Researchers engineer a new material that can make computers 100 times more energy efficient

Image: Reuters

  05 Oct 2016 , 14:06

Researchers including one of Indian-origin have engineered a material that could lead to a new generation of computing devices, packing in more computing power while consuming nearly 100 times less energy thant today’s electronics require. “Electronics are the fastest-growing consumer of energy worldwide,” said one of the study authors, Ramamoorthy Ramesh from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US.

“Today, about five per cent of our total global energy consumption is spent on electronics, and that’s projected to grow to 40-50 percent by 2030 if we continue at the current pace and if there are no major advances in the field that lead to lower energy consumption,” Ramesh said. Known as a magnetoelectric multiferroic material, it combines electrical and magnetic properties at room temperature and relies on a phenomenon called “planar rumpling.”

The new material sandwiches together individual layers of atoms, producing a thin film with magnetic polarity that can be flipped from positive to negative or vice versa with small pulses of electricity.  In the future, device-makers could use this property to store the binary digits that underpin computing devices. “Before this work, there was only one other room-temperature multiferroic whose magnetic properties could be controlled by electricity,” said John Heron, Assistant Professor at University of Michigan who worked on the material with researchers at Cornell University.

“That electrical control is what excites electronics makers, so this is a huge step forward,” Heron noted. Room-temperature multiferroics are a hotly pursued goal in the electronics field because they require much less power to read and write data than today’s semiconductor-based devices.  In addition, their data doesn’t vanish when the power is shut off. Those properties could enable devices that require only brief pulses of electricity instead of the constant stream that’s needed for current electronics, using an estimated 100 times less energy. A paper on the work was published in the journal Nature.

IANS

Facebook’s ‘Secret Conversations’ brings end-to-end encryption to its one billion Messenger users

By tech2 News Staff /  05 Oct 2016 , 13:43

Facebook has completed the roll out of its ‘Secret Conversations’ feature to each and every one of its Messenger users. The feature was rolled out to beta users in July and started rolling out to regular users in September.

Facebook Messenger’s Secret Conversations feature enables end-to-end encryption for conversations between two devices. Setting this implementation of encryption apart from other methods used by the likes of WhatsApp and Allo is the fact that this encryption is opt-in and limited to two participating devices.

This means that users will need to explicitly enable Secret Conversations for every, well, secret conversation that you want to have. Encryption keys are stored on your device and the conversation is limited to the participating devices. In fact, any Secret Conversation will be unique to the participating devices. You can’t access it via a different device or via your browser.

A secret conversation will follow a black colour theme so as not to confuse it with a regular conversation.

The protocol used is the same one that’s used by Snowden’s favourite messaging app, Signal. It’s been developed by Open Whisper systems to be extremely secure, and it is. The system ensures absolute privacy between two devices and integrates a number of checks to ensure that conversations are secure.

The downside to Secret Conversations is that you can’t send gifs or video and are limited to stickers and images. You also can’t use this system for group conversations.

Opting in for encryption might seem like an odd move from a company that made end-to-end encryption the default mode of operation on its other messaging app, WhatsApp. However, TheNextWeb suggests that this move by Facebook is an attempt to bypass legal hassles. WhatsApp has gotten into trouble with various governments, including the Indian government, over this policy.

The embedded systems industry is set to expand because of increased usage of electronics

Image Credits: REUTERS

  05 Oct 2016 , 12:38

Terming the present times as the golden period of embedded systems programming, experts on Tuesday said the technology was at an inflection point due to increasing use in electronic products across industry verticals. “The Asia-Pacific embedded systems market size is projected to reach $81 billion in 2023 from $46 billion in 2014, while it is predicted to be $15 billion in India from $5 billion,” said UBM India Group Head Apporba Kumar at a conference on electronics and embedded systems here.

Noting that the Indian embedded systems community was on a growth path with a focus on creating an ecosystem, he said the industry, academia and the government were promoting ‘Made in India’ products across verticals such as automotive, defence, telecom and medical for global markets. “The game-plan is to establish aBrand India’ and make our country a go-to destination for global majors to manufacture electronic products in India,” said Kumar.

Embedded engineers and designers from across the country and the world over are participating in the three-day conference-cum-expo in which 100 embedded firms are showcasing their innovative solutions and products. “The whole society is dependent on embedded software and looks to embedded systems for solutions to the problems of our time, including environment protection, energy production and delivery, transportation, and healthcare,” said Digital Networking Director Rob Oshana.

With the Moore’s Law marching into its fifth decade, even hardware design is becoming more like software development. Largest chip maker Intel’s co-founder Gordon Moore predicted in 1965 that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits would double every year and continue into the foreseeable future.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the golden time of embedded systems programming is now,” reiterated Oshana. UBM India is an arm of UBM Asia, a leading organiser of technology conferences and exhibitions in China India and Malaysia to provide industry platforms for buyers and sellers the world over.

IANS

Julian Assange promises to release new material every week on Wikileaks, for next 10 weeks

Image Credit: Reuters

  05 Oct 2016 , 12:45

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced at a press conference on Tuesday that his platform will release new material in the coming months.

It is planned to publish new material every week in the next ten weeks, Xinhua news agency quoted Assange as saying in a live video broadcast to Berlin on the 10th birthday of WikiLeaks.

The new releases will cover the themes such as oil, weapons and corporations like Google, according to Assange.

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks also wants to publish new details for the US election, but left the exact date open. However, WikiLeaks is working on publishing the material before the election date on 8 November, said Assange.

