Science and technic

Ce ți-ai dori de la o aplicație pe mobil pentru www.InZonaTa.ro ?

2012-11-21T13:20:00.001-08:00

Mi-as dori sa ofere posibilitatea de mica publicitate, utilizatorii, persoane fizice sa poata fece anunturi online cu vanzari, cumparari, inchirieri, prestari servicii, oferte si caurari locuri de munca.

Acest articol este inscris in concursul “Castiga-ti cadoul de Craciun: un iPhone 5 de la InZonaTa si Florin Grozea!” sponsorizat de site-ul de oferte speciale www.InZonaTa.ro.

http://www.floringrozea.com/
http://www.inzonata.ro/

http://www.floringrozea.com/2012/11/13/concurs-castiga-un-iphone-5-oferit-de-inzonata-ro/

Procesul complet de fabricaţie al procesoarelor intel

2011-12-24T09:00:00.001-08:00

Te-ai întrebat vreodată cum se fabrică componenta principală din motorul fiecărui calculator sau smartphone ? Ei bine, cei de la Intel îţi prezintă un ghid complet ce oferă detalii extrem de interesante, precum faptul că la baza fiecărui cip stă un material creat din nisip.

Pasul I – Silicul este al doilea cel mai întâlnit element chimic în crusta terestă. Nisipul – în special cuarţul – deţine un procent ridicat de siliciu, sub forma oxidului de siliciu, SiO₂, ingredient de bază în producerea semiconductorilor.

Topirea siliciului – Pentru început, siliciul este purificat în mai multe etape, până se atingă calitatea necesară producerii de semiconductori, stare cunoscută sub numele de Electronic Grade Silicon. Această stare permite deţinerea unui singur atom străin la un miliard de atomi de siliciu. În fotografia de mai sus puteţi vedea cum creşte un cristal folosind siliciul topit şi purificat. Rezultatul se numeşte Ingot – cilindrul negru din fotografie.

Obţinerea unui cilindru din cristal obţinut din siliciu topit şi purificat – Ingotul este produs folosind Electronic Grade Silicon. Cântăreşte aproximativ 100 kilograme şi are o puritate a siliciului de 99,9999%.

Pasul II – Ingotul este tăiat în discuri individuale de siliciu, cunoscute sub numele de wafere. Waferele sunt polişate până când suprafaţa lor devine perfect nivelată. Waferele sunt achiziţionate de Intel de la terţe companii. Pentru tehnologia pe 32 nm Intel foloseşte wafere cu un diametru de 300 mm. Atunci când Intel a început să producă chipuri, compania a tipărit circuite pe wafere de 50 mm. Folosirea waferelor de 300 mm conduce la o scădere a costului de producere a unui chip.

Pasul III – Producerea de chip-uri din waffere constă în realizarea a sute de paşi precişi.

Implantul de ioni – Wafer-ul este bombardat cu ioni pozitivi şi negativi

Eliminarea stratului fotorezistent – După implantul de ioni, stratul fotorezistent este eliminat.

Pasul IV – În schimbul aplicarii unui izolator tradiţional între tranzistor şi canal, Intel aplică mai multe strate de izolator cu constantă dielectrică ridicată.

Aplicarea izolatorului cu constantă dielectrică ridicată – Sunt mai multe tipuri de straturi moleculare aplicate pe suprafaţa wafer-ului.

Izolator cu constantă dielectrică ridicată – Această etapă arată cum a fost aplicat izolatorul cu constantă dielectrică ridicată pe întregul waffer. Materialul cu constantă dielectrică ridicată este mai gros decât layer-ul tradiţional. Are în schimb aceleaşi proprietăţi capacitive.

Pasul V - Peste waferul care se învârte este turnat un lichid, ce va acţiona ca un strat fotoprotector. Waferul este supus unei mişcări de rotaţie pentru a se asigura aplicarea unui strat fotoprotector subţire şi egal.

Expunerea – Stratul fotoprotector este expus luminii ultraviolete. Reacţia chimică este similară cu cea declanşată asupra filmului unui aparat foto atunci când se apasă butonul de surprindere a instantaneului. Materialul fotoprotector expus la lumină UV devine solubil. Expunerea este realizată prin folosirea unor măşti. Atunci când sunt folosite cu lumină UV, acestea creează un tipar pe fiecare strat al microprocesorului. Un obiectiv reduce imaginea măştii, aşa că, ceea ce este tipărit pe wafer este de patru ori mai mic liniar decât tiparul măştii. Cu toate că de cele mai multe ori sute de microprocesoare sunt construite pe un singur wafer, această poveste se va concentra doar pe crearea unui singur element al unui microprocesor – un tranzistor. Un tranzistor acţionează asemenea unui comutator ce controlează fluxul de curent electric dintr-un chip de calculator. Cercetătorii Intel au dezvoltat tranzistori atât de mici încât aproape 30 de milioane ar putea să încapă pe vârful unui ac.

Pasul VI – Materialul fotoprotector este complet dizolvat de solvent.

Gravură – Stratul fotoprotector are scopul de a proteja materialul ce nu trebuie gravat. Procesul de gravură se face folosind acizi puternici.

Eliminarea materialului fotoprotector – După terminarea procesului de creare a design-ului, materialul fotoprotector este înlăturat şi astfel forma dorită devine vizibilă.

Pasul VII – Tranzistorul – Tranzistorul este aproape finalizat. Au fost gravate trei găuri în stratul evidenţiat de culoarea roşie. Cele trei găuri vor fi umplute cu cupru sau alte materiale, fapt care va face posibilă realizarea unei conexiuni cu alţi tranzistori.

Galvanizare – Waferul este pus într-o soluţie bazată pe sulfat de cupru. Ionii de cupru se deplasează de la terminalul pozitiv la cel negativ.

După galvanizare – Pe suprafaţa waferului ionii de cupru se depun sub forma unui strat subţire.

Pasul VIII - Materialul în exces este îndepărtat printr-un proces de polish.

Strat metalic – Multiple straturi de metal sunt create pentru a se realiza o interconectare cu alţi tranzistori. Aceste conexiuni sunt create în funcţie de arhitectura şi de design-ul gândit de echipa ce dezvoltă funcţionalitatea procesorului respectiv (ex. Intel Core i5). Cu toate că chipul unui calculator apare plat, acesta are mai mult de 30 de strate ce formează un circuit complex. Dacă te uiţi la o imagine mărită a unui chip vei putea vedea o reţea intrisecă de linii de circuit şi de tranzistori.

Pasul IX – Waferele sunt supuse primelor teste de funcţionare. În această etapă, cu ajutorul unor modele toate waferele sunt testate, iar rezultatele date de chip sunt comparate cu „răspunsurile corecte”.

Tăierea waferelor – Waferul este tăiat în bucăţi, cunoscute sub numele de matriţe.

Renunţarea la matriţele cu probleme – Matriţele ce nu corespund anumitor standarde sunt aruncate. Restul se vor trimite către împachetare.

Pasul X – Substratul verde asigura interfaţa mecanică şi electrică a procesorului pentru interacţiune cu restul componentelor sistemului.

Procesorul – Un microprocesor este cel mai complex produs creat. De fapt, sunt necesari sute de paşi pentru realizarea unuia.

Pasul XI – Testarea – În etapa finala procesorul va fi testat pentru a vedea dacă răspunde bine la comenzi.

Transport – După realizarea acestor teste, procesoarele cu aceleaşi capabilităţi sunt dispuse în tăvi speciale, pentru transport.

Pachetul pentru retail –Procesoarele ajung fie direct în retail, folosindu-se o cutie precum este cea din imagine, fie ajung la producătorii de sisteme.

Transfer de date record, cu 186 gigabiţi pe secundă

2011-12-24T08:47:00.001-08:00

În cadrul SuperComputing 2011, echipe de cercetători ce la Caltech, CERN şi University of Michigan au reuşit să transfere date în direcţii opuse la o rată combinată de 186 gigabiţi pe secundă. Echivalentul a două milioane de GB pe zi, suficient pentru a transfera 100.000 de discuri Blu-ray, cu scene bonus cu tot.

Potrivit cercetătorilor, set-ul circuit de 100 Gbps va deschide noi căi de a transfera cantităţi din ce în ce mai mari de date peste oceane şi continente, prin intermediul unor asemenea reţele globale de fibră optică.

Realizarea este o privire în viitorul foarte apropiat al viitoarei generaţii de tehnologie reţelistică, care va permite în doar câţiva ani transferul datelor cu viteze cuprinse între 40 şi 100 Gbps.

Te gândeşti probabil la ce sunt necesare asemenea viteze. Ei bine, doar experimentul care implică Large Hadron Collider de la CERN generează circa 100 petabytes de date, adică circa patru milioane de discuri Blu-ray, date ce trebuie analizate de echipe de cercetători de pe întreaga planetă.

sursa: connect

IBM prezice viitorul: 5 inovaţii pentru următorii 5 ani

2011-12-24T08:39:00.001-08:00

Ca şi în fiecare an, IBM lansează Next 5 in 5, o listă de inovaţii care ar putea remodela faţa tehnologică a planetei în viitorul apropiat. Alegerile de anul acesta mai jos.

Energia corpului va alimenta gadgeturi

Orice se mişcă generează energie, iar această energie poate fi utilizată pentru a alimenta majoritatea gadget-urilor din jur. Progresele din domeniul energiei refolosibile vor face posibilă folosirea energiei kinetice generate atunci când pedalezi sau faci jogging pentru a extinde autonomia telefonului mobil sau a laptopului. Soluţii de acest gen sunt deja disponibile însă în viitor ele vor deveni mult mai eficiente şi mai răspândite.

Adio carneţel cu parole

Identitatea ta biologică va fi utilizată pentru a facilita accesul comod şi sigur la serviciile care necesită autentificare. Datele biometrice, cum ar fi trăsăturile faciale, scanările retinei şi amprenta vocală vor fi folosite pentru a genera o parolă unică, construită în jurul profilului ADN al fiecărei persoane. Sisteme inteligente vor putea citi şi utiliza această parolă unică în timp real,reducând timpul de acces şi nevoia de a folosi soluţii vulnerabile. Imaginează-ţi de exemplu că pentru a retrage bani de la bancomat va trebui să îţi rosteşti numele şi să stai nemişcat în faţa unei camere care îţi va scana chipul şi retina.

Cititul gândurilor, mai aproape de realitate

Imaginează-ţi că pentru a suna pe cineva nu va trebui decât să te gândeşti la acest lucru sau că vei putea mişca cursorul de pe ecran cu ajutorul minţii. Cercetătorii din domeniul bioinformaticii lucrează deja la concepte care le permit senzorilor să îţi citească activitatea cerebrală, expresiile faciale, nivelul de concentrare şi entuziasmul.

Aceste date vor putea fi apoi implementate în diferite aplicaţii, de la jocuri şi noi modalităţi de interacţiune cu gadget-urile şi până la programe medicale menite să îi ajute pe pacienţii afectaţi de autism, spre exemplu.

Tehnologie pentru toţi

Accesul la tehnologie va deveni universal, posibilitatea de conectare la internet fiind disponibilă aproape în orice zonă a globului şi aproape oricui. În următorii cinci ani vor fi livrate circa 5.6 miliarde de dispozitive mobile, ceea ce înseamnă că peste 80% din cei 7 miliarde de oameni de pe glob vor avea un gadget cu acces la o reţea mobilă în buzunar. Preţurile vor scădea şi ele, deschizând calea şi pentru cei fără prea multe resurse materiale. Acest lucru se întâmplă deja în India, spre exemplu, unde locuitorii din sate utilizează deja telefoanele mobile.

Adio spam

Sutele de mesaje spam care populează folderele mailului vor deveni de domeniul trecutului într-o scurtă perioadă de timp. Acest lucru se va realiza prin mai multe metode. În primul rând emailurile vor fi atât de targetate şi integrate cu profilul tău personal încât conceptul de spam nu va mai fi valabil. Vei primi oferte cu bilete la trupa preferată şi recomandări exact pentru datele din calendar în care nu ai nimic programat. În funcţie de preferinţele tale companiile îţi vor trimite oferte de produse care ţi-ar putea trezi cu adevărat interesul şi îţi vor oferi metode extrem de simple de a cumpăra aceste produse.

Filtrele de spam vor deveni de asemenea extrem de performante, eliminând din start mesajele periculoase sau complet inutile.

sursa: connect.ro

battery powered by paper

2011-12-24T02:34:00.001-08:00

(Credit: AFP)

Termites--those pesky insects that you fear might invade and destroy your home--may actually be responsible for the new wave of eco-friendly batteries, if Sony has anything to do with it.

At the Eco-Products 2011 exhibition in Tokyo, Sony showed off a bio-battery prototype that gets its power from shredded paper. In the demo, pieces of paper and cardboard were dropped into a water mixture to magically turn on a small fan. Instead of magic though, the Japanese electronics company took a lesson from nature.

