Whereas the signal-processing and image-reconstruction techniques used in medical ultrasonography have made huge advances since this type of imaging became commonplace three decades ago, the business end of the apparatus—the transducer, which converts electrical impulses to sound waves and vice versa—has remained largely unchanged. So we found fertile ground when we began digging for ways to improve those transducers using tools from the microelectronics industry. You will soon find the fruits of those efforts at your local hospital. Indeed, this strategy promises to revolutionize ultrasound imaging within the next few years.
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Thursday, April 30, 2009
25 Microchips That Shook the World
In microchip design, as in life, small things sometimes add up to big things. Dream up a clever microcircuit, get it sculpted in a sliver of silicon, and your little creation may unleash a technological revolution. It happened with the Intel 8088 microprocessor. And the Mostek MK4096 4-kilobit DRAM. And the Texas Instruments TMS32010 digital signal processor.
Among the many great chips that have emerged from fabs during the half-century reign of the integrated circuit, a small group stands out. Their designs proved so cutting-edge, so out of the box, so ahead of their time, that we are left groping for more technology clichés to describe them. Suffice it to say that they gave us the technology that made our brief, otherwise tedious existence in this universe worth living.
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Among the many great chips that have emerged from fabs during the half-century reign of the integrated circuit, a small group stands out. Their designs proved so cutting-edge, so out of the box, so ahead of their time, that we are left groping for more technology clichés to describe them. Suffice it to say that they gave us the technology that made our brief, otherwise tedious existence in this universe worth living.
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U.S. May Monitor Pirates From Space
The U.S. is exploring the use of commercial satellites to enhance ship identification and communication for the battle against piracy.
Long before the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama was attacked by Somali pirates this month, a sister vessel, the Maersk Iowa, was plying the sea lanes between the U.S. East Coast and the Indian Ocean, testing a device that combines the information obtained from shipboard radar and identification transponders to give authorities a better overview of who is on the water and what they are up to.
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Long before the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama was attacked by Somali pirates this month, a sister vessel, the Maersk Iowa, was plying the sea lanes between the U.S. East Coast and the Indian Ocean, testing a device that combines the information obtained from shipboard radar and identification transponders to give authorities a better overview of who is on the water and what they are up to.
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CCUVS Deploys Robonic Unmanned Air Systems Launcher On First Operational Mission
The Canadian Centre for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (CCUVS) has announced it will be deploying the Robonic MC2555LLR unmanned air systems (UAS) launcher on its first operational mission since acquiring the launcher earlier this year.
The Robonic MC2555LLR launcher will be transported to Victoria, British Columbia, on 28 April and will be used to support the Canadian navy during exercise Trident Fury at the beginning of May. CCUVS is working closely with Meggitt Training Systems Canada (MTSC), the prime for providing the targets and control systems that the navy will use for ship defence training.
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The Robonic MC2555LLR launcher will be transported to Victoria, British Columbia, on 28 April and will be used to support the Canadian navy during exercise Trident Fury at the beginning of May. CCUVS is working closely with Meggitt Training Systems Canada (MTSC), the prime for providing the targets and control systems that the navy will use for ship defence training.
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Generating Energy From the Deep
LOCKHEED MARTIN is best known for building stealth fighters, satellites and other military equipment. But since late 2006 the company has taken on a different kind of enterprise — generating renewable power from the ocean.
The technology is still being developed in the laboratory, but if it succeeds on a large scale, it
could eventually become an important tool in the nation’s battle against global warming and dependency on foreign oil.
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The technology is still being developed in the laboratory, but if it succeeds on a large scale, it
could eventually become an important tool in the nation’s battle against global warming and dependency on foreign oil.
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Hypersonic ‘WaveRider’ poised for test flight
Hoping to bridge the gap between airplanes and rocketships, the U.S. military is preparing to test an experimental aircraft that can fly more than six times faster than the speed of sound on ordinary jet fuel.
Officially, it's known as the X-51, but folks like to call it the WaveRider because it stays airborne, in part, with lift generated by the shock waves of its own flight. The design stems from the goal of the program — to demonstrate an air-breathing, hypersonic, combustion ramjet engine, known as a scramjet.
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Officially, it's known as the X-51, but folks like to call it the WaveRider because it stays airborne, in part, with lift generated by the shock waves of its own flight. The design stems from the goal of the program — to demonstrate an air-breathing, hypersonic, combustion ramjet engine, known as a scramjet.
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Raytheon affirms plans to launch family of Killer Bee UAVs
Raytheon says today it will continue to develop and sell new versions of the Killer Bee blended wing body unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) even after the design has been acquired and renamed by Northrop Grumman.
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JHMCS: Fighter Pilot “Look & Shoot” Helmets’ Upgrade, Ups & Downs
The Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) projects visual targeting and aircraft performance information on the back of the helmet’s visor, including aircraft altitude, airspeed, gravitational pull, angle of attack, and weapons sighting, enabling the pilot to monitor this information without interrupting the field of view through the cockpit canopy. The system uses a magnetic transmitter unit fixed to the pilot’s seat and a magnetic field probe mounted on the helmet to define helmet pointing positioning. A Helmet Vehicle Interface (HVI) interacts with the aircraft system bus to provide signal generation for the helmet display. This provides significant improvement for close combat targeting and engagement.
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