The upcoming publications were “of significant importance for the elections”, the 45-year-old Australian said in response to a question whether the new information “will destroy the Democratic presidential candidate”.

With a view to the 10th anniversary of the founding of WikiLeaks, Assange emphasised that despite all the hostility of “powerful opponents”, the website is still well positioned.

“We have a strong position, we are debt-free and completely independent,” he said.

“The attacks only make us stronger,” Assange said, “We believe in what we do, and when we are put under pressure, we will fight back.”

WikiLeaks has published hundreds of thousands of secret documents over the past few years, including the US military’s actions in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The Australian, who has taken refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012, claimed that Sweden intends to hand him over to the United States, where he may face espionage charges for leaking thousands of secret US diplomatic cables and, if convicted, could be given a death penalty.

IANS

AMD announces 7th gen PRO series APUs for business needs

By tech2 News Staff /  05 Oct 2016 , 13:58

AMD has announced its 7th generation PRO series APUs which were formerly codenamed Bristol Ridge PRO. The PCs featuring the 7th gen PRO APUs are targetted at business users to deliver improved computing and graphics performance along with improved energy efficiency. HP and Lenovo are among the vendors who have product with these processors.

Some of the major features of the AMD PRO processors regarding business usage include

• Help ensure sensitive data and trusted applications remain secure with the dedicated and integrated AMD Secure Processor technology
• AMD PRO desktop processors provide 14 percent more compute and 22 percent more graphics performance while being 31 percent more energy efficient than 6th gen AMD PRO processors
• Open standards and CPU-agnostic DASH manageability to allow IT departments to easily integrate and manage systems

The new processor will be seen  inside the HP EliteDesk 705 G3 series desktops which come in small form factor and are prominently used by

Honda Accord Hybrid to arrive in India soon, will be initially imported

By tech2 News Staff /  05 Oct 2016 , 14:30

If reports are to be believed, then Honda might be planning to bring back the Accord to India in the coming few months. The premium sedan was discontinued back in 2013, but now the ninth-generation of the car could make its way with a hybrid engine.

The new Honda Accord will come with a 2.0-litre iVTEC engine, two electric motors, a lithium-ion battery pack and an electronic control unit to churn out 209 bhp. The two-motor hybrid system is a first in this segment. In this setup, one motor is used to accelerate from a dead stop, and the second one starts the engine and charges the first motor.

However, Honda officials have said initially the car will be imported on the basis of confirmed orders. The upcoming Honda Accord will come with a sporting a lean stance along with a chrome grille, re-designed bumpers, new head-lamps with an LED strip. The dash will feature push button start, multi-information display, dual-zone automatic climate control system, steering-mounted controls, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, reverse parking camera, six airbags, and more.

The Accord hybrid will be Honda’s first and only hybrid model in India and could sell with a price tag of Rs 30 lakh and should compete against the Toyota Camry Hybrid.

Strong chip sales in Q3 will help Samsung ease financial impact after Note 7 fiasco

Image: Reuters

  05 Oct 2016 , 14:42

Scarred by the global recall of its flagship smartphone, Samsung Electronics Co is set to report on Friday it still expects a small rise in third-quarter profit, analysts say, with healthy sales of memory chips and displays easing the pain. Lost sales and expenses tied to the recall of at least 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 handsets to fix battery problems could cost the firm nearly $5 billion this year, some analysts have said. That could sap momentum from a nascent recovery in Samsung’s mobile business, an underperformer in recent years.

But a pickup in the memory chip market, led by demand from rival smartphone maker Apple Inc, will buttress earnings, company watchers say. A Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate, derived from a survey of 20 analysts, tips overall July-September operating profit to have edged up 0.7 percent from a year earlier to 7.4 trillion won ($6.65 billion).

“So long as the operating profit number comes in at a low 7 trillion won level, the market will look at it and think some of noise surrounding the Note 7 recall issue has cleared,” said HDC Asset Management fund manager Park Jung-hoon. Analysts have lowered their expectations for Samsung’s mobile division since the Sept. 2 recall made global headlines. Some have cut their mobile division profit forecast by 1 trillion won or more to reflect the lost sales chipand costs of recalling a smartphone that had won rave reviews and made a strong sales start since its launch in Aug. 19.

Korea Investment analyst Jay Yoo forecast Samsung’s third-quarter mobile division operating profit at 2.6 trillion won, up from 2.4 trillion won a year earlier but down from 4.3 trillion won in April-June. But analysts say Samsung’s chips division – the firm is the world’s biggest memory chip maker – will soothe the Note 7 woes as other smartphone makers filled chip order books and drove prices higher ahead of the peak year-end shopping season. Analysts estimate the division could report quarterly operating profit of 3 trillion won or more – its highest in four quarters.

Analysts said the semiconductors uptrend was more pronounced for NAND memory chips – used for long-term data storage – as demand started to outpace supply during the quarter due to orders from Apple and Chinese smartphone makers. Demand for solid-state drive storage chips for mobile devices also grew. Samsung stands to benefit from the upswing – especially in the NAND market, where it dominates rivals such as Japan’s Toshiba Corp and U.S. firm Micron Technology Inc in the market for high-end 3D products such as enterprise servers and storage.

Samsung’s display business earnings also likely picked up some of the slack from the mobile division thanks to increasing adoption of its organic light-emitting diode displays (OLED) by rising Chinese smartphone makers such as OPPO and VIVO, analysts said. “While the Galaxy Note 7 recall is a painful blow, the third quarter will show that components including DRAM, NAND and displays did better than expected,” Dongbu Securities said in a report, tipping operating profit for the chips division to be at 3 trillion won.

Reuters