While Intel spent the majority of its stage time at GDC 2019 announcing new software and 9th Generation mobile processors, the company also gave us a small tease of what its graphics card could look like.At the very start of its GDC 2019 keynote, Intel designer and artist Christiano Siquera shared the very first shroud design for an Intel Graphics Card. This design you see below was apparently published back in December 2018 and while it looks like any old, generic mini GPU, Team Blue has since moved onto a new design.Image 1 of 3Image 2 of 3Image 3 of 3On the next slide above is Intel's new new shroud design with an aesthetic very similar to the company’s recent Intel Optane SSDs. Between the flared, diagonal lines and the angular look, this graphics card basically looks like a shorter, bulker version of the Intel Optane SSD 905P.Intel’s first graphics card also seems destined to utilize a single fan, blower-style cooler based on these images. Unfortunately, there’s … [Read more...] about Intel reveals its graphics card with these first prototype renders
Scientists develop shape-shifting ‘particle robots’ with a children’s toy
Inspirational author and activist Helen Keller once said "alone we can do so little; together we can do so much" but she likely never have imagined that humble quote would be the perfect summation of a new "particle robotics system" developed by US researchers.A team of engineers from MIT, Columbia University, Harvard University and Cornell University, looked to biological organisms and human cells for inspiration, developing a "particle robot" made up of smaller, individual robots that can perform complex functions together as a whole -- such as being able to push and pull each other in a particular direction.The research, published in Nature on March 20, details these individual "particles" that alone are unable to move around, but can be coupled together to perform more complex functions."We have small robot cells that are not so capable as individuals but can accomplish a lot as a group," said Daniela Rus, an author on the new paper, in a press release.Each robot is made up of … [Read more...] about Scientists develop shape-shifting ‘particle robots’ with a children’s toy
MongoDB investing ‘heavily’ on R&D down under
Australia isn't usually the first place of thought when discussing where research and development (R&D) is conducted by companies borne out of the United States, but document database darling MongoDB is bucking that trend.The company's operations in Australia comprise a very large R&D and engineering focus and did well before it established a sales presence.About seven years ago, MongoDB stood up a support office; it then boosted its Australian engineering presence less than three years later acquiring WireTiger.WiredTiger comprised five engineers, three in Boston, and two in Sydney.Speaking with ZDNet while in Australia last week, MongoDB co-founder and CTO Eliot Horowitz explained how this started the company's R&D operations down under. "The team in Sydney wanted to grow, and it did pretty rapidly, what we found was that they hired really great people, very quickly, so the WiredTiger team started growing," he recalled. "We then had these other products that we wanted … [Read more...] about MongoDB investing ‘heavily’ on R&D down under
The future of graphics is unquestionably AI image generation: Jensen Huang
For old-school gamers who fondly remember rocket jumps, there was a point during the GTC keynote address by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang that would warm the cockles of the heart: An updated version of Quake II to make use of the ray tracing capabilities of the company's RTX GPUs. The key to this demonstration was denoising, Huang told ZDNet on Tuesday. "Denoising is basically using AI to infer the missing pixels," he said. "If I disable the denoising for you yesterday, what it would look like is a black, dark spotty, kind of fuzzy image, but when we turn on denoising, it looks like what you saw yesterday. Incredible." On Monday, members of the research arm of Nvidia showed off how they can use a neural network to create a high-quality image from a rough sketch, and besides a few boundary issues with different elements, it looked rather realistic. "It's like a colouring book picture that describes where a tree is, where the sun is, where the sky is," Nvidia vice president of … [Read more...] about The future of graphics is unquestionably AI image generation: Jensen Huang
University of Melbourne transitions into ‘smart’ campus
The University of Melbourne (UoM) has implemented a smart campus program, using data from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors with the goal of improving student experience and researcher outcomes.Speaking at the Dell Boomi World Tour in Sydney on Tuesday, UoM solution architect Ganesh Krishnan said that in order to provide better learning opportunities, it was important to better use the data it had from other parts of the organisation to generate better use cases."We wanted to provide students with rich campus-based learning opportunities ... we need to take advantage of the various technologies that are being deployed across our campuses to provide better learning outcomes for the students and also open new research avenues," he said.The challenge for UoM was creating a way for its systems and data collection points to talk to each other."One of the key challenges with IoT is interoperability ... each of the devices connect using different -- some of them could be Wi-Fi, some of … [Read more...] about University of Melbourne transitions into ‘smart’ campus