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| Science & Technology |
| New Electronic Component Invented - Everything Changes |
| 2008-04-30 |
| The long-sought after memristor--the "missing link" in electronic circuit theory--has been invented by Hewlett Packard Senior Fellow R. Stanley Williams at HP Labs (Palo Alto, Calif.) Memristors--the fourth passive component type after resistors, capacitors and inductors--were postulated in a seminal 1971 paper in the IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory by professor Leon Chua at the University of California (Berkeley), but their first realization was just announced today by HP. According to Williams and Chua, now virtually every electronics textbook will have to be revised to include the memristor and the new paradigm it represents for electronic circuit theory... A LOT more than textbooks will have to be changed. This could eventually involve the redesign of much of the world's electronics. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 Does Cyberdyne Systems know about this? Hope not. As depicted in the films The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cyberdyne is initially a benign manufacturing corporation in Sunnyvale, California. Its products are unknown, but from the equipment in its factory and its high tech-sounding name, it seems possible that Cyberdyne might have been some sort of smaller, parts producer for larger manufactures of high tech equipment. After a T-800 series Terminator, Cyberdyne Systems Model 101— a cyborg from the future, designed to kill humans — is crushed in one of the company's hydraulic presses, the company secretly begins manufacturing technological devices based on reverse engineering the Terminator's remains. Cyberdyne reverse engineers the recovered CPU from the destroyed cyborg and creates a powerful new microprocessor for weapons systems, becoming a major contractor for the US military. In the Terminator universe's original timeline, an undisclosed series of events leads to Cyberdyne's development of Skynet, a network of supercomputers that employ artificial intelligence in order to replace human beings as commercial and military aircraft pilots, and for the control of other military systems, including nuclear missiles. The system went online on August 4, 1997. On August 29, 1997 ("Judgment Day"), Skynet became self aware. In a panic humans attempted to shut it down, and Skynet retaliated by launching a nuclear attack against Russia, knowing that the Russian counterattack would eliminate its enemies in the U.S, initiating an indeterminately long period of global warfare. The battle pitted humans against machines, which developed ever-increasing capabilities. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, in an effort to prevent Judgment Day from occurring, Cyberdyne's headquarters is destroyed by a group of saboteurs — the film's main characters: John Connor, future leader of the human resistance, his mother Sarah Connor, and a second T-800 series Terminator that traveled back in time. However, in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, it is revealed that the timeline is only slightly altered: after the destruction of the company's headquarters, Cyberdyne Systems' patents were obtained by the U.S. Government, with another technological corporation Cyber Research Systems. Skynet continues to be developed by the company for the Strategic Air Command-North American Aerospace Defense Command, and ultimately, Judgment Day occurs, just at a later date than it would have originally. In the original timeline, at some point after Judgment Day, Cyberdyne Systems, under the control of Skynet, creates the T-600, T-800 and T-1000 series of Terminators. In the modified timeline, prior to Judgment Day, humans at Cyber Research Systems create several different series of relatively primitive Terminators to replace U.S. soldiers in field combat. At some point after Judgment Day, Skynet-controlled machines create several more advanced series of Terminators, including the T-800 (although its models would not include the Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, since Cyberdyne Systems was destroyed), the T-850 (which is described in the third film as a T-800 upgrade) and the T-X, also known as the Terminatrix. |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2008-04-30 22:13 |
| #2 ARMY-DARPA, HEWLETT PACKARD and PENN STATE > soooooooo-o-o 1980's. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-04-30 21:25 |
| #1 One day tubes. The next day transistors. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-04-30 20:37 |