobile Internet access on the same flat fee model as fixed Broadband Internet.

Titled "X-Series from 3," the service will include free Skype calling, unlimited Web browsing, and instant messaging from mobile handsets.

Source

Prototype DNA computer ( MAYA-II)

Researchers say that they have developed a DNA-based computer that could lead to faster, more accurate tests for diagnosing West Nile Virus and bird flu. Representing the first “medium-scale integrated molecular circuit,” it is the most powerful computing device of its type to date, they say.

The new technology could be used in the future, perhaps in 5 to 10 years, to develop instruments that can simultaneously diagnose and treat cancer, diabetes or other diseases, according to a team of scientists at Columbia University Medical Center in New York and the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Their study is scheduled to appear in the November issue of the American Chemical Society’s Nano Letters, a monthly peer-reviewed journal.

“These DNA computers won’t compete with silicon computing in terms of speed, but their advantage is that they can be used in fluids, such as a sample of blood or in the body, and make decisions at the level of a single cell,” says the researcher, whose work is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Composed of more than 100 DNA circuits, MAYA-II is quadruple the size of its predecessor, MAYA-I, a similar DNA-based computer developed by the research team three-years ago. With limited moves, the first MAYA could only play an incomplete game of tic-tac-toe, the researcher says.

The experimental device looks nothing like today’s high-tech gaming consoles. MAYA-II consists of nine cell-culture wells arranged in a pattern that resembles a tic-tac-toe grid. Each well contains a solution of DNA material that is coded with “red” or “green” fluorescent dye.

The computer always makes the first move by activating the center well. Instead of using buttons or joysticks, a human player makes a “move” by adding a DNA sequence corresponding to their move in the eight remaining wells. The well chosen for the move by the human player responds by fluorescing green, indicating a match to the player’s DNA input. The move also triggers the computer to make a strategic counter-move in one of the remaining wells, which fluoresces red. The game play continues until the computer eventually wins, as it is pre-programmed to do, Macdonald says. Each move takes about 30 minutes, she says.

source

Online face recognition !!

one of the world's first services to apply advanced
face recognition technology to personal photos and family history, and it's free!


check it out : http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/face_recognition.php

80 core processor !!!

On Tuesday, Intel showed off an 80-core processor at its developer forum taking place in San Francisco this week and one of the prominent features of the chip is that each core is connected directly to a 256MB memory chip through a technology called Through Silicon Vias, or TSV.


The memory wedded to the processor cores could constitute the entire memory needed for a computer, Intel CTO Justin Rattner told News.com in an interview during the Intel Developer Forum. TSV could be used in a variety of chips, not just the 80-core monster. As a result, computer makers, when building a system, would get their memory when they bought their processors from Intel. They would not have to obtain memory chips separately from other companies like they do now.

Wedding memory directly to the processor would have huge performance benefits. Currently, memory and the processor in Intel-based computers exchange data through a memory controller, which moves at a far slower rate than the processor. It's one of the big bottlenecks in computer performance. TSV, which displaces the memory controller, would shuttle data far quicker.

Data coming out of memory also squeezes through an overcrowded port. TSV would effectively open up thousands of ports. Overall, Rattner said, TSV is by far a more notable accomplishment than putting 80 cores on the same piece of silicon.


The processor cores are not restricted to getting memory from the chip wedded to it, added Rattner. The cores are connected to each other through high-speed links controlled by a router integrated into each core.


Overall, the prototype 80-core chip has an aggregate memory bandwidth of 1 terabyte per second, meaning that it can shift a trillion bytes per second.

Conceivably, TSV would also put AMD on the hot seat. A good portion of the performance gains AMD achieved with the Opteron chip came from Opteron's integrated memory controller. Intel does not put integrated memory controllers on its chips.



Rattner, however, noted that implementing TSV will take time. The memory chips attached to the 80-core processor are SRAM, a relatively expensive memory that Intel still makes. The next step is to see how well DRAM works with TSV.


