#CHIPS: "Intel Courts Green Datacenters"

Intel’s first server processor designed exclusively for the "green" datacenters of the future features eight cores per chip, a supercomputer-on-a-chip architecture, and novel new turbo- and energy efficiency-modes.



With Facebook, Google, Apple, and IBM all touting their efforts to lower power consumption in the datacenter, Intel made special efforts to optimize its latest server processor, the Xeon E5, claiming a 70 percent boost in performance for the same power consumption. That translates to a 40 percent datacenter space reduction for the same number of connected users.

Intel's new Xeon E5 incorporates a number of innovations, which together achieve higher performance at the same energy consumption, but with a much smaller footprint in processors-per-rack in the datacenter. Citing forecasts of 15 billion connected devices for over three billion users by 2015, Intel's Xeon E5 was specifically designed to match the 33 percent growth rate for IP traffic and three-times boost in throughput to 4.8 zetabytes (trillion gigabytes or 4-Gbytes per person per day).

Intel's newest Xeon E5-2680 processor offers a 70 percent improvement in performance for the same power consumption.
To meet this demand for at least a three times increase in the number of datacenter servers over the next three years, Intel's Xeon E5 incorporates a raft of innovations including integrated Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe 3.0) for three-times more input-output (I/O) throughput, plus datacenter software support that allows 23 energy-efficiency parameters to be adjusted with its Node- and DataCenter-Manager.

Intel's innovations are not confined to energy efficiency, however, but also include a revamped "turbo" mode that trades off increased power consumption for higher performance. Under the control of the Node- and DataCenter-Manager software suites, one of the Xeon E5 eight cores can be switched into turbo mode where a boosted voltage and clock-rate increases performance for time-critical algorithms. To keep energy consumption in check, the increased energy consumption of the turbo core is compensated for by lowering the voltage and clock rate of the other seven cores on the E5.

The Xeon E5 also features enhanced vector processing for analytics and other compute-intensive tasks as well as improved hyper-threading and virtualization capabilities for dynamic infrastructure tuning, as well as LAN-on-motherboard technology for integrated support for 10Gbit Ethernet.

Security got a boost too by the Xeon E5's Advanced Encryption Standard New Instruction that speeds encryption and decryption tasks for both transactions and applications using Intel's Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) which automatically validates users accessing datacenter resources.

Server manufacturers already committed to releasing systems using the Xeon E5 include Acer, Appro, Asus, Bull, Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, Huawei, IBM, Inspur, Lenovo, NEC, Oracle, Quanta, SGI, Sugon, Supermicro and Unisys.

#MEDICAL: "Personal DNA Testing Made Easy"

University of Illinois chemists coupled functional DNA sensors and glucose meters for fast, easy, portable detection of drugs, toxins, disease markers and other molecules in blood, water or food.



Today DNA tests are performed in the laboratory to detect all sorts of toxins, diseases, drugs and other substances-of-interest. However, chemists now want to allow unskilled personnel to perform those tests at home, potentially enabling anybody to identify which flu-virus, bacterial infection or drug is in their bloodstream.

Personal glucose meters are routinely used by millions of diabetics today who take a small sample of blood from which the meter counts the number of glucose molecules. University of Illinois chemists maintain that by adding a testing liquid that is known to bind to the pathogen DNA, the glucose meter can be persuaded to count the number of pathogen molecules present in the blood, serum, water, or food sample.

As a home DNA detector, the ubiquitous glucose meter could become a general purpose detector that not only determines which type of virus or bacteria is in your bodily fluids or foods, but also quantifies the seriousness of the infection by revealing how much is present.

The device is the brainchild of chemistry professor Yi Lu, and postdoctoral researcher Yu Xiang, both at the University of Ill. The group proposes creating a whole array of low-cost test kits for use by the public for the early diagnosis of diseases, infections, and contaminants in foods. The technique could be especially useful in remote areas without local laboratory facilities, and will also be much less expensive than standard lab tests.

The system works by placing a sample of blood, serum, water, or food into a sugar-water solution of sucrose combined with the binding substance for a specific test--say for flu virus or food bacteria. If the virus or bacteria is present in the sample, then it will bind causing the sucrose to be converted into glucose.

The binding substance is itself a fragment of DNA that matches the virus or bacteria being detected, but with the addition of an enzyme (called invertase) which converts the sucrose in the solution into glucose. Because the amount of glucose converted is in exact proportion to the level of contamination, the glucose meter becomes a quantitative DNA detector capable of measuring the seriousness of an infection.

