Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2011
From ACM News
The Winners and Losers from Google's Search Change
Google's major revamp of its search rankings last week created a new set of winners and losers, but some critics of the company say the changes are not being applied fairly, and may not accomplish Google's stated goal of promoting…
From ACM News
Retooling Algorithms
Charles Leiserson and his team are experts at designing parallel algorithms—including one for a chess-playing program that outperformed IBM’s Deep Blue.
From ACM News
Increasing Processor Efficiency By Matching Power with Demand
For decades, chipmakers strove to develop the fastest and most powerful chips possible and damn the amount of electricity needed to power them, but these days raw grunt isn't the only consideration.
From ACM News
Remapping Computer Circuitry to Avert Impending Bottlenecks
Hewlett-Packard researchers have proposed a fundamental rethinking of the modern computer for the coming era of nanoelectronics—a marriage of memory and computing power that could drastically limit the energy used by computers…
From ACM TechNews
Computer 'Scrapple' Wins Early Career Award
University of California, Davis professor Todd Green is researching ways to improve the use of data warehouses, such as using database query results to generate answers to new, related queries.
From ACM TechNews
Hyperlocal Forecasting
Masao Kanamitsu is using the Texas Advanced Computing Center's Ranger supercomputer to conduct downscaling experiments, which involves taking the output from the global climate model and adding data at scales smaller than the…
From ACM News
The Next Operating System
Operating systems for multicore chips will need more information about their own performance—and more resources for addressing whatever problems arise.
From ACM News
Wiring in a Wireless Age
Is Intel's Thunderbolt cable a brilliant innovation or a worthless grasp at the past?
From Communications of the ACM
Grid Computing's Future
Outreach programs and usability improvements are drawing many researchers to grid computing from disciplines that have not traditionally used such resources.
From Communications of the ACM
Memristors: Pass or Fail?
The device may revolutionize data storage, replacing flash memory and perhaps even disks. Whether they can be reliably and cheaply manufactured, though, is an open question.
From Communications of the ACM
Evaluating Government Funding
A presidential report asserts the value of U.S. government investments in the cross-agency Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program and specifies areas needing greater focus…
From Communications of the ACM
Twitter as Medium and Message
Researchers are mining Twitter's vast flow of data to measure public sentiment, follow political activity, and detect earthquakes and flu outbreaks.
From Communications of the ACM
Gary Chapman, Technologist: 1952 - 2010
He raised important public issues, such as the impact of computers and the Internet on society, and encouraged social responsibility for computer professionals.