IBM and ETH Zurich Unveil Plan to Build New Kind of Water-Cooled Supercomputer

To make computing systems and data centers energy-efficient is a staggering undertaking. Up to 50% percent of an average air-cooled data center’s energy consumption today is not caused by computing but by powering the necessary cooling systems to keep the processors from overheating.

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Fujitsu Develops World's First Gallium-Nitride HEMT for Power Supply

Fujitsu Laboratories today announced the development of a new structure for gallium-nitride high electron-mobility transistors (GaN)(HEMT) that can minimize power loss in power supplies, thus enabling reduced power consumption of electronic equipment such as IT hardware and home electronics.

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Kamikaze drone loiters above, waits for target

A new kamikaze drone out of Israel is designed to hang about overhead until it spots a target, then crash into it with "pinpoint accuracy" destroying the target, and itself, with 50 pounds of on-board explosives.

While classified as a Loitering Munition, the HAROP comes equipped with many of the usual UAV capabilities: high-performance FLIR and color CCD camera with 360-degree hemispherical coverage, allowing it to transmit video back to its operators just like a surveillance drone.

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Unmanned Little Bird Helicopter

The US Navy has released photographs of the Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) helicopter, a smaller variant of the larger, manned A/MH-6M, can be controlled by a pilot or piloted remotely. The ULB may be used for multiple missions that may include re-supply and casualty evacuation and is capable of carrying a 300-pound payload.

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Beyond-Line-of-Sight Capability for E-8C Joint STARS Fleet Paying Dividends

Like the advertisement that speaks to the value of a product, Northrop Grumman Corporation's new Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLOS) communications capability is priceless for troops on the ground. That is the sentiment coming from the 116th Air Control Wing, which flies the U.S. Air Force E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS).

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LM Installs Next Evolution Of Aegis BMD System On Cruiser USS Lake Erie

Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] installed the latest evolution of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System - which includes a new ballistic missile defense signal processor, Aegis BSP - on the cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70). Over the next year, USS Lake Erie will complete a series of tests, leading up to full certification of the system upgrade by the U.S. Navy in early 2011.

The Aegis BMD 4.0.1 system represents the next incremental capability upgrade that has been the hallmark of Aegis and its "build a little, test a little, learn a lot" systems engineering philosophy.

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Your Next House Could Come Out of a Printer

The world's largest 3-D megaprinter to build a 10-meter-tall structure

3-D printing may soon expand beyond the small scale. In 2010, the world's largest 3-D printer will build the Radiolaria Pavilion, a 10-meter-tall structure in Pontedera, Italy. Made out of sandstone, the building will be printed one 5-10mm layered sheet at a time.

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Israel Air Force to Deploy a New Video Recorder & Data Server from RADA

RADA is unveiling the latest mission data recorder model developed by the company and selected to equip the Israel Air Force first line fighters - the Video Recorder & Data Server System (VRDS), introducing cutting edge approach to video and data recording and mass-storage management onboard combat aerial platforms. RADA's VRDS has been accepted as the sole source for flight recorders for the vast majority of the Israel Air Force aircraft.

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New e-APU promises more power

Microturbo is ground testing its e-APU, a new auxiliary power unit designed for new-generation business aircraft that are expected to need more electrical power. The company projects certification and first deliveries in early 2012.

The test program started in Toulouse, France, in December. Trials have focused on control of the APU and its thermal and dynamic performance. According to Microturbo commercial director Jean-Baptiste Jarin, dynamic characteristics are meeting design expectations. The e-APU has already supplied up to 60 kWe (kilowatt-electric) in electrical power on the test bench.

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Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears

New project will tap geothermal energy by fracturing hard rock more than two miles deep to extract its heat. AltaRock, founded by Susan Petty, a veteran geothermal researcher, has secured more than $36 million from the Energy Department, several large venture-capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Google. AltaRock maintains that it will steer clear of large faults and that it can operate safely.

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Blowin' in the Wind

Michael McElroy, a professor of environmental studies at Harvard, did an analysis of wind power with two colleagues, and here's what they report:

A network of land-based 2.5-megawatt (MW) turbines restricted to nonforested, ice-free, nonurban areas operating at as little as 20% of their rated capacity could supply >40 times current worldwide consumption of electricity, >5 times total global use of energy in all forms."

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WARMS Project: Swarming Drones to Sting the Enemy?

Like a swarm of angry bees, unmanned aerial, ground, and sea vehicles automonously converge on enemy troops, aircraft and ships, decide what to do, then engage the enemy with surveillance or weapons to help U.S. forces defeat them. All this without direct human intervention. Sounds like science fiction? The American military is one of several working on the technology, called “swarming,” in order to make this scenario a reality.

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