Similar to the way termites and white ants digest wood and convert it into energy, Sony uses an enzyme called cellulase in the water mixture to break down the paper to glucose sugar. The sugar is then processed by additional enzymes and oxygen and converted to hydrogen ions and electrons, which provide the fuel for the battery.

Though the bio-battery isn't as powerful as the batteries available on the market today, it does have enough juice to run an MP3 player. However, it does show that an environmentally friendly battery is possible, as the bio-battery does not contain any harsh chemicals or metals.

This isn't the first time Sony has experimented with green battery technology, as the company showed off a sugar-powered battery back in 2007.

(Via BBC News)

Smallest Electronic Circuits

2011-12-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

team of scientists, led by Guillaume Gervais from McGill's Physics Department and Mike Lilly from Sandia National Laboratories, has engineered one of the world's smallest electronic circuits. It is formed by two wires separated by only about 150 atoms or 15

The discovery, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, could have a significant effect on the speed and power of the ever smaller integrated circuits of the future in everything from smartphones to desktop computers, televisions and GPS systems.

This is the first time that anyone has studied how the wires in an electronic circuit interact with one another when packed so tightly together. Surprisingly, the authors found that the effect of one wire on the other can be either positive or negative. This means that a current in one wire can produce a current in the other one that is either in the same or the opposite direction. This discovery, based on the principles of quantum physics, suggests a need to revise our understanding of how even the simplest electronic circuits behave at the nanoscale.

In addition to the effect on the speed and efficiency of future electronic circuits, this discovery could also help to solve one of the major challenges facing future computer design. This is managing the ever-increasing amount of heat produced by integrated circuits

Well-known theorist Markus Büttiker speculates that it may be possible to harness the energy lost as heat in one wire by using other wires nearby. Moreover, Buttiker believes that these findings will have an impact on the future of both fundamental and applied research in nanoelectronics.

The research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Fonds de recherche Nature et Technologies of Quebec, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Center of Integrated Nanotechnologies at Sandia National Laboratories.

Scientists have engineered one of the world's smallest electronic circuits. It is formed by two wires separated by only about 150 atoms or 15 nanometers (nm). (Credit: Image courtesy of McGill University)

source: sciencedaily.com

Optical diode

2011-12-23T19:37:00.000-08:00

Researchers have created a new type of optical device small enough to fit millions on a computer chip that could lead to faster, more powerful information processing and supercomputers.

The "passive optical diode" is made from two tiny silicon rings measuring 10 microns in diameter, or about one-tenth the width of a human hair. Unlike other optical diodes, it does not require external assistance to transmit signals and can be readily integrated into computer chips.

The diode is capable of "nonreciprocal transmission," meaning it transmits signals in only one direction, making it capable of information processing, said Minghao Qi (pronounced Chee), an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University.

"This one-way transmission is the most fundamental part of a logic circuit, so our diodes open the door to optical information processing," said Qi, working with a team also led by Andrew Weiner, Purdue's Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The diodes are described in a paper to be published online Dec. 22 in the journal Science. The paper was written by graduate students Li Fan, Jian Wang, Leo Varghese, Hao Shen and Ben Niu, research associate Yi Xuan, and Weiner and Qi.

Although fiberoptic cables are instrumental in transmitting large quantities of data across oceans and continents, information processing is slowed and the data are susceptible to cyberattack when optical signals must be translated into electronic signals for use in computers, and vice versa.

"This translation requires expensive equipment," Wang said. "What you'd rather be able to do is plug the fiber directly into computers with no translation needed, and then you get a lot of bandwidth and security."

Electronic diodes constitute critical junctions in transistors and help enable integrated circuits to switch on and off and to process information. The new optical diodes are compatible with industry manufacturing processes for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors, or CMOS, used to produce computer chips, Fan said.

"These diodes are very compact, and they have other attributes that make them attractive as a potential component for future photonic information processing chips," she said.

The new optical diodes could make for faster and more secure information processing by eliminating the need for this translation. The devices, which are nearly ready for commercialization, also could lead to faster, more powerful supercomputers by using them to connect numerous processors together.

"The major factor limiting supercomputers today is the speed and bandwidth of communication between the individual superchips in the system," Varghese said. "Our optical diode may be a component in optical interconnect systems that could eliminate such a bottleneck."

Infrared light from a laser at telecommunication wavelength goes through an optical fiber and is guided by a microstructure called a waveguide. It then passes sequentially through two silicon rings and undergoes "nonlinear interaction" while inside the tiny rings. Depending on which ring the light enters first, it will either pass in the forward direction or be dissipated in the backward direction, making for one-way transmission. The rings can be tuned by heating them using a "microheater," which changes the wavelengths at which they transmit, making it possible to handle a broad frequency range.

This illustration shows a new "all-silicon passive optical diode," a device small enough to fit millions on a computer chip that could lead to faster, more powerful information processing and supercomputers. The device has been developed by Purdue University researchers. (Credit: Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University)

source: sciencedaily.com

Batteries with nanoparticle

2011-12-23T12:54:00.000-08:00

New research from Stanford University could point the way to large-scale, long-lasting power grid batteries. These kinds of batteries would be especially useful for making technologies like solar and wind power more practical, allowing vast amounts of storage to be stored for periods of time in which the skies are calm or overcast.

Researchers at Stanford University have used nanoparticles of copper hexacyanoferrate to create electrodes that could lead to large batteries for storing excess power from the electrical grid for future use.

These might be best used in wind and solar farms, the researchers stated in a paper published in a recent issue of Nature Communications.

The nanoparticles allow for faster charging and discharging of electricity and could allow the creation of low-cost large batteries that have a relatively long life.

"For years we've been looking for a viable way to store commercial volumes of energy, whether through compressed air, hydro pump systems or through whatever new technologies are out there," Frank Maisano, an energy analyst at Bracewell Giuliani, told TechNewsWorld.

"The researchers are certainly trying to address the right parameters by focusing on technologies that can be low-cost, long-lived and highly efficient," Haresh Kamath, program manager of energy storage at electric utility industry group the Electric Power Research Institute, told TechNewsWorld.

"The next step would be to show that the material would work in an electrochemical cell, and then to show that the cells can be made practically into a battery in the real world," Kamath added.

Copper Hexawhat?

The Stanford researchers demonstrated that crystalline nanoparticles of copper hexacyanoferrate can work as a battery electrode in low-cost liquid electrolytes.
Copper hexacyanoferrate is an analog of Prussian Blue, a dark blue pigment used by artists, which goes by the chemical name "iron(III)-hexacyanoferrate(II)."
After 40,000 deep discharges at a 17 C rate, the crystals retained 83 percent of their original capacity.
The C rating is the maximum safe continuous discharge rate of a battery pack. A 10C rating, for example, means the battery pack can be discharged at 10 times its capacity as measured in milliamp-hours, or mAh.
A battery made with copper hexacyanoferrate technology would serve wind and solar power sources, which require stationary energy storage systems that can operate for many cycles at high power, with high round-trip energy efficiency at low cost, the researchers stated.
At modest current densities, the hexacyanoferrate crystals can achieve round-trip energy efficiencies of 99 percent, the researchers found.

Why Copperhexacyanoferrate?

Copper hexacyanoferrate crystals have an open framework that let an electrode charge or discharge without being damaged by letting ions move in and out of the electrode freely.
Ions are electrically charged particles.
This free movement makes for very rapid charging and discharging of the electrodes.
The researchers used hydrated potassium ions and a water-based electrolyte.

Worshipping the Sun and Wind

The availability of wind and solar power depends on the climate, and they have to be captured when available.
While these sources of energy are more environmentally friendly than traditional fossil power plants, they have a downside.
The output of traditional fossil power plants can be controlled by increasing or decreasing the flow of fuel, which lets operators manage the amount of power generated in response to demand, EPRI's Kamath said.
However, wind and solar power is wasted when it's throttled, Kamath pointed out. Further, when these energy sources aren't available, other backup sources of power such as gas turbines must be used.
Low-cost, highly efficient energy storage would resolve this wastage problem, Kamath remarked.

To Research, Perchance to Dream

There's just one problem with the copper hexacyanoferrate crystal electrode the Stanford researchers developed -- it only provides half the equation for a new battery.
The electrode's chemical composition means it can only be used as a high-voltage cathode. Batteries need a low-voltage anode as well as a high-voltage cathode
The researchers have begun investigating various materials for the anode. Until an anode is tested, however, things will remain up in the air.
"You're looking at an uncertain technology that, while promising in the lab, may not be as practical on a commercial scale," Bracewell's Maisano stated.
"We've had some very promising [storage] technologies but the problem is, we haven't been able to scale them up and have them work cost-effectively," Maisano added.
Still, although it might take "a few years" to bring this copper hexacyanoferrate technology into the real world, "any advance in this area is potentially very exciting," EPRI's Kamath said.

source: technewsworld.com

Habitable planet

2011-12-23T12:49:00.000-08:00

Kepler-22b is the closest planet yet to Earth in terms of its potential for supporting life. However, it is so far away that we wouldn't be able to send any possible inhabitants a message, much less plan a visit. Still, "the discovery that the planet Kepler-22b is in the habitable zone around a sun-like star is a crucial step towards discovering life outside the solar system," said astrophysicist Mario Livio.

NASA's Kepler mission on Monday confirmed the discovery of a small planet 600 light-years away from Earth in the "habitable zone" of a star not unlike our own sun.

About 2.4 times the size of Earth, the newly confirmed planet -- called "Kepler-22b" -- is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone, or the region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface.

This diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first "habitable zone" planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. The diagram shows an artist's rendering of the planet comfortably orbiting within the habitable zone, similar to where Earth circles the sun. Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

Though scientists don't yet know if Kepler-22b is primarily rocky, gaseous or liquid in composition, its discovery is a step closer to finding planets similar to Earth.
"This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," said Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA.
Of 54 habitable-zone planet candidates reported in Feb. 2011, Kepler-22b is the first to be confirmed. The discovery will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

A 290-Day Orbit

While Kepler-22b is larger than Earth, its orbit of 290 days around a sun-like star is much like that of our own world. Though it is smaller and cooler, the planet's host star also belongs to the same class -- dubbed "G-type" -- as our sun.

To discover such planets and planet candidates, Kepler measures dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars as indications of planets crossing in front of them. At least three such "transits" are required to verify that a signal is a planet.

A variety of instruments are used to review and verify observations made by the Kepler spacecraft, including ground-based telescopes and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Making that task more difficult, Kepler observes a star field in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra that can only be seen from ground-based observatories between spring and early fall.

More Than 1,000 New Candidates

"Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at NASA Ames Research Center, who led the team that discovered Kepler-22b.

"The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready," Borucki added. "We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season."

Kepler has also discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known count. Included among those are 10 that are close to Earth's size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star, but follow-up observations will be necessary to determine whether they are true planets.

'A Crucial Step'

"The discovery that the planet Kepler-22b is in the habitable zone around a sun-like star is a crucial step towards discovering life outside the solar system," Mario Livio, a senior astrophysicist with the Space Telescope Science Institute, told TechNewsWorld.

While the fact that liquid water can exist on the surface of the planet "does not necessarily mean that there is life there, we think that liquid water is a NECESSARY ingredient for life," Livio explained.

Planets discovered by Kepler "are not the easiest targets for follow-up observations because of their distance," he added. Still, "they provide the important information that these planets do exist, and with time, they will provide us with information about the frequency of such planets."

Future telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope and its successors, will attempt to identify "biosignatures" in the atmospheres of these planets, Livio noted.

'We Couldn't Get There'

The discovery is an interesting one, but even if Kepler-22b does turn out to be habitable, it likely won't have any practical implications for humans anytime soon, Paul Czysz, a professor emeritus of aerospace engineering at St. Louis University, told TechNewsWorld.

"We couldn't get there if we had to," Czysz said.

The star system closest to Earth, Alpha Centauri, is just over four light-years away from Earth, he pointed out, meaning that it would take more than four years to travel there at the speed of light, or 40 years at one-tenth of the speed of light.

'We're Isolated'

We can't yet even come close to speeds of one-tenth of the speed of light, however, making the prospect of trying to travel the 600 light-years to Kepler-22b completely prohibitive, Czysz said.

Humans also haven't yet come up with a transmitter than can send a signal that far, Czysz added, making any prospect of trying to send a message in case there's life on Kepler-22b equally bleak.

"As it stands right now," he concluded, "we're isolated."

source: technewsworld.com

The God's particle

2011-12-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

Scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland have edged a little closer to confirming the existence of the Higgs boson, or "God particle." Although there is still a high degree of uncertainty, they expect that data gathered in 2012 will either find the particle or prove it doesn't exist. Either result would represent a major advance in understanding the workings of the universe.

