The Brain as a Model for Future Supercomputers

The brain’s repute took a big hit in 1997 when an IBM supercomputer defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov in a match reported around the world. But, in the second round, the brain is back.
A Sandia National Laboratories-supported workshop in Albuquerque called NICE, for Neuro-Inspired Computational Elements workshop, discussed ways to use the brain’s superior ability to send electrical signals along massively parallel channels, with multiple intersections at downstream nodes, to handle rapidly changing, high-volume information.
The hope is that rather than using the limited “if this, then that” logic of conventional computer architectures to absorb steadily increasing yet often incomplete data, cognitive systems will be able — like the brain — to learn, adapt, hypothesize, and then suggest answers.

As Julia Phillips, Sandia vice president and chief technology officer, put it in her opening talk, “Neuro-inspired computing is at the intersection of cognitive science and technology, nano devices, microsystems and computer and information sciences. It transcends our traditional approaches.”
It also happens to reside at the major crossroads of Sandia research areas, she pointed out.
Of course, conventional computer architectures still predominate and Moore’s Law isn’t dead yet — just “eroding,” as Sandia director of computing research Rob Leland told the workshop. But, when it becomes impossible to shrink circuits any smaller, as it seems will be the case in the next 10 years — what’s next? And as the von Neumann/Turing architecture of the last 60 years staggers beneath the weight of uncertainties increasingly inherent in working with huge realms of fuzzy data, what then?
Workshop participants proposed using the configuration of the brain as a model. First, isolate the brain tissues that control aspects of behavior. Then analyze — microscopically and in very small time steps — the shape and behavior of the neurons sending the signals. Then duplicate that arrangement using conventional hardware and software, or most likely, a new solid-state substrate.

“National security challenges — Sandia’s main interest — have historically been addressed in the physical domain, which remains vitally important,” Leland said. “But these challenges today have intrinsically a cognitive aspect concerning the behavior of the individual and group, so just the physical realm isn’t going to be sufficient to address these issues. Our aspiration is to deepen our understanding of cognitive science so we can address these problems in the behavioral realms.” He listed possible domain intersections that included tissue-based and in-vivo sensors, optical nanosensors for chemical analysis within cells, regulated nanoassembly of circuits, digital antibodies and virus-sized logic chips.






Jim Olds from the Krasnow Institute at George Mason University went further in not only predicting the end of Moore’s Law but denying it ever had the importance the computing world assigned it. He presented what he called “the great stagnation argument: that Moore’s Law is not like the industrial revolution or electricity” because it produced few jobs and lately, no real economic growth.
A brain-inspired industrial revolution
“There’s been a slowed-down technological revolution, despite our feelings to the contrary,” he said. Because Facebook, “for all its enormous market capitalization,” and Google have few employees compared with Ford Motor Co., “it’s clear that technology from Moore’s Law isn’t translated into day-to-day lives. For some reason, we’re not seeing opportunities for getting ahead by hard work. It’s enabled us to enjoy leisure, and load movies onto iPads, but flying cars haven’t come to pass.”
To the contrary, he said, real median household income, which increased dramatically since the beginning of the 20th century, stopped increasing in the last 10 years. To solve this problem so “researchers are not sitting alone in their silos….we need a new, brain-inspired industrial revolution,” Olds said.
 
That might be found in the Obama administration’s recently announced project to map the neurons and network functions of the human brain. The $100 million project, which received a mixed reception from neuroscientists, will launch in 2014 and may continue for 10 years.
“This is a transformation from letting a million flowers bloom — from single PIs [principal investigators] to a major strategic investment,” Olds said.
“Brains are highly parallel, can reconfigure themselves dynamically in a few minutes and use molecular signal transduction [to pass messages],” he said. “In message-passing they use little power and finesse around bottlenecks [that would slow silicon] parallel computing systems.”
Apparently, though, the brain’s advantage isn’t speed. The brain uses wet-ware, Olds said, and is therefore slow compared to the speed of silicon chips, though more complex and therefore more powerful in many other ways.

