Intel adds virtualization tech to five processors

Intel informed system vendors that its virtualization technology (VT) will be available in five additional processors beginning in August.

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Nanotechnology's Evolving Role in Semiconductors

According to SEMI, the big contributor to this market is what they termed “designer molecules”. These were essentially polymeric materials engineered at the molecular level to obtain specific properties. Examples of these molecules include dendrimers and macromolecules.

Applications for these molecules in semiconductors include photoresists, mould compounds, packaging adhesives and low-κ dielectrics. They also will find use in displays for improved transmission films and electronic ink. These molecules will also become critical to enabling self-assembly processes.

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A Radical New Router

oday Internet traffic is rapidly expanding and also becoming more varied and complex. In particular, we’re seeing an explosion in voice and video applications. Millions regularly use Skype to place calls and go to YouTube to share videos. Services like Hulu and Netflix, which let users watch TV shows and movies on their computers, are growing ever more popular. Corporations are embracing videoconferencing and telephony systems based on the Internet Protocol, or IP. What’s more, people are now streaming content not only to their PCs but also to iPhones and BlackBerrys, media receivers like the Apple TV, and gaming consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation 3. Communication and entertainment are shifting to the Net.

But this shift is not without its problems. Unlike e-mail and static Web pages, which can handle network hiccups, voice and video deteriorate under transmission delays as short as a few milliseconds. And therein lies the problem with traditional IP packet routers: They can’t guarantee that a YouTube clip will stream smoothly to a user’s computer. They treat the video packets as loose data entities when they ought to treat them as flows.

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Inside Gazelle, Microsoft Research's "browser OS"

Microsoft has published a research paper on Gazelle, an experimental "multi-principal OS" for the Web. But it's not actually an operating system; it's really a browser prototype that runs on Windows, and it just might be the future of browsing. Ars takes a close look at the technology behind Gazelle to show you how it compares to Chrome and Internet Explorer.

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Proton Energy Systems is Granted Patent for Breakthrough Hydrogen Technology

Wallingford hydrogen-technology producer Proton Energy Systems (www.protonenergy.com) said today it earned a patent for its proprietary control system for regulating the purity and pressure of the hydrogen gas used to cool large electric power generators. Proton’s StableFlow system is a breakthrough product for electric power generators that actively controls purity and dew point, monitors pressure and, enables more efficient power production while also enhancing capacity and generator life.

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Critical U.S. Defense Capabilities At Risk

It is hard to believe that the world’s largest aerospace manufacturing base, serving the world’s largest aerospace marketplace, could be struggling to maintain its industrial capability in areas critical to U.S. national security. But it’s true, and it’s getting worse. Most troubling is that the erosion is most advanced in those areas of technological superiority that have historically underpinned U.S. defense strategy.

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Antibiotic Delayed Aging in Experiments With Mice

A new star has appeared in the field of drugs that delay aging in laboratory animals, and are therefore candidates for doing the same in people.

The drug is an antibiotic, rapamycin, already in use for suppressing the immune system in transplant patients and for treating certain cancers.

Rapamycin treatment had the remarkable effect of extending life even though it was not started in the right dose until the mice had lived 600 days — equivalent to a person at age 60. Most interventions that prolong life in mice, including a very low-calorie diet, need to be started early in life to show any effect.

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$600M to 3 Firms for NASIC Intelligence Analysis Work

Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems Corp. in Van Nuys, CA, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, CO, and General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Dayton, OH received a combined $600 million indefinite delivery/ quantity contract to support the National Air and Space Intelligence Center’s (NASIC) Advanced Technical Exploitation Program (ATEP). The 3 companies will compete for work under this contract.

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