By looking at the latest electronic communication devices that have emerged over the past few years, it's clear that the trend of smaller, portable devices is strong and expected to continue. Yet while all these notebooks, netbooks, and tablet PCs are becoming more and more popular, their explosive growth also poses a problem: these wireless devices are hogging the already congested lower microwave frequency region of the wireless spectrum.
This congestion problem was not unanticipated by electrical engineers, who, for the past two decades, have been developing new wireless technologies that use different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Specifically, these wireless technologies are exploiting the large, unused bandwidths of extremely high frequency (EHF) microwaves in the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency region. One particular area of interest is the unlicensed 60 GHz frequency band, which has 5-mm wavelengths. (In contrast, the heavily burdened lower microwave regions have frequencies of 2-4 GHz, corresponding to wavelengths of 7.5-15 cm.)

However, the 60 GHz frequency band is not without challenges, either. Since wireless signals at 60 GHz frequencies have inherently high propagation losses, they are targeted toward short-range, in-building, high-speed applications. To maintain strong incoming wireless signals for buildings, many antenna base stations must be built near customers. These base stations, in turn, would receive broadband signals from a smaller number of distant central offices. The signals between central offices and base stations would be transmitted through long-range optical fibers. Since such a system uses both optical fibers and mm-wave wireless transmission, the technology is called “fiber-wireless” (Fi-Wi).

The advantage of bimodal Fi-Wi systems is that they can enjoy the strengths of both optical and wireless technologies - specifically, the inherently large bandwidth of optical fiber and the large, unused bandwidth in the mm-wave wireless spectrum. For this reason, a hybrid system has the potential to provide very high data transmission rates with minimal time delay.

Recently, a team of electrical engineers working on fiber-wireless technologies has analyzed the progress made in this field over the past two decades. In a paper published in the Journal of Lightwave Technology, Christina Lim, from the University of Melbourne, and her coauthors have presented an overview of the many different techniques proposed to optically transport mm-wave wireless signals and overcome some of the challenges involved.

RSA authentication is a popular encryption method used in media players, laptop computers, smartphones, servers and other devices. Retailers and banks also depend on it to ensure the safety of their customers' information online.

The scientists found they could foil the security system by varying the voltage supply to the holder of the "private key," which would be the consumer's device in the case of copy protection and the retailer or bank in the case of Internet communication. It is highly unlikely that a hacker could use this approach on a large institution, the researchers say. These findings would be more likely to concern media companies and mobile device manufacturers, as well as those who use them.

Andrea Pellegrini, a doctoral student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, will present a paper on the research at the upcoming Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE) conference in Dresden on March 10.

"The RSA algorithm gives security under the assumption that as long as the private key is private, you can't break in unless you guess it. We've shown that that's not true," said Valeria Bertacco, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

These private keys contain more than 1,000 digits of binary code. To guess a number that large would take longer than the age of the universe, Pellegrini said. Using their voltage tweaking scheme, the U-M researchers were able to extract the private key in approximately 100 hours.

They carefully manipulated the voltage with an inexpensive device built for this purpose. Varying the electric current essentially stresses out the computer and causes it to make small mistakes in its communications with other clients. These faults reveal small pieces of the private key. Once the researchers caused enough faults, they were able to reconstruct the key offline.

This type of attack doesn't damage the device, so no tamper evidence is left.

"RSA authentication is so popular because it was thought to be so secure," said Todd Austin, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. "Our work redefines the level of security it offers. It lowers the safety assurance by a significant amount."

Although this paper only discusses the problem, the professors say they've identified a solution. It's a common cryptographic technique called "salting" that changes the order of the digits in a random way every time the key is requested.

"We've demonstrated that a fault-based attack on the RSA algorithm is possible," Austin said. "Hopefully, this will cause manufacturers to make a few small changes to their implementation of the algorithm. RSA is a good algorithm and I think, ultimately, it will survive this type of attack."

The paper is titled "Fault-based Attack of RSA Authentication." This research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Gigascale Systems Research Center.

Such an advance could enable all communications, from high-definition television broadcasts to secure computer connections, to be transmitted from a single base station, said Minghao Qi, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Ordinarily, the continuous waves of conventional radio-frequency transmissions encounter interference from stray signals reflecting off of the walls and objects inside a house or office. However, the pulsing nature of the signals produced by the new "chip-based spectral shaper" reduces the interference that normally plagues radio frequency communications, said Andrew Weiner, Purdue's Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Each laser pulse lasts about 100 femtoseconds, or one-tenth of a trillionth of a second. These pulses are processed using "optical arbitrary waveform technology" pioneered by Purdue researchers led by Weiner.

