Intel has developed chips that act as integrated frequency synthesizers:
Intel has unveiled a chip designed to meet the demands of future radio sets by switching between different networks and frequencies based on availability or local government regulations.
The chip maker showed off the 90nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) silicon transceiver with an integrated frequency synthesizer last week.
Intel’s new chip features a 10GHz radio, with the synthesizer enabling it to tune down to lower frequencies in 30KHz steps.
‘They tune and tweak themselves,’ explained Krishnamurthy Soumyanath, director of Intel’s communications circuits lab.
On a related note, Sanyo has developed a tiny FM tuner. This article is in Japanese, and reports the tuner chip (at 5mm wide) is about half the size of current tuners and requires no other parts to operate.
Devices, Network chip, filter, FM, frequency synthesizer, radio, spectrum, tuner
Holographic computers take a step forward in Japan:
Researchers from Chiba University and the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) in Japan have built a hologram generator on a single circuit board.
The device could eventually be used for three-dimensional television, three-dimensional visualization of statistics, and three-dimensional medical imaging.
The researchers’ system consists of a special-purpose computer chip and a high-resolution liquid-crystal display panel. The system generates holograms on the screen with a half second delay for an object that consists of 1,000 points, according to the researchers.
Helpful explanation at http://radio.weblogs.com/0105910/2004/06/16.html
Devices 3D, chip, display, hologram, imaging, LCD, mini, visualization
Researchers at Purdue have devised nano-lightning storms as a way to cool computer chips.
In the Purdue device, an array of carbon nanotubes–long, thin strands of specialized carbon molecules–would be placed near a chip. A negative charge would be applied to some of the nanotubes, which would cause electrons to be emitted. When the electrons mix with the surrounding air, the air becomes ionized. The microscopic cloud of ionized air then leads to an imbalance of charge in the micro-atmosphere, and lightning results. It’s microscopic lightning, but the principle is the same as in an electrical storm.
Meanwhile, the cloud of electrons would be alternatively attracted to and repelled by adjacent electrodes. Alternating the voltages on the electrodes creates a cooling breeze because the moving cloud stirs the air.
Devices chip, computer, cooling, nanotech
A new addition to the wireless environment:
Hajimiri’s radar on a chip could replace a lot of existing dish antennae, like the kind you have on your roof to watch satellite TV. The frequency at which the chip runs – 24 Gigahertz – falls right into the spectrum allocated by the FCC for vehicular radar systems. These chips could be embedded into a car to give it 360-degree, all weather vision, protecting the occupants from reckless drivers and other highway hazards. …
But the most interesting thing about Hajimiri’s radar-on-a-chip is how it can be used to do things that aren’t typically associated with radar. For instance, the chip could be used for mobile phones* and to send and receive high-speed wireless data. That’s because the chip has an array of eight tiny antennae that beams its signal in any specified direction, just like a parabolic radar dish does. But while a radar dish has to physically move in order to direct a signal, the radar-on-a-chip directs its radio beam by electrically adjusting the phases of the oscillating current going through its eight antennae (which don’t look like antennae – they are metallic leads etched onto a circuit board).
Devices, Network 24 Gigahertz, broadband, chip, direction, radar, vehicle, wireless
Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed machines that can “sniff” like dogs: “Dog on a Chip.” Presently they detect vapors emitted from cocaine, but there’s no reason they can’t be tuned for other purposes.
From a few feet away, the device can ‘smell’ microscopic amounts of a particular substance – as little as one-trillionth of a gram. So far it’s only programmed to detect cocaine. But Hunt says it could be developed to sniff out other drugs, anthrax, bombs, chemical agents and even cancerous cells.
The machine is a rectangular plastic box slightly smaller than a phone book attached to a cube with a chip inside it that detects substances. Two antenna-like tubes protrude from the cube – one sucks in air, the other spits it out.
I can see it now: detectors at every post office door to “sniff” dangerous mail. Hospitals will use them to detect potential cancer patients. And of course, airport security will have them in several different varieties.
Devices chip, detection, drugs, odor, smell, sniff, vapor
RFID chips now moving into libraries!
A civil liberties watchdog group is expressing concern over the San Francisco Public Library’s plans to track books by inserting computer chips into each tome.
They say the chips will be deactivated when they leave the library so as to prevent outside tracking, but EFF (the civil liberties group mentioned above) is concerned that reactivation will be the next social challenge. Then what happens?
Content, Devices, Policy , chip, EFF, library, RFID, SOHO nets, tracking
Coming together? What will they think of next?
New wireless networking chips for handheld devices are giving second life to the 802.11b standard and could soon test the theory that Wi-Fi and cellular data services can work hand in hand rather than compete.
Broadcom and Royal Philips Electronics have developed a chip that does wireless networking on portables, including phones. Combining is a good thing:
Wi-Fi delivers large amounts of bandwidth over short range, while cellular data networks deliver relatively small amounts of bandwidth over a wide range. As a result, each can compensate for the shortcomings of the other.
Devices, Network 3G, 802.11, cell phone, chip, data, mobileTech, SOHO Nets, wi-fi, wireless