IBM ditches copper wires for chips that communicate with pulses of light [Processors]

There's some weird science going down at IBM: namely, ditching the copper that facilities electrical signals for information exchange on circuitry and replacing it instead with chips that can communicate using pulses of light. The whole shebang is called a nanophotonic avalanche photodetector, and IBM claims to have the fastest one in town.

Wait, avalanche? That's right — the term comes from the way the exchange of information builds as the silicon circuits do their thing, according to IBM:

The IBM device explores the avalanche effect in Germanium, a material currently used in production of microprocessor chips. Analogous to a snow avalanche on a steep mountain slope, an incoming light pulse initially frees just a few charge carriers which in turn free others until the original signal is amplified many times. Conventional avalanche photodetectors are not able to detect fast optical signals because the avalanche builds slowly.

The technology's main draw is the fact that it uses substantially less power than a setup that relies on copper and electrical signals, using a whopping 20 times. The example given by IBM is that if a traditional system uses 20-30 volts, the new system would get by with a AA battery, which is rated at around 1.6 volts. Check out a video explanation of the technology below.


[DVICE via PC World]

IBM's 100Ghz Graphene Transistor Might Replace Silicon Someday [Ibm]

We know graphene is tough stuff, but Big Blue's discovering the substance makes a great transistor too, to the tune of a record-setting 100GHz.
You see, the 100Ghz graphene transistor IBM was crowing about this week is already much, much faster than a comparably sized silicon one. Current 'state-of-the-art' silicon maxes out at 40Ghz. But better still, IBM created the graphene screamer using existing silicon fabrication methods. No new gear necessary!

However, as is commonplace with these types of stories, graphene transistors—at least ones deployed widely in everyday computing—are still a ways away. IBM researchers, why must you tease us so?
[Gizmodo via IBM via Engadget]

It Takes 147,456 PowerPC Processors To Out-Think a Single Stupid Cat Brain [Science]

Also on IBM's cat-sized-brain-simulation materials list: 143 terabytes of RAM, miles and miles of cabling, a million watts of electricity, 6675 tons of air conditioning equipment, and an acre of floor space.
Cats: they're kinda dumb. They only seem smarter than dogs because they're not so friendly, and our society judges kindness harshly. It's true! an interesting theory! Which is why, after mice, simulating a feline-sized brain on a BlueGene/P supercomputer was next on IBM's to-do list. But for all the kitty talk here, this project wasn't specifically about creating a computerized house pet; it's part of a larger, ongoing project to eventually simulate a full human brain. The cat equivalency, derived from the number of virtual neurons and synapses the simulation can manage, at 1.6 billion and 9 trillion, respectively, just gives a sense of how far along the project is: today, despite being the biggest simulated brain ever, it's only capable of simulating the human visual cortex, or as PopMech so delicately puts it, 'the wrinkly outer layer' of the human brain.
So how long before a supercomputer can simulate (roughly—since these computer simulations don't have the same neural patterning and learning capabilities of a real brain, among other things) an entire human cortex? Weirdly soon, says the project's lead scientist:

To [simulate a human cortex], he'll need to find 1000 times more computing power. At the rate that supercomputers have expanded over the last 20 years, that super-super computer could exist by 2019. 'This is not just possible, it's inevitable,' Modha says. 'This will happen.'

People need to stop getting worked up about the future, honestly: Before we have to worry self-aware robot uprisings, we're going to have to deal with decades of extremely dumb, extremely expensive fake pets. Enforced caution, I believe this is called.
[Gizmodo via Popular Mechanics]

Ultrafast Lab-on-a-Chip for Detection of Disease Biomarkers [Biology]

Researchers from IBM Research in Zurich and the University Hospital of Basel in Switzerland developed a microfluidic device that uses capillary action to detect the presence of protein biomarkers for various disease types. The five square centimeter silicon-based lab-on-a-chip takes only 15 seconds to perform its analysis.
Here are the five functional stages of the device:

Stage 1: A one microliter sample, 50 times smaller than a tear drop, is pipetted onto the chip, where the capillary forces begin to take effect.

Stage 2: These forces push the sample through an intricate series of mesh structures, which prevent clogging and air bubbles from forming.

Stage 3: The sample then passes into a region where microscopically small amounts of the detection antibody have been deposited. These antibodies have a fluorescent tag and similar to the antibodies within our body, they recognize the disease marker and attach to it within the sample. Only seventy picoliters (a volume one million times smaller than a tear) of these antibodies are used, making their dissolution in the passing sample extremely fast and efficient.

Stage 4: The most critical stage is called the 'reaction chamber' and it measures 30 micrometers in width and 20 micrometers in depth, roughly the diameter of a strand of human hair. Similar to a common pregnancy test, in this stage the disease marker that was previously tagged is captured on the surface of the chamber. By shining a focused beam of red light, the tagged disease markers can be viewed using a portable sensor device that contains a chip similar to those used by digital cameras, albeit this one being much more sensitive. Based on the amount of light detected, medical professionals can visually confirm the strength of the disease marker in the sample to determine the next course of treatment.

Stage 5: Less a stage and more a part of the entire process is the capillary pump. The capillary pump, which has a depth of 180 micrometers, contains an intricate set of microstructures, the job of which is to pump the sample through the device for as long as needed and at a regular flow rate, just like the human heart. This pump makes the test accurate, portable and simple to use. IBM scientists have developed a library of capillary pumps so that tests needing a variety of sample

More from IBM Research: IBM Scientists Reinvent Medical Diagnostic Testing ...
Abstract in Lab on a Chip: Toward one-step point-of-care immunodiagnostics using capillary-driven microfluidics and PDMS substrates
[Medgadget]