Findings have appeared online in the journal Nature Photonics and were published in the February print issue of the magazine. The research is based at Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center in the university's Discovery Park.

"What enables this technology is that our devices generate ultrabroad bandwidth radio frequencies needed to transmit the high data rates required for high resolution displays,"

Such a technology might eventually be developed to both receive and transmit signals.

"But initially, industry will commercialize devices that only receive signals, for 'one-way' traffic, such as television sets, projectors, monitors and printers," Qi said. "This is because the sending unit for transmitting data is currently still a little bulky. Later, if the sending unit can be integrated into the devices, we could enjoy full two-way traffic, enabling the wireless operation of things like hard-disc drives and computers."

In cooperation with the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) at the Dresden University of Technology, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics therefore applied a new strategy to identify and characterize genes involved in endocytosis. For that a combination of high-resolution microscopy and quantitative image analysis enabled the scientists to investigate the effects of a large number of genes. From their findings the scientists also hope to derive significant information about how infections could be prevented and diseases treated in future.

Cells take up material from the outside by pinching off from their cell membrane vesicles that transport substances to different cellular organelles. Depending on what they contain, these vesicles and organelles -- also known as endosomes -- are transported to different locations within the cell, where their content is either re-distributed or broken down to recycle the basic building blocks. Endosomes are organised in a complex transport network that ensures a correct transport of a wide variety of substances towards their proper intracellular destination. However, the exact details of how, for instance, signalling molecules arrive at their respective destinations and transmit their information from the cell membrane to the nucleus are still largely unknown.

The new investigation strategy provided the scientists with previously unimagined insights into the highly complicated processes that take place in the cell. They discovered in their images, for example, that a failure of certain genes cause the arrest of vesicles in the cell periphery rather than being transported to the centre of the cell. Furthermore, different substances such as nutrients and growth factors are apparently guided to their destination by different set of genes and endocytosis is controlled by various signalling pathways. At the same time, the cells use endocytosis to carefully adjust the quantity of signal molecules on the cell membrane and in the endosomes -- endocytosis and signalling pathways thus influence each other. All in all, more than 4,000 genes are directly or indirectly involved in endocytosis. "Our findings demonstrate that cells don't simply go out and ingest just any substances, handling them in the same manner. On the contrary, they have a very precise definition of what they need when and in what quantity, and also where it needs to get to in the cell," says Marino Zerial, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.

Impaired endocytosis can cause disease

The enormous number of genes involved also reflects the significance of endocytosis for the cell and the entire organism. For example, signalling of important metabolic regulators like insulin depend on endocytosis. Immune cells, for their part, swallow pathogens and digest them inside endosomes. Therefore, it might one day be possible to prevent dangerous infections if the endocytosis of viruses and bacteria could be selectively inhibited or if the pathogens could be destroyed more effectively in the endosomes. Consequently, if the role of the different genes in endocytosis were known, it would in future be easier to develop potential treatments for these diseases.

One of the issues associated with quantum information schemes revolves around the ability to develop quantum memories that allow for the retrieval of information on demand. Overcoming this issue is especially important for the advancement of long distance telecommunications. In order to use quantum means to send information over long distance, it is necessary to implement quantum repeaters so that data is not destroyed due to the absorption loss in optical fibers.

These quantum repeaters require some sort of solid-state memory at the single photon level. And, thanks to a recent experiment at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, it’s possible that quantum information science is a little closer to application. “We were able to show how to store and retrieve, on demand, weak light pulses at the single photon level with a wavelengths optimized for fiber transmission. This provides a direct way to interface photons used for quantum communication with a quantum memory,” Björn Lauritzen tells PhysOrg.com. Lauritzen and his colleagues present their work in Physical Review Letters:

“Telecommunication-Wavelength Solid-State Memory at the Single Photon Level.” “We managed to reduce the noise involved with this technique as well,” Lauritzen says. “What we have shown is a proof of principle that you can create a solid-state quantum memory for photons at telecommunication wavelengths, and this should be quite helpful in long distance quantum communications.” Lauritzen and his peers used an yttrium orthosilicate crystal doped with erbium ions to store light pulses on the single-photon level. The memory uses a photon echo technique based on controlled reversible inhomogenous broadening. “First, we prepared the crystal through optical pumping,” Lauritzen explains. “We prepared a narrow absorption line, which we artificially broadened using an external electrical field. When we sent in a weak pulse of light, which then was collectively absorbed by the ensemble of ions, and a de-phasing took place. We can reverse it by flipping the polarity of the electrical field.” With this method, it was possible for the Geneva team to retrieve the information it had sent in originally when it wished. “This method is especially good for quantum repeaters, providing quantum memory at telecommunication wavelengths, making it possible to send quantum over distances not possible now.”

