Well folks, that Nikon D60 DSLR we’d heard whispers about way back in the crazy, carefree days of December 2007 appears to be on the verge of coming to light at this year’s PMAs. Digital Photography Review has gotten a leaked press release from the company concerning the new shooter, and now we’ve got a sheet of specs to backup the rumors. It looks like the 10.2-megapixel camera will be sporting a number of improvements, including a 0.19-second power-up, continuous shooting mode at three frames per second, Nikon’s 3D Color Matrix Metering II, compatibility with AF-S and AF-I Nikkor lenses, RAW image handling, in-camera retouching capabilities, and a slew of other, incredibly technical functions that the true camera-geek will surely salivate over. Our suggestion? Hit the read link, and take your good old time poring over the details.
[Via Photography Bay]
Hey, it’s not Microsoft’s fault that 2011 sounds like the realm of jet pack VR massage cars, but it’s certainly a long ways away any way you slice it. Contrary to previous rumors of Microsoft planning a Windows 7 release sometime in 2009, Microsoft has apparently gotten in touch with WinVistaClub and set the record straight: Windows 7 is in “planning stages,” and development will take approximately three years. Microsoft wouldn’t comment on that supposed leak we spotted last week, and of course denied any implications that development was being accelerated to make up for Vista shortcomings. We can’t help but wonder how different the OS landscape will look three years from now, with Linux rapidly reaching feature and usability parity, while Apple plugs away at OS X and cloud computing lands everywhere, but we’re sure Vista SP1 won’t be the last bid Microsoft makes at this generation.
[Via The Inquirer]
Update: Other quotes from Microsoft has the date set at 3 years from the launch of Vista, which would indeed land it around 2009, so perhaps all hope is not lost. No date is set yet, and our money is on 2010 at the earliest.
Hey, it’s not Microsoft’s fault that 2011 sounds like the realm of jet pack VR massage cars, but it’s certainly a long ways away any way you slice it. Contrary to previous rumors of Microsoft planning a Windows 7 release sometime in 2009, Microsoft has apparently gotten in touch with WinVistaClub and set the record straight: Windows 7 is in “planning stages,” and development will take approximately three years. Microsoft wouldn’t comment on that supposed leak we spotted last week, and of course denied any implications that development was being accelerated to make up for Vista shortcomings. We can’t help but wonder how different the OS landscape will look three years from now, with Linux rapidly reaching feature and usability parity, while Apple plugs away at OS X and cloud computing lands everywhere, but we’re sure Vista SP1 won’t be the last bid Microsoft makes at this generation.
[Via The Inquirer]
Update: Other quotes from Microsoft has the date set at 3 years from the launch of Vista, which would indeed land it around 2009, so perhaps all hope is not lost. No date is set yet, and our money is on 2010 at the earliest.
Intel and Nanochip team up to develop 100 gigabytes per chip
This article was syndicated from Tiago Marques’ blog at SiliconMadness.com
Nanochip, Inc., a Silicon Valley startup, has managed to raise $14 million in funding from Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment organization, for further development of the MEMS technology.
You read it right: gigabytes, not gigabits.
According to Nanochip (PDF), the technology isn’t lithography constrained, allowing production of chips of more than 1GB in capacity, in plants that have already been deemed outdated by current standards.
The lack of lithography constraints means cheaper products, resulting in an opportunity to also replace flash memory, as the technology is also non-volatile.
Today’s factories should be able to produce the first products, estimated at 100GB per chip, when the technology is expected to be unleashed for public consumption by 2010. The first samples will be available during 2009.
PRAM, or phase change memory, was expected to be the technology to replace flash in the coming years, since it is also non-volatile, while it is much faster than flash. As Intel found out over the last few years, PRAM doesn’t seemed to scale so well, in regards to density, and still has some boundaries to overcome — namely it’s thermal principles of operation.
Nanochip’s details of the technology are ambiguous at best, though what is known is that the company is working on hybrid micro-electric-mechanical — the partnership with Intel suggests a PRAM connection too. The company has described this as a very small platter coated in chalcogenide is dragged beneath hundreds of thousands of electrical probes which can read and write the chalcogenide. Casual estimates put this sort of density at one terabit per square inch, or 125GB per square inch.
The company has not disclosed access speeds. That’s a place where PRAM is appointed to be the undisputed king of the hill, so it could limit applications of this type of technology.
For now it seems that the flash SSD drives are going to be replaced before they even reach mass consumption — which is a good thing. The technology is expensive, doesn’t provide a lot of storage space and is prone to failure, due to the low amount of write cycles available per cell. Flash is perfect for pendrives and resisting shock, not so good for regular, intensive, HDD usage.
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