Posts tagged computing

Unreal Engine 3 powered demo runs in standard web browser. Epic Games has shown off a game built to run in any standards-based browser using HTML5, WebGL and Javascript, without any additional drivers or plugins. The demo of Epic Citadel is based on Unreal Engine 3, which took just four days to port to the web. “Just like Sony and Microsoft have platforms, the web is now a platform, and if you can build and ship a game, you can have it run in several (and in the future, any) standards-compliant browser and have a great experience,” Epic founder Tim Sweeney told Gamasutra last month. “It marks the end of drivers, installation, all the other weird quirks of legacy game development.” Check out the demo here.

Unreal Engine 3 powered demo runs in standard web browser.

Epic Games has shown off a game built to run in any standards-based browser using HTML5, WebGL and Javascript, without any additional drivers or plugins. The demo of Epic Citadel is based on Unreal Engine 3, which took just four days to port to the web.

“Just like Sony and Microsoft have platforms, the web is now a platform, and if you can build and ship a game, you can have it run in several (and in the future, any) standards-compliant browser and have a great experience,” Epic founder Tim Sweeney told Gamasutra last month.

“It marks the end of drivers, installation, all the other weird quirks of legacy game development.”

Check out the demo here.

listserv.gameplanet.net.nz

The world’s first webpage brought back to life. On April 30, 1993 the first page on the World Wide Web was made available online by CERN - the same group now running the large Large Hadron Collider in Europe. While the page has been accessible at various sources on and off since that date, it’s now been moved back entirely to its original address. Check it out at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

The world’s first webpage brought back to life.

On April 30, 1993 the first page on the World Wide Web was made available online by CERN - the same group now running the large Large Hadron Collider in Europe.

While the page has been accessible at various sources on and off since that date, it’s now been moved back entirely to its original address. Check it out at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

theverge.com

Moveable screen developed at MIT. The prototype ‘Obake’ can react to a user by creating shapes out of the screen. In the demonstration above a mountain grows and and changes the run of a river on-screen. Six specialized motors located below a silicone liquid rubber screen control the screen’s movement. Push, pry, prod, pinch, poke and the surface is malleable enough to move. (Watch a demo here). A small microphone below the screen picks up the noise of vibrations when a finger touches the surface. Cameras mounted above detect the movement of a user’s hand; an overhead projector is used to display images. Dand envisions many potential applications. The “display opens up all sorts of new options,” he adds. “Like for Excel tables with row and columns. What if it could pop out a chart bar and change the data?” I just can’t stop thinking about how creepy this is, after watching this scene in Ghostbusters 2:

Moveable screen developed at MIT.

The prototype ‘Obake’ can react to a user by creating shapes out of the screen. In the demonstration above a mountain grows and and changes the run of a river on-screen.

Six specialized motors located below a silicone liquid rubber screen control the screen’s movement. Push, pry, prod, pinch, poke and the surface is malleable enough to move. (Watch a demo here).

A small microphone below the screen picks up the noise of vibrations when a finger touches the surface. Cameras mounted above detect the movement of a user’s hand; an overhead projector is used to display images.

Dand envisions many potential applications. The “display opens up all sorts of new options,” he adds. “Like for Excel tables with row and columns. What if it could pop out a chart bar and change the data?”

I just can’t stop thinking about how creepy this is, after watching this scene in Ghostbusters 2:

technologyreview.com

D-Wave sells ‘D-Wave Two’ for $10 million. D-Wave Systems has reportedly sold their next-generation ‘D-Wave Two quantum computer’ to Lockheed Martin for an estimated US$10 million. Lockheed Martin bought the first ‘D-Wave One’ computer two years ago for the same price. The new machine is said to be 500,000 times faster than the first version.  Lockheed Martin will use it to create and test complex radar, space, and aircraft systems. D-Wave plan to release a new processor every two years. 

D-Wave sells ‘D-Wave Two’ for $10 million.

D-Wave Systems has reportedly sold their next-generation ‘D-Wave Two quantum computer’ to Lockheed Martin for an estimated US$10 million. Lockheed Martin bought the first ‘D-Wave One’ computer two years ago for the same price.

The new machine is said to be 500,000 times faster than the first version.  Lockheed Martin will use it to create and test complex radar, space, and aircraft systems.

D-Wave plan to release a new processor every two years. 

image

Breakthrough could allow computer memory to get a 1000x speed boost.

A new paper published in the journal Nature shows a new way to switch magnetism at speeds at least 1,000 times faster than is currently used in magnetic memory technologies.

Read more »

scienceworldreport.com

2009’s fastest supercomputer to be dismantled. The IBM Roadrunner was at the number 1 slot on the Top 500 supercomputer list three times during 2008/2009, but the cost to run it compared to that of other systems has meant it no longer makes sense to keep it running. It will be dismantled next month. Roadrunner was the first supercomputer to reach one petaflop, or one million billion floating point operations per second. The machine at the top of the most recent list has been benchmarked at 17.6 petaflops, with researchers now looking at how to achieve exascale speeds - 1000 times faster than a petaflop. Petaflop machines aren’t automatically obsolete—a petaflop is still speedy enough to crack the top 25 fastest supercomputers. Roadrunner is thus still capable of performing scientific work at mind-boggling speeds, but has been surpassed by competitors in terms of energy efficiency. For example, in the November 2012 ratings Roadrunner required 2,345 kilowatts to hit 1.042 petaflops and a world ranking of #22. The supercomputer at #21 required only 1,177 kilowatts, and #23 (clocked at 1.035 petaflops) required just 493 kilowatts.

