ARM shares boosted by Microsoft deal

Shares in Cambridge-based ARM rose more than 11% after the announcement on Friday of a licensing agreement with Microsoft.
The agreement extends a collaboration between ARM and Microsoft on software and devices for the embedded, consumer and mobile markets. The two companies have worked together since 1997.


The latest deal, which gives Microsoft access to Arm's core architecture, is thought to signal Arm's long-awaited breakthrough into the computer market, according to the Financial Times.
See also: Microsoft signs closer access to ARM IP

ARM's share price was further buoyed by speculation that Microsoft, which has designed its products around the chip architecture of Intel, will port Windows to work on ARM architecture.
Analysts also said Microsoft may develop its own applications processing chip for mobile devices and games consoles as Apple has done with the A4 chip used in the iPad and iPhone 4.
Microsoft is keen to strengthen its position in the mobile market as it prepares to launch its Phone 7 mobile operating system in August in the face of stiff competition from Android and iPhone.

Quantum Gas in Free Fall: Bose-Einstein Condensate at Zero Gravity

A sensitive measuring device must not be dropped -- because this usually destroys the precision of the instrument. A team of researchers including scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics has done exactly this, however. And the researchers want to use this experience to make the measuring instrument even more sensitive. The team, headed by physicists from the University of Hanover, dropped a piece of apparatus, in which they generated a weightless Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), to the bottom of a drop tower at the University of Bremen.

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The particles in a BEC lose their individuality and can be considered to be a 'super-particle'. The researchers want to use such an ultra-cold quantum gas at zero gravity to construct a very sensitive measuring device for the Earth's gravitational field -- in order to find deposits of minerals, and also to settle fundamental issues in physics.

The research appears in the journal Science.

In a vacuum, a feather falls as quickly as a lead ball -- something that is already presented to students as being irrefutable. "However, the equivalence principle is only a postulate that needs to be tested," says Ernst Maria Rasel, professor at the University of Hanover. According to the equivalence principle, the heavy mass with which bodies attract each other corresponds to the inertial mass, which resists an accelerating force. This means that in a vacuum all bodies hit the ground with the same speed. Physicists want to use a measuring device that measures gravity extremely accurately to investigate whether this hypothesis can really become a physical law. Ernst Maria Rasel's team has now taken an initial step in this direction.

The researchers generated a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in zero gravity and observed, for more than a second, how the atomic cloud behaves in free fall. To this end, they installed an atom chip developed by researchers working with Theodor W. Hänsch, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, and solenoids, lasers, a camera and the necessary energy supply into a cylindrical capsule, which is about as high and wide as a door. After they had moved a cloud of several million rubidium atoms onto the atom chip, they dropped the complete apparatus 146 metres into the depths. A tower at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity of the University of Bremen specializes in such scientific cases.

As the capsule was falling to the ground for four seconds in the drop tower, the researchers generated the BEC on the atom chip, initially by remote control: strong magnetic fields and lasers hold the particles on the chip and cool them. At a few millionths of a degree above absolute zero, the temperature at minus 273.16 degrees Celsius, the particles have lost almost all of their energy and assume a new physical state: all atoms are now in the quantum mechanical ground state so that they can no longer be distinguished as individual particles in the quantum gas.

An atom chip -- the fast path to ultra-cold quantum gas

"They behave completely coherently, practically like a heap of atoms that assumes the properties of a single huge atom," says Tilo Steinmetz, who was involved in the experiment as a researcher from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics. Since the laws of quantum mechanics say that every particle can also be considered to be a wave, it is possible to describe what is happening in a different way: A wave packet of matter forms in which the atoms no longer stay at fixed locations -- they are delocalized. This grouping is maintained until an energetic push, however small, mixes it up.

"We generate a BEC in less than a second on our atom chip. With conventional laboratory apparatus, this takes up to one minute," says Tilo Steinmetz. In addition, an experiment on an atom chip requires significantly less electrical power. "It is thus ideal for use in a drop tower capsule, where energy supply and cooling present a logistical challenge," says Steinmetz.

