"Chip diffusion modeling yields better maps"
Diffusion modeling similar to the technique used to design semiconductors has helped solve a long-standing problem in information display � the cartogram. The classic example of a cartogram is a U.S. map with the size of each state proportional to its population. Computerized rendering of cartograms was invented at the University of Michigan in the 1960s, but the technique has since languished because even the fastest computers take an inordinate amount of time to render a well-drawn cartogram using traditional algorithms. Using diffusion modeling, University of Michigan researcher Mark Newman solved the problem with almost instantaneous renderings of accurate, computerized cartograms. Cartograms are made by modeling how populations would migrate if they were evenly distributed. Most are hand- drawn to maintain proper proportions such as keeping cities in the right states.
Audio Interviews / Text: http://www.eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=21400115

"VIDEO: tracking software enters the game"
Segmentation and object recognition software used in video applications such as facial recognition in security cameras is being applied to sports programming. Researchers at the University of Calgary (Alberta) are investigating whether automatic recognition and tracking software can "watch" a sporting event for a viewer, keep track of who did what and when, then diagrammatically represent the highlights or even live action using icons instead of raw video. "Once we extract the moving objects in a scene, we can transform that data and present it in all sorts of formats. We can even make a little schematic of a sports game which is good for viewing on a small handheld device like a cellphone," said researcher Jeffrey Boyd.
Audio Interview / Text: http://www.eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=21100079

"ANTI-TERROR: Sticky sensor may keep troops out of harm's way"
Using sensor circuitry, a paintball gun and a "big glob of sticky polymer," undergraduate students at the University of Florida (Gainesville) have invented a device that may save the lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan whom agitators continue to ambush with roadside explosives. The students devised a projectile with an electronic sensor that can be shot at suspicious objects up to 65 feet away. The sensor sends back its analysis of the targeted object to soldiers using a 450-MHz wireless transmitter.
Audio Interviews / Text: http://eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=20900296

"CHIPS: Dopants stabilize materials at the nanoscale level"
Downsizing to the nanoscale theoretically endows materials with greater strength, enabling copper interconnects, for example, to remain reliable even when line widths shrink to the nanoscale. But critics predict that high temperatures during use might cause the nanometer-sized grains to merge back into micron-sized grains, thereby making the material more brittle and prone to failure. Now a University of Arkansas professor contends that his simulations foretell a day when nanoscale copper will be doped, just as silicon semiconductors are today, thereby stabilizing the metal and preventing it from becoming brittle at high temperatures.
Audio Interviews / Text: http://eet.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=20900050

"NANOTECH: Team exploits electromigration to build nanosystems"
Chip designers usually take pains to avoid electromigration, an effect that plagues metal layers, especially aluminum. But now, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have harnessed electromigration down carbon nanotube "pipelines" to deliver a constant stream of indium atoms to nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS).
Audio Interviews / Text: http://eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=20300802

"SUPERCOMPUTERS: U.S. targets fastest supercomputer"
Winning back the title of world's fastest supercomputer is the goal of a new $25 million contract awarded by the Energy Department to Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Center for Computational Science. The award, announced Wednesday (May 12) by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, seeks a sustained capacity of 50 trillion calculations per second (teraflops) and a peak capacity of over 250 teraflops. Japan's Earth Simulator holds the record at nearly 40 teraflops. Abraham said the National Leadership Computing Facility (NLCF) would be a five-year program that pools the partnership's computational resources to create the world's fastest supercomputer. Along with regaining the speed title, officials said weather prediction, biological protein folding as well as battlefield and nanoscale simulations could all benefit from faster supercomputers.
Audio Interviews / Text: http://eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=20300759

"QUANTUM: entanglement demo of quantum gate, computer could be next"
The world's first proof of concept for quantum entanglement within a semiconductor was reported recently by Albert Chang, an adjunct professor at Purdue University who recently moved to Duke University. Chang next plans to build the world's first quantum gate in an electronically controlled semiconductor device, enabling the creation of a key building block in quantum computation. "We were able to obtain the first direct evidence for spin entanglement in a coupled double-quantum-dot system," said Chang. "This is why we are so excited about this new result." Chang was a 12-year veteran of AT&T Bell Laboratories' Microstructure Physics Research Department before joining Purdue University. While a professor at Purdue University in 2001, Chang demonstrated a serial quantum-dot system and predicted he would demonstrate quantum entanglement in two to five years � a promise he fulfilled with his recent demonstration. Next, Chang predicts he will demonstrate the world's first electronically controlled semiconductor quantum gate within two years. This prediction is based on his new parallel configuration of two gallium arsenide quantum-dot transistors with a common source and drain.
Audio Interview / Text: http://eetimes.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=19900040

"NANOPARTICLES: in orderly arrays, serve thin-film role"
All the fuss over nanoparticles might lead one to assume they are routinely being used to prepare thin films. But insolubility and the clumping it causes thwarted early attempts to turn nanoparticle laboratory results into usable devices. Now, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico say they've perfected a commercially feasible way for orderly arrays of nanoparticles to self-assemble, each insulated from the others by silicon dioxide. The technique will not only enable new devices, the researchers said, but could also solve one of the longest-standing problems with nanoparticles: forming orderly connections between micro- and nanoscale.
Audio Interviews / Text: http://eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=19505576

"NANOTECH: self-assembled nanoparticles are insulated"
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico say they've perfected a commercially feasible way for orderly arrays of nanoparticles to self-assemble, each insulated from the others by silicon dioxide. The technique will not only enable new devices, the researchers said, but could also solve one of the longest-standing problems with nanoparticles: forming orderly connections between the microscale and the nanoscale. "We are showing engineers how to make use of the nanoparticles that physicists have only been able to measure in the lab," said Jeff Brinker, Sandia National Laboratories fellow as well as an engineering professor at the University of New Mexico. "With our self-assembly technique, you can stop nanoparticles from clumping plus they are insulated from each other with silicon dioxide."
Audio Interviews / Text: http://eetimes.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=19400281