Scientists are getting very close to proving or disproving the existence of the subatomic particle known as the "Higgs boson."

The list of possible hiding spots for the Higgs boson particle has been narrowed down, according to teams carrying out experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Geneva Switzerland.

The existence of Higgs boson -- also know as the "God particle" -- is key to explaining why there is mass in the universe. It will likely be another year before scientists have enough data to say whether the elusive particle really exists.

A typical candidate event including two high-energy photons whose energy (depicted by dashed yellow lines and red towers) is measured in the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter. The yellow lines are the measured tracks of other particles produced in the collision.

The particle would weigh in at about 125 billion electron volts -- about 125 times heavier than a proton and 500,000 times heavier than an electron, according to physicists working on theATLAS experiment at LHC.

They have seen "tantalizing hints" in the mass region, but "we cannot conclude anything at this stage," said Fabiola Giamnotti, an ATLAS spokesperson.

"Given the outstanding performance of the LHC this year," Giamnotti said, there should be enough data to revolve the puzzle in 2012.

Scientists working on the CMS experiment at LHC also made some intriguing observations, excluding the existence of the SM Higgs boson in a wide range of possible Higgs boson masses, and expect data collected in 2012 to illuminate their findings.

No Higgs Boson' Would Be Big News

The fact that it may not even exist "in and of itself would be interesting," said Enderle, "because that would mean some core calculations we use to explain how the universe works are faulty."
If it does exist, the Higgs boson is likely a very large little particle.
It would qualify as "a massive elementary subatomic particle," Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told TechNewsWorld. "It will also reinforce the Standard Model of modern particle physics, including the existence and creation of mass."
The development and construction of CERN's Large Hadron Collider underlines the importance of this point, he noted. "LHC's funding was largely predicated on searching for and finding elemental particles including the HB."
The biggest surprise might be that the Higgs boson particle doesn't exist. The impact of confirmed nonexistence could be as great as discovering the particle.
"That point is obviously central to so-called 'Higgs-less models' which depend on other mechanisms for mass generation," said King.
The Higgs boson quest is just one of the missions of the LHC. In another fascinating area of research, investigators reported indications of subatomic particles traveling faster than the speed of light.
If proven, "that would contradict Einstein's theory of special relativity," said King.

source:technewsworld.com

micro stick

2011-12-23T11:09:00.001-08:00

Un stick mai mic decât îți poți imagina

Published Wednesday, December 21, 2011 By Cristi. Under Stiri Tags: DataTraveler, Flash, Micro, Stick, USB

Unitățile de stocare a datelor și portabilitatea au însemnat pentru multă vreme transportul unui dispozitiv voluminos și sensibil. Kingston Digital lansează dispozitivul de stocare USB, DataTraveler Micro, una dintre cele mai mici unităţi Flash USB pe care le puteți găsi pe piață. În ciuda dimensiunilor reduse spațiul oferit poate ajunge până la 16GB.
DataTraveler Micro se ataşează cu uşurinţă, fără blocarea altor porturi şi poate fi utilizat pentru stocarea, transferul şi schimbul de fotografii, clipuri video, muzică şi alte fişiere.

Celule fotovoltaice speciale

2011-12-23T07:26:00.000-08:00

Inginerii francezi pun la punct o soluţie pentru a face o mică revoluţie în ceea ce priveşte producerea de „energie verde”. Este vorba de eliminarea panourilor fotovoltaice prin integrarea celulelor fotovoltaice în diferite materiale utilizate pentru construcţia obiectelor.

Unul din inginerii participanţi la acest proiect, Nicolas Malandain spunea: „ID Composite este la bază o companie prestatoare de servicii către corporaţii. Echipa este formată din trei membrii, ingineri şi tehnicieni. În acelaşi timp ne aflăm în legătură cu o instituţie de învăţământ IUT din Saint Brieuc ei aducându-şi contribuţia prin cercetările realizate cu ajutorul studenţilor.”

În cadrul unei teme de cercetare lansată anul trecut, se propunea aducerea de invovaţii în ceea ce priveşte energia regenerabilă. Una din temele propuse a fost utilizarea algelor verzi ce se găsesc din belşug în apele oceanului Atlantic.

În schimb anul acesta, proiectul propus de ID Composite constă în dezvoltarea unor sisteme autonome şi anume obiecte ce necesită alimentare cu energie electrică, dar care sunt plasate în zone unde branşarea la reţeaua de energie electrică este imposibilă. Pentru a îndeplini aceste cerinţe se utilizează energia solară. Obiectivul fiind integrarea celulelor fotovoltaice în material. Dificultatea implementării soluţiei constă din faptul că celulele fotovoltaice utilizate pe scară largă sunt rigide. Pentru a le putea încorpora în diferite materiale, este necesar utilizarea unor celule flexibile. În acest punct şi-a adus contribuţia compania Flexcell, ce fabrică celule fotovoltaice imprimate pe polimeri flexibili.

În cele din urmă, tot ce rămânea de făcut echipei de cercetători era integrarea celulelor flexibile în materialele din care erau făcute obiectele avute în vedere. A fost utilizată o tehnică ce implica transferul răşinilor cu ajutorul unei matriţe. Această constă în injectarea unei răşini în spaţiul dintre două matriţe, dar tehnica este destul de laborioasă şi costisitoare pentru acest proiect. Aşadar s-a recurs la o metodă ceva mai simplă ce implica utilizarea unei singure matriţe ce conţinea fibrele de material şi în care era injectată răşina.

Etapa următoare consta în utilizarea unui material ce avea atât proprietăţile unei sticle subţiri, rezistentă şi transparentă pentru a oferi o protecţie optimă celulelor fotovoltaice dar şi pentru a permite trecerea luminii.

În cele din urmă a fost realizat un prototip de către echipa ID Composite. În baza acestui prototip se va elibera şi un brevet pentru a patenta metodele de construcţie utilizate. Se doreşte ca proiectul să atragă atenţia companiilor asupra posibilităţilor oferite de această tehnologie. Astfel şantierele navale ar putea folosi noua tehnică pentru construcţia vapoarelor. Până în prezent panourile şi celulele fotovoltaice erau expuse capriciilor vremii, cu noua metodă acest punct slab este practic eliminat.

Astfel pe cât de inovator este, proiectul impune o pierdere în ceea ce priveşte eficienţa panourilor solare dar sistemul se doreşte a dota echipamente autonome, aşadar merită investiţia.

sursa: chip.ro

Ultrabook

2011-12-23T07:22:00.001-08:00

După cum se știe, Intel a decis pe parcursul acestui an să promoveze conceptul de Ultrabook, un soi de MacBook Air pentru restul producătorilor, alții decât Apple. Un Ultrabook se vrea a fi un laptop foarte subțire, foarte ușor, oferind o foarte bună performanță dar și o mare autonomie. Cu astfel de sisteme portabile existente pe piață, Intel speră că elanul tabletelor va mai fi temperat, pentru că, la urma urmei, cui nu-i place un notebook la fel ca MacBook Air, mai ales dacă prețul este unul bun. Aici intervine însă marea problemă. Cel mai ieftin MacBook Air de la Apple vine cu un preț de 1000 USD iar Intel și-ar dori ca producătorii de notebook-uri să realizeze ceva similar, macar la același preț, dacă nu mai ieftin, altfel Air-ul nu ar da nimanui nici o șansă. În această direcție Intel chiar a instituit un fond de 300 de milioane USD pentru asistență inclusiv la nivel de coordonare a producției, pentru ca acest proiect să reușească, compania americană sperând ca în 2012 nu mai puțin de 40% dintre notebook-urile vandute să facă parte din această clasă a Ultrabook-urilor. Fabricanții taiwanezi se plâng însă de faptul că nu pot atinge ținta de 1000 USD în actualele condiții de piață, pentru că, din ținta finală de 1000 USD cât ar trebui să coste cele mai ieftine ultrabook-uri, o mare parte din costuri o deține procesorul, sistemul de operare, display-ul și [eventual] SSD-ul, profiturile lor finale fiind astfel minime. Ei afirmă că, dacă Intel nu reduce din prețurile procesoarelor, singura soluție este să includă proceosre mai lente și alte componente mai ieftine, însă este posibil ca în acest fel produsul rezultat să nu se mai prea încadreze în clasa Ultrabook-urilor.

Până una-alta, cumpărăm „Ultrabook”-urile originale tot de la Apple, sub forma lui MacBook Air.

Şapte gadget-uri pe care le vom înlocui

2011-12-23T07:06:00.000-08:00

Nu trebuie să fii un clarvăzător pentru a-ţi da seama că multe dintre gadget-urile atât de populare astăzi vor fi de mult uitate în 2020, şi aceasta pentru că tehnologiile avansează din ce în ce mai rapid. Un exemplu concret îl constituie începutul anilor 2000, când comercianţii făceau de zor reclamă la MP3 playere şi la netbook-uri – pentru ca, zece ani mai târziu, în 2011, acestea să fie aproape complet înlocuite de smartphone-uri şi tablete.

În aceste condiţii, e de la sine înţeles că multe dintre gadget-urile şi dispozitivele pe care le folosim din plin şi fără de care nu ne putem închipui viaţa vor deveni istorie peste alţi 10 ani. Desigur, ele se vor mai găsi pe piaţă, însă cu siguranţă că nu vă vor mai trezi interesul aşa cum o fac acum.

Stephen Baker, analist la NPD Group, mai dă un exemplu concret – videorecorder-ele, pe care le putem găsi încă în unele magazine şi care constituiau în 1992 o culme a tehnologiei, vor ajunge în curând să fie considerate adevărate „antichităţi”. În aceeaşi categorie intră casetofoanele, radiourile cu tranzistori sau dischetele. Acest tip de produse este comercializat în continuare de către retaileri, dar numai pentru că mai există nostalgici interesaţi de ele.

Deci, care ar fi următoarele gadgeturi în pericol de a se demoda? Site-ul MainStreet a întrebat specialiştii în domeniu şi ne oferă un top al produselor „pe cale de dispariţie”.

Sistemele GPS

Se pare că zilele în care şoferii erau dispuşi să scoată uşor din buzunar 200 de euro sau chiar mai mult pentru un navigator GPS au cam trecut… Nu numai pentru că preţul dispozitivelor „standalone” s-a redus considerabil, ci şi pentru că acestea au început să piardă teren în favoarea terminalelor de tip smartphone cu ecran tactil de dimensiune mare.

„Dispozitive portabile de navigare de genul celor vândute de TomTom sau Garmin nu se vor mai vine în 2020, pentru că – cel mai probabil – smartphone-urile vor prelua această funcţionalitate, dar şi pentru faptul că sistemele GPS vor fi sisteme integrate standard în autovehicule”, crede analistul companiei de cercetare Forrester, Charles S. Golvin. Practic, în viitor, sistemele GPS vor fi destinate doar unui segment specific de utilizatori. „Cel mai probabil, piaţa pentru aceste dispozitive o vor reprezenta amatorii de alpinism, companiile de transport sau armata. Pentru marea majoritate a utilizatorilor, dispozitivele GPS vor fi irelevante sau redundant”, completează Stephen Baker.

E-reader-ele

În scurta lor istorie, dispozitivele e-reader au evoluat extreme de mult de la un produs de sine stătător, cu tastatură la unul cu ecran senzitiv şi, mai nou, la versiunea unei tablet hibrid. Dacă e să îi dăm crezare lui Golvin, piaţa pentru e-readere va dispărea până la sfârşitul viitoarei decade. „Tabletele vor supli nevoia de e-readere, în acelaşi fel în care iPod-ul va fi înlocuit de smartphone-uri. Tabletele vor servi nevoia utilizatorului de a citi o revistă sau o carte. Pe scurt, nu va mai fi nevoie ca acesta să cheltuiască bani pe un dispozitiv specializat pentru lectură, atunci când va putea citi uşor folosind o tabletă, pe care o poate folosi şi pentru alte operaţiuni”, este de părere Charles S. Golvin.

Cât de mult va scădea cererea de dispozitive e-reader? Acesta depinde, până la urmă, de progresele pe care le vor face tehnologiile constructive ale diplay-urilor. Una din principalele cerinţe ale utilizatorului pentru un astfel de dispozitiv o constituie ecranul e-ink, care oferă cititorului senzaţii similare lecturii unei cărţi „pe hârtie” – superioare lecturii pe un LCD. Potrivit lui Golvin, însă, producătorii lucrează la o modalitate de a îmbina cele două experienţe de lectură, pentru a oferi utilizatorilor o tabletă dublată de un autentic e-reader. Chiar şi atunci, pe piaţă vor mai exista şi dispozitive de sine stătătoare, însă nu în număr mare. „S-ar putea ca prin 2020 să putem cumpăra un e-reader extreme de ieftin, la doar 20 de dolari – însă volumul vânzărilor va fi minim, asemănător cu cel al CD-playerelor în ziua de astăzi”, precizează acesta.

