Berkeley Lab has signed a collaboration agreement with Tensilica, Inc. to explore the use of Tensilica’s Xtensa processor cores as the basic building blocks in a massively parallel system design. Tensilica’s Xtensa processor is about 400 times more efficient in floating point operations per watt than the conventional server processor chip shown here.

In a paper published in the May issue of the International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, Michael Wehner and Lenny Oliker of Berkeley Lab’s Computational Research Division, and John Shalf of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) lay out the benefit of a new class of supercomputers for modeling climate conditions and understanding climate change. Using the embedded microprocessor technology used in cell phones, iPods, toaster ovens and most other modern day electronic conveniences, they propose designing a cost-effective machine for running these models and improving climate predictions.

In April, Berkeley Lab signed a collaboration agreement with Tensilica, Inc. to explore such new design concepts for energy-efficient high-performance scientific computer systems. The joint effort is focused on novel processor and systems architectures using large numbers of small processor cores, connected together with optimized links, and tuned to the requirements of highly-parallel applications such as climate modeling.

Understanding how human activity is changing global climate is one of the great scientific challenges of our time. Scientists have tackled this issue by developing climate models that use the historical data of factors that shape the earth’s climate, such as rainfall, hurricanes, sea surface temperatures and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. One of the greatest challenges in creating these models, however, is to develop accurate cloud simulations.

Although cloud systems have been included in climate models in the past, they lack the details that could improve the accuracy of climate predictions. Wehner, Oliker and Shalf set out to establish a practical estimate for building a supercomputer capable of creating climate models at 1-kilometer (km) scale. A cloud system model at the 1-km scale would provide rich details that are not available from existing models.

To develop a 1-km cloud model, scientists would need a supercomputer that is 1,000 times more powerful than what is available today, the researchers say. But building a supercomputer powerful enough to tackle this problem is a huge challenge.

Historically, supercomputer makers build larger and more powerful systems by increasing the number of conventional microprocessors — usually the same kinds of microprocessors used to build personal computers. Although feasible for building computers large enough to solve many scientific problems, using this approach to build a system capable of modeling clouds at a 1-km scale would cost about $1 billion. The system also would require 200 megawatts of electricity to operate, enough energy to power a small city of 100,000 residents.

In their paper, Towards Ultra-High Resolution models of Climate and Weather, the researchers present a radical alternative that would cost less to build and require less electricity to operate. They conclude that a supercomputer using about 20 million embedded microprocessors would deliver the results and cost $75 million to construct. This “climate computer” would consume less than 4 megawatts of power and achieve a peak performance of 200 petaflops.

“Without such a paradigm shift, power will ultimately limit the scale and performance of future supercomputing systems, and therefore fail to meet the demanding computational needs of important scientific challenges like the climate modeling,” Shalf said.

The researchers arrive at their findings by extrapolating performance data from the Community Atmospheric Model (CAM). CAM, developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, is a series of global atmosphere models commonly used by weather and climate researchers.

The “climate computer” is not merely a concept. Wehner, Oliker and Shalf, along with researchers from UC Berkeley, are working with scientists from Colorado State University to build a prototype system in order to run a new global atmospheric model developed at Colorado State.

“What we have demonstrated is that in the exascale computing regime, it makes more sense to target machine design for specific applications,” Wehner said. “It will be impractical from a cost and power perspective to build general-purpose machines like today’s supercomputers.”

Under the agreement with Tensilica, the team will use Tensilica’s Xtensa LX extensible processor cores as the basic building blocks in a massively parallel system design. Each processor will dissipate a few hundred milliwatts of power, yet deliver billions of floating point operations per second and be programmable using standard programming languages and tools. This equates to an order-of-magnitude improvement in floating point operations per watt, compared to conventional desktop and server processor chips. The small size and low power of these processors allows tight integration at the chip, board and rack level and scaling to millions of processors within a power budget of a few megawatts.

Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California. Visit our Website at www.lbl.gov.

[Ucilia Wang @ DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory]

The greater dwarf cloud rat (Carpomys melanurus) has dense, soft reddish-brown fur, a black mask around large dark eyes, small rounded ears, a broad and blunt snout, and a long tail covered with dark hair. An adult weighs about 185 grams.

“This beautiful little animal was seen by biologists only once previously ??C by a British researcher in 1896 who was given several specimens by local people, so he knew almost nothing about the ecology of the species,” said Lawrence Heaney, Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum and Project Leader. “Since then, the species has been a mystery, in part because there is virtually no forest left on Mt. Data, where it was first found.”

On 24 April, the research team completed its field work, the first comprehensive survey of the small mammals of Mt. Pulag National Park, according to Samuel Penafiel, the Regional Executive Director for the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the Cordillera Administrative Region. Among the results was the capture of the dwarf cloud rat, which is a smaller relative of the giant clouds rats, spectacular animals found only on Luzon Island, but widespread and comparatively well known.

The dwarf cloud rat was captured by Danilo Balete, Project Co-Leader and Research Associate of the Philippine National Museum, in a patch of mature mossy forest (also called cloud forest) high on Mt. Pulag, at about 2,350 meters above sea level. It was in the canopy of a large tree, on a large horizontal branch covered by a thick layer of moss, orchids, and ferns, about 5 meters above ground, Balete said. “We had suspected from its broad, hand-like hind feet that it lived up in big trees, but this is the first evidence to confirm that.”