To prove the concept, the researchers detected the hepatitis virus is the blood of known carriers, giving almost instant measurements that were as accurate as laboratory tests that take a day more to perform at a much higher cost.
Funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

#MEMS: "Motion Control Vaults Augmented Reality"

Augmented reality (AR) dazzled consumers at the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC 2012, Feb. 27-Mar.1, Barcelona) where splashy "x-ray-glasses" revealed hidden content. However, new behind-the-scenes motion-processing developments promised that there is much more to come.



Motion processing abounded at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2012, Feb. 27-Mar.1, Barcelona), with novel new apps reaching beyond augmented reality (AR) to harness the untapped potential of today's smartphone's and tablet's micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS).

AR uses MEMS-provided location and orientation data to overlay tactical information atop camera views of the real world. The technology can be used to display user-posted reviews outside restaurants, to 3D games that pop-up from 2D boards, to revealing hidden content in newspapers and magazines. For instance, Qualcomm's software development kit (SDK) dubbed Vuforia at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2012, Jan. 10-13, Las Vegas, Nev.), was responsible for numerous AR demos at the recent MWC. Even Google chairman Eric Schmidt touted AR in his keynote, although he did not reveal any more details about Google's X Glasses which are rumored to provide a heads-up AR display inside a pair of spectacles.

Novel AR demo developed with Qualcomm's Augmented Reality SDK by independent gaming developer Sahar Fikouhi reveals 3D objects hovering above an iPad's screen when scanning it with an iPhone's camera.

Developers, however, are already moving beyond AR with newer SDKs aimed at pioneering new markets for MEMS-enabled motion-processing algorithms.

For instance, motion processing IP developer, Movea SA showed the industry's first motion processing IP cores designed exclusively for mobile devices at the MWC. Movea's MotionCore family consists of SmartMotion algorithms married to microchip accelerators that fuse the sensor data from the MEMS sensors in smartphones and tablets (namely, accelerometers to sense tilt, gyroscopes to sense rotation, magnetometers to sense location, and altimeters to sense height).

Movea's SmartMotion algorithms already enable those smart TV remote controls that allow point-and-click Internet surfing, but its MotionCore IP will enable a new breed of motion-processing-unit similar to graphics-processing-units, potentially pioneering a whole new category of co-processor dedicated to motion algorithms for AR, activity monitoring, and gesture-based controllers.

Likewise, the world's foremost MEMS chip maker, STMicroelectronics, announced its own sensor-fusion suite at MWC--called SiRFusion--which it demoed in its booth running on a mobile device by Cambridge Silicon Radio. Using SiRFusion, CSR's inertial navigation unit was able to track the position and orientation of users inside buildings, for location-based services that work indoors. ST and CSR are currently hawking their motion-processing technologies to smartphone and tablet vendors for applications like museum auto-tours which use AR to explain exhibits.

Freescale Semiconductor was also showcasing how its i.MX processors and Xtrinsic MEMS sensors work with its free eCompass sensor-fusion software. At MWC Freescale demonstrated AR applications including a Virtual Nurse (who coached patients on drug dosage when aimed at their pill bottles), a Virtual Teardown (that revealed the innards of an i.MX-based tablet) and a Virtual Interactive Showroom (which displayed hidden product information).

#ALGORITHMS: "Mobile Apps Driving Global Services"

As mobile apps proliferate wildly, savvy enterprises are crafting strategies for satisfying their customers' needs to stay connected and conduct business using smartphones, tablets, and other handheld devices.



Mobile apps are quickly becoming the primary manner by which consumers interact with the Internet. In fact, there will be more mobile devices than people on Earth by the end of 2012, according to a recent Cisco report entitled Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast.

As a result, enterprises worldwide are quickly gearing-up to offer their workforce and customers access to all their products and services from the convenience of their mobile devices. In fact, enterprise mobility services has almost overnight become one of the fastest growing IT market segments, growing to nearly a $17 billion market by 2015, according to the recent Forester Research report.

Nestle's used Capgemini's professional technology services company, Sogeti, to create a free app that keeps its customers abreast of its news, announcements, presentations, and events.

While many enterprises are hiring mobile IT staff to roll-their-own apps and analytics, an increasing number of CIOs are choosing to outsource their entire mobility solution efforts to professional organizations specializing in providing not only the apps, but also the infrastructure and cloud computing resources necessary to mobilize their user base. For instance, Capgemini and its professional technology arm Sogeti have just announced a new Mobile Solutions Global Service Line.

