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Arabian Micro Devices

2:46 PM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

From The Inquirer:

AMD JUST CONFIRMED our story about spinning off its fabs. Since it was uttered by newly-fabbed CEO Dirk Meyer in an Austin American Statesman interview, it is going to be hard to spin.

Buried about halfway down the article, here, is the golden quote, “And Meyer says the company is just months away from a major restructuring that will spin the manufacturing operations off into a separate company, with new ownership.” If you have been paying attention, the likely suitor is from Abu Dhabi, but that may have changed.

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After constructing two Zumwalt class DD(X) stealth destroyers at $2.6 billion apiece, the Navy has scrapped its plan to build up the rest of its intended 313-ship fleet—turns out, the demand for a ship whose primary mission is to obliterate large land targets with guided artillery and Tomahawk missiles doesn’t suit the smaller-scale anti-terror missions most of the armed forces are currently faced with.

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Drunken Monkey Kung Fu

2:41 PM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

If you’ve ever been part of a crowd spilling out of a late-night bar, you’ll be familiar with scenes of drunk people staggering around, the arguments breaking out, not to mention the occasional violent brawl.

Now a model that mimics the movements of drunken crowds might help find ways to design streets so that they direct late-night revellers safely home to their beds rather than into the path of potential conflict.

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Almost Free Radeon HD3450

1:38 PM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Want to turbocharge your PC’s video performance? The Asus ATI Radeon HD3450 graphics card works magic on the cheap. Though an entry-level card, it comes with an HDMI output and other bells and whistles. It lists for $49 (already a steal), but NewBiiz has the (256MB) ATI Radeon HD3450 on sale for just $19 (after a $10 mail-in rebate).

(Newegg has the 512MB version of the card for $32.99 after MIR.)

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Nanotubes to the Rescue

1:36 PM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Flexible circuits are in demand for medical probes, aerospace instruments, military electronics, semiconductor research, and numerous other applications. Unlike the rigid circuits that are produced with glass plates or semiconductor wafers, circuits made on plastic sheets like polymide are lighter, have higher circuit density, and are often more robust. Commonly, polymers and small, organic molecules make up the semiconductor portion of these flexible integrated circuits.

These conventional materials are serviceable, but there is room for improvement in quite a few of their properties, including field-effect mobilities and transconductance. Single-walled carbon nanotubes are an appealing option for providing an upgrade in performance.

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It’s a Case of Left-hand, Right-hand at AMD

12:50 PM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

From Engadget:

Freshfaced AMD CEO Dirk Meyer hyped the firm’s upcoming Atom-challenging processor the other day, calling it “Bobcat,” and promising a November reveal. We’d think he’d be the guy to know, but now we’re hearing seemingly conflicting words from AMD’s Chief Marketing Officer, Nigel Dessau. Dessau says AMD is “watching… rather than playing” to see what becomes of the netbook segment.

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Stupid Is As Stupid Does

12:45 PM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

In the evolving manner of online ticket scalpers, people are snapping up dozens of Apple 3G iPhones — now sold out in most states — and selling them on the Web for prices hovering in the low four-figure range.

While some eBay auctions had reached pricetags above $1,000, most iPhone 3Gs listed early Wednesday were going for between $800 and $900 — far above the $200 and $300 retail price for the 8GB and 16GB model, respectively.

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“Voluntarily?”

12:26 PM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Mice that drink get the blues and lose brain cells when they go dry. Clyde Hodge of the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill and his colleagues found that mice who voluntarily drank moderate amounts of alcohol exhibited depression-like behavior when the alcohol was withdrawn. The team also noticed a drop in the number of brain cells in the hippocampus - a region linked to memory and mood. “The number of new neurons fell by 40 per cent, and that’s a lot,” says Hodge.

What do we have here, Irish mice drinking Irish Mist?

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“Shut the Heck Up!”

12:22 PM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

AT&T has developed a software trick that will let modern mobile handsets, including Apple Inc’s iPhone, recognize voice commands without the need for specialized voice recognition software.

The research project is based on a new version of AT&T’s WATSON speech recognition engine, dubbed Speech Mashups, that puts the entire feature on the web as a service that can be called upon from anywhere a high-speed Internet connection is possible.

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It’s Not Really a Game

12:21 PM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

It seems that gaming controllers are the hot target for patent lawsuits, and patent holders are finding litigation a sound strategy. After Sony lost its case against Immersion and, along with Microsoft, coughed up a hefty sum of money, as well as also licensing the technology for use in the Dual Shock 3 controller, the other sharks had to have smelled the blood in the water.

In August of last year a company called Anascape brought suit against Nintendo and Microsoft, claiming the companies violated an array of patents. While Microsoft settled the case for an undisclosed amount, Nintendo pressed on and the jury awarded Anascape $21 million in damages last year. The judge has now refused to grant Nintendo a new trial, threatening to halt sales of GameCube controllers, Wavebirds, and Wii Classic controllers until Nintendo puts the money in escrow or posts a bond.

Nintendo could blow its nose and come up with $21 million. What’s the judge worried about, the company will skip town?

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Let’s Get Wireless USB Working First?

12:18 PM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Sony, Samsung and other consumer-electronics heavyweights are uniting to support a technology that could send high-definition video signals wirelessly from a single set-top box to screens around the home.

The consortium announced Wednesday is an important development in the race to create a definitive way to replace tangles of video cables, but doesn’t end it - both Sony and Samsung also are supporting a competing technology.

Tie wraps will do that nicely…

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Is Jobs Off the Hook?

10:57 AM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Steve Jobs is reassuring some of his closest associates that rumors of his health are greatly exaggerated, but is telling those same people that he underwent a procedure this year related to his weight, the New York Times is reporting.

“[In] recent weeks, Mr. Jobs has reassured several people that he is doing well and that four years after a successful operation to treat a rare form of pancreatic cancer, he is cancer free,” the paper said. However, the Apple chief executive has reportedly admitted to some of those people that he had a surgical procedure earlier this year to address an issue that was causing him to lose weight.

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Get Over Yourself, MPAA

10:55 AM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Hollywood’s controversial request for a waiver on Selectable Output Control (SOC) has finished the first phase of its cycle. Monday was the last day for comments on the big studio’s petition for a lift of the Federal Communications Commission’s ban on SOC. About 20 prominent parties have filed on the issue. Not surprisingly, TV content streamers AT&T and DIRECTV stand out among supporters of the plan, but there are nay-sayers and skeptics too.

The petition comes from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which wants a waiver on that restriction in the case of high-definition movies broadcast prior to their release on DVD. SOC lets video distributors close down analog or digital output on broadcasts, which could be used to force HD downscaling to SD and/or block output to devices such as DVRs, an option that MPAA says will allow it to more securely distribute early-run studio films on TV.

The more you mess with TV, the more trouble you’re going to be in. I reserve the right to control not only what I watch but when I watch it –and that means being able to record anything that’s available on broadcast or cable TV. I will not accept less than that. No American should. We are not the criminals. They are a small group of miscreants and we all shouldn’t be punished for their misdeeds.

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Lightning Aint Cheap

10:33 AM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A new all-electric GT sports car was revealed by automaker Lightning Car at the British International Motor Show on Tuesday. The Electric Lightning GT is an all-electric car with no emissions that can accelerate to speeds “over 130 mph,” according to company specs.

The guilt-free sports car is poised to be a competitor to Tesla Motors’ 135 mph-riding Tesla Roadster, which began production in mid-July in the United States.

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Today in History: Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

8:53 AM Wednesday, July 23, 2008

1956: A Bell X-2 rocket plane sets the record for fastest speed by an aircraft, reaching Mach 2.87, or more than 1,900 mph, 60,000 feet above the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

The X-2 Starbuster, an experimental plane built by Bell Aircraft to test stability and control at supersonic speeds, made its debut in June 1952. Two were built, but only one became operational: The other was lost in a captive-flight explosion that killed its pilot in 1953.

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Arabian Micro Devices

We’re Losing Tech

Drunken Monkey Kung Fu

Almost Free Radeon HD3450

Nanotubes to the Rescue

It’s a Case of Left-hand, Right-hand at AMD

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

“Voluntarily?”

“Shut the Heck Up!”

It’s Not Really a Game

Let’s Get Wireless USB Working First?

Is Jobs Off the Hook?

Get Over Yourself, MPAA

Lightning Aint Cheap

Today in History: Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

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