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Aeneon DDR3 SO-DIMMs for Notebooks

A new DDR3 SO-DIMMs (Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Modules) has been announced by Aeneon, the channel and retail brand of Qimonda. The new memory chip is said to provide high performance and power efficiency for the mobile PC industry. The chip is aimed for use on the DDR3 notebooks powered by Intel’s Centrino 2 processor technology, the industry’s first.

Aeneon is offering 1GB and 2GB DDR3-1066 SO-DIMMs to the market, which also represents a premiere for the retail memory brands. The new memory modules feature low-power 1Gbit DDR3 components which allow them to provide competitive latencies of 7-7-7-21. For this, they only need the standard DDR3 voltage of 1.5V, which is an ideal one for mobile machines. August 2008 will mark the worldwide launch on the market of the DDR3 SO-DIMMs. The memory modules will come to consumers in single retail packages.

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Samsung Electronics Release 40 NM Memory memories

Samsung has presented more official information on its upcoming 40 nm memory chips. Adopting the 40 nm process gives Samsung the possibility to manufacture 32 Gb NAND flash memories that could be implemented in 64 Gb memory cards. This means that the cards are able to store up to 40 DVD-quality movies or over 16000 MP3′s.

The new NAND flash memory features an all new CTF (charge trap architecture) which facilitates increased reliability and may improve manufacturing processes when aiming for 30 nm and even 20 nm in the near future. The new CTF architecture is powered by the use of TANOS structures, which include tantalum, aluminum oxide, nitride, oxide and silicon. The development of 40 nm chips places Samsung ahead of direct competitors such as Intel, which struggle to release their first 45 nm chips.

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Optical Transistor Breakthrough

All-optical circuit components are light-based analogues of electrical transistors and other devices. They are among the most eagerly anticipated technological advances, with the potential to revolutionize computers and communications.
But all-optical devices built in the past have been far too large and power hungry to be practical. Physicists at the Queen’s University in Belfast appear to have solved the problems with a prototype optical amplifier that is both small and low power.

The key to the device is a layer of gold film pierced by an array of holes 0.2 millionths of a meter in diameter and coated in a layer of polymer. The researchers shine two beams of light on the structure: a signal beam and a control beam. When the beams strike the patterned film they produce plasmons, which are essentially blobs of electron gas near the surface of a metal.

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Organic Molecules to Replace Semiconductors?

IBM Scientists have demonstrated how a single molecule can be switched between two distinct conductive states, which allows it to store data. As published today in SMALL, these experiments show that certain types of molecules reveal intrinsic molecular functionalities that are comparable to devices used in today’s semiconductor technology. This finding is yet another promising result to emerge from IBM’s research labs in their efforts to explore and develop novel technologies for the post-CMOS era (CMOS: Complementary-symmetry/Metal-Oxide Semiconductor).

In the August 4 issue of SMALL, IBM researchers Heike Riel and Emanuel Lörtscher from the Zurich Research Laboratory report on a single-molecule switch and memory element. Using a sophisticated mechanical method, they were able to establish electrical contact with an individual molecule to demonstrate reversible and controllable switching between two distinct conductive states. This investigation is part of their work to explore and characterize molecules to become possible building blocks for future memory and logic applications. With dimensions of a single molecule on the order of one nanometer (one millionth of a millimeter), molecular electronics redefines the ultimate limit of miniaturization far beyond that of today’s silicon-based technology.

Image: Memory operation of the single-molecule system. The blue line shows the write, read, and erase pulse pattern applied and the red line demonstrates the resulting switching between “off” and “on” states of the molecular system. As can be seen in the picture, the system is initially in the “off” state. Then a write pulse of +1.6 V is applied and the molecule switches to the “on” state. This state can be read out using a voltage of +1.1 V. The molecule can be switched back to the “off” state by another pulse (erase pulse) of -1.6 V.

The results show that these molecules exhibit properties that can be utilized to perform the same logic operations as used in today’s information technology. Namely, by applying voltage pulses to the molecule, it can be controllably switched between two distinct “on” and “off” states. These correspond to the “0″ and “1″ states on which data storage is based. Moreover, both conductive states are stable and enable non-destructive read-out of the bit state—a prerequisite for nonvolatile memory operation—which the IBM researchers demonstrated by performing repeated write-read-erase-read cycles. With this single-molecule memory element, Riel and Lörtscher have documented more than 500 switching cycles and switching times in the microsecond range.

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About Atomic Clock

When most people think of the digital age and its computers, satellites and mobile phones, the silicone chip is at the foremost of people’s minds. Yet, despite its importance in shaping the world around us, many of the technologies that we take for granted would not be possible without the atomic clock.

The first atomic clock was developed in 1955 by British born Dr Louis Essen who worked during WWII, on high-frequency radar which led him to develop a resonance wavemeter, that was used to successfully measure the speed of light.

Using the same technology he developed the first accurate atomic clock in 1955 at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK. It was based on the resonance of the caesium atom.

According to quantum theory, atoms can only exist in certain quantized energy states depending on the orbits of electron about their nuclei. A cesium clock operates by exposing the atoms to microwaves until they oscillate at one of their resonant frequencies. It was discovered that a caesium atom would resonate at 9,192,631,770 hertz (times a second).

Because of this exactness in resonance and the high number of oscillations atomic clocks (sometimes referred to as caesium oscillators) are exceptionally accurate. Essen’s first device was accurate to a second in a thousand years but the next generation of atomic clocks are now so accurate they will not lose a second in several hundred million years.

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