Ten times more time for a measurement

As soon as the atoms on the chip had merged into the super-particle, the researchers carefully loosened the hold of the trap and released the BEC. The camera in the capsule now enabled them to observe how the condensate spread. This movement reacts extremely sensitively to external fields -- to differences in Earth's gravitational field, for example. These differences exist because the gravitation at a certain point on Earth depends on the local density of the Earth's crust. The longer the Bose-Einstein condensate expands, i.e. the longer it floats in zero gravity, the clearer these differences make themselves felt as it expands. With the experiment in the drop tower alone, the researchers extended the time available for a measurement by more than tenfold when compared to a laboratory experiment. This could help in the future to drastically improve the accuracy of measurement data.

The differences can be measured in an atom interferometer: A quantum gas, that is the wave-packet of matter, is split into two parts and moves in the gravitational field along different paths through space-time. Gravitation behaves like an optical medium, whose refractive index refracts the waves. As soon as the two parts reunite, there is interference, as is also generated when waves on a water surface run into each other. The interference pattern depends on how differently the two matter waves expand. If matter waves of different composition are compared, a test of the equivalence principle with matter waves is performed. The physicists in Ernst Maria Rasel's group now want to construct such an atom interferometer for the capsule of the Bremen drop tower.

"Ultimately, we would like to perform such experiments in space," says Ernst Maria Rasel. The equivalence principle could also be tested there. To this end, the researchers must drop clouds of different atoms to Earth for as long as possible. They could then find out whether all bodies really fall with the same speed. And the longer the atom clouds remain in zero gravity -- that is, the further they fall -- the more chance there is of clarifying this.

Scientists Strive to Replace Silicon With Graphene on Nanocircuitry

Scientists have made a breakthrough toward creating nanocircuitry on graphene, widely regarded as the most promising candidate to replace silicon as the building block of transistors. They have devised a simple and quick one-step process based on thermochemical nanolithography (TCNL) for creating nanowires, tuning the electronic properties of reduced graphene oxide on the nanoscale and thereby allowing it to switch from being an insulating material to a conducting material.

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The technique works with multiple forms of graphene and is poised to become an important finding for the development of graphene electronics. The research appears in the June 11, 2010, issue of the journal Science.

Scientists who work with nanocircuits are enthusiastic about graphene because electrons meet with less resistance when they travel along graphene compared to silicon and because today's silicon transistors are nearly as small as allowed by the laws of physics. Graphene also has the edge due to its thickness -- it's a carbon sheet that is a single atom thick. While graphene nanoelectronics could be faster and consume less power than silicon, no one knew how to produce graphene nanostructures on such a reproducible or scalable method. That is until now.

"We've shown that by locally heating insulating graphene oxide, both the flakes and epitaxial varieties, with an atomic force microscope tip, we can write nanowires with dimensions down to 12 nanometers. And we can tune their electronic properties to be up to four orders of magnitude more conductive. We've seen no sign of tip wear or sample tearing," said Elisa Riedo, associate professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

On the macroscale, the conductivity of graphene oxide can be changed from an insulating material to a more conductive graphene-like material using large furnaces.

Now, the research team used TCNL to increase the temperature of reduced graphene oxide at the nanoscale, so they can draw graphene-like nanocircuits. They found that when it reached 130 degrees Celsius, the reduced graphene oxide began to become more conductive.

"So the beauty of this is that we've devised a simple, robust and reproducible technique that enables us to change an insulating sample into a conducting nanowire. These properties are the hallmark of a productive technology," said Paul Sheehan, head of the Surface Nanoscience and Sensor Technology Section at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

The research team tested two types of graphene oxide -- one made from silicon carbide, the other with graphite powder.

"I think there are three things about this study that make it stand out," said William P. King, associate professor in the Mechanical Science and Engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "First, is that the entire process happens in one step. You go from insulating graphene oxide to a functional electronic material by simply applying a nano-heater. Second, we think that any type of graphene will behave this way. Third, the writing is an extremely fast technique. These nanostructures can be synthesized at such a high rate that the approach could be very useful for engineers who want to make nanocircuits."

"This project is an excellent example of the new technologies that epitaxial graphene electronics enables," said Walt de Heer, Regent's Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Physics and the original proponent of epitaxial graphene in electronics. His study led to the establishment of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center two years ago. "The simple conversion from graphene oxide to graphene is an important and fast method to produce conducting wires. This method can be used not only for flexible electronics, but it is possible, sometime in the future, that the bio-compatible graphene wires can be used to measure electrical signals from single biological cells."

Worm's Eye View: Molecular Worm Algorithm Navigates Inside Chemical Labyrinth

With the passage of a molecule through the labyrinth of a chemical system being so critical to catalysis and other important chemical processes, computer simulations are frequently used to model potential molecule/labyrinth interactions. In the past, such simulations have been expensive and time-consuming to carry out, but now researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new algorithm that should make future simulations easier and faster to compute, and yield much more accurate results.

"Currently the major limiting factor in running molecular simulations for a large number of structures before they can be screened for useful materials is the need to visually analyze the structures to set up successful simulations," says Maciej Haranczyk, a computational chemist and a 2008 Glenn T. Seaborg Fellow in Berkeley Lab's Computational Research Division. "With our approach, such structural analysis can be done automatically, which speeds up the whole process of material screening."

Haranczyk is co-author of a paper that appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences entitled: "Navigating molecular worms inside chemical labyrinths." The other author of this paper is James Sethian, who heads the Mathematics Group of Berkeley Lab's Computational Research Division, and is also a professor in the Mathematics Department of the University of California, Berkeley.

A key to the success of this new algorithm was its departure from the traditional treatment of molecules as hard spheres with fixed radii. Instead, Haranczyk and Sethian constructed "molecular worms" from blocks connected by flexible links. These molecular worms provide a more realistic depiction of a molecule's geometry, thereby providing a more accurate picture of how that molecule will navigate through a given chemical labyrinth, as Sethian explains.

"In practice, most molecules of interest, even the simplest solvents or gases, rarely have a spherical shape, and treating molecules as such may lead to errors," he says. "Our molecular worms are able to change shape during the traversing of a chemical labyrinth, which allows them to reach areas not accessible to either a single large spherical probe or a rigid real-shape probe. This significantly extends the range of probes and structures that can be efficiently examined."

As a molecule navigates through a chemical system, its access to a particular site or place within that system determines the extent to which catalysis and other chemical reactions may occur. Many of these critical sites are either buried in clefts, pockets or hidden cavities, or else represent channel systems. The accessible volume of a chemical system -- the free volume available to a penetrating molecule -- is also critical to the system's physical properties, including diffusion, viscosity and electrical conductivity. Predicting whether a molecule will be able to traverse through a given chemical labyrinth is the first question that a simulation must answer, followed by identifying the shortest transverse route, finding the largest probe that can transverse though the system, and calculating accessible volume.

"The required calculations become quite expensive as one needs to include interactions of all the atoms of the penetrating molecule with all the atoms in the labyrinth, and this procedure has to be repeated at every step of the simulation," Haranczyk says. "Additionally, in molecular dynamics only one trajectory per molecule is investigated. Since a penetrating molecule can be bouncing off the walls of a system before it finds a way out, mapping accessible volume in a chemical labyrinth may require the running of a very long simulation to actually see the molecule moving through."

Haranczyk, looking to automate the process by which the void spaces of porous materials are analyzed, had an idea for a probe that would walk through the inside a material and map it. Sethian had been working on mathematic techniques that can be used in robotic navigations and path planning, as well as a host of algorithms for computing geometries in complex settings.

