News from all across the wide world of geekdom.
IBM creates carbon nanotube chip #
Microchip advancement is based largely on the miniaturisation of transistors – smaller transistors means you can fit more of them onto a chip, and more transistors means more processing power (or thereabouts). But, silicon transistors have a limit to how small they can become. So, the quest is out for a new material that can replace it.
Carbon nanotubes – the new-age wunderstructures that will probably both save and destroy the world – are currently the most likely candidate (ignoring the quantum computing movement), as transistors made from them are absolutely teeny tiny, measuring only tens of atoms across. They are also more electrically conductive than silicon, making it possible for all the megabytes to move faster through the (now literal) tubes.
And, moving one step closer to widespread adoption, IBM recently created a chip made up of 10,000 carbon nanotube transistors – best of all, it actually worked. According to IBM, “These carbon devices are poised to replace and outperform silicon technology, allowing further miniaturisation of computing components and leading the way for future microelectronics.”
Although, they do have a long way to go, with commercially useful chips requiring more than a billion transistors.
Real Myst book is impressive, expensive #
As a youngin’, I spent countless hours lost in the game Myst. I remember being utterly astonished at the realistic graphics, and absolutely immersed in the worlds that they represented. As far as gaming nostalgia goes, Myst is near the top of my list.
But this sense of nostalgic fondness clearly doesn’t reach as far into my heart as it does into Mike Andio’s, who has painstakingly re-created the magic book seen in Myst – down to even sourcing a copy of the same issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (vol. LIV, Issue 312, Dec 1876 to May 1877) that Cyan originally scanned as a texture reference.
Inside this book, Mike has stuffed a tiny Windows XP machine, capable of playing every single Myst game via the 5" touch screen. I can’t help but think that he may just have been better off stuffing an iPod Touch in there, though.
Interested? He’s willing to part with it for the bargain basement price of US$15,625.
iRock helps grandmothers/hillbillies charge iDevices #
There are some pleasures in life that have been enjoyed by generations. One such is a warm summer night spent out on the porch with your iPad. I have vivid memories of sitting on my grandmother’s lap (rest her soul), in her rocking chair, while she read me a bedtime story from her old, tattered iPad. Oh, how I’d laugh at how cranky she became when the extension cable charging the iPad got caught under the rockers of her chair and we’d shudder to a stop. Great days.
Your cranky grandmother’s mood can now be noticeably lightened by the iRock – a rocking chair with an in-built iPad stand that actually charges the device via your rocking motion. It even has stereo speakers built in the headrest.
The chair sells for €1,300, and will hopefully ship by late 2013.