A modest proposal
Slow signal speed didn’t faze Christof Koch, chief scientific officer of Allen Institute for Brain Science. “I have a modest proposal,” he told the group. “Imagine a one-kilogram, three-dimensional block of silicon, or stacks of chips, all with 10 kilohertz clocks and each consuming microwatts of power. There’s much more silicon, and therefore it’s very expensive and heavy, like the brain! But, much less cost for heat sinks, much less air conditioning.”
The Allen Institute, he said, was founded in 2003 to support basic research in the brain sciences with a staff of 210, including 50 Ph.D.s.
“There are a thousand different cell types in the brain,” Koch said. “Every time we look at the brain, we see more and more complexities, like astronomers looking at the universe every 10 years.”
The problems include science’s inability to simultaneously record more than 0.0001 percent of firing neurons, and, before the Obama proposal, “no central unifying projects. There are 10,000 labs with different questions, methods, protocols and standards, heading off exuberantly in all directions. Universities are not set up for large-scale systematic efforts.”
Jacob Vogelstein, a program manager at Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory, spoke about moving ideas into practical engineering. He described taking slices of mouse brain 2 to 3 millimeters on a side and 49 nanometers thick. “Line them up on top of each other and extract the [neuronal] network,” he said. Inputs and outputs can be simulated with Monte Carlo techniques that allow for randomness.
 
Is the brain really the right model?
Again, the difficulties could not be minimized. “In a tiny [brain] region, there are 25,000,000 synapses and cell bodies working through dendrites and axons,” Vogelstein said about the difficulties of creating a copy that might serve as a computing template.
Of course, there is always the question of whether the brain provides the right model, cautioned Mike Vahle, Sandia’s chief information officer. “Computer problems are taking characteristics that the brain seems particularly well-suited to handle,” he said. “But is pattern-matching the right paradigm? Is the technology attainable, are the ethical and cultural issues understood? Can we avoid the pitfalls that plague modern computers and networks: viruses, worms, hacking and computer security [problems in general]?”
Murat Okandan, who proposed and helped organize the workshop for Sandia, suggested the brain did indeed show the path for dealing with large, incomplete, noisy data sets. “First we’ll work with conventional CMOS devices and tools, with simulations of conventional system and architectures, and we’ll cross-pollinate. The ultimate goal would be to learn from the motifs we see in neural computation and instantiate that capability in a massively interconnected, self-reconfigurable substrate that natively does the computation. The question will always be, how much fidelity do you need to get the functionality you want?”
“It’s national reinvention: Time to lead again,” said Olds. He prophesized that the brain’s secrets, morphed into new computers, would “enhance the range of productivity to include retirement years; increase levels of safety and security so that normal decline of physical and mental abilities are lessened; improve method of wealth development leveraging Moore’s law. And help develop enhanced modeling of societies to keep life meaningful.
“To do that, we need to prime the pipeline with the right kind of folks: a transdisciplinary scientist that enhances ‘team science’ approaches,” he said.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.

This 3-D Printed Bioplastic Windpipe Saved A Baby's Life

 

 

The 3-D Printed Trachea Splint Image courtesy of University of Michigan Health System

We’ve seen plenty of 3-D printed medical implants for patients that require replacement tissues, but this use of 3-D printed biopolymer to augment and correct an existing tissue highlights just how amazing the convergence of 3-D printing and medicine is (and will be). Kaiba Gionfriddo was born apparently a normal, healthy baby, but at six months of age he stopped breathing. Regularly. Due to a condition known as tracheobronchomalacia Kaiba’s windpipe was collapsing during regular breathing, and he had to be hooked to a ventilator to be kept alive.
Short of conventional options, Kaiba’s doctors contacted researchers at the University of Michigan who had been experimenting with 3-D printed bio-absorbable polymers. Using high resolution imaging to build a digital picture of Kaiba’s trachea, they were able to print a customized biopolymer tracheal splint for the infant using a 3-D printer.