Telefoanele mobile simple

Telefoanele cu funcţii de bază vor cădea, în scurt timp, victime ale smartphone-urilor cu funcţii avansate. Tim Bajarin, ziarist specializat în tehnologie şi analist principal la Creative Strategies, crede că 80% din totalul telefoanelor mobile vândute în 2015 vor fi smartphone-uri, proporţia urmând să crească la 100% până în 2018.

Declinul rapid va fi influenţat de scăderea semnificativă a preţului pentru telefoanele inteligente, dar şi de cifra de afaceri mai mare pe care acestea le vor asigura operatorilor de telefonie mobilă. „Chiar şi astăzi, profiturile acestora sunt obţinute seama serviciilor pe care le asigură şi nu pe seama telefoanelor în sine”, spune Bajarin, care este sigur că operatorii vor prefer să renunţe la telefoanele cu funcţii de bază în favoarea smartphone-urilor, care se pot vinde împreună cu un număr mai mare de servicii.

Camerele digitale cu funcţii de bază

Când Apple a lansat iPhone 4S, nu doar producătorii de smartphone-uri s-au temut de concurenţă, ci şi producătorii de camera digitale. Cel mai recent telefon de la Apple are o cameră calitativă de 8 megapixeli, care poate înregistra video HD la 1080p.

Până de curând, acest tip de specificaţii era doar apanajul aparatelor de fotografiat, dar acum şi acest segment de piaţă este luat cu asalt de smartphone-uri. Rob Enderle, analist principal la Enderle Group, este de părere că rolul camerelor digitale low-end va fi preluat de telefoanele inteligente, pe măsură ce utilizatorii se vor fi săturat să poarte după ei un aparat foto, chiar şi atunci când au în buzunar un telefon care poate face poze calitative.

„Aparatele de tip săpunieră – în mod particular cele al căror preţ este mai mic de 200 dolari – vor fi înlocuite în totalitate de celularele cu cameră foto”, spune Enderle. Acesta crede, în schimb, în viitorul camerelor foto , din moment ce mulţi entuziaşti în ale fotografiei îşi doresc aparate de calitate, profesionale, peste ceea ce oferă un smartphone în materie de imagine.

DVD player-ele

DVD playerele sunt pe cale de a fi depăşite de playerele Blu-ray, care le vor „scoate” de pe piaţă până la sfârşitul deceniului. „Playerul DVD va fi înlocuit de serviciile de conţinut digital”, spune Ian Olgeirson, senior analist la SNL Kagan, care precizează că serviciile de streaming de filme, de genul Netflix, reprezintă viitorul.

„Dispozitivele Blu-ray sau oricare alt format de redare video de generaţie mai nouă va prelungi durata de viaţă a acestui tip de dispozitive de redare – însă discurile vor fi cu siguranţă depăşite”, completează acesta. Ideea de a introduce un disc într-un player pentru a urmări un film va părea atât de demodată ca şi opţiunea de a asculta muzică folosind un disc de vinil şi un pick-up – ceea ce ne duce la următorul produs de pe listă…

CD-urile şi DVD-urile inscriptibile

Folosirea de suport de tip CD sau DVD pentru a stoca şi/sau viziona conţinut va reprezenta în curând o noţiune depăşită. „CD-urile vor fi cu siguranţă depăşite mai repede de 10 ani, pentru că totul se va baza pe distribuţia de conţinut digital – aşa că putem spune adio discurilor strălucitoare”, crede Bajarin.

Aceasta se va datora, în parte, noilor opţiuni privind streaming-ul de muzică şi filme sau serviciilor de download digital, dar şi celorlalte opţiuni eficiente de stocare – drive-uri USB, HDD-uri extreme sau serviciile in cloud.

Consolele de jocuri

Dispozitivele de tipul Wii, PlayStation sau Xbox vor mai exista, probabil, şi peste 10 ani – numai că vor arăta complet diferit. Enderle crede că, decât să dea banii pe o consolă separată, utilizatorii vor prefer să cumpere un dispozitiv de tip Smart TV care include şi un sistem de gaming.

Nu vom neglija nici tabletele şi smartphone-urile, care îşi vor îmbunătăţi considerabil opţiunile de gaming. „Sistemele analog nu vor mai prinde cu siguranţă sfârşitul acestei decade. Putem vedea de pe acum că Wii se străduieşte din greu să rămână pe piaţă, în timp ce PlayStation întâmpină dificultăţi”, spune Rob Enderle. Sistemul de jocuri al viitorului va fi cel care nu se va mai concentra doar pe jocurile video ci va oferi o mulţime de opţiuni de divertisment, cum ar fi internetul şi vizionarea de filme.

sursa: chip.ro

Baterii făcute să dureze

2011-12-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

Bateriile reîncărcabile şi-au dovedit utilitatea de-a lungul timpului. Cu toate acestea nu de puţine ori am fost în situaţia de a căuta un nou set de baterii deoarece cele luate de noi s-au descărcat.

Având în minte aceste considerente ar fi util să avem un set de baterii care să-şi păstreze starea de încărcare oricât de mult ar trebui. Astfel SANYO a dezvoltat bateriile „eneloop” ce pot păstra până la 70% din curent pentru o perioadă de 5 ani. Ele devin unele din cele mai bune baterii prezente în moment pe piaţă.

Totuşi să ai pe raft un set de baterii ce ţin până la 70% din încărcare de-a lungul a 5 ani nu pare atât de practic şi impresionant pentru consumator. Totuşi dacă privim cu atenţie vedem că implicaţiile pe termen scurt sunt imense.

O perioadă de 5 ani este mare indiferent de ce anume avem în minte. Totuşi dacă lăsăm bateriile deoparte 1 an ele vor pierde maxim 10% din curent. Continuând pe aceeaşi idee, pe termen scurt bateriile îşi vor menţine aproape 100% din starea de încărcare.

Pentru dispozitivele de siguranţă şi salvare faptul că bateriile SANYO eneloop pot reţine aproape tot curentul stocat pentru o perioadă mare de inactivitate înseamnă un grad crescut de încredere şi fiabilitate. De asemenea în cazul unor călătorii montane sau în zone unde nu există acces la electricitate, este utilă prezenţa unui pachet de baterii în care să ne încredem.

sursa: chip.ro

Cel mai mic model de cameră video

2011-12-23T06:33:00.000-08:00

Cel mai mic model de cameră video din lume este un titlu extrem de greu de câştigat dar poate şi mai greu de menţinut. În Germania, la Institutul Fraunhofer, a fost proiectată „cel mai mic model de cameră video din lume”, NanEye cu 62500 de pixeli pentru care senzorul propriu-zis a fost realizat de o companie portugheză specializată în producţia de senzori de imagine CMOS: Awaiba.

Camera video NanEye

Cu dimensiunile 1x1x1,5mm a fost cea mai mică cameră video construită pe un cip de siliciu. Desigur, proiectanţii au gândit-o pentru domeniul medical dar de îndată ce se va putea cumpăra de către oricine, nu va trece mult timp până când se vor găsi destui să o utilizeze pentru supraveghere video, „camera ascunsă” devenind un termen învechit, ea fiind bine mersi „la vedere” doar că-ţi trebuie privirea foarte ageră să o poţi şi vedea pe cea care te vede bine.

La puţin timp, cu o mică penalizare la calitatea imaginii, firma de instrumentar medical Medigus din Israel a pus la punct o altă: „cel mai mic model de cameră video din lume”. Dimensiunea senzorului folosit într-o astfel de cameră este de un pătrat cu latura de 0,66mm pe el formându-se o imagine de 45000 de pixeli suficienţi pentru o imagine cu 200x225 de puncte.

Camera video cu o grosime mai mică de un milimetru va putea fi folosită pentru diagnosticare medicală precisă prin proceduri non-invazive, greu de imaginat în urmă cu câţiva ani. O altă calitate este de remarcat în cazul acestui model: costul unei astfel de camere este destul de mic pentru a putea fi înglobată în aparatură de unică folosinţă, adică după o intervenţie medicală, camera nu va mai fi folosită pentru a ne privi pe dinăuntru…poate pe dinafară, dar nu se ştie de către cine şi unde. Deocamdată, dar mai bine nu, putem eventual să obţinem pentru albumul personal, o panoramă din vena cavă, un peisaj pietros din bilă, sau chiar o compoziţie din ventriculul drept .

sursa: chip.ro

Centrele de date se mută pe cercul polar

2011-12-23T06:30:00.000-08:00

Centrele de date sunt costisitoare datorită echipamentelor utilizate şi a faptului că trebuie găsită o metodă pentru a le menţine la temperatura adecvată. Acest lucru implică de cele mai multe ori utilizarea sistemelor de aer condiţionat. Mergând în direcţia eficientizării acestor centre de date, Facebook se orientează către Suedia. Acolo doreşte să-şi construiască un nou centru de date, decizia fiind influenţată mai mult de climatul acestei ţări decât de alte motive.

Noul centre de date al Facebook va fi construit în Luleå, în nordul Suediei. Fiind situată deasupra paralelei de 65 grade în această localitate climatul este similar celui din Siberia, Groenlanda şi mare parte din Alaska. Temperatura medie anuală din această zonă este de 1 grad Celsius. Vedem astfel că este cel mai potrivit mediu pentru a găzdui un centru de date. Datorită climei nu este necesară utilizarea unor enorme instalaţii de aer condiţionat pentru a menţine serverele la temperatura optimă. Se pot folosi ventilatoare care să introducă direct aerul din exterior ce este suficient de rece.

Acest loc a fost ales şi din cauza învecinării cu un râu important. Faptul că pe acesta se poate construi o hidrocentrală reprezintă încă un atu. Energia electrică necesară menţinerii în funcţiune a centrului de date ar proveni din surse regenerabile. Facebook arată în acest mod că-i pasă de mediul înconjurător şi de creşterea eficienţei echipamentelor.

În prezent comunicaţiile prin fibră optică fac să nu mai conteze distanţa dintre client şi server. Astfel plasarea tehnicii de calcul în zone precum cercul polar nu are de adus decât beneficii.

sursa: chip.ro

circuitele se vor putea repara singure

2011-12-23T06:04:00.001-08:00

Avansul tehnologic şi miniaturizarea ne aduce probleme la care nu ne-am fi gândit până acum. De exemplu: ce facem dacă din greşeală cipul pe care îl montăm a suferit şocuri mecanice, iar unul din contactele interne s-a desfăcut? Prima soluţie este să înlocuim cipul pentru că avem de-a face cu un cip defect. Totuşi o echipă de cercetători ne prezintă o soluţie ce permite repararea automată a cipurilor.

Au creat un compus ce permite repararea automată a materialelor. Este vorba de un nou strat ce se adaugă peste stratul conductor. În momentul în care apar fisuri sau micro-fisuri ce întrerup conductanţa, particulele din noul substrat se vor activa şi vor umple acea fisură restabilind conductibilitatea.

Noul compus a fost testat în condiţii de laborator. În teste s-a utilizat micro-capsule conţinând acel compus metalic de galium şi iridium. În cazul prezenţei unei fisuri s-a remarcat că odată spartă o astfel de capsulă, materialul poate umple golul şi restabili conductanţa în mai puţin de 1ms. De asemenea dispozitivele ce au suferit acest tratament şi-au menţinut proprietăţile pentru perioade de până la câteva luni.