Other applications are also possible, according to Lauritzen. “This method could also provide a single photon source,” he says. “If you can retrieve the photon on demand, you can build up a source of photons, and command the emission of one at a time. This could be useful in a number of science experiments that require a single photon source.” The results are also interesting in terms of materials research. Exploring the properties of rare earth metals, like the erbium used to dope the crystal in the experiment, could provide some insight into new methods and techniques for future applications. “This might stimulate some materials research, especially with erbium,” Lauritzen insists. For now, though, Lauritzen is interested in improving this technique for communication purposes. “We’re working on memory based on atomic frequency combs, as well as testing out different conditions, such as temperature and influence of the magnetic field, to see whether we can reduce losses due to an absorbing background to increase efficiency and really make long distance quantum telecommunications possible.”

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like electricity.

It is a paradigm shift following the mainframe and client-server shifts that preceded it. Details are abstracted from the users who no longer have need of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources as a service over the Internet.
The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network.Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online which are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers.

Last year Microsoft intriduced Surface, a table with a built-in monitor and touch screen; many industry watchers have seen it as a bellwether for touch-sensitive computing embedded into every device imaginable. Surface is a neat trick, but the reality of touch devices may be driven by something entirely different and more accessible: the Apple iPhone.

What is it? With the iPhone, "multitouch" technology (which lets you use more than one finger to perform specific actions) reinvented what we knew about the humble touchpad. Tracing a single finger on most touchpads looks positively simian next to some of the tricks you can do with two or more digits. Since the iPhone's launch, multitouch has found its way into numerous mainstream devices, including the Asus Eee PC 900 and a Dell Latitude tablet PC. Now all eyes are turned back to Apple, to see how it will further adapt multitouch (which it has already brought to its laptops' touchpads). Patents that Apple has filed for a multitouch tablet PC have many people expecting the company to dive into this neglected market, finally bringing tablets into the mainstream and possibly sparking explosive growth in the category.

When is it coming? It's not a question of when Multitouch will arrive, but how quickly the trend will grow. Fewer than 200,000 touch-screen devices were shipped in 2006. iSuppli analysts have estimated that a whopping 833 million will be sold in 2013. The real guessing game is figuring out when the old "single-touch" pads become obsolete, possibly taking physical keyboards along with them in many devices.

The reason most cell phones are so cheap is that wireless carriers subsidize them so you'll sign a long-term contract. Open access could change the economics of the mobile phone (and mobile data) business dramatically as the walls preventing certain devices from working on certain networks come down.

What is it? Two years is an eternity in the cellular world. The original iPhone was announced, introduced, and discontinued in less than that time, yet carriers routinely ask you to sign up for two-year contracts if you want access to their discounted phones. (It could be worse--in other countries, three years is normal.) Verizon launched the first volley late last year when it promised that "any device, any application" would soon be allowed on its famously closed network. Meanwhile, AT&T and T-Mobile like to note that their GSM networks have long been "open."

When is it coming? Open access is partially here: You can use almost any unlocked GSM handset on AT&T or T-Mobile today, and Verizon Wireless began certifying third-party devices for its network in July (though to date the company has approved only two products). But the future isn't quite so rosy, as Verizon is dragging its feet a bit on the legal requirement that it keep its newly acquired 700-MHz network open to other devices, a mandate that the FCC agreed to after substantial lobbying by Google. Some experts have argued that the FCC provisions aren't wholly enforceable. However, we won't really know how "open" is defined until the new network begins rolling out, a debut slated for 2010.

The new MapmyIndia RoadPilot is a Slim , pocket friendly 3.5-inch touchscreen GPS navigation device loaded with all India maps for turn-by-turn voice guided navigation across India. The MapmyIndia RoadPilot works exclusively on GPS signals and does not require a SIM card or GPRS connection to work.

