atoms

Intel shows off personal cloud for consumers, small business

SAN FRANCISCO--Intel is getting into the personal cloud storage game with the introduction of its own Atom processor-based storage solutions aimed towards both consumers and small businesses.

Essentially, these are network-attached storage appliances powered by either the Intel Atom D2550 or D2500 processors for securing, backing up and sharing content through the cloud. The cloud technology comes in through an exposed HTML IP address (with a secure log-in), and the end user can access that IP address either through a regular desktop browser or it can look like a drive.

Intel said it has been focused on developing reference architectures … Read more

HP aims for business users with ElitePad 900 Windows 8 tablet

Expect HP's ElitePad 900 tablet to join several other business-focused mobile devices over the next few months. Intel's mobile push, along with that of Microsoft and Windows 8, will ensure no shortage of similar products. Whether HP can differentiate its tablet is another question, but from what we've seen of the ElitePad 900, we can at least say that it's taking the challenge seriously.

In terms of hard specs, the ElitePad 900 offers a 10.1-inch, 1,280x800-pixel Gorilla Glass-coated display. HP says the tablet as a whole will weigh around 1.5 pounds, and comes … Read more

Intel sets Windows 8 tablet event with HP, Samsung, others

Intel is going to kick off the season of the Windows 8 tablet by hosting an event next week attended by virtually all of the major PC players.

The September 27 event will highlight products using Intel's "Clover Trail" Z2760 (PDF) power-efficient system-on-a-chip (SoC) processor.

"A media event to showcase the latest Intel-based tablet and tablet convertibles, and announce details about the next generation Intel Atom processor (formerly code-named 'Clover Trail')," Intel said in a note sent out to journalists.

Intel's Erik Reid, general manager of Application Processor Platforms in the Mobile and Communications … Read more

ZTE debuts Intel-powered Grand X IN

ZTE today used the IFA consumer electronics show to announce its first smartphone to employ Intel's Atom Z2460 "Medfield" mobile processor.

Called the Grand X IN, the handset runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and features a single-core 1.6GHz processor, a 4.3-inch qHD display, and 8-megapixel camera. Like most higher-end Android phones, the ZTE comes with 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, a front-facing camera, NFC, and microSD expansion. At first blush, the Grand X IN closely resembles its recent Grand X, save for its processor.

Although pricing and carrier details are still unclear, the … Read more

Intel quad-core 'ValleyView' system-on-a-chip coming

Intel's system-on-a-chip design for small devices is slated to go quad core.

Leaked Intel documents dated August 15 have appeared on a Chinese-language Web site that indicate Intel's next-generation system-on-a-chip (SoC) will be offered in configurations that include quad-core, a first for Intel's Atom chip design, according to a report at CPU World.

At the risk of wading too deeply into a codename quagmire, the Atom 22-nanometer architecture is dubbed "Silvermont" and the SoCs are referred to as "ValleyView."

The chips will also get punched-up graphics. ValleyView SoCs will integrate a graphics processing … Read more

Rare footage captures real sound of 1953 A-bomb blast

Odds are that not many folks out there have seen a nuclear explosion up close. And it turns out that most of the films we've seen are dubbed or contain stock blast sound effects, a point I wasn't aware of before coming across a blog curated by Alex Wellerstein, an historian of science at the American Institute of Physics.

Most films of nuclear explosions got dubbed. If they do contain an actual audio recording of the test blast itself (something I'm often suspicious of -- I suspect many were filmed silently and have a stock blast sound … Read more

Atom Ukelele for pickin' and grinnin' with chemistry

The Atom Ukelele is a $700 custom-made Etsy offering with a maple body and neck. It's a four-string uke, but its most outstanding feature is the atomic age design of the body. Happy little red electrons sit in stasis around the nucleus of the sound hole.

Celentano Woodworks is the creator behind this sweet stringed beauty. It's part of a lineup of unusual ukes including instruments that look like a shark, a toy rocket, Pac-Man, and a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot.… Read more

How Nevada became America's Nuclear Age ground zero

MERCURY, Nev. -- From the side that faced away from the blast, you might never even have bothered to look at this concrete dome. But walk around the other side, and there's no question something extraordinary happened here.

Welcome to the Nevada National Security Site, formerly known as the Nevada Test Site. As part of Road Trip 2012, I've come to visit this 1,375-square-mile expanse of harsh desert and even harsher mountains that begins about 75 miles north of Las Vegas. Here, from 1951 through 1992, a total of 928 nuclear weapons exploded, many of them sending … Read more

Leap second: June 30 to be longer than other days

Oh good, I can get one second more sleep the night of June 30. In an effort to keep our extremely accurate atomic clocks in line with the more arbitrary nature of the way the world wobbles, we're getting a leap second this weekend.

Sure, it's not as dramatic as what happens during a leap year, but it's still exciting for clock aficionados, science geeks, and time lords. The leap second will be added to Coordinated Universal Time at the end of the day on June 30.… Read more