Noua tehnologie va afecta toate domeniile pe care le cunoaştem, deoarece va permite crearea de echipamente şi sisteme a căror durată de viaţă se va extinde considerabil comparat cu echivalentul lor din prezent. Probabil se vor introduce în primă fază în zone precum industria aeronautică şi aerospaţială, unde defectarea unei piese poate duce la destabilizarea întregului sistem.

sursa: chip.ro

Dioda optica

2011-12-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

Se fac progrese rapide către dezvoltarea computerelor viitorului. Se lucrează la dezvoltarea cipurilor fotonice ce folosesc lumina pentru transferul de informaţie. Acum cercetătorii MIT reuşecs să dezlege acest puzzle prin folosirea unei tehnici ce permite crearea cipurilor fotonice având ca substrat siliciul, material ce intră în componenţa majorităţii electronicelor din ziua de azi. În multe sisteme de comunicaţie de mare viteză, datele sunt transmise utilizând fibra optică. Odată ajuns la destinaţie, informaţia este convertită din domeniul optic către cel electric, proces ce introduce pe de o parte timpi de întârziere dar şi costuri suplimentare în ceea ce privesc echipamentele. Noul dispozitiv ar elimina acei paşi necesari conversiei de nivel deoarece ar putea procesa în mod direct informaţia ce vine modulată pe unda luminoasă. Caroline Ross, unul din cercetătorii ce lucrează la acest proiect, spune că noul dispozitiv este o „diodă pentru lumină”. Este componenta analogă diodei electronice, ce permite trecerea curentului electric într-un singur sens.
Acest lucru este esenţial, pentru că dacă s-ar produce fenomenul de reflexie la receptor, aceste unde reflectate ar interfera cu unda directă perturbând semnalul, ceea ce ar însemna implicit scăderea calităţii transmisiei. Astfel o „diodă optică” ce permite trecerea luminii într-un singur sens aduce noi posibilităţi de dezvoltare al sistemelor optice. În prezent sunt pe piaţă sisteme ce se ocupă de rezolvarea acestei probleme, anume izolatoarele optice. Însă noul sistem permite integrarea pe un cip a tehnologiei.
Pentru a construi acest dispozitiv cercetătorii au avut de căutat un material ce este atât transparent cât şi magnetic, caracteristici rareori întâlnite în materiale. Totuşi au ajuns să folosească un compus denumit „garnet”. El este totuşi dificil de pus pe wafer-ul de siliciu folosit în fabricarea cipurilor. Totuşi procesul de fabricaţie a fost îndelung studiat încât în cele din urmă s-a reuşit depunerea unui strat subţire din acest material pe un wafer de siliciu. Rezultatul a fost că lumina poate traversa acest mediu într-un singur sens, iar lumina ce vine din sens opus este blocată. Tehnologia poate fi folosită pentru a creşte viteza de transfer a informaţiei. Spre deosebire de un conductor obişnuit ce poate purta un singur semnal electric la un moment de timp dat, un conductor optic poate purta multiple semnale fără a exista interferenţă între ele.

sursa: M.I.T, chip.ro

Memorii cu cipuri suprapuse

2011-12-21T08:44:00.001-08:00

Compania americană Micron a anunțat a început producția de memorii folosind o tehnologie verticală (de cipuri suprapuse) de la IBM. Aceasta va mări, conform companiei, viteza memoriei de 10-15 ori, în condițiile în care dimensiunile fizice ale acesteia vor fi mult mai mici. Tehnologia de la IBM se cheamă TSV (Through-silicon via) și ea permite, după cum îi sugerează numele, realizarea de contacte și legături verticale prin interiorul cipurilor, permițind astfel plasarea mai multor cipuri în suis-generis stive (de aici a și fost sugerată denumirea de tehnologie „3D” pentru cipuri). Astfel de stive sunt gestionate apoi de către un controller dedicat.
Pentru început memoria de tip HMC (Hybrid Memory Cube) va fi oferită către zonele high end ale pieței (servere, dispozitive de comunicații de mare viteză etc.) însă, cele două companii sunt de părere că ea își va face loc gradat și în produsele de consumer.

sursa: chip.ro

Trazistori mai performanti

2011-12-21T08:35:00.000-08:00

Consumul de energie al microprocesoarelor este o continuă problemă. În prezent există companii ce lucrează la dezvoltarea unui singur aspect: reducerea consumului de energie fără a reduce performanţele, ceea ce duce în mod direct la creşterea autonomiei dispozitivelor ce utilizează aceste cipuri. În ultimul comunicat de presă lansat de compania SuVolta ne anunţau că au reuşit reducerea cu 50% a consumului de energie al tranzistorilor ce ar putea fi utilizaţi în microprocesoarele generaţiei următoare. Dacă rezultate se dovedesc uimitoare, rămâne de văzut cum primesc producătorii această veste, sunt ei dispuşi să investească în noua tehnologie? Se ştie faptul că există tranzistori performanţi şi tranzistori de duzină. Ei bine din cauza celei de-a doua categorii este necesară menţinerea unei tensiuni ridicate pe linia de alimentare pentru a asigura o funcţionare optimă. Totuşi dacă renunţăm la utilizarea tranzistorilor neperformanţi am putea realiza o coborâre a nivelului de tensiune necesar funcţionării sistemului. Astfel dacă cipurile actuale funcţionează la o tensiune de 1V, cu noile componente această tensiune ar putea fi redusă până la 0,43V lucru deloc de neglijat.
Cu toate acesta tehnologia SuVolta nu excelează din punctul de vedere al echipamentelor utilizate, ci din al tehnologiei de fabricaţie. Concluzia acestei afirmaţii este că se poate crea acest tip de tranzistori utilizând liniile de asamblare existente deja în fabricile marilor producători, singura diferenţă fiind dată de metoda de construcţie. Practic se schimbă „reţeta”, ingredientele şi utilajele rămân aceleaşi.

sursa: chip.ro

O noua generatie de panouri fotovoltaice

2011-12-21T08:17:00.000-08:00

Oamenii de ştiinţă lucrează în continuare la dezvoltarea panourilor fotovoltaice. Momentan s-a reuşit creşterea eficienţei acestora ajungându-se până la un randament fotochimic mai mare de 100%. Pentru majoritatea cititorilor acest lucru va părea, evident, imposibil. Pentru ceilalţi, odată înţeles procesul de funcţionare, lucrurile stau altfel. Cercetători din cadrul laboratorului naţional de cercetare e energiei regenerabile din SUA au reuşit să obţină un randament fotochimic mult mai mare. Randamentul fotochimic face referire la numărul de electroni/secundă ce parcurg un circuit fotovoltaic, deîmpărţit la numărul de fotoni primiţi la intrarea sistemului. Au reuşit acest lucru utilizând celule fotovoltaice ce integrează multiple straturi fotoelectrice. Utilizând această construcţie, un singur foton poate produce mai mult decât o singură pereche „electron-gol” pentru un foton absorbit. Acest lucru poate fi realizat deoarece se utilizează mare parte din energia ce altfel ar fi pierdută sub formă de căldură. O astfel de celulă încorporează un strat conductor transparent anti-reflex, cu un strat de oxid de zinc, aur şi alte elemente. Conceptul nu este nou, unul din cercetătorii ce conduc acest proiect a publicat încă din 2001 un studiu în care prezenta funcţionarea unui astfel de sistem. Totuşi a durat mai bine de 10 ani până s-a obţinut un prototip funcţional. În viitor rămâne de văzut dacă sistemul va intra în producţia de serie şi dacă lumea va fi pregătită să-l adopte pe scară largă.

sursa: chip.ro

HISTORY OF TIMEKEEPING

2011-12-21T07:45:00.001-08:00

HISTORY OF TIMEKEEPING

Early timekeeping devices

Many ancient civilizations observed astronomical bodies, often the Sun and Moon, to determine times, dates, and seasons. Methods of sexagesimal timekeeping, now common in Western society, first originated nearly 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia and Egypt; a similar system was developed later in Mesoamerica. The first calendars may have been created during the last glacial period, by hunter-gatherers who employed tools such as sticks and bones to track the phases of the moon or the seasons. Stone circles, such as England's Stonehenge, were built in various parts of the world, especially in Prehistoric Europe, and are thought to have been used to time and predict seasonal and annual events such as equinoxes or solstices. As those megalithic civilizations left no recorded history, little is known of their calendars or timekeeping methods.

Sundials have their origin in shadow clocks, which were the first devices used for measuring the parts of a day. The oldest known shadow clock is from Egypt, and was made from green schist. Ancient Egyptian obelisks, constructed about 3500 BC, are also among the earliest shadow clocks.

Egyptian shadow clocks divided daytime into 10 parts, with an additional four "twilight hours" two in the morning, and two in the evening. One type of shadow clock consisted of a long stem with five variable marks and an elevated crossbar which cast a shadow over those marks. It was positioned eastward in the morning, and was turned west at noon.

Obelisks functioned in much the same manner: the shadow cast on the markers around it allowed the Egyptians to calculate the time. The obelisk also indicated whether it was morning or afternoon, as well as the summer and winter solstices. A third shadow clock, developed c. 1500 BC, was similar in shape to a bent T-square. It measured the passage of time by the shadow cast by its crossbar on a non-linear rule. The T was oriented eastward in the mornings, and turned around at noon, so that it could cast its shadow in the opposite direction.

Although accurate, shadow clocks relied on the sun, and so were useless at night and in cloudy weather. The Egyptians therefore developed a number of alternative timekeeping instruments, including water clocks, hourglasses, and a system for tracking star movements. The oldest description of a water clock is from the tomb inscription of the 16th-century BC Egyptian court official Amenemhet, identifying him as its inventor. There were several types of water clocks, some more elaborate than others. One type consisted of a bowl with small holes in its bottom, which was floated on water and allowed to fill at a near-constant rate; markings on the side of the bowl indicated elapsed time, as the surface of the water reached them. The oldest-known waterclock was found in the tomb of pharaoh Amenhotep I (1525–1504 BC), suggesting that they were first used in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians are also believed to be the inventors of the hourglass, which consisted of two vertically aligned glass chambers connected by a small opening. When the hourglass was turned over, grains of sand fell at a constant rate from one chamber to the other. Another Egyptian method of determining the time during the night was using plumb-lines called merkhets. In use since at least 600 BC, two of these instruments were aligned with Polaris, the north pole star, to create a north–south meridian. The time was accurately measured by observing certain stars as they crossed the line created with the merkhets.

Water clocks, or clepsydrae, were commonly used in Ancient Greece following their introduction by Plato, who also invented a water-based alarm clock. One account of Plato's alarm clock describes it as depending on the nightly overflow of a vessel containing lead balls, which floated in a columnar vat. The vat held a steadily increasing amount of water, supplied by a cistern. By morning, the vessel would have floated high enough to tip over, causing the lead balls to cascade onto a copper platter. The resultant clangor would then awaken Plato's students at the Academy. Another possibility is that it comprised two jars, connected by a siphon. Water emptied until it reached the siphon, which transported the water to the other jar. There, the rising water would force air through a whistle, sounding an alarm. The Greeks and Chaldeans regularly maintained timekeeping records as an essential part of their astronomical observations.

Greek astronomer, Andronicus of Cyrrhus, supervised the construction of the Tower of the Winds in Athens in the 1st century B.C.

In Greek tradition, clepsydrae were used in court; later, the Romans adopted this practice, as well. There are several mentions of this in historical records and literature of the era; for example, in Theaetetus, Plato says that "Those men, on the other hand, always speak in haste, for the flowing water urges them on". Another mention occurs in Lucius Apuleius': "The Clerk of the Court began bawling again, this time summoning the chief witness for the prosecution to appear. Up stepped an old man, whom I did not know. He was invited to speak for as long as there was water in the clock; this was a hollow globe into which water was poured through a funnel in the neck, and from which it gradually escaped through fine perforations at the base". The clock in Apuleius' account was one of several types of water clock used. Another consisted of a bowl with a hole in its centre, which was floated on water. Time was kept by observing how long the bowl took to fill with water.

Although clepsydrae were more useful than sundials they could be used indoors, during the night, and also when the sky was cloudy they were not as accurate; the Greeks, therefore, sought a way to improve their water clocks. Although still not as accurate as sundials, Greek water clocks became more accurate around 325 BC, and they were adapted to have a face with an hour hand, making the reading of the clock more precise and convenient. One of the more common problems in most types of clepsydrae was caused by water pressure: when the container holding the water was full, the increased pressure caused the water to flow more rapidly. This problem was addressed by Greek and Roman horologists beginning in 100 BC, and improvements continued to be made in the following centuries. To counteract the increased water flow, the clock's water containers usually bowls or jugs were given a conical shape; positioned with the wide end up, a greater amount of water had to flow out in order to drop the same distance as when the water was lower in the cone. Along with this improvement, clocks were constructed more elegantly in this period, with hours marked by gongs, doors opening to miniature figurines, bells, or moving mechanisms. There were some remaining problems, however, which were never solved, such as the effect of temperature. Water flows more slowly when cold, or may even freeze.

Although the Greeks and Romans did much to advance water clock technology, they still continued to use shadow clocks. The mathematician and astronomer Theodosius of Bithynia, for example, is said to have invented a universal sundial that was accurate anywhere on Earth, though little is known about it. Others wrote of the sundial in the mathematics and literature of the period. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, the Roman author of De Architectura, wrote on the mathematics of gnomons, or sundial blades. During the reign of Emperor Augustus, the Romans constructed the largest sundial ever built, the Solarium Augusti. Its gnomon was an obelisk from Heliopolis. Similarly, the obelisk from Campus Martius was used as the gnomon for Augustus' zodiacal sundial. Pliny the Elder records that the first sundial in Rome arrived in 264 BC, looted from Catania, Sicily; according to him, it gave the incorrect time until the markings and angle appropriate for Rome's latitude were used a century later.