"We are creating an across-the-board service line which consolidates all our worldwide efforts, pooling our global know-how to support each vertical market with either on-premises or with cloud-based resources," said Fernando Alvarez, Mobile Solutions Global Service Line Leader, Capgemini.

Capgemini is already a $12 billion consulting, outsourcing, and technology services supplier, with high-caliber mobility customers like Nestles and Coca Cola, but the newest incarnation of its Enterprise Mobility Orchestrator platform aims to bring mobility-as-a-service to medium and small enterprises too, offering both app development and the cloud-based delivery mechanisms to support them.

"We typically host the apps we develop for our customers on our cloud-based service centers, while they test the waters," said Alvarez. "Then when they decide they like our app, we offer to bring delivery mechanisms on-premises or to continue hosting them on our cloud computers for a monthly fee."

Focusing on centralizing support for mobility apps that untethers the enterprise workforce and its customers, Capgemini will also maintain country-by-country "Centers of Excellence" that focus on the idiosyncratic needs of each region.

#CHIPS: "Intel rolls first processor optimized for datacenters"

Intel Corp. says it has designed its first processor built from the ground up for the "green" datacenters of the future, claiming a 70 percent increase in performance for the same energy consumption.


The new E5-2600 also features a high-speed bi-directional ring encircling its up to eight cores per socket connecting up to 20 Mbytes of cache, quad DDR3 memory controllers and 40-lanes of PCI-Express 3 for input/output (I/O).
Further Reading: http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4237522/-Intel-rolls-first-processor-optimized-for-datacenters

#MARKETS: "China Plans Increased R&D Spending"

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) recently delineated a five-year plan targeting research and development (R&D) budget levels that rival developed nations, boosting its investment in innovation while sustaining its lead in low-cost manufacturing.



The Chinese government aims to move its technology prowess beyond low-cost manufacturing toward innovative R&D, especially in emerging sectors, by partnering with foreigners. This could present unprecedented opportunities for U.S., European, and Asian enterprises.

Last year the Chinese government widely missed its R&D target to rival developed nations with an R&D budget at least three percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), but the latest Chinese Five-Year Plan aims to remedy that shortfall by targeting emerging technologies with a new strategy that seeks to leverage foreign partnerships to spawn Chinese innovation.

China's new five-year plan targets 22 urban development areas where it hopes to promote increased R&D spending.
"The R&D expenditure goal of three percent of the GDP was set up by the Chinese government as a target," said Richard Jun Li, China research director at Lux Research. "But in 2010, the R&D expenditure in China was around $110 billion, which accounted for only 1.76 percent of the Chinese GDP of $6.218 trillion."

According to the biennial report Science and Engineering Indicators 2012 produced by the National Science Board of the US National Science Foundation, the U.S. still leads the world with R&D spending at about 31 percent of the global $1.25 trillion budget, or about $388 billion, rivaling the combined R&D spending of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

China's newest effort to boost its R&D spending to U.S. levels, however, ditches its long-held domestic-market protectionism in favor of partnering opportunities with U.S., European, and other Asian enterprises that increase Chinese innovation prospects. In particular, China's latest five-year plan targets emerging technologies as the focus of its partnering opportunities for foreign enterprises, earmarking a 159 percent increase in R&D for eight emerging technologies sectors, or $18 billion.

"[Chinese] government research funding is being planned by the central government in a few emerging technology domains, namely Biotechnology, Advanced Agriculture, New Materials, New Energy, Environmental Technology, Smart Grid, Electric Vehicles, and Traditional Chinese Medicine," said Li.

In its report entitled Profiting from Predictable Policy: Interpreting China's 12th Five Year Plan for Emerging Technology, Lux Research details the new opportunities afforded China's new emphasis on partnering.

The official five-year plan details that 48 percent of its $18 billion boost will go to environmental technologies, 32 percent for new energy projects, and 12 percent for smart grid development. However, Lux Research has identified 34 subcategories that present unprecedented business opportunities for foreign partnerships.

#ALGORITHMS: "IBM Heralds 2001st Smart City in China"

No one is counting, but China's quick-growing Zhenjiang could be the 2001st smart city to take advantage of centralized monitoring and real-time analytics that anticipate traffic jams before they happen.


Dashboards in IBM's Intelligent Operations Center monitor city services providing operational insight and centralized intelligence capable of optimizing efficiencies and improving planning.

As more and more people flock to urban centers worldwide, 2000 of them have already met the challenge by switching to smart monitoring and real-time analytics that optimizes public transportation and roadway management. China's Zhenjiang being the latest addition to this list of smart cities worldwide makes it symbolically the 2001st.

