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subjectComputer Systems
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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


From ACM News

Human Brain Is Limiting Global Data Growth, Say Computer Scientists

Evidence has emerged that the brain's capacity to absorb information is limiting the amount of data humanity can produce.

Google and Microsoft Talk Artificial Intelligence
From ACM Opinion

Google and Microsoft Talk Artificial Intelligence

Google and Microsoft don't share a stage often, being increasingly fierce competitors in areas such as Web search, mobile, and cloud computing. But the rivals...

Can Software Patch the Ailing Power Grid?
From ACM TechNews

Can Software Patch the Ailing Power Grid?

A consortium providing the technology for a large-scale smart grid project says the software is nearly complete. 

From ACM Opinion

The Singularity Isn't Near

 Futurists like Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil have argued that the world is rapidly approaching a tipping point, where the accelerating pace of smarter and smarter...

From ACM News

Ibm's New Chips Compute More Like We Do

A microchip with about as much brain power as a garden worm might not seem very impressive, compared with the blindingly fast chips in modern personal computers...

From ACM News

Could This Brain Implant Revive Paralyzed Limbs?

In the annals of great oxymorons, "non-invasive brain implant" would surely rank up there. Misnomer or not, the University of Michigan is touting just such a...

Tapping Quantum Effects For Software that Learns
From ACM News

Tapping Quantum Effects For Software that Learns

In a bid to enable computers to learn faster, defense company Lockheed Martin has bought a system that uses quantum mechanics to process digital data.

How Three-Dimensional Transistors Went from Lab to Fab
From ACM News

How Three-Dimensional Transistors Went from Lab to Fab

Intel's new three-dimensional transistor design, announced last week, is the culmination of more than a decade of research and development work that began in...

Failure Cascading Through the Cloud
From ACM News

Failure Cascading Through the Cloud

Two major cloud computing services, Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud and Sony's PlayStation Network, recently suffered extended outages. Though the circumstances...

Facebook Opens Up Its Hardware Secrets
From ACM TechNews

Facebook Opens Up Its Hardware Secrets

Facebook plans to open the designs and specifications of its new super-efficient data center. The company wants to encourage software-style openness for hardware...

The First Plastic Computer Processor
From ACM News

The First Plastic Computer Processor

Silicon may underpin the computers that surround us, but the rigid inflexibility of the semiconductor means it cannot reach everywhere. The first computer processor...

From ACM TechNews

The Fantastical Promise of Reversible Computing

University of South Florida researchers are studying computation that takes place in steps that are time reversible, known as reversible computing, as a way to...

Hackers Take the Kinect to New Levels
From ACM News

Hackers Take the Kinect to New Levels

But achieving the Holy Grail—controlling a computer without touching it—proves more difficult.

Cell-Phone Chips to the Rescue
From ACM News

Cell-Phone Chips to the Rescue

Data centers, under greater demand than ever, are looking to low-power chips as a way to save money, but switching won't be easy.

Chinese Chip Closes In on Intel, Amd
From ACM News

Chinese Chip Closes In on Intel, Amd

China may finally have a processor to power a homegrown supercomputer.

Tapping the Powers of Persuasion
From ACM News

Tapping the Powers of Persuasion

B.J. Fogg's lab at Stanford focuses on the ways technology can influence behavior.

Nano Switches that Store More Data Head to Market
From ACM News

Nano Switches that Store More Data Head to Market

An electronic component that offers a new way to squeeze more data into computers and portable gadgets is set to go into production in just a couple of years.

What Does 'p vs. Np' Mean For the Rest of Us?
From ACM News

What Does 'p vs. Np' Mean For the Rest of Us?

A proposed "proof" is probably a bust—but even failed attempts can advance computer science.

Building a Cloud Out of Smart Phones
From ACM TechNews

Building a Cloud Out of Smart Phones

An international group of researchers has developed Misco, a version of Google's MapReduce algorithm powered by cell phones in a self-contained cloud computing...

Computing at the Speed of Light
From ACM News

Computing at the Speed of Light

Replacing metal wiring with fiber optics could change everything from supercomputers to laptops.
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