The need for speed, and other news

[unixronin]

Intel plays catch-up for once:  A year behind the release of AMD's Opteron processor, Intel will release its competing 32/64-bit Nocona chip on Monday.  IBM, HP and Sun have already adopted the Opteron.

More Intel news:  Intel is recalling an unspecified number of "Grantsville" chips (apparently northbridge chips) because of a failure of an etch step in the manufacturing process.  Intel asserts that few of the defective chips have reached end-users.

Unplug faster:  The IEEE has approved the 802.16-2004 standard for wireless broadband networking, aka WiMax, currently being touted as the hot wireless "last mile" solution.  It is claimed WiMax can maintain bidirectional 75-megabit data links over ranges up to 30 miles, as well as provide subscriber connectivity up to 15 megabits in a three-mile radius of a base station.  Hardware, we are now told, should be available next year.

Nuclear Asia:  The IAEA projects a drop in use of nuclear power, but says we need more; it expects nuclear power to provide only 12% of the world's power by 2030, down from the current 16%.  With 442 reactors currently in service, new reactor production is primarily in Asia; 22 of the last 31 nuclear reactors to come online in the world, and 18 of the 27 now under construction, are in Asia, while reactor construction has virtually halted in North America and western Europe.  The IAEA, however, says that to raise living standards and combat climate change, the nuclear power generation fraction needs to be raised to at least 27%.  In a strange turnaround, some environmental groups are now also advocating nuclear power to help reduce global warming.  (Hmmmmm..... Anyone for a pebble-bed reactor?)

Fast, but noisy:  Engine noise from commercial jet aircraft on takeoff could be reduced by introducing plasma pockets into the jet stream, according to Ohio State University.  The researchers started out by placing metal chevrons in the jet pipes to modulate exhaust plume pressure dynamics, and found that they redoced noise but also hurt fuel consumption.  Unlike chevrons, the plasma noise reduction system can just be switched off when in flight.

Slow but steady, until now:  The last known flyable Lisunov Li-2, a license-built Douglas DC-3 (aka C-47, Dakota, or Gooney) has crashed near Moscow, killing three of the five crew members.  The cause of the crash is unknown.

Whatever else happens, you can always rely on ....  physical constants.  Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics have determined that the fine structure constant has been invariant to at the most one part in 10¹⁵ over the past 12 billion years.  Theodor Hänsch and his team expect to be able to refine the measurement to one part in 10¹⁸ in the next few years.

Speaking of measurement, the US and Europe have finally agreed (after five years of wrangling) on a protocol to merge the European Galileo satellite navigation system with the US next-generation GPS system, giving a combined network of 58 satellites and allowing more precise GPS location than ever before.

And speaking of satellites, imaging from the Cassini-Huygens probe of Saturn's enigmatic moon Phoebe has given astronomers the evidence to conclude that it is almost certainly a captured Kuiper belt object.

Smile for the camera:  Researchers at Kings College London are making promising progress towards growing you new teeth from your own stem cells.