"What's exciting here is to bring together two disparate worlds to build a new technology" says Sethian.

The two scientists pooled their expertise to develop the molecular worm algorithm, which they first tested on a zeolite material. Zeolites are microporous minerals that have been widely used since the late 1950s as chemical catalysts, membranes for separations, and water softeners. They are especially useful as alkane-cracking catalysts in oil refinement.

"There are 190 zeolite structures known to exist today, but they constitute only a very small fraction of the 2.5 million structures that are feasible on theoretical grounds," Haranczyk says. "The development of a database of hypothetical zeolite structures has long been regarded as an important step toward designer catalysts as it could, in principle, be screened for zeolites of any property. However, brute-force screening of all possible zeolite structures through molecular dynamics characterization is computationally infeasible, hence the need for rapid triaging based on an initial analysis of various properties."

The successful testing of the molecular worm algorithm on a typical alkane-cracking zeolite opens an immediate door to its use in screening for new zeolites as well as a wide variety of other porous materials. The algorithm should also prove valuable in the search for materials that can capture carbon emissions before they enter the atmosphere. With further refinements, it could also one day be applied to proteins, especially enzymes.

"Being at the frontier of science and solving a very complex problem that has not been addressed before is always very exciting," Haranczyk says.

24-Carat Gold 'Snowflakes' Improve Graphene's Electrical Properties

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2009) — In an effort to make graphene more useful in electronics applications, Kansas State University engineers made a golden discovery -- gold "snowflakes" on graphene.

Vikas Berry is a K-State assistant professor of chemical engineering who works with graphene, a carbon material only a single atom thick and discovered just five years ago. To functionalize graphene with gold -- thus controlling its electronics properties -- Berry and Kabeer Jasuja, a K-State doctoral student in chemical engineering, imbedded gold on graphene.

To do this, the engineers placed the graphene oxide sheets in a gold ion solution that had a growth catalyst. Here, the atomically thick sheets swim and bathe in a pool of chemicals.

"Graphene-derivatives act like swimming molecular carpets when in solution and exhibit fascinating physiochemical behavior," Berry said. "If we change the surface functionality or the concentration, we can control their properties."

They found that rather than distributing itself evenly over graphene, the gold formed islands on the sheets' surfaces. They named these islands snowflake-shaped gold nanostars, or SFGNs.

"So we started exploring how these gold nanostars are formed," Berry said. "We found out that nanostars with no surface functionality are rather challenging to produce by other chemical processes. We can control the size of these nanostars and have characterized the mechanism of nucleation and growth of these nanostructures. It's similar to the mechanism that forms real snowflakes."

Berry said the presence of graphene is critical for the formation of the gold nanostars. "If graphene is absent, the gold would clump together and settle down as big chunks," he said. "But the graphene helps in stabilizing the gold. This makes the nanostars more useful for electronic applications."

In July, Jasuja and Berry published their work in the journal ACS-Nano.

The discovery of these gold "snowflakes" on graphene shows promise for biological devices as well as

electronics. Berry is attaching DNA to these gold islands to make DNA sensors. He is joined by Nihar Mohanty, a doctoral student in chemical engineering, and undergraduate researcher Ashvin Nagaraja, a senior in electrical engineering. Nagaraja is a 2004 Manhattan High School graduate.

Berry said graphene-gold based DNA sensors will have enhanced sensitivity. Chemically reducing graphene oxide to obtain graphene requires harsh chemicals that destroy the DNA.

"Now we can use the harsh chemicals on graphene oxide imbedded with gold to obtain graphene with gold islands. Then we can use these gold islands to functionalize DNA."

Berry also is using graphene in conjunction with microwaves. He and Jasuja are "cooking" the graphene sheets as another way to produce particles on the material's surface.

