Watson, the "Jeopardy!"-playing computer system, is getting a job.
WellPoint Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. are set to announce a deal on Monday for the health insurer to use the Watson technology, the first time the high-profile project will result in a commercial application.
WellPoint said it plans to use Watson’s data-crunching to help suggest treatment options and diagnoses to doctors. It is part of a far broader push in the health industry to incorporate computerized guidance into care, as doctors and hospitals adopt electronic medical records and other digital tools that can record, track and check their work.
If you want to make processors 1,000 times faster, you’re going to need some serious technology, right? That would be the conventional wisdom. But 3M and IBM have unlocked a secret low-tech shortcut.
The companies found a much simpler way to hit that elusive goal — not by creating some spectacular new circuitry or using exotic quantum mechanics, but with the invention of a new variety of a mundane substance: glue.
This is not just any glue. It’s an adhesive that dissipates heat so efficiently that layer upon layer of chips can be stacked on top of each other into silicon “towers” up to 100 layers high, glued together with this special adhesive that keeps things cool. The result? Faster chips for computers, laptops, smartphones and anything else that uses microprocessors.
With IBM supplying its microprocessor and silicon expertise and 3M contributing its super-cool adhesive, the two companies aim to stack together processors, memory chips and networks into monster “skyscrapers” of silicon they say will be 1,000 times faster than today’s fastest processor.
When can we get our hands on this breakthrough tech? IBM’s media relations representative Michael Corrado tells us, “By the end of 2013 it should go into production. It’ll show up on servers first, and then a year after that consumers might see it.”
I don’t know if you noticed, but a parallel Earth has merged with our own, overlapping our reality no matter where we go. I’m talking about the digital realm – the confluence of internet, data, and social networks that we spend so much time with every day. As you walk around, the digital realm comes with you and augmented reality (AR) is your portal to merging that information with the world you see. With AR you can pick up your mobile phone, turn on the camera, and look as icons and virtual objects overlap with the real environment you see on your screen. Mobile AR lets you see reviews for restaurants as you glance up the street, or see new dimensions to the ads and posters around you.]
“It’s not just consumers and lay people who struggle with the cloud, it’s experienced IT people who struggle with it,” says Gartner analyst David Smith…
A Japanese supercomputer built by Fujitsu Co. grabbed the title of world’s best-performing machine from a Chinese competitor, returning Japan to the top of the computer arms race for the first time in seven years…
This is the new world where bulky software that bogs down your computer is replaced by online services delivered over high-speed wireless networks and onto devices that fire up in seconds instead of minutes. And it’s a place that is increasingly dominated by three public companies and one social networking giant…
For the most part, AR — augmented reality — has always been hindered by real-world markers. Some AR technologies use a clever combination of accelerometer, compass, and geolocation to work out what you’re pointing your camera at — but accurate, local use has required 2D "barcode" markers… until now! Sony has unveiled SmartAR, a markerless augmented reality technology that can rapidly track arbitrary objects and accurately map real-world spaces into a virtual 3D model on your smartphone.
A Disruptive Technology is an innovation that disrupts an existing market, economy or business model. Often these technologies emerge very quickly and are…
The brain is our body’s natural multi-system parallel processing organ. Its job, on a continuous basis, is to compute a huge onslaught of incoming data and spit out energy-intensive outputs— keen color vision, a range of auditory faculties, creation and preservation of memories…
Click here to access the complete report located on Wired.com.
Click here for more information on future computing.
Over the last decade, a development team at Infinera Corp. in Sunnyvale, Calif. has pioneered the design and manufacture of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) aimed at meeting that need. This technology has enabled the team to achieve a record one trillion bits per second (1 Terabit/s) speed on a single integrated indium phosphide chip. The findings will be presented at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) taking place March 6 – 10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
“Traditional transponder-based system architectures are inflexible and costly and time-consuming to upgrade,” said Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagarajan, research fellow at Infinera and a senior member of Infinera’s PIC development team. “Our PIC approach enables us to make optical networks more powerful, flexible and reliable than ever before using equipment that is significantly smaller, less expensive and uses much less energy.”
Exascale computing systems are said to be capable of 1,000 times the processing power of the fastest computer currently operational, the Chinese Tianhe-1A supercomputer…
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Blogging the Singularity Bloggers:
Chris Williamson: Filmmaker, science enthusiast, and futurist concerned with the accelerating nature of technological growth and where it's headed. He is currently studying for his MFA in Film Production.
Frank Whittemore: As an IT professional since 1961, the accelerating change of technology is not news to him but the wonder will never cease! Be sure check out Frank's blog about Life Extension!
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