Science & Technology

Intel’s Transistor Technology Breakthrough

In one of the biggest advancements in fundamental transistor design, Intel Corporation today revealed that it is using two dramatically new materials to build the insulating walls and switching gates of its 45 nanometer transistors. Hundreds of millions of these microscopic transistors — or switches — will be inside the next generation Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad and Xeon families of multi-core processors. The company also said it has five early-version products up and running — the first of fifteen 45nm processor products planned from Intel.

The transistor feat allows the company to continue delivering record-breaking PC, laptop and server processor speeds, while reducing the amount of electrical leakage from transistors that can hamper chip and PC design, size, power consumption, noise and costs. It also ensures Moore’s Law, a high-tech industry axiom that transistor counts double about every two years, thrives well into the next decade.

Silicon dioxide has been used to make the transistor gate dielectric for more than 40 years because of its manufacturability and ability to deliver continued transistor performance improvements as it has been made ever thinner. Intel has successfully shrunk the silicon dioxide gate dielectric to as little as 1.2nm thick — equal to five atomic layers — on our previous 65nm process technology, but the continued shrinking has led to increased current leakage through the gate dielectric, resulting in wasted electric current and unnecessary heat.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Windows Mobile blog, Intel, Processors, Tracy & Matt]

What is Super 3G?

I’ve been asked a few times lately ‘What is Super 3G?’ so here is a quick summary!

Super 3G is an upgrade to existing third-generation “FOMA” technology, which is derived from the globally dominant GSM wireless standard, though not identical to the 3G technology used by most GSM carriers, known as UMTS.

Super 3G will have speeds of roughly 100 megabits per second, making it about 260 times faster than existing 3G services.

High Speed OFDM Packet Access (HSOPA) is a proposed part of 3GPP’s Long Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for UMTS systems. HSOPA is also often referred to as Super 3G. If adopted, HSOPA succeeds HSDPA and HSUPA technologies specified in 3GPP releases 5 and 6. Unlike HSDPA or HSUPA, HSOPA is an entirely new air interface system, unrelated to and incompatible with W-CDMA.

Originally proposed by Nortel, HSOPA uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology to support up to 10 times as many users as W-CDMA based systems, with lower processing power required on each handset. Still in development, experimental performance is 37Mbps in the downlink over a 5MHz channel, close to the theoretical maximum of 40Mbps.

One carrier, DoCoMo of Japan, plans to launch new network based on HSOPA technology by 2010. The network upgrade will cost $1.7 billion USD or 1.3 billion euros!

HSOPA (Super 3G) competes directly with WiMAX technology and is said to be the one of the last 3G technologies before the launch of 4G.

See also “What is HSDPA“.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, HSDPA, Super 3G, mobile telephony]

Shuttle Struck by Lightning?

The launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which was due to lift off on Sunday 27th August, has been posponed until Monday at the earliest to allow more time for teams to assess ground and flight systems following a strong lighting strike to the lighting protection system at the launch pad on Friday afternoon.

If it is determined that all systems are go for a Monday launch, the weather presents only a 20 percent chance of “no go” according to U.S. Air Force First Lt. Kaleb Nordgren of the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

[Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, ISS, Space, Science, STS-115, Space Shuttle Atlantis]

Atlantis Crew arrive in Florida

[color=#6200aa]The Crew for STS-115 arrived at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida this afternoon ready for scheduled launch on Sunday 27 August at 4.30pm EDT (9.30pm BST).[/color]

[color=#6200aa]The offical countdown began at noon EDT at T -43 hours and will hopefully conclude at 4.30pm EDT Sunday with the sucessful launch of Atlantis. The Offical countdown includes build in hold times varying in length from 10 minutes upto 12 or more hours.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]NASA’s weather officer is currently predicting a 30% chance of the weather stopping the launch on Sunday – which is very good for Florida at this time of year as afternoon thunderstorms are the norm.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]Tracy[/color]

[Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, ISS, Space, Science, STS-115, Space Shuttle Atlantis]

Atlantis ready for STS-115

[color=#6200aa]At a press conference late Wednesday, following the two-day flight readiness review at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA’s senior managers announced an Aug. 27 launch date for mission STS-115, resuming construction of the International Space Station. Launch is slated for 4:30 p.m. EDT.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said, “This was another great review and I’m looking forward to a great launch.” [/color]

[color=#6200aa]The Shuttle Mission Management Team conducts the review two weeks prior to the opening of the launch window for each space shuttle mission. The group conducts a comprehensive evaluation of all activities and elements necessary for the safe and successful performance of shuttle mission operations — from the prelaunch phase through post-landing — including the readiness of the vehicle, flight crew and payloads.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]Tracy[/color]

[Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, ISS, Space, Science, STS-115, Space Shuttle Atlantis]

Atlantis on launch pad

After its overnight rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building, Space Shuttle Atlantis rests on the hard stand on Launch Pad 39B. The shuttle sits on top of the mobile launcher platform. The crawler, which transported it, is still underneath.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, ISS, Space, Science, STS-115, Space Shuttle Atlantis]

Atlantis rollout postponed

[color=#6200aa]The rollout to the launch pad of the Space Shuttle Atlantis has been postponed for a second time due to unfavourable weather conditions.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]The rollout is now schedule to start no earlier than Wednesday at 2am EDT.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]The launch window for this mission to resume construction of the International Space Station opens Aug. 27. During their 11 days in space, the astronauts will install the integrated P3/P4 truss segment with its two large solar arrays that will provide one-fourth of the total power generation capability of the completed station.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]Tracy[/color]

[Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, ISS, Space, Science, STS-115, Space Shuttle Atlantis]

Atlantis ready to move to Launch Pad

[color=#6200aa]Space Shuttle Atlantis has now been mounted on to her Solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank and it set to move to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Monday.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]Atlantis will make the 4 mile journey from the vehicle assembly building to the pad on top of crawler transporter and it will take approximately 6 hours. The shuttle’s planned move is scheduled to begin at 12.01am EDT (04.01 GMT) on Monday 31st July.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]Final preparation will then be carried out in preparation for launch of mission STS-115 due on 28th August. The mission will continue the construction of the International Space Station.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]Tracy[/color]

[Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, ISS, Space, Science, STS-115, Space Shuttle Atlantis]

Discovery takes 93 Hits

[color=#6200aa] After Discovery’s safe landing on Monday from mission STS-121, the Orbiter was towed to the Obiter Processing facility where it will be prepared for it’s next mission STS-116.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]Preliminary inspection of the heat shield has identified 93 hits with 11 being over one inch in size. During the post mission press conference it was said that Discovery’s heat shield was ‘One of the cleanest [in terms of tile damage] that they had ever seen’. 93 hits sounds like a lot to me. Does anyone have data for previous missions? [/color]

[color=#6200aa]Meanwhile Atlantis is still being prepared for its next mission STS-115 due for launch on 28 August 2006.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]Tracy[/color]

[Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Discovery, Discovery, Space, Science, STS-121, STS-115, STS-116, Space Shuttle Atlantis]

Orange SPV M3100

If you are looking for the M3100 review it’s HERE

During the MoDaCo Summer Event held at Orange offices last weekend I got a chance to get my hands on a nice new Orange M3100.

The M3100 is the latest in Orange’s SPV range of ‘signature’ devices. A number of other carriers will be providing the device (Codenamed Hermes by manufacturer HTC) but none have been as sexy as the Orange version.

I’ve used devices from the Smartphone and Pocket PC Mobile range since they first appeared back in 2001. This is the one device that I’m really excited about! It seems to have all the good bits of each of it’s predecessors. The design is similar to the K-Jam (HTC Wizard) devices with a keyboard design similar to that of the M5000 (HTC Universal).

Matt

Thanks to Sporkyguy for allowing the use of the excellent photos!

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes]