Computers & the Internet News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

Airbus takes over Space Coast constellation factory

January 29, 2024

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat OneWeb has sold its 50% share of the factory that built more than 600 satellites for its low Earth orbit constellation (LEO) to Airbus, the operator’s joint venture partner.

Airbus said Jan. 29 it is now the sole owner of Airbus OneWeb Satellites (AOS) in Merritt Island, adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which it has repurposed for other commercial and government customers.

Financial details were not disclosed.

In its peak, the eight-year-old facility’s semi-automated production line was producing two satellites daily for OneWeb’s first-generation broadband constellation.

The operator fully deployed the network in LEO last year, although global coverage has slipped to later in 2024 following delays with the ground segment.

https://spacenews.com/airbus-takes-over ... n-factory/

[weatheriscool]

BREAKTHROUGH Graphene on Silicon Carbide Which Enable Small Amounts of UltraFast THz Chips
February 1, 2024 by Brian Wang

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/02/b ... chips.html
Researchers claims to have developed a method for producing a layer of graphene on a silicon carbide (SiC) wafer to form a semiconductor with a band gap of 0.6 eV and with room temperature electron mobility 10-20 times larger than other 2D semiconductors.

They used a quasi-equilibrium annealing method to produces high-quality semiconducting epigraphene (SEG) on an underlying SiC substrate.

When heated, carbon atoms are transported from the carbon surface to the silicon surface to form a buffer layer chemically bonded to the SiC. It should be possible to produce wafer-scale single-crystal SEG.

Graphene can also be used in components that operate in the terahertz part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Terahertz frequencies can be suggested for use in communications like future 6G systems.

[firestar464]

Wait, is this a room-temp superconductor?

[Tadasuke]

I will believe when actual products are released and fully available.

[weatheriscool]

China's SMIC Could Produce 5nm Chips Despite Trade Restrictions
The company has reportedly built two new plants to produce the chips.
By Ryan Whitwam February 6, 2024

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/c ... strictions
Chinese technology firms have been hamstrung over the past several years as the US has increasingly blocked access to the latest microchips. The country's largest chipmaker, SMIC, surprised everyone with the release of a 7nm processor last year, and now rumors point to a 5nm release. This improvement could advance China's AI ambitions, making the US-led technology blockade look even more ineffective.

Action against Chinese technology giants began during the Trump administration with the addition of companies like Huawei to the government's Entity List, which prevents the transfer of US technology. The Chinese government's solution was to put its full weight behind homegrown chip manufacturing. The Biden administration has further clamped down by restricting China's access to the latest lithography machinery for manufacturing chips, leaving SMIC with technology intended for larger and less efficient process nodes.

SMIC is allegedly on the verge of releasing the new 5nm chips, which have been designed by Huawei's HiSilicon subsidiary. They will be produced in a pair of new factories in Shanghai. The chips will appear first in flagship smartphones, but SMIC has big plans for 5nm if that works. It hopes to produce server chips and AI accelerators at 5nm, which would close the gap between Chinese designs and the latest AI hardware from Nvidia. Like lithography technology firms, Nvidia is barred from exporting most of its AI accelerators to China.

[weatheriscool]

Crucial to Take Gen 5 SSD Speed Crown With 14.5GB/s Reads
The T705 lineup will also reportedly come in a 4TB capacity.
By Josh Norem February 7, 2024

For years, we've been saddled with PCIe 4.0 SSDs and their paltry 7GB/s of bandwidth. PCIe 5.0 has promised to change that situation by offering double the bandwidth, going up to 14GB/s, making them one heck of an upgrade. The problem is most of the PCIe Gen 5 SSDs that have come out so far have failed to meet this goal, but that's all starting to change now that it's 2024. Several drives have been announced with 14GB/s read speeds, and Crucial is set to one-up those with its upcoming T705 NVME M.2 SSD that can achieve 14.5GB/s in sequential reads.

Specs and photos of Crucial's latest SSDs have been leaked online, and they indicate Crucial's next-generation T705 SSDs will be the fastest drives you can buy when they launch. Of course, not everyone will benefit from this much bandwidth, but in terms of the spec sheet, Crucial will likely be crowned the SSD speed king shortly. This new SSD will replace the existing T700 Gen 5 drives, which can hit around 12GB/s in sequential reads. According to Videocardz, the 2TB version of the T705 will be capable of 14.5GB/s sequential read speeds, making it the fastest drive available.

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/c ... 5gbs-reads

[weatheriscool]

BREAKTHROUGH – Better Algorithms for Classical Computers to Efficiently Compete With Quantum Computers
February 14, 2024 by Brian Wang

A new algorithm can further exploit the twin challenges of information loss and translation to mimic a quantum computer with far fewer resources than previously thought.

It was previously though that quantum computers with 50-100 logical low error qubits would be able to surpass regular supercomputers. New algorithms are showing that regular computers could beat low error quantum computers with 127 qubits and possibly more.

PRX Quantum – Efficient Tensor Network Simulation of IBM’s Eagle Kicked Ising Experiment

Above -Tensor network state for the infinite heavy hex lattice. The unit cell is a five-site tensor network. By adding in appropriate periodic boundary conditions and simulating the kicked Ising model with the BP-approximated TNS method we recover results for simulation of the infinite lattice with the BP-approximated TNS method.

ABSTRACT
We report an accurate and efficient classical simulation of a kicked Ising quantum system on the heavy hexagon lattice. A simulation of this system was recently performed on a 127-qubit quantum processor using noise-mitigation techniques to enhance accuracy. Here we show that, by adopting a tensor network approach that reflects the geometry of the lattice and is approximately contracted using belief propagation, we can perform a classical simulation that is significantly more accurate and precise than the results obtained from the quantum processor and many other classical methods. We quantify the treelike correlations of the wave function in order to explain the accuracy of our belief propagation-based approach. We also show how our method allows us to perform simulations of the system to long times in the thermodynamic limit, corresponding to a quantum computer with an infinite number of qubits. Our tensor network approach has broader applications for simulating the dynamics of quantum systems with treelike correlations.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/02/b ... uters.html

[weatheriscool]

Microsoft Confirms the Next Version of Windows is 24H2, Not Windows 12
It sounds like Microsoft isn't ready to put Windows 11 to bed just yet.
By Josh Norem February 15, 2024

Over the past year, there's been an online debate over what Microsoft would call the next version of Windows. We all know Windows 11 is still trailing far behind Windows 10 regarding the number of users for each OS, so it was thought Microsoft would announce Windows 12 to have a "new" OS to offer people instead of just a big feature update. Now, it appears Microsoft has chosen the latter option and will just go with Windows 11 24H2 as the next version of Windows. Time to recall those Windows 12 launch party invites!

News of Microsoft's plans comes from a recent update on its Windows 11 blog, which discusses changes in test builds for the dev and canary channels. The blog states that folks installing the latest 26052 build will see the OS version number change, which is expected behavior. Then, to convey the importance of this change, it states in bold text, "This denotes that Windows 11, version 24H2 will be this year’s annual feature update." Microsoft then affirms its feature update cadence is once a year, arriving in the fall, so we can most likely expect 24H2 around September.

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/m ... windows-12

[Powers]

Windows will never get good from now on.

[weatheriscool]

Plasma scientists develop computer programs that could reduce the cost of microchips, stimulate manufacturing
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-plasma-sc ... chips.html
by Raphael Rosen, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Fashioned from the same element found in sand and covered by intricate patterns, microchips power smartphones, augment appliances and aid the operation of cars and airplanes.

Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are developing computer simulation codes that will outperform current simulation techniques and aid the production of microchips using plasma, the electrically charged state of matter also used in fusion research.

These codes could help increase the efficiency of the manufacturing process and potentially stimulate the renaissance of the chip industry in the United States.