Raj Agrawal – Page 60

A Successor To USB 3.0 Is On It’s Way

April 15, 2010 by Raj Agrawal 1 Comment

UPCOMING TECHNOLOGY – Intel’s Light Peak Technology could be the next generation of the Input/Output technology. The year 2010 has brought along great new technologies with it including 3D television, Wireles HD and USB 3.0. Already a “potential” successor to USB 3.0 is expected to hit the markets by 2011. Intel’s Light Peak technology will link devices using optical cables with longer, thinner and more flexible than what the current technology offers.

Light Peak also has the ability to run multiple protocols simultaneously over a single cable, enabling the technology to connect devices such as peripherals, displays, disk drives, docking stations, and more delivering high bandwidth starting at 10Gb/s with the potential ability to scale to 100Gb/s over the next decade.

Illustration of Light Peak module close-up with laser light (On and Off state)

How does this technology work?

Light Peak consists of a controller chip and an optical module that would be included in platforms supporting this technology. The optical module performs the conversion from electricity to light and vice versa, using miniature lasers and photo detectors. Intel is planning to supply the controller chip, and is working with other component manufacturers to deliver all the Light Peak components. It is expected that the components will be ready to ship in 2010. Over time, the optical components, designed to be small, easy to manufacture and affordable, are expected to enjoy the economies of scale that other components have in the computing and consumer electronics industries.

The new technology could compete with connector technologies like USB and Firewire, which are used to connect PCs to storage and audio devices. However, Light Peak is not intended to replace current technologies, an Intel spokesperson said. It is intended to be a complementary technology.

Suspicious Activity On Your Gmail Account?

March 30, 2010 by Raj Agrawal 2 Comments

Gmail will now notify you, if it is in suspicion

A longtime ago Gmail had rolled out a feature that gave you the accessibility to check which IP address accessed your Gmail account when your account was last logged in (works even when your account is not using https). Now, Gmail has extended this feature by adding the country name tag to the IP address and will notify you of a suspicious activity if your Gmail account was last accessed through another location.

As mentioned on Gmail Blog: To determine when to display this message, our automated system matches the relevant IP address, logged per the Gmail privacy policy, to a broad geographical location. While we don’t have the capability to determine the specific location from which an account is accessed, a login appearing to come from one country and occurring a few hours after a login from another country may trigger an alert.

By clicking on the “Details” link next to the message, you’ll see the last account activity window that you’re used to, along with the most recent access points.

If you think your account has been compromised, you can change your password from the same window. Or, if you know it was legitimate access (e.g. you were traveling, your husband/wife who accesses the account was also traveling, etc.), you can click “Dismiss” to remove the message.

3D Invisibility Cloaking Device Has Been Created

March 19, 2010 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

Two years after successfully creating a 2D invisibility cloaking device, scientists have moved a step further and created the first invisibility cloaking device that can render an object invisible in three dimensions. Even though this is not a “complete and full form” of invisibility cloaking but, it is an a very significant step towards achieving it.

Tolga Ergin, a scientist from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany led the study. This device, called as ‘Carpet Cloak’ was designed to initially designed to work in two dimensions. The carpet cloak was originally designed to work in two dimensions. But, when Dr Ergin and his colleagues calculated how the rays of light would travel through an object, they realised that they could use their technique to build a structure that would work in three dimensions.

The “nanostructure” of tiny rods bends light around a bump in the gold surface

They used the cloak to conceal a small bump on a gold surface — a bit like hiding a small object underneath a carpet and then making both the bump and the carpet invisible.

Source: BBC Technology