by Dr. Philip V. Lopresti et al. Classical “breadboarding” techniques for circuit design became unfeasible due to the tremendous increase in the complexity of modern circuitry.  Instead, specialized computer software is used now for the design, simulation, and physical layout of electronic circuits on semiconductor chips and circuit boards.  This illustrated article provides the reader [...]

by S. Ferguson eWeek.com, 28 Mar 2007 By the second half of this year, Intel plans on producing the first of its Penryn family of 45-nanometer processors and the company also plans to move ahead with its next-generation architecture in 2008.  Intel executives delved into some additional details of its Penryn line of processors and [...]

Engineering News (NCSU), 19 Feb 2007 The Sony Playstation 3, Xbox and Nintendo Wii have captivated a generation of computer gamers with bold graphics and rapid-fire animation.  Who could have guessed that these high-tech toys could do more than play games?  At North Carolina State University, Dr. Frank Mueller imagined using the power of the [...]

by K. Sanderson Nature, 22 Mar 2007 There is a world where objects can be made invisible, where light can be bent the wrong way, and where images of incredibly small objects can be brought into sharp focus by a superlens.  That magical world doesn’t sound very real, and it isn’t.  It exists mostly in [...]

by B. Jiang arXiv.org E-print Archive, 24 Mar 2007 In this paper, we study topological patterns of urban street networks using a largest sample of 40 U.S. cities and a few more from elsewhere of different sizes.  It is found that all the topologies of urban street networks based on street-street intersection demonstrate a small [...]

by A. Surda arXiv.org E-print Archive, 21 Mar 2007 A system of identical cars on a single-lane road is treated as a microcanonical and canonical ensemble.  Behaviour of the cars is characterized by the probability of car velocity as a function of distance and velocity of the car ahead.  The calculations a performed on a [...]

University of Southern California Press Release, 22 Mar 2007 A revolutionary processor package that changes its architecture to adapt to the demands of different computing tasks more than met design expectations in recent trials.  Near-term applications for the MONARCH (Morphable Networked Micro-Architecture) system designed by the USC Information Sciences Institute and Raytheon include space radar [...]

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Press Release, 25 Mar 2007 Despite the attractive electrical properties and physical features of single-walled carbon nanotubes, incorporating them into scalable integrated circuits has proven to be a challenge because of difficulties in manipulating and positioning these molecular scale objects and in achieving sufficient current outputs.  Now, researchers at the [...]

American Chemical Society Press Release, 25 Mar 2007 Juicing up your cell phone or iPod may take on a whole new meaning in the future.  Researchers at Saint Louis University have developed a fuel cell battery that runs on virtually any sugar source — from soft drinks to tree sap — and has the potential [...]

by Z. Tong et al. Environmental Science & Technology, 14 Mar 2007 (Web) The first published study on the environmental impact of manufactured nanoparticles on ordinary soil showed no negative effects, which is contrary to concerns voiced by some that the microscopic particles could be harmful to organisms.  Scientists added both dry and water-based forms [...]