Joseph Needham speculated that the introduction of the outflow clepsydra to China, perhaps from Mesopotamia, occurred as far back as the 2nd millennium BC, during the Shang Dynasty, and at the latest by the 1st millennium BC. By the beginning of the Han Dynasty, in 202 BC, the outflow clepsydra was gradually replaced by the inflow clepsydra, which featured an indicator rod on a float. To compensate for the falling pressure head in the reservoir, which slowed timekeeping as the vessel filled, Zhang Heng added an extra tank between the reservoir and the inflow vessel. Around 550 AD, Yin Gui was the first in China to write of the overflow or constant-level tank added to the series, which was later described in detail by the inventor Shen Kuo. Around 610, this design was trumped by two Sui Dynasty inventors, Geng Xun and Yuwen Kai, who were the first to create the balance clepsydra, with standard positions for the steelyard balance. Joseph Needham states that:

... [the balance clepsydra] permitted the seasonal adjustment of the pressure head in the compensating tank by having standard positions for the counterweight graduated on the beam, and hence it could control the rate of flow for different lengths of day and night. With this arrangement no overflow tank was required, and the two attendants were warned when the clepsydra needed refilling.

Between 270 BC and 500 AD, Hellenistic (Ctesibius, Hero of Alexandria, Archimedes) and Roman horologists and astronomers were developing more elaborate mechanized water clocks. The added complexity was aimed at regulating the flow and at providing fancier displays of the passage of time. For example, some water clocks rang bells and gongs, while others opened doors and windows to show figurines of people, or moved pointers, and dials. Some even displayed astrological models of the universe.

Some of the most elaborate water clocks were designed by Muslim engineers. In particular, the water clocks by Al-Jazari in 1206 are credited for going "well beyond anything" that had preceded them. In his treatise, he describes one of his water clocks, the elephant clock. The clock recorded the passage of temporal hours, which meant that the rate of flow had to be changed daily to match the uneven length of days throughout the year. To accomplish this, the clock had two tanks: the top tank was connected to the time indicating mechanisms and the bottom was connected to the flow control regulator. At daybreak the tap was opened and water flowed from the top tank to the bottom tank via a float regulator that maintained a constant pressure in the receiving tank.

It is not known specifically where and when candle clocks were first used; however, their earliest mention comes from a Chinese poem, written in 520 by You Jianfu. According to the poem, the graduated candle was a means of determining time at night. Similar candles were used in

Japan

until the early 10th century.

The candle clock most commonly mentioned and written of is attributed to King Alfred the Great. It consisted of six candles made from 72 pennyweights of wax, each 12 inches (30 cm) high, and of uniform thickness, marked every inch (2.5 cm). As these candles burned for about four hours, each mark represented 20 minutes. Once lit, the candles were placed in wooden framed glass boxes.

The most sophisticated candle clocks of their time were those of Al-Jazari in 1206. One of his candle clocks included a dial to display the time and, for the first time, employed a bayonet fitting, a fastening mechanism still used in modern times. Donald Routledge Hill described Al-Jazari's candle clocks as follows:

The candle, whose rate of burning was known, bore against the underside of the cap, and its wick passed through the hole. Wax collected in the indentation and could be removed periodically so that it did not interfere with steady burning. The bottom of the candle rested in a shallow dish that had a ring on its side connected through pulleys to a counterweight. As the candle burned away, the weight pushed it upward at a constant speed. The automata were operated from the dish at the bottom of the candle. No other candle clocks of this sophistication are known.

A variation on this theme were oil-lamp clocks. These early timekeeping devices consisted of a graduated glass reservoir to hold oil usually whale oil, which burned cleanly and evenly supplying the fuel for a built-in lamp. As the level in the reservoir dropped, it provided a rough measure of the passage of time.

In addition to water, mechanical, and candle clocks, incense clocks were used in the Far East, and were fashioned in several different forms. Incense clocks were first used in China around the 6th century; in Japan, one still exists in the Shōsōin, although its characters are not Chinese, but Devanagari. Due to their frequent use of Devanagari characters, suggestive of their use in Buddhist ceremonies, Edward H. Schafer speculated that incense clocks were invented in India. Although similar to the candle clock, incense clocks burned evenly and without a flame; therefore, they were more accurate and safer for indoor use.

Several types of incense clock have been found, the most common forms include the incense stick and incense seal. An incense stick clock was an incense stick with calibrations; most were elaborate, sometimes having threads, with weights attached, at even intervals. The weights would drop onto a platter or gong below, signifying that a certain amount of time had elapsed. Some incense clocks were held in elegant trays; open-bottomed trays were also used, to allow the weights to be used together with the decorative tray. Sticks of incense with different scents were also used, so that the hours were marked by a change in fragrance. The incense sticks could be straight or spiraled; the spiraled ones were longer, and were therefore intended for long periods of use, and often hung from the roofs of homes and temples.

In Japan, a geisha was paid for the number of senkodokei (incense sticks) that had been consumed while she was present, a practice which continued until 1924. Incense seal clocks were used for similar occasions and events as the stick clock; while religious purposes were of primary importance, these clocks were also popular at social gatherings, and were used by Chinese scholars and intellectuals. The seal was a wooden or stone disk with one or more grooves etched in it into which incense was placed. These clocks were common in China, but were produced in fewer numbers in Japan. To signal the passage of a specific amount of time, small pieces of fragrant woods, resins, or different scented incenses could be placed on the incense powder trails. Different powdered incense clocks used different formulations of incense, depending on how the clock was laid out. The length of the trail of incense, directly related to the size of the seal, was the primary factor in determining how long the clock would last; all burned for long periods of time, ranging between 12 hours and a month.

While early incense seals were made of wood or stone, the Chinese gradually introduced disks made of metal, most likely beginning during the Song dynasty. This allowed craftsmen to more easily create both large and small seals, as well as design and decorate them more aesthetically. Another advantage was the ability to vary the paths of the grooves, to allow for the changing length of the days in the year. As smaller seals became more readily available, the clocks grew in popularity among the Chinese, and were often given as gifts. Incense seal clocks are often sought by modern-day clock collectors; however, few remain that have not already been purchased or been placed on display at museums or temples.

The earliest instance of a liquid-driven escapement was described by the Greek engineer Philo of Byzantium (fl. 3rd century BC) in his technical treatise Pneumatics (chapter 31) where he likens the escapement mechanism of a washstand automaton with those as employed in (water) clocks.

Another early clock wich used escapements was built in Chang'an, by Tantric monk and mathematician, Yi Xing, and government official Liang Lingzan. An astronomical instrument that served as a clock, it was discussed in a contemporary text as follows:

It was made in the image of the round heavens and on it were shown the lunar mansions in their order, the equator and the degrees of the heavenly circumference. Water, flowing into scoops, turned a wheel automatically, rotating it one complete revolution in one day and night. Besides this, there were two rings fitted around the celestial sphere outside, having the sun and moon threaded on them, and these were made to move in circling orbit ... And they made a wooden casing the surface of which represented the horizon, since the instrument was half sunk in it. It permitted the exact determinations of the time of dawns and dusks, full and new moons, tarrying and hurrying. Moreover, there were two wooden jacks standing on the horizon surface, having one a bell and the other a drum in front of it, the bell being struck automatically to indicate the hours, and the drum being beaten automatically to indicate the quarters. All these motions were brought about by machinery within the casing, each depending on wheels and shafts, hooks, pins and interlocking rods, stopping devices and locks checking mutually.

Since Yi Xing's clock was a water clock, it was affected by temperature variations. That problem was solved in 976 by Zhang Sixun by replacing the water with mercury, which remains liquid down to −39 °C (−38 °F). Zhang implemented the changes into his clock tower, which was about 10 metres (33 ft) tall, with escapements to keep the clock turning and bells to signal every quarter-hour. Another noteworthy clock, the elaborate Cosmic Engine, was built by Su Song, in 1088. It was about the size of Zhang's tower, but had an automatically rotating armillary sphere also called a celestial globe from which the positions of the stars could be observed. It also featured five panels with mannequins ringing gongs or bells, and tablets showing the time of day, or other special times. Furthermore, it featured the first known endless power-transmitting chain drive in horology. Originally built in the capital of Kaifeng, it was dismantled by the Jin army and sent to the capital of Yanjing (now Beijing), where they were unable to put it back together. As a result, Su Song's son Su Xie was ordered to build a replica.

The clock towers built by Zhang Sixun and Su Song, in the 10th and 11th centuries, respectively, were also the first to incorporate a striking clock mechanism, the use of clock jacks to sound the hours. The earliest striking clock outside of China was the clock tower near the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, which struck once every hour. It was constructed by the Arab engineer al-Kaysarani in 1154.

The first geared clock was invented by the 11th-century Arab engineer Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi in Islamic Iberia; it was a water clock that employed both segmental and epicyclic gearing. Other monumental water clocks constructed by medieval Muslim engineers also employed complex gear trains and arrays of automata. Like the earlier Greeks and Chinese, Arab engineers at the time also developed a liquid-driven escapement mechanism which they employed in some of their water clocks. Heavy floats were used as weights and a constant-head system was used as an escapement mechanism, which was present in in the hydraulic controls they used to make heavy floats descend at a slow and steady rate.

A mercury clock, described in the Libros del saber de Astronomia, a Spanish work from 1277 consisting of translations and paraphrases of Arabic works, is sometimes quoted as evidence for Muslim knowledge of a mechanical clock. However, the device was actually a compartmented cylindrical water clock, which the Jewish author of the relevant section, Rabbi Isaac, constructed using principles described by a philosopher named "Iran", identified with Heron of Alexandria (fl. 1st century AD), on how heavy objects may be lifted.

Astrolabes were used as astronomical clocks by Muslim astronomers at mosques and observatories.

During the 11th century in the Song Dynasty, the Chinese astronomer, horologist and mechanical engineer Su Song created a water-driven astronomical clock for his clock tower of Kaifeng City. It incorporated an escapement mechanism as well as the earliest known endless power-transmitting chain drive, which drove the armillary sphere.

Contemporary Muslim astronomers also constructed a variety of highly accurate astronomical clocks for use in their mosques and observatories, such as the water-powered astronomical clock by Al-Jazari in 1206, and the astrolabic clock by Ibn al-Shatir in the early 14th century. The most sophisticated timekeeping astrolabes were the geared astrolabe mechanisms designed by Abū Rayhān Bīrūnī in the 11th century and by Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr in the 13th century. These devices functioned as timekeeping devices and also as calenders.

The most sophisticated water-powered astronomical clock was Al-Jazari's castle clock, considered to be an early example of a programmable analog computer, in 1206. It was a complex device that was about 11 feet high, and had multiple functions alongside timekeeping. It included a display of the zodiac and the solar and lunar orbits, and a pointer in the shape of the crescent moon which travelled across the top of a gateway, moved by a hidden cart and causing automatic doors to open, each revealing a mannequin, every hour. It was possible to re-program the length of day and night everyday in order to account for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year, and it also featured five robotic musicians who automatically play music when moved by levers operated by a hidden camshaft attached to a water wheel. Other components of the castle clock included a main reservoir with a float, a float chamber and flow regulator, plate and valve trough, two pulleys, crescent disc displaying the zodiac, and two falcon automata dropping balls into vases.

Modern devices

Sundials were further developed by Muslim astronomers. As the ancient dials were nodus-based with straight hour-lines, they indicated unequal hours also called temporary hours that varied with the seasons. Every day was divided into 12 equal segments regardless of the time of year; thus, hours were shorter in winter and longer in summer. The idea of using hours of equal length throughout the year was the innovation of Abu'l-Hasan Ibn al-Shatir in 1371, based on earlier developments in trigonometry by Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī (Albategni). Ibn al-Shatir was aware that "using a gnomon that is parallel to the Earth's axis will produce sundials whose hour lines indicate equal hours on any day of the year". His sundial is the oldest polar-axis sundial still in existence. The concept appeared in Western sundials starting in 1446.

Following the acceptance of heliocentrism and equal hours, as well as advances in trigonometry, sundials appeared in their present form during the Renaissance, when they were built in large numbers. In 1524, the French astronomer Oronce Finé constructed an ivory sundial, which still exists; later, in 1570, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Padovani published a treatise including instructions for the manufacture and laying out of mural (vertical) and horizontal sundials. Similarly, Giuseppe Biancani's Constructio instrumenti ad horologia solaria (c. 1620) discusses how to construct sundials. The Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan used 18 hourglasses on each ship during his circumnavigation of the globe in 1522. Since the hourglass was one of the few reliable methods of measuring time at sea, it is speculated that it had been used on board ships as far back as the 11th century, when it would have complemented the magnetic compass as an aid to navigation. However, the earliest evidence of their use appears in the painting Allegory of Good Government, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, from 1338. From the 15th century onwards, hourglasses were used in a wide range of applications at sea, in churches, in industry, and in cooking; they were the first dependable, reusable, reasonably accurate, and easily constructed time-measurement devices. The hourglass also took on symbolic meanings, such as that of death, temperance, opportunity, and Father Time, usually represented as a bearded, old man. Though also used in China, the hourglas's history there is unknown.