The splint was surgically sewn around Kaiba’s airways in February of last year. Just 21 days later he was taken off the ventilator and hasn’t been back on it since. His trachea is now growing normally around the splint, which will fully absorb into his body after two to three years. With a little ingenuity, a condition that could’ve plagued Kaiba for his entire life--and likely would have had he been born ten years ago--has been cured.
One of the doctors who worked on the 3-D printed tracheal splint called Kaiba’s case “the highlight of my career so far.” Given the vast potential for 3-D printing to work what used to be considered miracles in medicine, that may not remain the case for long.

Analysis: Cautious optimism greets Xbox One

It's been a dream for Microsoft since 2001: create an entertainment device that dominates the living room. Although they moved one step closer in this conquest with the Xbox 360, it appears the Xbox One might put them over the top.
The company revealed several nifty features for its Xbox One during an event at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Users will be able to navigate and watch live TV, make video phone calls with Skype, flip between apps quickly using the clever Snap feature and even turn the device on with only your voice.
"Being able to integrate custom applications, social communication overlays, and an overall sense of providing a personal experience as a huge win for Microsoft," says Jesse Divnich, analyst with Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, in a statement.
The hardware appears powerful: a 500 GB hard drive, eight-core, x86 processor, HDMI, three USB 3.0 ports and a Blu-ray player.
As a home entertainment device, Xbox One sounds impressive. As a video game console, it's too early to tell.
The Xbox One's new gaming focus features are intriguing: Smart Match that lets players enjoy other activities while waiting for a new match and Game DVR for recording game sessions.
As for actual titles, it's tough to get excited right now. More titles in the longstanding racing series Forza Motorsport and first-person shooter Call of Duty await. Most video game players are well aware of what to expect from those franchises.
The suite of EA Sports games look gorgeous, but if history is any indication, don't expect the robust selection of in-game features that fans of titles such as Madden NFL have seen in current games.
Most interesting is the original series Quantum Break, from the developers of the strong interactive mystery Alan Wake for the Xbox 360. Also, Microsoft will likely reveal more about its games selection at next month's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, so it's likely the company has more fascinating Xbox One titles to showcase.

                                                    Microsoft's new Xbox One console boasts seamless multi-media with multiple platforms.

But there are two more glaring concerns about Xbox One. First, how will this device handle used games? Microsoft has confirmed the device is designed so players can trade in and resell their titles at retail. Then there's this comment from Xbox Live programming manager Larry Hryb:
"Should you choose to play your game at your friend's house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile."
So, what if my friend decides to borrow my game and play on his or her profile? Do they pay a small fee, as this Wired piece suggests, to play the game? Microsoft says they haven't confirmed "specific scenarios" tied to used games.
Then there's the issue of backward compatibility. As this Xbox One FAQ says, it won't play Xbox 360 titles. And, as that Wired piece suggests, it applies to digital downloads, too.
"We designed Xbox One to play an entirely new generation of games — games that are architected to take full advantage of state-of-the-art processors and the infinite power of the cloud," reads the FAQ.
Despite the fears, the battle between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One injects some much-needed life into the video game industry, not to mention excitement players have been craving for a long time.
"The next generation of console gaming has arrived," says Electronic Arts chief operating officer Peter Moore in a blog post. "Our greatest stage for interactive entertainment has just been reset."

As lithium-ion nears its limits, the hunt is on for the battery of the future.

Imagine a smartphone that can be completely charged in mere minutes; lasts longer on that charge than any phone we've ever seen; is made from cleaner materials; and costs less than existing devices, to boot.
This is all possible—but first, the world needs a better way to power that gadget. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have served us well, but we can do better. When we find the replacement, it will revolutionize the way we think about energy. The ideal power source will need to satisfy a host of commercial and industrial uses—everything from electric vehicles and airplanes to phones and cameras—even power grids. Not to mention, it needs to be compact and environmentally friendly. That’s a heavy challenge, indeed.
There's good news: researchers around the world are on the hunt to find just such a device, and they have plenty of promising leads. Here's a look at four of the top contenders.

Tin Nanocrystal Lithium-Ion Battery

Lithium-ion is the standard bearer of chargeable battery technology. It’s energy-dense, relatively cheap, and used in everything from tablet computers and cameras to airplanes and power drills. Elemental lithium is also the lightest metal on the periodic table and boasts the greatest electrochemical potential.

