Lifeboat Foundation

Semiconductor specialist Renesas has announced two new technologies designed to dramatically improve the efficiency of embedded devices built for the Internet of Things — by reducing the power required to write into RAM.

“With the accelerated spread of IoT technology in recent years, there has been strong demand for reduced power consumption in microcontroller units (MCUs) used in endpoint devices,” the company claims in its technology announcement. “MRAM requires less energy for write operations than flash memory, and is thus particularly well suited for applications with frequent data updates.”

“However, as demand for data processing capability surges for MCUs, the need to ameliorate the trade off between performance and power consumption increases. Therefore, further power consumption reduction remains a pressing issue.”

Flaws in diamonds — atomic defects where carbon is replaced by nitrogen or another element — may offer a close-to-perfect interface for quantum computing 0, a proposed communications exchange that promises to be faster and more secure than current methods. There’s one major problem, though: these flaws, known as diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers, are controlled via magnetic field, which is incompatible with existing quantum devices. Imagine trying to connect an Altair, an early personal computer developed in 1974, to the internet via WiFi. It’s a difficult, but not impossible task. The two technologies speak different languages, so the first step is to help translate.

Researchers at Yokohama National University have developed an interface approach to control the diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers in a way that allows direct translation to quantum devices. They published their method today (December 15, 2021) in Communications Physics.

“To realize the quantum internet, a quantum interface is required to generate remote quantum entanglement by photons, which are a quantum communication medium,” said corresponding author Hideo Kosaka, professor in the Quantum Information Research Center, Institute of Advanced Sciences and in the Department of Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, both at Yokohama National University. “.

Some of the world’s richest men are squaring off in what’s become a rivalry for the ages — the space race. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the two richest men on the planet and the CEOs of SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively, have grand designs on the cosmos. They predict a universe where the internet is accessible from anywhere, humans are an interplanetary species, and rotating space stations host permanent residents.

But Bill Gates isn’t putting his wealth into these off-planet endeavors.

Gates, the fourth richest person alive, according to Forbes, has what he considers higher aspirations right here on Earth. While internet constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s proposed Project Kuiper aim to bring for-profit fixes to the world’s pressing connectivity issues, Gates told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Wednesday that more basic problems consume his time now.

A new report from the Harvard Kennedy School found that China’s rapidly gaining steam in the realms of AI, 5G, quantum computing, biotechnology, and more.

But there should be a system in metaverse where users can operate machines using internet.

Following an initial announcement eight months ago, Meta has released its latest avatar system for all Unity VR developers, including support for App Lab titles and limited support for non-Oculus platforms like SteamVR.

Update (December 13th, 2021): Meta today announced that its latest avatar system is finally available to all Unity developers. Formerly called Oculus Avatars 2.0—and now called Meta Avatars—the system brings a huge upgrade to avatar style and expressiveness compared to the company’s prior avatar systems.

Continue reading “Meta’s Latest Avatar System is Finally Available to Unity VR Developers” »

The technology sends internet data through the air via beams of light. In other words, it’s fiber optic-like internet without the need to lay down fiber cabling.

According to a newly released survey from nonprofit technical organization IEEE, about one in five respondents say AI and machine learning (21%), cloud computing (20%), and 5G (17%) will be the most important technologies next year. The study examines the most important technologies in 2022, the industries expected to be most impacted by technology in the year ahead, and anticipated technology trends through the next decade.

What industries are expected to be most impacted by technology in the year ahead? Technology leaders surveyed cited manufacturing (25%), financial services (19%), health care (16%), and energy (13%) as industries poised for major disruption.

Regarding the key technology trends to expect through the next decade, an overwhelming majority (95%) agree — including 66% who strongly agree — that AI will drive the majority of innovation across nearly every industry sector in the next one to five years. Furthermore, 81% agree that, in the next five years, one-quarter of what they do will be enhanced by robots, and 77% agree that, in the same timeframe, robots will be deployed across their organization to enhance nearly every business function, from sales and human resources to marketing and IT. A majority of respondents agree (78%) that in the next 10 years, half or more of what they do will be enhanced by robots.

Two operators including Chinese internet search giant Baidu have been given the green light to start charging passengers to use their autonomous taxis in Beijing.

Baidu and Pony AI became the first companies to be granted licences by mainland Chinese authorities to launch their driverless cab services commercially following successful trial periods.

On Thursday, the Beijing High-level Automated Driving Demonstration Area gave permission for Baidu and Pony AI to charge fees for their so-called robotaxis in a designated area of the capital covering 60 square kilometres.

They have cheap labour.

With China aggressively expanding in various fields like artificial intelligence, 5G networking, semiconductors, and more, it appears that the nation will be overtaking the US in 21st century technologies within just a decade.

Continue reading “China could surpass US in core 21st Century technologies within a decade: Harvard” »