Some of Berry's other graphene research involves using the modified graphene sheets to compartmentalize a coagulating solution, thus stabilizing it. His group has recently used hydrides to reduce graphene oxide to produce reduced graphene oxide in the matter of a few seconds. The graphene produced in this way can remain stable in the solution for several days. Further results will shortly appear in the journal Small

Discovered only five years ago, graphene has captured the attention of a large number of researchers who are studying its exceptional electrical, mechanical and optical properties, Berry said. His research group is among the few studying the material's interfacial properties and biological applications.

"We're entering a new era," Berry said. "From the zero-dimensional or one-dimensional molecular or polymer solutions, we are now venturing into the two-dimensional graphene solutions, which have fascinating new properties."

Intel Study Reveals Importance of Keeping Tech Tasteful During the Holidays

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 19, 2009 – According to the recent "Intel Holiday Mobile Etiquette" study conducted by Harris Interactive* and sponsored by Intel Corporation, most online U.S. adults (80 percent) feel there are unspoken rules about mobile technology usage, and approximately 7 in 10 (69 percent) agreed that violations of these unspoken mobile etiquette guidelines, such as checking e-mails, sending text messages and making phone calls while in the company of others, are unacceptable.

Mobile etiquette breeches have particular relevance during the upcoming holiday season, as the survey found that more than half (52 percent) would be offended if they were at a holiday party and someone attempted to secretly use an Internet-enabled device, such as a laptop, netbook or cell phone, at the table. The restroom, however, doesn't seem to command the same reverence when it comes to mobile technology. Despite hygiene considerations and potentially awkward explanations, 75 percent feel it is perfectly appropriate to use Internet-enabled devices, including laptops, netbooks and cell phones, in the bathroom, with only 25 percent agreeing that it was inappropriate behavior.

Technology All the Time
The survey also found that 62 percent agree that mobile devices, such as laptops, netbooks and cell phones, are part of our daily lives and society needs to adapt to the fact that people use them at all times.

"The social rules for new technologies are continuing to be established across cultures and geographies around the world, and etiquette will continue to change and adapt over time along with it," said Dr. Genevieve Bell, renowned ethnographer and director of Intel's User Experience Group. "As technology becomes increasingly engrained in our daily lives and we attempt to strike the right balance between constant connectivity and setting boundaries on accessibility, the social and cultural guidelines for appropriate behavior surrounding mobile technology will continue to develop and change."

According to the study, many online adults view the need for constant connectivity as a function of expectations set by the current business culture, with 55 percent agreeing that the nature of business today demands people always be connected via mobile devices, even if it means taking a laptop on vacation or answering a call during a meal.

"Etiquette surrounding mobile technology is becoming increasingly relevant, particularly in social situations such as holiday gatherings and events," said Anna Post, author and etiquette expert for the Emily Post Institute. "As technology continues to become more prevalent and play an integral role in our everyday lives, it becomes more challenging to discern appropriate behavior from potentially offensive behavior."

Intel Unveils 45nm System-on-Chip for Internet TV

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, San Francisco, Sept. 24, 2009 – Intel Corporation today unveiled the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100, the newest System-on-Chip (SoC) in a family of media processors designed to bring Internet content and services to digital TVs, DVD players and advanced set-top boxes.

The CE4100 processor, formerly codenamed "Sodaville," is the first 45nm-manufactured consumer electronics (CE) SoC based on Intel architecture. It supports Internet and broadcast applications on one chip, and has the processing power and audio/video components necessary to run rich media applications such as 3-D graphics.

"Traditional broadcast networks are quickly shifting from a linear model to a multi-stream, Internet-optimized model to offer consumers digital entertainment that complements the TV such as social networking, 3-D gaming and streaming video," said Eric Kim, senior vice president and general manager, Intel Digital Home Group. "At the center of the TV evolution is the CE4100 media processor, a new architecture that meets the critical requirements for connected CE devices."

CE Industry Rallies Around Intel CE Media Processors
Joining Kim on stage during his keynote were executives from Adobe Systems, BBC (British Broadcast Company), CBS, Cisco and TransGaming. These and other companies are working with Intel to advance content, services and infrastructure for connected CE devices.