Clocks

Clocks encompass a wide spectrum of devices, ranging from wristwatches to the Clock of the Long Now. The English word clock is said to derive from the Middle English clokke, Old North French cloque, or Middle Dutch clocke, all of which mean bell, and are derived from the Medieval Latin clocca, also meaning bell. Indeed, bells were used to mark the passage of time; they marked the passage of the hours at sea and in abbeys.

Throughout history, clocks have had a variety of power sources, including gravity, springs, and electricity. The invention of mechanical clockwork itself is usually credited to the Chinese official Liang Lingzan and monk Yi Xing. However, mechanical clocks were not widely used in the West until the 14th century. Clocks were used in medieval monasteries to keep the regulated schedule of prayers. The clock continued to be improved, with the first pendulum clock being designed and built in the 17th century by Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch scientist.

Early Western mechanical clocks

The earliest medieval European clockmakers were Christian monks. Medieval religious institutions required clocks because daily prayer and work schedules were strictly regulated. This was done by various types of time-telling and recording devices, such as water clocks, sundials and marked candles, probably used in combination. When mechanical clocks were used, they were often wound at least twice a day to ensure accuracy. Important times and durations were broadcast by bells, rung either by hand or by a mechanical device, such as a falling weight or rotating beater.

The religious necessities and technical skill of the medieval monks were crucial factors in the development of clocks, as the historian Thomas Woods writes:

The monks also counted skillful clock-makers among them. The first recorded clock was built by the future Pope Sylvester II for the German town of Magdeburg, around the year 996. Much more sophisticated clocks were built by later monks. Peter Lightfoot, a 14th-century monk of Glastonbury, built one of the oldest clocks still in existence, which now sits in excellent condition in London's Science Museum.

Da Dondi's 1364 Padua clock

The appearance of clocks in writings of the 11th century implies that they were well-known in Europe in that period. In the early 14th century, the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri referred to a clock in his Paradiso; considered to be the first literary reference to a clock that struck the hours. The earliest detailed description of clockwork was presented by Giovanni da Dondi, Professor of Astronomy at Padua, in his 1364 treatise Il Tractatus Astrarii. This has inspired several modern replicas, including some in London's Science Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. Other notable examples from this period were built in Milan (1335), Strasbourg (1354), Lund (1380), Rouen (1389), and Prague (1462).

Salisbury cathedral clock, dating from about 1386, is the oldest working clock in the world, still with most of its original parts. It has no dial, as its purpose was to strike a bell at precise times. The wheels and gears are mounted in an open, box-like iron frame, measuring about 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) square. The framework is held together with metal dowels and pegs, and the escapement is the verge and foliot type, standard for clocks of this age. The power is supplied by two large stones, hanging from pulleys. As the weights fall, ropes unwind from the wooden barrels. One barrel drives the main wheel, which is regulated by the escapement, and the other drives the striking mechanism and the air brake.

Peter Lightfoot's Wells Cathedral clock, constructed c. 1390, is also of note. The dial represents a geocentric view of the universe, with the Sun and Moon revolving around a centrally fixed Earth. It is unique in having its original medieval face, showing a philosophical model of the pre-Copernican universe. Above the clock is a set of figures, which hit the bells, and a set of jousting knights who revolve around a track every 15 minutes. The clock was converted to pendulum and anchor escapement in the 17th century, and was installed in London's Science Museum in 1884, where it continues to operate. Similar astronomical clocks, or horologes, can be seen at Exeter, Ottery St Mary, and Wimborne Minster.

The face of the Prague Astronomical Clock (1462)

One clock that has not survived to the present-day is that of the Abbey of St Albans, built by the 14th-century abbot Richard of Wallingford. It may have been destroyed during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries, but the abbot's notes on its design have allowed a full-scale reconstruction. As well as keeping time, the astronomical clock could accurately predict lunar eclipses, and may have shown the Sun, Moon (age, phase, and node), stars and planets, as well as a wheel of fortune, and an indicator of the state of the tide at London Bridge. According to Thomas Woods, "a clock that equaled it in technological sophistication did not appear for at least two centuries". Giovanni de Dondi was another early mechanical clockmaker, whose clock did not survive, but has been replicated based on the designs. De Dondi's clock was a seven-faced construction with 107 moving parts, showing the positions of the Sun, Moon, and five planets, as well as religious feast days. Around this period, mechanical clocks were introduced into abbeys and monasteries to mark important events and times, gradually replacing water clocks which had served the same purpose.

During the Middle Ages, clocks were primarily used for religious purposes; the first employed for secular timekeeping emerged around the 15th century. In Dublin, the official measurement of time became a local custom, and by 1466 a public clock stood on top of the Tholsel (the city court and council chamber). It was probably the first of its kind in Ireland, and would only have had an hour hand. The increasing lavishness of castles led to the introduction of turret clocks. A 1435 example survives from Leeds castle; its face is decorated with the images of the Crucifixion of Jesus, Mary and St George.

Clock towers in Western Europe in the Middle Ages were also sometimes striking clocks. The most famous original still standing is possibly St Mark's Clock on the top of St Mark's Clocktower in St Mark's Square, Venice, assembled in 1493, by the clockmaker Gian Carlo Rainieri from Reggio Emilia. In 1497, Simone Campanato moulded the great bell that every definite time-lapse is beaten by two mechanical bronze statues (h. 2,60 m.) called Due Mori (Two Moors), handling a hammer. Possibly earlier (1490 by clockmaster Jan Růže also called Hanuš) is the Prague Astronomical Clock, that according to another source was assembled as early as 1410 by clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň and mathematician Jan Šindel. The allegorical parade of animated sculptures rings at h. 12.00 every day.

Early clock dials did not use minutes and seconds. A clock with a minutes dial is mentioned in a 1475 manuscript, and clocks indicating minutes and seconds existed in Germany in the 15th century. Timepieces which indicated minutes and seconds were occasionally made from this time on, but this was not common until the increase in accuracy made possible by the pendulum clock and, in watches, the spiral balance spring. The 16th-century astronomer Tycho Brahe used clocks with minutes and seconds to observe stellar positions.

The Ottoman engineer Taqi al-Din described a weight-driven clock with a verge-and-foliot escapement, a striking train of gears, an alarm, and a representation of the moon's phases in his book The Brightest Stars for the Construction of Mechanical Clocks (Al-Kawākib al-durriyya fī wadh' al-bankāmat al-dawriyya), written around 1565. Similarly to earlier 15th-century European mechanical alarm clocks, the alarm was set by placing a peg on the dial wheel at the appropriate time. The clock had three dials reading in hours, degrees and minutes. Taqi al-Din later constructed a clock for the Istanbul Observatory, where he used it to make observations of right ascensions, stating: “We constructed a mechanical clock with three dials which show the hours, the minutes, and the seconds. We divided each minute into five seconds.” This was an important innovation in 16th-century practical astronomy, as at the start of the century clocks were not accurate enough to be used for astronomical purposes.

An example of a watch which measured time in minutes was created by an Ottoman watchmaker, Meshur Sheyh Dede, in 1702.

Pendulum clocks

Innovations to the mechanical clock continued, with miniaturization leading to domestic clocks in the 15th century, and personal watches in the 16th. In the 1580s, the Italian polymath Galileo Galilei investigated the regular swing of the pendulum, and discovered that it could be used to regulate a clock. Although Galileo studied the pendulum as early as 1582, he never actually constructed a clock based on that design. The first pendulum clock was designed and built by Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, in 1656. Early versions erred by less than one minute per day, and later ones only by 10 seconds, very accurate for their time.

The Jesuits were another major contributor to the development of pendulum clocks in the 17th and 18th centuries, having had an "unusually keen appreciation of the importance of precision". In measuring an accurate one-second pendulum, for example, the Italian astronomer Father Giovanni Battista Riccioli persuaded nine fellow Jesuits "to count nearly 87,000 oscillations in a single day". They served a crucial role in spreading and testing the scientific ideas of the period, and collaborated with contemporary scientists, such as Huygens.

The modern longcase clock, also known as the grandfather clock, has its origins in the invention of the anchor escapement mechanism in about 1670. Before then, pendulum clocks had used the older verge escapement mechanism, which required very wide pendulum swings of about 100°. To avoid the need for a very large case, most clocks using the verge escapement had a short pendulum. The anchor mechanism, however, reduced the pendulum's necessary swing to between 4° to 6°, allowing clockmakers to use longer pendulums with consequently slower beats. These required less power to move, caused less friction and wear, and were more accurate than their shorter predecessors. Most longcase clocks use a pendulum about a metre (39 inches) long to the center of the bob, with each swing taking one second. This requirement for height, along with the need for a long drop space for the weights that power the clock, gave rise to the tall, narrow case.

In 1675, 18 years after inventing the pendulum clock, Huygens devised the spiral balance spring for the balance wheel of pocket watches, an improvement on the straight spring invented by English natural philosopher Robert Hooke. This resulted in a great advance in accuracy of pocket watches, from perhaps several hours per day to 10 minutes per day, similar to the effect of the pendulum upon mechanical clocks.

Clockmakers

A pocket watch.

The first professional clockmakers came from the guilds of locksmiths and jewellers. Clockmaking developed from a specialized craft into a mass production industry over many years. Paris and Blois were the early centers of clockmaking in

France

. French clockmakers such as Julien Le Roy, clockmaker of Versailles, were leaders in case design and ornamental clocks. Le Roy belonged to the fifth generation of a family of clockmakers, and was described by his contemporaries as "the most skillful clockmaker in France, possibly in Europe". He invented a special repeating mechanism which improved the precision of clocks and watches, a face that could be opened to view the inside clockwork, and made or supervised over 3,500 watches. The competition and scientific rivalry resulting from his discoveries further encouraged researchers to seek new methods of measuring time more accurately.

An antique pocket watch movement, from an 1891 encyclopedia.

Between 1794 and 1795, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, the French government briefly mandated decimal clocks, with a day divided into 10 hours of 100 minutes each. The astronomer and mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace, among other individuals, modified the dial of his pocket watch to decimal time. A clock in the Palais des Tuileries kept decimal time as late as 1801, but the cost of replacing all the nation's clocks prevented decimal clocks from becoming widespread. Because decimalized clocks only helped astronomers rather than ordinary citizens, it was one of the most unpopular changes associated with the metric system, and it was abandoned.

In Germany, Nuremberg and Augsburg were the early clockmaking centers, and the Black Forest came to specialize in wooden cuckoo clocks. The English became the predominant clockmakers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Switzerland established itself as a clockmaking center following the influx of Huguenot craftsmen, and in the 19th century, the Swiss industry "gained worldwide supremacy in high-quality machine-made watches". The leading firm of the day was Patek Philippe, founded by Antoni Patek of Warsaw and Adrien Philippe of Berne.

Wristwatches

In 1904, Alberto Santos-Dumont, an early aviator, asked his friend, a French watchmaker called Louis Cartier, to design a watch that could be useful during his flights. The wristwatch had already been invented by Patek Philippe, in 1868, but only as a "lady’s bracelet watch", intended as jewelry. As pocket watches were unsuitable, Louis Cartier created the Santos wristwatch, the first man's wristwatch and the first designed for practical use.

Wristwatches gained in popularity during World War I, when officers found them to be more convenient than pocket watches in battle. Also, because the pocket watch was mainly a middle class item, the enlisted men usually owned wristwatches, which they brought with them. Artillery and infantry officers depended on their watches as battles became more complicated and coordinated attacks became necessary. Wristwatches were found to be needed in the air as much as on the ground: military pilots found them more convenient than pocket watches for the same reasons as Santos-Dumont had. Eventually, army contractors manufactured watches en masse, for both infantry and pilots. In World War II, the A-11 was a popular watch among American airmen, with its simple black face and clear white numbers for easy readability.

Marine chronometers are clocks used at sea as time standards, to determine longitude by celestial navigation. They were first developed by Yorkshire carpenter John Harrison, who won the British government's Longitude Prize in 1759. Marine chronometers keep the time of a fixed location usually Greenwich Mean Time allowing seafarers to determine longitude by comparing the local high noon to the clock.

A chronometer is a portable timekeeper that meets certain precision standards. Initially, the term was used to refer to the marine chronometer, a timepiece used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. More recently, the term has also been applied to the chronometer watch, a wristwatch that meets certain precision standards set by the Swiss agency COSC. Over 1,000,000 "Officially Certified Chronometer" certificates, mostly for mechanical wrist-chronometers wristwatches with sprung balance oscillators, are delivered each year, after passing the COSC's most severe tests, and being singly identified by an officially recorded individual serial number. According to COSC, a chronometer is a high-precision watch, capable of displaying the seconds and housing a movement that has been tested over several days, in different positions, and at different temperatures, by an official, neutral body. To meet this requirement, each movement is individually tested for several consecutive days, in five positions, and at three temperatures. Any watch with the designation chronometer has a certified movement.