2009’s fastest supercomputer to be dismantled.

The IBM Roadrunner was at the number 1 slot on the Top 500 supercomputer list three times during 2008/2009, but the cost to run it compared to that of other systems has meant it no longer makes sense to keep it running. It will be dismantled next month.

Roadrunner was the first supercomputer to reach one petaflop, or one million billion floating point operations per second. The machine at the top of the most recent list has been benchmarked at 17.6 petaflops, with researchers now looking at how to achieve exascale speeds - 1000 times faster than a petaflop.

Petaflop machines aren’t automatically obsolete—a petaflop is still speedy enough to crack the top 25 fastest supercomputers. Roadrunner is thus still capable of performing scientific work at mind-boggling speeds, but has been surpassed by competitors in terms of energy efficiency. For example, in the November 2012 ratings Roadrunner required 2,345 kilowatts to hit 1.042 petaflops and a world ranking of #22. The supercomputer at #21 required only 1,177 kilowatts, and #23 (clocked at 1.035 petaflops) required just 493 kilowatts.

Ars Technica

Video: Computer Chronicles check out the internet, in 1995.

Admittedly I only watched the first three minutes, but it’s worth checking out just for the 90’s music and intro.

mentalfloss.com

Video: Activision R&D shows off realistic 3D characters.

This demo shows what can be achieved on current generation Geoforce GTX 680 graphics cards.

The rendering techniques, as well as the animation pipeline are being presented at GDC 2013, “Next Generation Character Rendering” on March 27.
The original high resolution data was acquired from Light Stage Facial Scanning and Performance Capture by USC Institute for Creative Technologies, then converted to a 70 bones rig, while preserving the high frequency detail in diffuse, normal and displacement composite maps.
It is being rendered in a DirectX11 environment, using advanced techniques to faithfully represent the character’s skin and eyes.

Gaze tracking device nearing release. The Tobii REX is a small USB powered device able to accurately track a users gaze with enough precision to use it instead of a mouse pointer. While a developer version is available now for US$995, the Tobii says they will make 5,000 of the REX’s available before the end of 2013, presumably for a much cheaper price. dvice checked it out at CES, here’s what they had to say: It’s easy to be skeptical about such a claim, but we tried it for ourselves, and it works flawlessly. It’s one of those rare technologies that totally feels like The Future.

Gaze tracking device nearing release.

The Tobii REX is a small USB powered device able to accurately track a users gaze with enough precision to use it instead of a mouse pointer. While a developer version is available now for US$995, the Tobii says they will make 5,000 of the REX’s available before the end of 2013, presumably for a much cheaper price.

dvice checked it out at CES, here’s what they had to say:

It’s easy to be skeptical about such a claim, but we tried it for ourselves, and it works flawlessly. It’s one of those rare technologies that totally feels like The Future.

dvice.com

Flash memory survives 100 Million Cycles. Flash memory is currently used in solid-state drives, USB drives, or increasingly in server farms, but it starts to wear out after about 10,000 cycles of being programmed and erased. Now a team of engineers from Macronix is planning to unveil a technology which has been shown to be able to withstand “at least” 100 Million cycles. They say at least because it will take several months to run it up to 1 billion cycles, and even then it may just keep going, with one researcher saying “We do not know what would eventually cause the device to fail, since we have not seen the end-of-life signals yet”. The technique involves storing bits of data in a material called chalcogenide glass, which is currently used in PCRAM. That glass normally wears out over time, but by including tiny onboard heaters to bring the glass up to melting point, it was able to self-heal and be used indefinitely. The amount of power required for heating wasn’t disclosed but the team says “It’s not going to drain your cellphone battery”. The technique also allows for faster erasing of data.

Flash memory survives 100 Million Cycles.

Flash memory is currently used in solid-state drives, USB drives, or increasingly in server farms, but it starts to wear out after about 10,000 cycles of being programmed and erased.

Now a team of engineers from Macronix is planning to unveil a technology which has been shown to be able to withstand “at least” 100 Million cycles. They say at least because it will take several months to run it up to 1 billion cycles, and even then it may just keep going, with one researcher saying “We do not know what would eventually cause the device to fail, since we have not seen the end-of-life signals yet”.

The technique involves storing bits of data in a material called chalcogenide glass, which is currently used in PCRAM. That glass normally wears out over time, but by including tiny onboard heaters to bring the glass up to melting point, it was able to self-heal and be used indefinitely. The amount of power required for heating wasn’t disclosed but the team says “It’s not going to drain your cellphone battery”. The technique also allows for faster erasing of data.

spectrum.ieee.org