WiMAX has seen a substantial amount of progression in the past few years, with many cities and towns witnessing the emergence of municipal WiMAX. However, many city governments are having trouble integrating business models with different service providers. The city of Chicago recently abandoned its municipal WiMAX efforts, with even the city government itself not willing to participate in the program. This has led many in the industry to sing the praises of Mobile WiMAX as an alternative.

WiMAX's licensed spectrum allows it to have greater indoor coverage at faster speeds, but it still faces challenges. Most laptops produced today are not compliant with WiMAX technology, leaving service providers to come up with pricing strategies for USB dongles and ExpressCards. This could be a crucial moment - with most municipal WiMAX systems on hold, if consumers can find a decent price for a city-wide internet access plan, it could be really attractive for those looking to check their email during a commute on a ferry or on an afternoon coffee break.

WiMAX backers positioning 801.62E as an alternative

Labels: Web Technologies, Wireless

The GoingGreen Conference, a 3-day affair hosted by UC Davis earlier this month, brought together CEO's, Subject Matter Experts, and other decision-makers to discuss the present and future of Green business. The conference's hundreds of attendees were joined by thousands and thousands of interested home-viewers of the conference Webcast. This meeting of the best minds in Green Energy dealt with many different issues for Alternative Energy, including the relationship between Nanotech and Green Energy.

These two technology areas (Nanotech and Green Energy) are deeply intertwined and will evolve together, and the panel called "Emerging Technologies: Green Nanotech and MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems)" dealt with just how the fields are related. Nanotech has a vast number of applications in Solar Power as well as other areas of Green Business. The entire Webcast Archives are available and deal with topics ranging from "The Biofuel Revolution" to "Smart Green Cities".

"Emerging Technologies: Green Nanotech and MEMS"

Labels: Advanced Energy, Nanotechnology

BioStorage Technologies, Inc. (BST) has taken a drastic step to reduce their carbon footprint. They have become the third largest company, and first which provides the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, to join the Indianapolis Power & Light Company Green Power Option Voluntary Program.

Under the agreement, BST will purchase energy made from 100% renewable energy resources. In doing so, they will become completely carbon neutral by 2009. BST joins the State of Indiana and other sizable Indiana companies in reducing carbon emissions. The investment of BST will save carbon emissions equal to 244 cars driven over a year and will save over 30,000 trees.

The Green Power Option Program permits companies to devote themselves to either 10%, 25%, 50%, or 100% sustainable power. Details of the cost have yet to be analyzed, but the number of private enterprises joining the programs speaks to its potential to entice from the private sector.

BioTech Company Goes Green

Labels: Advanced Energy

Hydrogen cars have been the developmental stages for years, but thanks to BMW, they're actually showing up on the road, being driven by those privleged enough to get their hands on one. The BMW Hydrogen 7 is no longer a concept car, but a production model vehicle that has made it through rigorous rounds of testing and product development. It essentially emits nothing by water vapors and runs on expensive hydrogen fuel cells and has the ability to run on gasoline for additional cruising time.

The Hydrogen 7 will be made available to select customers in the US and Europe throughout 2007, and celebrities like Brad Pitt and Jay Leno have already been seen driving them. BMW has certainly led the way in making hydrogen power more of a reality - for years concept cars were deemed successful but unlikely to succeed in a market that put so much emphasis on performance and affordibility. By developing a car that also utilizes gasoline, while simultaneously reducing its carbon emissions significantly, BMW has made this vehicle appealing to a public who is become more eager to reduce their dependence on gasoline.

BMW officially announces the Hydrogen 7

Labels: Advanced Energy

In order to engage with the ever-growing pool of talented young scientists, engineers, and technology-buffs, TIU will be holding an essay competition among university students. It is from this pool of talent that the innovators of tomorrow will emerge, and we at the Technology Intelligence Unit feel that it is important to gauge these future technology-leaders' thoughts on tomorrow's world of technology. We will also be asking our readers' input on which young innovator has the most astute, visionary, creative, or interesting take on the future of technology.

The competition is scheduled for launch next month.

Stay tuned for details...

Advanced Micro Devices has announced the upcoming release of its Barcelona model microprocessor. The quad-core processor architecture has outperformed the Intel Xeon series in a number of areas. Slated for release in late 2008, the processor allows new heights of virtualization. The chip will permit multiple instances of operating systems to run fluidly on a single desktop. Major software developers, including Novell, Linux, and Sun Microsystems have thrown their support behind the new technology.

The development of this microprocessor signals what is to come in the next generation. Intel, the world's largest producer of microprocessors, will not remain idle in the face of this technology. Expect large advances in microprocessor technology. As these chips become increasingly powerful and efficient, the hardware they support follows in kind.

AMD's Barcelona Chips

Labels: Advanced Computing

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently released a report calling for a drawdown in subsidies and other support system for biofuel manufacturers, the latest in a wave of criticism that has come towards the biofuel industries. Opponents have expressed concern about burning food crop for fuel, not only because it might lead to shortages, but because it also uses valuable land suitable for farming. These groups are running into the large support lobby composed of mostly agricultural industry, who argue that biofuels reduced pollution and dependency on foreign oil.

Additionally, environmentalists are torn between their support for greenhouse-reducing biofuel use and their desire to put in place a cap on all carbon emissions. States that support biofuels (mostly in the midwest) are unlikely to support such a cap given their strong automotive and manufacturing industries. This has also left Brazil, who has perfected ethanol manufacturing, without a way to penetrate the US and European markets, which are too protected by the ag lobby.