"Working with forward looking cities like Zhenjiang, and 2000 other smarter cities projects around the world, IBM is able to help make cities smart," said an IBM spokesperson in a recent video entitled IBM Helps Zhenjiang Build a Smarter City.



Regardless of the exact number of cities involved, over $36 billion is slated to be spent on smart city infrastructure projects over the next decade, according to Pike Research, with China representing the largest single market.

"By integrating technology and intelligence into the physical transportation infrastructure, cities can improve capacity, enhance the traveler experience, and make transportation systems more efficient, safe, and sustainable for future growth," said Gerry Mooney, General Manager of Smarter Cities at IBM.

The heart of Zhenjiang's smarter city efforts will be the installation IBM's Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) which will use sensors installed at the city's 400 transit centers and 1000 public vehicles to analyze traffic patterns, obtain and disseminate real-time traffic updates, and anticipate traffic flow disruptions before they become a problem.

Together with the government of Zhenjiang, IBM hopes to improve the city’s transportation system, as well as "support the government's effort of building a harmonious society, and accelerate the economic growth and transformation of this vibrant country," said Dah-Chuen Chien, General Manager, IBM Greater China Group.

By investing in a system-wide transportation upgrade using IBM’s Intelligent Transportation software, centralized dashboards will provide city managers with a consolidated view that includes real-time analytics that track and categorize traffic patterns over 80 routes in and around Zhenjiang.

As a result, Zhenjiang IOC will increase traffic throughput with optimized routing and improved efficiency, plus the system will provide advance warning of potential traffic jams, giving managers a chance to mitigate or even eliminate them before they happen. By simulating the entire transit fleet and passenger flow across the transportation network, the IOC also maximizes road capacity as well as rapidly responds to incidents.

Our aim in partnering with IBM is to "make our public transportation system faster and more efficient, while making our city a better place to live in," said Mingnian Yin, Director of Reform Commission, City of Zhenjiang.

#CLOUD: "Cloud Desktop Boosts Small Business"

The next generation of cloud-based apps will be integrated by virtual desktops targeting small businesses with software-as-a-service (SaaS) that is accessible from any popular browser for smartphones, tablets, laptops, or desktop computers.



Cloud-based services are enabling small businesses to handle their customer relationship management (CRM), accounting, marketing, workflow, and other professional applications using the software-as-a-service model, albeit by logging directly onto a different server for each application. In the future, however, cloud-based desktops will allow enterprises to access all their business apps in a single browser-based environment.

Cloud-based servers already allow you to run Windows apps from iOS, Android, Mac and Linux computers, essentially renting a virtual-PC in the clouds. And for the enterprise, desktop virtualization is allowing businesses to take advantage of cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), which enables a workforce to run business apps remotely using tools like Norton's Ghost, Citrix' XenDesktop, or VMware's View.

A new trend, however, aims to lower the entry barrier for small businesses, by integrating access to professional cloud-based applications that today are available only to subscribers that have to log-into a different server for each app.

Infostreet's SkyDesktop gives small enterprises access to a suite of popular business applications from any device running a browser including Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

"Today small business users may have one account at Salesforce, one at gmail, one at Quickbooks, and so forth, forcing them to log-into multiple accounts in all these different places," said Siamak Farah CEO of InfoStreet Inc. "What small businesses need is a cloud-based desktop that integrates all their cloud-based apps."

For the next 45 days, InfoStreet will be beta-testing its solution that integrates the best cloud-based business apps into a single virtual desktop environment. This software-as-a-service environment, which is free during beta-testing, offers InfoStreet's SkyDesktop as the repository of cloud-based apps. Once the small business user has set up a SkyDesktop account, all cloud-based apps used by a business can be housed on a single desktop accessible from any browser.

The different business apps that can be installed into the SkyDesktop will be sold in InfoStreet's SkyAppMarket, where name-brand business apps will be purchased and made accessible on a user's SkyDesktop. The SkyKeyChain then allows users to access all their business's apps using a single user-name and password.

Today the SkyAppMarket has just a few applications available, all of which have the InfoStreet brand. However, the company is quickly signing up popular cloud-based apps for the most popular business categories, all of which will debut together after the beta-testing period.

"We won't have 50,000 apps at launch, but we will have 4 or 5 of the highest rated professional business app solutions for each market we serve, which will be the 10 or so most popular small business categories including CRM, email marketing, and accounting," said Farah.

InfoStreet will also be offering in-house technical support for each of the apps in the SkyAppMarket, for the first year, instead of forcing its user to contact each app developer separately for advice.