Demand has risen for an electrode nanomaterial that will boost the energy-storing capacity of lithium-ion devices.

The lithium-ion battery generates power by sending lithium ions from a negative electrode to a positive electrode, and does the reverse during a charge. But the electrodes themselves—typically made of cobalt, nickel, manganese, or graphite—are not as absorbent of these ions as many would like them to be. Accordingly, demand has risen for an electrode nanomaterial that will boost the energy-storing capacity of lithium-ion batteries. Many scientists see tin as the perfect element for the job. Tin crystal, specifically, expands up to three times its normal size when it absorbs lithium ions, and then shrinks again after releasing them—just like a sponge. This doubles the energy capacity of the battery, according to the Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry at ETH Zurich.

Metal-Air Battery

Aside from being an awesome band name, "metal-air" is a nonspecific category of batteries whose metal electrodes react with air instead of liquid. These electrodes may be built from a number of different metals, each of which interacts with oxygen in the air to produce an electrical current. A variety of metals can be used for the electrode, but the most promising ones are lithium and sodium.
Some experts see lithium-air as the Holy Grail of electric car batteries, as it promises to extend the battery life of these vehicles to a whopping 1,000 miles—much higher than the existing average of 125 miles. Right now the technology is unstable, but research and investment are not. IBM, for example, is currently working on a prototype lithium-air battery for Boeing's Dreamliner airplane.
An alternative to lithium-air is sodium-air. It has a lower theoretical energy capacity but is more stable and easier to build—and still more efficient than today's lithium-ion batteries. In fact, tests have shown sodium-air batteries with a higher practical energy storage capacity than lithium-air. So for the time being, this technology is arguably superior to the supposed “Holy Grail,” lithium-air. Researchers have also made strides with aluminum- and zinc-air devices, the latter of which is already on the market and can be found in hearing aids.

Liquid Metal Battery

Imagine: a battery like T-1000, that can shape-shift into whatever kind of energy source you need. Well that's probably never going to happen, but liquid metal might help make power grids more efficient. Currently, grids aren't capable of storing electricity, so power utilities have to play a sort of guessing game when it comes to supply and demand, which makes for a highly inefficient system. But imagine a grid-scale power cell capable of sequestering energy for on-demand delivery by utilities. That is one of the ideas behind the so-called "smart grid", which relies on IT to anticipate fluctuations in demand—and some experts see liquid-metal as the key ingredient.

Imagine a grid-scale power cell capable of sequestering energy for on-demand delivery by utilities.

Here’s how it works: Two liquid-metal electrodes—one low-density negative and one high-density positive—are separated by a molten-salt electrolyte. The difference in composition between the two liquid metals gives rise to a voltage. MIT Professor Donald Sadoway, who fathered the concept, told the BBC that such a battery would require 50-100 fewer individual cells than a standard battery cell array, making it commercially practical. Sadoway expects a prototype to be ready in 2014.

Graphene Supercapacitor

Okay, so it isn't actually a battery, but aside from sounding like some kind of doomsday device, the graphene supercapacitor is the most exciting emerging technology in the field of power cells—and could ultimately render batteries obsolete. Unlike batteries, which produce current through an electrochemical reaction, capacitors merely store energy. The challenge so far has been to develop a capacitor that is compact, inexpensive, and more energy-dense than a battery—hence, the term "supercapacitor."

That this discovery may have “changed the world” is pretty exciting.

Recent research has pointed to graphene, a sheet of carbon that is just one atom thick. It greatly increases the energy density of capacitors. A recent “accidental” discovery by a student in the Kaner Lab at UCLA showed how graphene can be cheaply manufactured using existing consumer technology. The discovery prompted the creation of a short documentary that went viral and became a finalist in GE’s Focus Forward competition. According to Slate’s Farhad Manjoo, widespread applications of the technology may be less than 10 years away. The Kaner Lab asserts that this discovery may have “changed the world,” which is pretty exciting.