Quartz oscillators

Internal construction of a modern high performance HC-49 package quartz crystal.

The piezoelectric properties of crystalline quartz were discovered by Jacques and Pierre Curie in 1880. The first quartz crystal oscillator was built by Walter G. Cady in 1921, and in 1927 the first quartz clock was built by Warren Marrison and J. W. Horton at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Canada. The following decades saw the development of quartz clocks as precision time measurement devices in laboratory settings—the bulky and delicate counting electronics, built with vacuum tubes, limited their practical use elsewhere. In 1932, a quartz clock able to measure small weekly variations in the rotation rate of the Earth was developed. The National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) based the time standard of the United States on quartz clocks from late 1929 until the 1960s, when it changed to atomic clocks. In 1969, Seiko produced the world's first quartz wristwatch, the Astron. Their inherent accuracy and low cost of production has resulted in the subsequent proliferation of quartz clocks and watches.

A modern quartz watch and chronograph

Atomic clocks

A chip-scale atomic clock.

Atomic clocks are the most accurate timekeeping devices known to date. Accurate to within a few seconds over many thousands of years, they are used to calibrate other clocks and timekeeping instruments. The first atomic clock, invented in 1949, is on display at the Smithsonian Institution. It was based on the absorption line in the ammonia molecule, but most are now based on the spin property of the cesium atom.

The International System of Units standardised its unit of time, the second, on the properties of cesium in 1967. SI defines the second as 9,192,631,770 cycles of the radiation which corresponds to the transition between two electron spin energy levels of the ground state of the 133Cs atom. The cesium atomic clock, maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is accurate to 30 billionths of a second per year. Atomic clocks have employed other elements, such as hydrogen and rubidium vapor, offering greater stability in the case of hydrogen clocks and smaller size, lower power consumption, and thus lower cost (in the case of rubidium clocks).

Radio clocks

A radio clock is a clock that is synchronized by a time code bit stream transmitted by a radio transmitter connected to a time standard such as an atomic clock. Such a clock may be synchronized to the time sent by a single transmitter, such as many national or regional time transmitters, or may use multiple transmitters, like the Global Positioning System. Radio clocks and watches have been very popular in Europe since the late 1980s.

Global Positioning System

Artist Interpretation of GPS satellite, image courtesy of NASA.

The Global Positioning System (GPS), in coordination with the network time protocol, is a radio-navigation system used to synchronize timekeeping systems across the globe. GPS was developed by the US Department of Defense to provide constant, all-weather navigation capabilities for military ground, sea, and air forces. In 1983, following the shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 after it entered Soviet airspace, President Ronald Reagan issued a directive allowing the free commercial use of GPS, to prevent further navigational errors. GPS time is not corrected to match the rotation of the Earth, so it does not account for leap seconds or other corrections which are periodically applied to systems such as Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). GPS time was set to match UTC in 1980, but has since diverged because of the absence of corrections. GPS time therefore remains at a constant offset of 19 seconds from International Atomic Time (TAI). The on-board satellite clocks are periodically corrected to compensate for relativistic effects, and to keep them synchronized with ground clocks. The GPS navigation message includes the difference between GPS time and UTC, which is 14 seconds, as of 2007. Receivers subtract this offset from GPS time to calculate UTC and specific timezone values. In the United States, the Navstar GPS system is maintained by 24 satellites circling the Earth every twelve hours, travelling in 6 orbits; Russia operates a system known as GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System). In 2007, the European Union approved funding for the Galileo navigation system comprising 30 satellites scheduled to be operational by 2013. China has two orbiting satellites out of 35 planned for its Beidou navigation system.

Conclusions

For thousands of years, devices have been used to measure and keep track of time.

The current sexagesimal system of time measurement dates to approximately 2000 BC, in Sumer. The Ancient Egyptians divided the day into two 12-hour periods, and used large obelisks to track the movement of the Sun. They also developed water clocks, which were probably first used in the Precinct of Amun-Re, and later outside

Egypt

as well; they were employed frequently by the Ancient Greeks, who called them clepsydrae. The Shang Dynasty is believed to have used the outflow water clock around the same time; the clocks were introduced from Mesopotamia, possibly as early as 2000 BC. Other ancient timekeeping devices include the candle clock, used in China, Japan, England and Iraq; the timestick, widely used in India and Tibet, as well as some parts of Europe; and the hourglass, which functioned similarly to a water clock.

The earliest clocks relied on shadows cast by the sun, so they were not useful in cloudy weather or at night, and required recalibration as the seasons changed if the gnomon was not aligned with the Earth's axis. The first clock with an escapement mechanism, which transferred rotational energy into intermittent motions, dates back to 3rd century BC ancient Greece; Arabic engineers invented water clocks driven by gears and weights in the 11th century.

Mechanical clocks employing the verge escapement mechanism were invented in Europe at the turn of the 14th century, and became the standard timekeeping device until the spring-powered clock and pocket watch in the 16th century, followed by the pendulum clock in the 18th century. During the 20th century, quartz oscillators were invented, followed by atomic clocks. Although first used in laboratories, quartz oscillators were both easy to produce and accurate, leading to their use in wristwatches. Atomic clocks are far more accurate than any previous timekeeping device, and are used to calibrate other clocks and to calculate the proper time on Earth; a standardized civil system, Coordinated Universal Time, is based on atomic time.

BIBLIOGRAPHI:

WWW.CEASORNICAR.RO

WWW.WIKIPEDIA.COM

WWW.SOFTPEDIA.COM

2011-12-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

Evolutia tehnicii:
<><> <>

Semiconductor manufacturing processes
10 µm — 1971 3 µm — 1975 1.5 µm — 1982 1 µm — 1985 800 nm (.80 µm) — 1989 600 nm (.60 µm) — 1994 350 nm (.35 µm) — 1995 250 nm (.25 µm) — 1998 180 nm (.18 µm) — 1999 130 nm (.13 µm) — 2000 90 nm — 2002 65 nm — 2006 45 nm — 2008 32 nm — 2010 22 nm — 2011 16 nm — approx. 2013 11 nm — approx. 2015

Intel tranzistor pe 22 nm 3D

Intel a anunţat o inovaţie care revoluţionează industria electronică şi constituie un progress tehnic major în evoluţia tranzistorilor, baza microscopică a produselor electronice moderne. Pentru prima dată de la inventarea tranzistorului din siliciu, în urmă cu 50 de ani, compania va începe producţia în masă a tranzistorilor care folosesc o structură tridimensională!

Revoluţionarul tranzistor 3-D, numit Tri-Gate, a fost anunţat prima dată în 2002. Fabricat folosind tehnologia pe 22 nanometri, noul tranzistor va fi încorporat înprocesorul „Ivy Bridge”.

Tranzistorii tridimensionali Tri-Gate reprezintă un avans tehnologic foarte mare, comparativ cu structura anterioară bidimensională, care a fost folosită atât pentru toate computerele, telefonele mobile sau electronicele de larg consum.

„Inginerii şi oamenii de ştiinţă au reinventat tranzistorul, de această dată folosind cea de-a treia dimensiune. Cu ajutorul noilor tranzistori vom dezvolta noi produse inovatoare si uimitoare, ducând Legea lui Moore către noi domenii”, a declarat Paul Otellini, preşedinte şi CEO al Intel. “

Oamenii de ştiinţă au recunoscut importanţa structurii 3-D în susţinerea dinamicii Legii lui Moore. În timp ce dimensiunile produselor devin din ce în ce mai mici, legile fizicii împiedică avansul tehnologic. Esenţa anunţului de astăzi este abilitatea Intel de a începe producţia în masă a tranzistorilor, deschizând în acelaşi timp o nouă eră a Legii lui Moore, care va conduce la apariţia unei noi generaţii de inovaţii pentru un spectru larg de dispozitive.

Legea lui Moore a anticipat dinamica dezvoltării tehnologiei pe bază de siliciu. Legea susţine că la fiecare doi ani numărul de tranzistori care se poate amplasa pe un circuit integrat se dublează, iar performanţa creşte şi costurile scad. Legea lui Moore a devenit modelul de business de bază pentru industria semiconductorilor din ultimii 40 de ani.

Tranzistorii Intel 3-D Tri-Gate permit chip-urilor să funcţioneze la voltaj scăzut, cu mai puţine pierderi, dispunând de o performanţă îmbunătăţită şi eficienţă energetică, faţă de generaţiile anterioare.

Aceste capabilităţi oferă producătorilor de chip-uri flexibilitatea de a alege tranzistori creaţi pentru consum redus de energie şi eficienţă crescută, în funcţie de aplicaţii.

Tranzistorul 3-D Tri-Gate pe 22 nm oferă o perfomanţă crescută cu până la 37% şi un voltaj mai scăzut, comparativ cu versiunea anterioară pe 32 nm. Rata de creştere a performanţei se traduce prin faptul că noile produse vor putea fi integrate în dispozitive de mici dimensiuni, care vor consuma mai puţină energie. Noii tranzistori consumă mai puţin de jumătate din energia utilizată la aceeaşi perfomanţă de un tranzistor 2-D pe 32 nm.

„Performanţa crescută şi economia de energie asigurată de tranzistorii Intel 3-D Tri-Gate nu au termen de comparaţie” a declarat Mark Bohr, Intel Senior Fellow. „Această realizare a depăşit simpla aliniere la Legea lui Moore. Beneficiile voltajului şi al consumului de energie redus depăşesc cu mult progresul pe care îl vedem de la o generaţie la alta. Noile produse vor oferi producătorilor de aparate flexibilitatea de a produce echipamente mai inteligente şi mai inovatoare. Credem că această inovaţie va întări poziţia de lider tehnologic în industria semiconductorilor a Intel”, a completat Bohr.

Continuând dinamica inovaţiei – Legea lui Moore

Tranzistorii continuă să devină mai inteligenţi, mai ieftini şi mai eficienţi din punct de vedere energetic, în conformitate cu Legea lui Moore – numită după co-fondatorul Intel, Gordon Moore. Datorită acesteia, Intel a putut inova prin adăugarea de noi caracteristici şi nuclee pentru fiecare chip, crescând performanţa şi scăzând costurile de producţie ale tranzistorilor.

Susţinerea progresului Legii lui Moore devine şi mai complexă cu noua generaţie de tranzistori pe 22nm. Anticipând acest lucru, cercetătorii Intel au inventat în 2002 ceea ce ei numesc tranzistorul Tri-Gate (cu trei porţi)

Tranzistorii tridimensionali Tri-Gate reprezintă, practic, o reinventare a tranzistorului. Poarta tradițională "plată" bi-dimensională este înlocuită cu o nervură tridimensională de siliciu, incredibil de subţire, care se ridică vertical din substratul de siliciu.

Controlul curentului se realizează prin implementarea unei porți pe fiecare dintre cele trei laturi ale nervurii - două pe fiecare parte şi una în partea de sus – faţă de numai o poartă în partea de sus, cum este cazul tranzistorului 2-D.

Controlul adiţional permite o mai mare circulaţie a curentului atunci când tranzistorul funcţionează (pentru performanţă) şi aproape de zero atunci când tranzistorul nu e folosit (pentru minimizarea consumului de energie) şi permite tranzistorului să treacă foarte repede de la o stare la alta (pentru performanţă).

Structura tranzistorilor 3-D Tri-Gate oferă un nou mod de a gestiona densitatea.

Datorită faptului că nervurile din siliciu au o structură verticală, distanţa dintre tranzistori se micşorează, aceasta fiind o componentă esenţială pentru beneficiile tehnologice şi economice ale Legii lui Moore.

În viitor, cercetătorii vor putea eficientiza structura, crescând înălţimea nervurilor, pentru a obţine mai multă performanţă şi a câştiga eficienţă energetică.

Prima implementare a tranzistorului 3-D Tri-Gate pe 22nm

Primul tranzistor 3-D Tri-Gate va fi folosit în noul proces de producţie de chip-uri pe 22nm. În ceea ce priveşte dimensiunile tranzistorului, peste 6 milioane de tranzistori Tri-Gate pe 22 nm ar putea încăpea în spaţiul ocupat de punctul de la finele acestei propoziţii.

Noii tranzistori 3-D Tri-Gate vor fi folosiţi, pentru început, pentru gama de procesoare Intel Core cu numele de cod „Ivy Bridge”. Acestea sunt programate să intre în producţia de masă la sfârşitul anului.

Noua tehnologie revoluţionară va ajuta la crearea unor produse bazate pe procesoare Intel Atom cu performanţe mai crescute, care să îndeplinească obiectivele generale de putere, cost şi cerinţele de dimensiune cerute de nevoile pieţei.

surse: google, wikipedia, chip.ro