Intel Hits 50 Gbps Throughput With Photonics [Lightspeed]

When we last left the intrepid research scientists at Intel, they had managed to hit 40Gbps throughput using something called the Avalanche Photodetector. It’s been two years since that report (yeah, this has been in development for a while), and the gang at Intel have not been idle, let me tell you. They’ve managed to improve the field of photonics to achieve throughput of 50 Gbps! While not as much of an advance as one might like to see in two years, this is still a respectable achievement.

Here’s an explanatory video showing what exactly is going on.



People are talking about this like it’s some breakthrough that just happened, but it’s been in the works for years now, and is far from hitting the streets. Even Light Peak, Intel’s new high-speed standard aimed at consumers, isn’t ready for use yet.

We’ll let you know when this one is fully baked. Probably about two years from now.

[TechCrunch]

Teleportation over 10 miles: the ultimate secure line [Entanglement]

We picked our jaws off the floor when we heard about tiny particles being teleported just a foot or two away, but now scientists have topped that by 10 miles. This tech won't be transporting Kirk and his Away Team to the surface of some distant planet anytime soon, but it has seriously practical applications to communications.


Quantum physics says photons can, in some ways, occupy two places at once. When one photon gets entangled with another, whatever happens to one of those particles also happens to another, even if it's TEN frickin' miles away! Now THAT's a fast connection.


The good news: The researchers were able to send this info with 89% fidelity. The bad? Information transmitted in this way will be hard to encrypt. But they're working on that. There's good reason to work on it; if they can get this right, the communication would be completely secure. Since there's no physical medium for the transmission to travel through — not even spacetime itself ૼ it would be physically impossible to jam or intercept.


[DVICE via Ars Technica via Gizmodo]

New Pills Send Messages When Swallowed [Pills]

University of Florida researchers have developed a signaling technology that can be embedded into drug tablets to notify clinicians and caretakers that a pill has been ingested. Although a bit of electronics is going to be moving through the digestive system, the researchers believe that it will pass safely without causing side effects to the patient. If the technology proves itself, we may soon be using it to confirm compliance in clinical trials or to monitor patients under a strict drug regimen.

One part is the pill, a standard white capsule coated with a label embossed with silvery lines. The lines comprise the antenna, which is printed using ink made of nontoxic, conductive silver nanoparticles. The pill also contains a tiny microchip, one about the size of a period.

When a patient takes the pill, it communicates with the second main element of the system: a small electronic device carried or worn by the patient – for now, a stand-alone device, but in the future perhaps built into a watch or cell phone. The device then signals a cell phone or laptop that the pill has been ingested, in turn informing doctors or family members.

Bashirullah [Rizwan Bashirullah, UF assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering] said the pill needs no battery because the device sends it power via imperceptible bursts of extremely low-voltage electricity. The bursts energize the microchip to send signals relayed via the antenna. Eventually the patient’s stomach acid breaks down the antenna – the microchip is passed through the gastrointestinal tract — but not before the pill confirms its own ingestion.

The team has successfully tested the pill system in artificial human models, as well as cadavers. Researchers have also simulated stomach acids to break down the antenna to learn what traces it leaves behind. Bashirullah said those tests had determined the amount of silver retained in the body is tiny, less than what people often receive from common tap water.

[Medgadget, Press release]

Beceem announces the BCS500, a new WiMAX/LTE multi-mode chipset

Well known WiMAX Chipset manufacturer Beceem announced this week that it is developing a dual 4G chip that offers both WiMAX and LTE connectivity at downlink speeds up to 150 Mbps. The new BCS500 multi-mode chip will seamlessly handoff a connection between WiMAX and LTE and supports the latest revision of both standards. The chip could be a boon to both hardware manufacturers and MVNOs who can now design hardware and sell connectivity solutions that utilize both 4G networks. A dual 4G device also enables drop dead easy global roaming as a customer on an LTE network in the U.S. can utilize a WiMAX network while visiting Russia. Just in time for the commercialization of LTE in the United States, the Beceem BCS500 is expected to be sampled to customers in Q4 2010 and available for mass production in Q2 2011.
[BGR]

TransferJet: Put that USB cable away for good

Imagine never needing to connect your USB cable to transfer photos from your camera to your PC. OK, yeah, Eye-Fi cards let you do that already, but it's a little roundabout, sending your pics to a server via the Web, then transferring them to your computer. TransferJet wireless tech does the same thing, just directly. And faster.
The technology has actually been kicking around for a while, unveiled by Sony a couple of years ago. Now it appears to gaining momentum, with Toshiba recently joining the 40 or so companies developing TransferJet products. The idea is to make file transfers ridiculously easy: When you want to share or move files between devices, just hold put them an inch or two away from each other, and the transfer happens automatically. There's an initial setup to keep it secure, but the short range alone will keep most unwanted connections away.
Because of the short range, the 4.48GHz tech consumes very little power. And the speed is pretty good -- 560 megabits per second (375 Mpbs effective), better than USB 2.0. Checking out a demo of TransferJet here at CEATEC, we were able to check out photos we took on a big screen seconds after we took them. We're sold. When can we get it?
[DVICE]