Indian-American teen invents 20-second charger

 

According to Khare, her device can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared with 1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries.

WASHINGTON: An 18-year-old Indian-American girl has invented a super-capacitor device that could potentially charge your cellphone in less than 20 seconds.

Eesha Khare, from Saratoga, California, was awarded the Young Scientist Award by the Intel Foundation after developing the tiny device that fits inside mobile phone batteries, that could allow them to charge within 20-30 seconds.

The so-called super-capacitor, a gizmo that can pack a lot of energy into a tiny space, charges quickly and holds its charge for a long time, NBC News reported.

Khare has been awarded USD 50,000 for developing the tiny device. She has also attracted the attention of tech giant Google for her potentially revolutionary invention.

According to Khare, her device can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared with 1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries.


"My cellphone battery always dies," she said when asked about what inspired her to work on the energy-storage technology.

Super-capacitors allowed her to focus on her interest in nanochemistry — "really working at the nanoscale to make significant advances in many different fields."

The gadget has so far only been tested on an LED light, but the good news is that it has a good chance of working successfully in other devices, like mobile phones, the report said.

Khare sees it fitting inside cellphones and the other portable electronic devices proliferating in today's world.

"It is also flexible, so it can be used in rollup displays and clothing and fabric. It has a lot of different applications and advantages over batteries in that sense," Khare added

 

New Technology 2013 – Part 2

December 21st was supposed to be the end of the world. I happen enjoy being alive, so thankfully it wasn’t! Plus, there’s a lot of awesome technology to look forward to in 2013 that I certainly wouldn’t want to miss.

New Technology 2013 – Part 2

This is New Technology 2013 – Part 2, where we’ll be showing you some more of the most cutting-edge technology that we can expect to see in the year ahead.

Bendy Screens

In the very near future your smartphone, tablet, or potentially your HDTV will be even more flexible than they are today – quite literally!
Flexible screens are something that a lot of us have already read about after concept models were showcased at CES 2012. However, Samsung is expected to unveil flexible display technology at CES later this year that’s a lot closer in terms of technical specifications to what we’re currently using in our smartphones. The rumour mill has it that we’ll be seeing a flexible display of 5.5-inches with a high definition resolution of 1280 x 720 (267 PPI).
It is believed that the technology is currently without a touch-screen lens at present, which leaves some doubt as to whether it can be realistically used in place of current technology inside of 2013, unless Samsung has something up its sleeve that is.

4G and 10-Gigabit in 2013

The end of last year saw the roll-out of the substantially faster mobile 4G networks. With significant improvements to overall browsing speeds, roaming and bandwidth management, our mobile devices will be far closer to that of a home broadband connection. 2013 should see the new network standard more more widely available to the consumer in both the US and Europe, giving us access to applications and HD media with far less lag. However, we’re not just looking at mobile networks; the communications giant, Marvell Technology Group, launched a new networking product called ‘AVANTA’, which will bring 10 gigabit networking into the home – What does that mean for us? Well not a a lot in terms of the speeds we experience on the internet. However, for those of us that use games consoles, network storage (HDD), file-sharing, or smart TV’s on their home networks, we can expect LAN speeds of up to 100 times faster than we have at present!

The World’s Largest UHDTV

2011 was the year of 3D, 2013 is the year of 4K Ultra-HD, which is why Samsung wont be letting CES 2013 pass by without a grand show of strength. The South Korean technology giant set a world record in Las Vegas on Tuesday by unveiling a massive 110-inch UHD (ultra high-definition) TV, the largest UHD TV to date.
With more than 8 million pixels, the UHD TV delivers a resolution of four times higher than that of the HD TVs that a lot of us have in our homes today. As well as the 110-inch flagship model, we’ll also be presented with a smaller 85-inch model.
Sounds amazing, right? It certainly does, however, while all is good and well having a display capable of such high resolutions, the limitations of the media we currently use in the home today will prevent us from taking full advantage of the UHD display.
It’s only a matter of time before the average consumer will have access to content created in such high definition, but we don’t expect it to be any time soon.