The key features of the new MapmyIndia RoadPilot GPS navigator are:

• The brand new map experience:
  • With brilliant graphics and fully interactive features, experience the map like never before. Drag the map in any direction, zoom in and out smoothly to change scale, make the map 2D or 3D at any angle, and rotate the map to change your perspective. If that’s not enough, change the mode from day to night to see your city or region in a totally different light!
• Searching made easy:
  • Simply type in the name of the location or point of interest you are looking for, and you will magically see it appear on the map. To make things easier, you don’t even have to type in the exact spelling or the full name of the location. The brand new search handles all those for you, so you don’t waste time typing and use that in reaching your destination quickly.
• High-performance navigation:
  • Of course you get real-time “talking” directions, turn-by-turn, to your destination along with clear map guidance so you can easily reach your destination. Where the new MapmyIndia Navigator stands out is the speed with which it calculates your route and starts giving you directions. Simply enter your destination, and start moving. Even if you miss a turn, it instantly re-calculates and gives you the new route.
• Points of interest:
  • You can find points of interest (Eg petrol pumps, ATMs, restaurants, landmarks etc) near your current location, along the way or near the destination. You even get address and phone numbers for important ones, so you can call to make a reservation etc. Add POIs to the map itself so as you are driving you can see which ones you are crossing, and click on them to get details.
• Geopix! Navigate using photographs:
  • Now, wouldn’t it be nice if you could see photographs of places you were crossing, or traveling to. With the new MapmyIndia Navigator, you can import geo-tagged photographs and see them on the map, navigate to them, or search for the nearest GeoPix.
• Personalized:
  • Save your favourite locations, routes and GPS logs to acess easily later. This saves time in entering the same destinations again in future, and also helps you mark more places on the map for your own reference.

Availability of vast range of digital cameras is sufficient to bewilder any potential customer. Features offered in a digital camera have also increased manifold and that makes it very complicated for a user to decide on a single camera. Quite often, buyers have been found to purchase a digital camera just on the basis of features offered without realising their own specific needs. Impulsive purchase can have a negative effect later on. Buyers are recommended to consider all the factors before purchasing a digital camera. Point to remember here is, cameras are pretty expensive and hence it is advisable to look for one that offers you best value of money.

First and foremost, think carefully about the usage before deciding on a certain brand. You will also need to consider how frequently you will use it and types of usage. If it’s for regular use that you will be taking around most of the times then better get a compact or subcompact camera. Such cameras are easier to carry and handle. Having a bulky SLR will be inconvenient. But if have a keen interest in photography and want to have quality pictures with various photography techniques then go for SLR.

Digital revolution has swept people off by their feet in last two decades. Every other day, we come across a new invention or technology. The life cycle of a product has shrunk considerably in the age when a new technology is rendered obsolete within few months. What used to sell like hot cakes just a month back might not find any takers today. Yes, that is the pace of technology. One of the direct beneficiaries of digital revolution is home televisions. High definition Flat Screen TVs can be seen in every second household. Even in this segment, two particular categories Plasma technology and LCD TV is reigning supreme. Here we will be talking about plasma technology.

Plasma technology has completely changed the way people used to watch television. Now watching TV has become a pleasurable experience. Quite a large number of people relish to watch a movie on plasma TV instead of going to theatre and that amply demonstrates its popularity. It has wonderful design that is not only sleek and slim but visually stimulating as well. Television industry has got a real boost in arms with invention of plasma TV.

Petrified of piracy, Hollywood has long relied on technical means to keep copies of its output from making the rounds on peer-to-peer networks. It hasn't worked: Tools to bypass DRM on just about any kind of media are readily available, and feature films often hit BitTorrent even before they appear in theaters. Unfortunately for law-abiding citizens, DRM is less a deterrent to piracy than a nuisance that gets in the way of enjoying legally obtained content on more than one device.

What is it? It's not what it is, it's what it isn't--axing DRM means no more schemes to prevent you from moving audio or video from one form of media to another. The most ardent DRM critics dream of a day when you'll be able to take a DVD, pop it in a computer, and end up with a compressed video file that will play on any device in your arsenal. Better yet, you won't need that DVD at all: You'll be able to pay a few bucks for an unprotected, downloadable version of the movie that you can redownload any time you wish.

When is it coming? Technologically speaking, nothing is stopping companies from scrapping DRM tomorrow. But legally and politically, resistance persists.

Video is taking baby steps in the same direction, albeit slowly so far. One recent example: RealNetworks' RealDVD software (which is now embroiled in litigation) lets you rip DVDs to your computer with one click, but they're still protected by a DRM system. Meanwhile, studios are experimenting with bundling legally rippable digital copies of their films with packaged DVDs, while online services are tiptoeing into letting downloaders burn a copy of a digital movie to disc.

That's progress, but ending all DRM as we know it is still years off. Keep your fingers crossed--for 2020.

Wireless power transmission has been a dream since the days when Nikola Tesla imagined a world studded with enormous Tesla coils. But aside from advances in recharging electric toothbrushes, wireless power has so far failed to make significant inroads into consumer-level gear.