Engineers would also have to devise packages that would let the processor and memory live together. The processor typically generates more heat than the memory, which is one of the factors that would have to be considered. Although it doesn't get many headlines, packaging design is a huge challenge for chipmakers.

"It's still in the research stage," he said. "We will do a lot of work with it in the next several years."


Source : News.com

Phase-change Random Access Memory (PRAM)

The Phase-change Random Access Memory (PRAM) is more scalable than any other memory architecture being researched and features the fast processing speed of RAM for its operating functions combined with the non-volatile features of flash memory for storage.


A key advantage in PRAM is its extremely fast performance. Because PRAM can rewrite data without having to first erase data previously accumulated, it is effectively 30-times faster than conventional flash memory. Incredibly durable, PRAM is also expected to have at least 10-times the life span of flash memory.


PRAM will be a highly competitive choice over NOR flash, available beginning sometime in 2008. Samsung designed the cell size of its PRAM to be only half the size of NOR flash. Moreover, it requires 20 percent fewer process steps to produce than those used in the manufacturing of NOR flash memory.

Samsung’s new PRAM was developed by adopting the use of vertical diodes with the three–dimensional transistor structure that it now uses to produce DRAM. The new PRAM has the smallest 0.0467um 2 cell size of any working memory that is free of inter-cell noise, allowing virtually unlimited scalability.


The Korean company announced that it has completed the first working prototype of what is expected to be the main memory device to replace high density NOR flash within the next decade. Adoption of PRAM is expected to be especially popular in the future designs of multi-function handsets and for other mobile applications, where faster speeds translate into immediately noticeable boosts in performance. High-density versions will be produced first, starting with 512 Mb.


Source

THERMOPHOTOVOLTAIC ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION USING EXHAUST HEAT

Furnaces in the glass, metalcasting, and steel industries operate at very high
temperatures and lose tremendous amounts of energy in their exhaust streams.
With the emissions-reducing shift to gas-oxy furnaces in these industries,
exhaust temperatures are climbing even higher. Waste heat from furnaces in
the glass, metalcasting, and steel industries is usually vented to the atmosphere.
In some facilities, it must be diluted with cool air to reduce its temperature prior
to venting. Until now, the venting of this waste heat has represented the loss of
a valuable resource.
A new technology adds value to this waste stream by using exhaust heat to
generate hundreds of kilowatts of electricity. This unique innovation uses new
infrared-sensitive photovoltaic cells mounted inside ceramic tubes. These tubes
are heated in the exhaust stream of an industrial process and radiate energy
inward to the photovoltaic cells to generate electricity directly from the waste
heat. The energy density in these systems is over 100 times that of solar energy,
producing over 100 times the energy of conventional photovoltaic or solar cells.

Economics and Commercial Potential
Exhaust heat offers an attractive energy alternative to the glass, metalcasting, and steel
industries. In particular, JX Crystals, Inc., has targeted the glass industry because of
an estimated 67 MW of year-round electrical generation available in this industry alone.
The technology has already attracted the partnership of a major glass-industry player
interested in demonstrating the technology on a glass furnace.
Given additional investment in the business and a market volume well over 10 MW per
year, JX Crystals, Inc., estimates the thermophotovoltaic circuit to cost approximately
$0.20 per watt. Balance of system costs are estimated to be $0.50 per watt. Assuming
a price of $1 per watt, utility rates of $0.05 per kWh, and a duty cycle of 90%, the
payback period should be less than 3 years.
This technology could save 27 billion Btu of electricity per installed unit each year. First
sales for the technology are expected by 2004. Based on 25% market penetration by
2010, annual savings could be 0.5 trillion Btu with 18 units installed, each containing 200
5-kW tubes. Market penetration of 50% by 2020 could save 1.0 trillion Btu from the
operation of 37 units by the glass industry.