Hyperspectral Imaging at Imec

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Imec is working on a hyperspectral imaging module that enables fast, compact, and low-cost hyperspectral imaging. 

The target applications are machine vision, security, and medical devices. A hyperspectral camera forms a spectral fingerprint of objects. It does so by capturing light in many small wavelength bands.

Such a spectral fingerprint contains detailed information about the object, e.g. about the materials contained in it, or about its state. 

Hyperspectral cameras were first used in geology studies, e.g. to detect oil deposits. 

Today's setups for hyperspectral analysis are bulky, complex, and expensive machines for use in laboratories. But many "in the field" applications would profit from a lightweight, compact and robust camera. 

Think of cameras to inspect crops, or machines to sort food. And a microsized camera would enable a whole new class of applications. Imagine, for example, that you would have a small pen to check your skin for melanoma. 

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*by andreascy*

IBM First Racetrack Memory Chip Prototype using CMOS

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

Thanks to cloud computing and the rise of “Big Data,” the world is crying out for faster, cheaper, and more durable ways of storing data. IBM’s answer: If you wanna hold on to all these bits, send them flying.

IBM is cooking up a new type of memory chip that sends bits whizzing along tiny wires, dubbed racetracks. The technology has leaped into the realm of the realistically possible with Big Blue’s announcement today that it can make racetrack memory using standard chipmaking processes. 

IBM researchers have been working out the physics of the technology for years, and the company can now make racetrack memory in CMOS, just like today’s processors and memory chips. IBM is demonstrating a prototype racetrack chip at the IEEE 2011 International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C. this week.

The technology promises to improve storage capacity of disk drives and the speed of memory chips. You might call it flash memory on steroids. Also, racetrack memory can be rewritten many more times than today’s flash memory. The technology, or something like it, is likely to make solid-state drives the workhorses of data-center storage rather than just premium, high-performance alternatives to hard disk drives.

Racetrack memory works by storing oppositely oriented magnetic regions in microscopic wires. Oriented one way, a bit represents a 1. Oriented the other way, it represents a 0. The magnetic regions speed along the wires, which can be arranged vertically to fit more bits in a given area. The high speed of racetrack memory holds the promise of memory chips that are faster than today’s DRAM chips.

IBM’s prototype CMOS racetrack memory chip has only 256 cells. Racetrack memory chips will have to have many more and smaller wires than those in the prototype to be practical, but just building racetrack memory in chip form is a big step forward for the technology.

Racetrack memory isn’t the only game in town. IBM, Micron Technologies, and Samsung are among the companies working on phase-change memory. This PRAM stores data by switching microscopic regions of a memory chip between crystalline and glass-like states, which have different levels of electrical resistance.

Samsung is demonstrating an 8-gigabit phase-change memory device at the Electron Devices meeting. In June, IBM Research demonstrated the ability to store multiple bits in each cell in a phase-change memory device. The technology is more durable than today’s flash chips: Big Blue is aiming for memory that can withstand being rewritten 10 million times versus 30,000 times for today’s flash chips. IBM is also aiming for memory that is 100 times faster than flash.

Another promising candidate for replacing disk drives and memory chips with one technology is resistive RAM. RRAM stores data by changing the electrical resistance of the material in a memory cell. Low resistance represents “0” and high resistance “1”. In contrast, today’s flash memory stores dates as electrical charges. The absence of a charge represents a 0 and the presence of a charge a 1.

HP and Samsung are among the major players developing RRAM. In July, Samsung researchers developed a prototype RRAM chip that is as fast as DRAM and can withstand being rewritten a trillion times. HP is aiming to develop memory that is 10 times faster and 10 times more power efficient than flash and can hold twice the capacity of today’s flash chips.

Separately, IBM and Micron are demonstrating a jointly developed three-dimensional memory chip at the Electron Devices meeting.

