Researchers at IBM’s Zurich Research Laboratories have developed magnetic tape technology that can store 29.5 billion bits per square inch, which would allow a cartridge to store about 35 terabytes of data, more than 40 times the storage capacity of current cartridges and several times more than a hard disk of similar size. The researchers used a magnetic medium called barium ferrite, and, by working with Fujifilm, were able to orientate the barium ferrite magnetic particles so that their magnetic fields protrude perpendicularly from the tape, instead of lengthways. This arrangement allows more bits to be stored in a given area, and also strengthens the magnetic fields. Additionally, thinner tape can be used, allowing 12 percent more tape to be stored on a single spooled cartridge. Increasing the density of data on a tape makes it more difficult to reliably read information, which was already a problem due to electromagnetic interference and because the heads retain a certain amount of residual magnetism from readings. To solve these problems, the IBM researchers developed new signal processing algorithms that simultaneously process data and predict the effect that electromagnetic noise will have on subsequent readings.

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The neutron transport code UNIC being developed by a team of computer scientists and nuclear engineers at Argonne National Laboratory enables researchers to acquire a fine-grained model of a nuclear reactor core for the first time. “The UNIC code is intended to reduce the uncertainties and biases in reactor design calculations by progressively replacing existing multilevel averaging techniques with more direct solution methods based on explicit reactor geometries,” says Argonne scientist Andrew Siegel. The Argonne researchers have executed detailed simulations of the Zero Power Reactor experiments on as many as 163,840 processor cores of the Blue Gene/P and 222,912 processor cores of the Cray XT5 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as well as on 294,912 processor cores of a Blue Gene/P at Germany’s Julich Supercomputing Center. UNIC has enabled researchers to successfully represent the details of the full reactor geometry as well as compare the results directly with the experimental data. The scientists say the code could play an essential role in the development of safe, affordable, and green nuclear reactors. UNIC gives researchers a better understanding of the behavior of existing reactor systems and also allows them to anticipate the behavior of many newly proposed systems with untested design characteristics.

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European researchers have devised a new software development paradigm using an assembly line-style development process. “Think of this as a sandwich shop, where you have different products coming from a product line that shares ingredients, which customers can pick and choose,” says AMPLE project coordinator and Lancaster University professor Awais Rashid. The asset base features modular software elements that establish a Software Product Line (SPL), within which is managed the entire software lifecycle from design and development through deployment and maintenance. The AMPLE team created analyses tools that guide users on system development. Rashid says the results of the AMPLE tool analyses match those of human software experts, but the AMPLE software is capable of much faster assessment and can be used by non-experts. Other tools in the chain let companies generate their own modular software components, to put them together for a specific job, and to test and validate the resulting application. Another key element is the maintenance, repair, and modification of both the SPL and the software it creates.

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More than a decade after it was first recommended, a trust that would function as a venture capital fund to research learning technology has finally achieved congressional appropriation through the U.S. Department of Education. The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies will be introduced on Jan. 25 and could be awarding grants by the fall. The center’s co-chairmen will include former U.S. Federal Communication Commission chairman Newton N. Minow, former NBC News and PBS president Lawrence K. Grossman, and former American Arts Alliance director Anne G. Murphy. “It’s time that education had the equivalent of what the National Science Foundation does for science, Darpa [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] does for the national defense, and what N.I.H. [the National Institutes of Health] does for health,” Grossman says. The group constructed three prototypes to gain support for the project–an educational video game for biology students, a museum game, and a computer simulation to train firefighters in high-rise conflagrations.

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Researchers at the National Center for Scientific Research have devised an organic transistor that can emulate a synapse’s primary functionalities. The researchers say the breakthrough could lead to new generations of neuro-inspired computers capable of functions comparable to those of the human brain. The nanoparticle organic memory field-effect transistor (NOMFET) successfully mimics synapse plasticity. Gold nanoparticles are fixed in the transistor channel and coated with pentacene, and they have a memory effect that permits them to imitate the way a synapse operates during the transmission of action potentials between a pair of neurons. Thus the electronic element can evolve as a function of the system in which it is encapsulated. The NOMFET’s performance matches that of at least seven complementary metal-oxide semiconductor transistors that up to now have been needed to mimic plasticity. Neuro-inspired computers can address visual recognition and other challenges that are beyond the capabilities of silicon computers.

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An international team led by University of Sydney researchers have developed a multiple wavelength laser on a silicon chip that produces light for processing and transmitting information. The breakthrough has the potential to lead to more powerful and less expensive computers. “The on-chip light source will be key to enabling the simultaneous transmission of multiple data channels either on-chip or between chips in a single optical fiber, each at a different wavelength,” says Sydney professor David Moss. Electrical signals currently carry information over copper wires. “We know that metal is prone to ‘choking’ on the bandwidth bottleneck,” Moss says. The device consists of a laser on a chip, which can be integrated with silicon computer chips. The laser also could be used in telecommunications, high-precision broadband sensing and spectroscopy, metrology, molecular fingerprinting, optical clocks, and attosecond physics.

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