12 watt processor

VIA Technologies produces a 1-GHz 12 watt processor that makes low-power computing possible in remote areas. It will be interesting to see if energy efficiency becomes as important as calculations per second in future processors. See the article in Information Week.

Fastest Optical Chipset

IBM has developed an optical chipset capable of transmitting at 160Gb/sec, enough to download a high definition movie in a second, provided of course that the rest of the network can transmit at that speed. Of course, that’s a long way off but this chipset provides a basis for high speed data transfer using light rather than electrons. Not only is it fast, but more energy efficient as well. See the press release at the IBM website.

Housing for quantum processor

German physicists have developed a casing for quantum processors that could be used in future quantum computers. Here’s the article from The Inquirer.