The device is made by stacking memory chips and connecting the layers through vertical channels or “vias”. The technology promises to increase the density of memory storage in a given area by expanding capacity upward rather than outward, like skyscrapers versus suburban sprawl. Getting the most out of every square foot is of keen interest to data center operators. IBM will make the three-dimensional components and Micron will produce the finished memory devices.

All in all, it looks like we have more than one promising horse to bet on in the race to satisfy our insatiable appetite for storing data. 

*by andreascy*

Introducing Big Bang XPower II X79 Motherboard

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

MSI has unveiled its top of the range X79 motherboard on its Facebook page - the Big Bang XPower II - and it really is a feature packed board, but it looks like MSI's marketing team has run out of ideas. Why? Well, simply because MSI has borrowed heavily from Gigabyte's G1 series of motherboards when it comes to the heatsink design, which in this case is also very much gun inspired. 

MSI appears to have packed the board to the brim with features, in fact, it's so full that MSI had to go for an XL-ATX form factor. The Big Bang XPower II has no less than seven x16 PCI Express slots, although only two of them have 16 lanes worth of bandwidth, while the remaining five appear to be x8 slots. The labelling in this case is anything but clear, but Intel's new CPUs don't support enough PCI Express lanes for all the slots and we can see at least one set of switches on the board. There's also a set of dip switches that are labelled PCI-E CeaseFire which suggests that it's possible to manually disable at least some of the slots. 

Moving on we have 10 SATA ports, of which six are SATA 6Gbps as far as we can tell, although four of those ports should be from third party chips which aren't visible due to the rather large chipset heatsink. There are also two 90 degree angled connectors for four USB 3.0 ports, two pin headers for four USB 2.0 ports and one pin header for a FireWire port. We're disappointed to see the old NEC/Renesas USB 3.0 host controllers on this board, as they're not quite keeping up with the competition these days. 

Other bits of interest includes X-Fi MB2 audio, which we presume is software based, although a piece of metal is hiding the actual audio components, measurement points for Voltages, a POST 80 debug LED display, a power, OC Genie, Multi BIOS button and a pair of buttons labelled Direct OC. MSI has also added a pair of 8-pin 12V connectors and a 6-pin power connector in a really poor placement in front of a pair of the x16 PCI Express slots. Speaking of power, the board has a 24-phase VRM design, plus an additional four phases for the memory. We should commend MSI for only having 4-pin fan headers, although the location of some of them is pretty poor. 

Around the back we're looking at a PS/2 port, six USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, a FireWire port, a pair of Gigabit Ethernet jacks which appear to be utilizing two different Intel network controllers, 7.1-channel audio with optical and coaxial S/PDIF out and what appears to be a CMOS reset button. 

Then there's that thing about the heatsinks, people have already complained enough about Gigabyte's G1 series of motherboards, but apparently MSI didn't notice this and has come up with its own gun inspired design. The VRM area is cooled by what looks like a Gatling gun, or in more modern terms, a mini gun, whereas the chipset itself has been fitted with what we guess are supposed to be six rounds of ammunition, although they look more like crayons to us and the gold-ish color doesn't help in this case either. The chipset is connected via a flat heatpipe to a secondary heatsink which appears to be cooling little else, whereas the VRM heatsink is connected via a heatpipe to the Gatling gun. Not the most classy design and there's even a cut out in the Gatling gun to allow for access to the screw hole beneath it. 

As for pricing, well, we'd guess MSI will be charging a pretty penny for the Big Bang XPower II, as with all the components thrown in, it's not going to be cheap to make. It's clearly gunning for Asus and Gigabyte, although we think MSI has missed the mark a little bit and it's sad to see that they couldn't come up with their own ideas for the heatsinks. On the plus side, MSI went with passive cooling, all x16 PCI Express slots and eight DIMMs, something we're sure will appeal to plenty of potential buyers. 

It's a week to go until the launch, so all is likely to be revealed very soon. Stay tuned folks! :) 

*by andreascy*