What is it? This summer, Intel researchers demonstrated a method--based on MIT research--for throwing electricity a distance of a few feet, without wires and without any dangers to bystanders (well, none that they know about yet). Intel calls the technology a "wireless resonant energy link", and it works by sending a specific, 10-MHz signal through a coil of wire; a similar, nearby coil of wire resonates in tune with the frequency, causing electrons to flow through that coil too. Though the design is primitive, it can light up a 60-watt bulb with 70 percent efficiency.

When is it coming? Numerous obstacles remain, the first of which is that the Intel project uses alternating current. To charge gadgets, we'd have to see a direct-current version, and the size of the apparatus would have to be considerably smaller. Numerous regulatory hurdles would likely have to be cleared in commercializing such a system, and it would have to be thoroughly vetted for safety concerns.

Assuming those all go reasonably well, such receiving circuitry could be integrated into the back of your laptop screen in roughly the next six to eight years. It would then be a simple matter for your local airport or even Starbucks to embed the companion power transmitters right into the walls so you can get a quick charge without ever opening up your laptop bag.

The USB connector has been one of the greatest success stories in the history of computing, with more than 2 billion USB-connected devices sold to date. But in an age of terabyte hard drives, the once-cool throughput of 480 megabits per second that a USB 2.0 device can realistically provide just doesn't cut it any longer.

What is it? USB 3.0 (aka "SuperSpeed USB") promises to increase performance by a factor of 10, pushing the theoretical maximum throughput of the connector all the way up to 4.8 gigabits per second, or processing roughly the equivalent of an entire CD-R disc every second. USB 3.0 devices will use a slightly different connector, but USB 3.0 ports are expected to be backward-compatible with current USB plugs, and vice versa. USB 3.0 should also greatly enhance the power efficiency of USB devices, while increasing the juice (nearly one full amp, up from 0.1 amps) available to them. That means faster charging times for your iPod--and probably even more bizarre USB-connected gear like the toy rocket launchers and beverage coolers that have been festooning people's desks.

When is it coming? The USB 3.0 spec is nearly finished, with consumer gear now predicted to come in 2010. Meanwhile, a host of competing high-speed plugs--DisplayPort, eSATA, and HDMI--will soon become commonplace on PCs, driven largely by the onset of high-def video. Even FireWire is looking at an imminent upgrade of up to 3.2 gbps performance. The port proliferation may make for a baffling landscape on the back of a new PC, but you will at least have plenty of high-performance options for hooking up peripherals.

If your CPU has only a single core, it's officially a dinosaur. In fact,quad-core computing is now commonplace; you can even get laptop computers with four cores today. But we're really just at the beginning of the core wars: Leadership in the CPU market will soon be decided by who has the most cores, not who has the fastest clock speed.

What is it? With the gigahertz race largely abandoned, both AMD and Intel are trying to pack more cores onto a die in order to continue to improve processing power and aid with multitasking operations. Miniaturizing chips further will be key to fitting these cores and other components into a limited space. Intel will roll out 32-nanometer processors (down from today's 45nm chips) in 2009.

When is it coming? Intel has been very good about sticking to its road map. A six-core CPU based on the Itanium design should be out imminently, when Intel then shifts focus to a brand-new architecture called Nehalem, to be marketed as Core i7. Core i7 will feature up to eight cores, with eight-core systems available in 2009 or 2010. (And an eight-core AMD project called Montreal is reportedly on tap for 2009.)

After that, the timeline gets fuzzy. Intel reportedly canceled a 32-core project called Keifer, slated for 2010, possibly because of its complexity (the company won't confirm this, though). That many cores requires a new way of dealing with memory; apparently you can't have 32 brains pulling out of one central pool of RAM. But we still expect cores to proliferate when the kinks are ironed out: 16 cores by 2011 or 2012 is plausible (when transistors are predicted to drop again in size to 22nm), with 32 cores by 2013 or 2014 easily within reach. Intel says "hundreds" of cores may come even farther down the line.

The memristor, a microscopic component that can "remember" electrical states even when turned off. It's expected to be far cheaper and faster than flash storage. A theoretical concept since 1971, it has now been built in labs and is already starting to revolutionize everything we know about computing, possibly making flash memory, RAM, and even hard drives obsolete within a decade.

The memristor is just one of the incredible technological advances sending shock waves through the world of computing. Other innovations in the works are more down-to-earth, but they also carry watershed significance. From the technologies that finally make paperless offices a reality to those that deliver wireless power, these advances should make your humble PC a far different beast come the turn of the decade.