The Biofuel Backlash

Labels: Advanced Energy

With all of the recent talk of Google bidding on unused radio spectrum, and WiMax providers using frequencies in the microwave range, some businesses are now using light to transmit more information than any other wireless transmission method. Wireless optics, or free-space optics (FSO) uses invisible beams of light to create an optical bandwidth connection. These wireless optical connections could provide improved security and higher data-transfer rates than any existing wireless technology.

The technology could be the basis for robust networks in urban areas, and some businesses are already using FSO to connect nearby offices. The advantage of FSO is that it needs no physical infrastructure and could provide comparable speed connectivity to areas without any existing wiring. Wireless Optics could be the basis for networks in new urban areas and make the costly installation of underground fiber-optic cables completely unnecessary. Essentially, FSO very well may make a true "wireless infrastructure" less of an oxymoron and more of a reality.

freespaceoptics.org
The Economist: "A New Old Idea"

Labels: Wireless

The scientist who first made possible the small data storage capabilities of devices like the Palm Pilot and the iPod is poised to take this miniaturization to the next level. Stuart Parkin, currently based out of IBM, revolutionized digital storage in the early '90s by manipulating the magnetic properties of tiny areas of a disc to allow for more storage. Now he's developing technology that could surpass flash memory in three to five years, not to mention open doors for engineers to create unprecedented media and communication technologies.

By standing billions of ultrafine wires around a silicon chip and allowing electric currents to move tiny magnets up and down those wires up to speeds of 100 meters a second, making storage extremely faster. Most data storage available now makes can read information at very quick speeds, but its storing capacity remains slower. Parkin's technology has the possibility of not only making storage much faster, but by doing this, could open the door for a change in the way computing works. Data searches, storage and analysis could take place in a entirely new way, and the way we view information could be one step closer to a completely digital world.

Redefining the Architechture of Memory

Labels: Advanced Computing, Nanotechnology

Researchers at Columbia University have set out to solve the impending sustenance crisis which will emerge due to population growth and a future shortage of irrigable land. By 2050, global population will increase by 3 billion. Currently, 80% of available farmland is in use. Clearly, a food shortage is eminent.

In efforts to solve this problem, Dickson Despommier, a professor in environmental science at Columbia University, has developed a plan to build vertical farming systems. These systems will act as greenhouses, but will be housed in skyscrapers. By taking advantage of existing forms of clean energy, including solar panels which will provide 24 hour light, and a NASA system of extracting water vapor from the air, the towers may be generally self-sustaining agriculture infrastructure. A single 21-story tower will produce the same output as 588 acres of land.

Dr. Despommier is currently marketing his idea to venture capital firms. The potential for this technology is unknown. However, should this prove an able alternative to farmland, the results could shake the foundations of population dispersion and rural life. Cities could become independent units, with little economic relationship with rural areas. Compounded with the fact that the majority of population growth occurs in cities, cities may see massive growth in area, swallowing up vacant rural lands once used for farming.

Farming Goes Vertical

Labels: Advanced Energy

Atomistix A/S is a Danish software firm specializing in solutions for Nanotechnology researchers. Founded in October 2003, Atomistix has developed a system of integrated software modules based on quantum theory - the Atomistix Virtual NanoLab™ - that can accurately calculate properties associated with electron distribution and transport, and simulate experiments with integrated nanoscale systems. Its associated modeling program is called the Atomistix Toolkit. The company's software offers researchers a platform on which to conduct their research and experiment with new structures and interactions, without ever having to enter a laboratory.

There are massive implications for software like those produced by Atomistix. Firstly, modeling software could save researchers huge amounts of time and money spent in the laboratory, and structures only need be created after they are completely modeled, taking into account the strange behavior of structures on so small a level. Secondly, as computing enters new generations, and conventional computers are improved upon and replaced, eventually, by hypercomputers and quantum computers, software for scientific and mathematic modeling will be able to handle more and more complex computations. Next generation software could model the next generation hardware which could in turn lead to a revolution in software, and on and on.

That said, Atomistix and companies like it should be paid serious attention in the future, as they are strategically placed to have a huge impact on the future of technology.

Atomistix

Labels: Advanced Computing, Nanotechnology

Researchers at New Zealand's Massey University have developed an incredibly inexpensive alternative to standard solar panels. The technology relies upon "solar dye", synthetic dyes made up of natural compounds. The dyes are then paired with dye-sensitive solar cells. The dyes create solar power at a tenth of the price of standard solar panels.

Developers at the University's Nanomaterials Research Center plan to optimize the cell construction for maximum efficiency before releasing the technology commercially.

Once commercially available, the "solar dye" technology will catapult solar energy nearer to the forefront as a potentially viable source of alternative fuel. Currently, even the least powerful solar panel systems costs well into the thousands. Despite proving an effective source of energy, the high expense has prevented potential users from obtaining solar power infrastructure. Solar dye, at a tenth the price, will permit corporations to make massive energy overhauls at a fraction of the price. The technology will make solar energy available to a large population of residential users as well.

New Zealand's Solar Dye

Labels: Advanced Energy

A team of scientists at the University of Birmingham in the UK have designed a wearable computer capable of aiding crime scene investigation on a whole new level. These devices, equipped with a digital camera, GPS locator and RFID transmitter, are about the size of a small book and are equipped with a headset that takes voice commands from the wearer to take pictures or record descriptions of evidence. This helps build a "storyboard" of the investigation, one that's more interactive and is less time-consuming because investigators don't have to repetitively label every shred of evidence.

This technology has great time-saving potential for more mundane crimes, like petty theft, where time is of the essence for investigators trying to make quick work of valuable evidence. Also, when coordinated between several different agencies, it could easily be used to keep track of massive amounts of evidence, like after a plane crash or terrorist attack. It's one more useful tool to tear down the walls of communication between federal agencies dealing with national security issues.

CSI could benefit from computer sidekick

Labels: Advanced Computing