As TVs become more interactive, Adobe* Flash* is an important enabling technology to help content developers blend together video, 3-D animation and rich graphics. Intel is working with Adobe to port Adobe Flash Player 10 to the family of Intel CE media processors to optimize the playback of graphics and H.264 video to enable for the first time a wide array of Flash-based content on the television.

"The architecture of Intel media processors provides a powerful and innovative platform to showcase Flash-based applications in a vivid way," said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. "Flash Player 10 combined with the performance of the Intel media processor and its support for standards such as OpenGL ES 2.0 offers a compelling environment for Flash-based games, videos and other rich Web content and applications." The companies expect Adobe Flash Player 10 to be available in the first half of 2010 for Intel media processor-based CE devices.

Malachy Moynihan, vice president for video product strategy, Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group, discussed how delivering premium video to the TV will require intelligent networks and content storage.

"Cisco is helping service providers evolve their networks to a medianet, integrating the best elements of the existing broadcast infrastructure with carrier-grade IP networks to provide new services like unified video experience," said Moynihan. "The crucial components to enable a unified video experience include the need for an emerging monetization model across the video ecosystem as well as client devices with quality graphics and a high-performance processor to truly enhance the visual appeal for consumers."

On-Demand Gaming for TV
TransGaming President and CEO Vikas Gupta announced an on-demand gaming service called GameTree.tv* to be optimized for connected digital TVs and CE devices powered by Intel media processors.

"At TransGaming, we're in the business of enabling existing games to operate on alternative operating systems," said Gupta. "Since Intel CE processors run on Intel architecture, it's a fast and easy migration from the PC to the CE platform."

The GameTree.tv service will offer a broad library of games such as sports, action and adventure and provide content developers with a software development kit to support the migration of existing games and the development of new games based on the Intel CE platform. It will help revolutionize the delivery and global consumption of video games and provide a turnkey monetization strategy for CE manufacturers and cable/satellite providers (MSOs).

TV Widgets, Interactive TV Applications
Intel CE media processors provide a full-featured software framework called Widget Channel for the development of Internet applications, or TV widgets. Broadcast networks such as CBS are expanding the gallery of TV widgets to help their viewers find and connect to premium content in a more personalized manner.

"Navigation is the No. 1 challenge for today's television viewers," said George Schweitzer, president, CBS Marketing. "Intel's CE technology and our new TV Widget platform are designed to help people find the shows they want and discover new programs that are relevant to their interests. What's more, the TV Widget gives us another platform to connect and interact with our audience while delivering an exciting new television experience."

Intel is working with the industry to expand Widget Channel to provide consumers a range of services such as movies, music, games and personal videos. TV Widgets and services shown at IDF were from Accedo Broadband*, The Associated Press*, BIGSTAR.tv*, CBS*, CinemaNow*, Dailymotion*, Immediatek*, Mediafly, MyVideo*, Netflix*, PlayJam*, RadioTime*, RallyPoint*, ShowTime Networks*, Tagesschau* and WhereverTV.*

Intel® Atom™ Processor CE4100
The CE4100 processor can deliver speeds up to 1.2GHz while offering lower power and a small footprint to help decrease system costs. It is backward compatible with the Intel® Media Processor CE 3100 and features Intel® Precision View Technology, a display processing engine to support high-definition picture quality and Intel® Media Play Technology for seamless audio and video. It also supports hardware decode of up to two 1080p video streams and advanced 3-D graphics and audio standards. To provide OEMs flexibility in their product offerings, new features were added such as hardware decode for MPEG4 video that is ready for DivX* Home Theater 3.0 certification, an integrated NAND flash controller, support for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory and 512K L2 cache. The CE SoC contains a display processor, graphics processor, video display controller, transport processor, a dedicated security processor and general I/O including SATA-300 and USB 2.0. For more product information, visit www.intelconsumerelectronics.com.