Since this is the first time the dwarf cloud rat has been seen in its natural habitat, the data collected from this specimen “will significantly augment our understanding of how these rodents evolved, what makes them tick, and how we can keep them around,” said William Stanley, Collections Manager of Mammals at The Field Museum. “Also, finding this animal again gives us hope for the conservation of one of the most diverse and threatened mammal faunas of the world.”

The research team thinks that this species probably lives only high in the big canopy trees in mature mossy forest, at elevations from about 2,200 to 2,700 meters, high in the mountains of the Central Cordillera. “Now that we know where to look for them, it will be possible to learn more,” Heaney said.

Much of the mossy forest in Mt. Pulag National Park where the biologists found the dwarf cloud rat was logged during the 1960s, and few large trees remain. The mossy forest has been gradually regenerating, but many local people now have vegetable farms there, and some of the mossy forest has disappeared as a result, according to Park Superintendent Emerita Albas. “Other parts of the park have extensive areas of mossy forest,” she said. “But where there are roads into the park, the vegetable farms are expanding. The people deserve to have a place to live and to have their farms, but the mossy forest needs to be protected.”

The mossy forest is like a giant sponge when it rains, soaking up the water and releasing it gradually. This produces clean water for irrigation, household use, hydroelectric dams, and industry in the lowlands. The mossy forest gets up to 5 or 6 meters of rain per year, or more.

Most of the species that the team documented on Mt. Pulag live only in the Central Cordillera, and most live only in mossy forests. Other unusual species documented by this research team during this survey are the bushy-tailed cloud rat, a spectacular animal of 1.5 kg with long, flowing black fur that they found to be common in mossy forest at 2,600 to 2,800 meters elevation, as well as three species of small rodents that feed primarily on earthworms. One of these small rodents was originally discovered by the same Field Museum research team and formally described as a new species only in 2006. Mt. Pulag is the only place currently known that has four species of cloud rats known to be present.

The team found that the pest rodents that cause damage around buildings and in the vegetable gardens on Mt. Pulag are not native species. Instead they are species, such as the Norway rat, that were accidentally brought to the Philippines centuries ago. The native species avoid humans, live in the forest, and cause very little if any economic damage. Some, like the dwarf cloud rat, probably are not able to withstand much disturbance of their natural habitat.

Cloud rats are one of the most spectacular cases of adaptive radiation by mammals anywhere in the world, with at least 15 species ranging in size from 2.6 kg to 15 grams, all living only in the Philippines. Cloud rats are a prime example of why biologists refer to the Philippines as “the Galapagos times ten,” Heaney said. “The Philippines may have the greatest concentration of unique biological diversity, relative to its size, of any country in the world.”

[Greg Borzogborzo @ Field Museum]

Engineers at Duke University believe that the results of feasibility studies conducted in their laboratory represent the first concrete steps toward achieving this space age vision of the future. Also, on a more immediate level, the technology developed by the engineers could make certain contemporary medical procedures safer for patients, they said.

For their experiments, the engineers started with a rudimentary tabletop robot whose “eyes” used a novel 3-D ultrasound technology developed in the Duke laboratories. An artificial intelligence program served as the robot’s “brain” by taking real-time 3-D information, processing it, and giving the robot specific commands to perform.

“In a number of tasks, the computer was able to direct the robot’s actions,” said Stephen Smith, director of the Duke University Ultrasound Transducer Group and senior member of the research team. “We believe that this is the first proof-of-concept for this approach. Given that we achieved these early results with a rudimentary robot and a basic artificial intelligence program, the technology will advance to the point where robots — without the guidance of the doctor — can someday operate on people.”

The results of a series of experiments on the robot system directing catheters inside synthetic blood vessels was published online in the journal IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control. A second study, published in April in the journal Ultrasonic Imaging, demonstrated that the autonomous robot system could successfully perform a simulated needle biopsy.

Advances in ultrasound technology have made these latest experiments possible, the researchers said, by generating detailed, 3-D moving images in real-time.

The Duke laboratory has a long track record of modifying traditional 2-D ultrasound — like that used to image babies in utero — into the more advanced 3-D scans. After inventing the technique in 1991, the team also has shown its utility in developing specialized catheters and endoscopes for real-time imaging of blood vessels in the heart and brain.

In the latest experiment, the robot successfully performed its main task: directing a needle on the end of the robotic arm to touch the tip of another needle within a blood vessel graft. The robot’s needle was guided by a tiny 3-D ultrasound transducer, the “wand” that collects the 3-D images, attached to a catheter commonly used in angioplasty procedures.

“The robot was able to accurately direct needle probes to target needles based on the information sent by the catheter transducer,” said John Whitman, a senior engineering student in Smith’s laboratory and first author on both papers. “The ability of the robot to guide a probe within a vascular graft is a first step toward further testing the system in animal models.”

While the research will continue to refine the ability of robots to perform independent procedures, the new technology could also have more direct and immediate applications.

“Currently, cardiologists doing catheter-based procedures use fluoroscopy, which employs radiation, to guide their actions,” Smith said. “Putting a 3-D ultrasound transducer on the end of the catheter could provide clearer images to the physician and greatly reduce the need for patients to be exposed to radiation.”

In the earlier experiments, the tabletop robot arm successfully touched a needle on the arm to another needle in a water bath. Then it performed a simulated biopsy of a cyst, fashioned out of a liquid-filled balloon in a medium designed to simulate tissue.

“These experiments demonstrated the feasibility of autonomous robots accomplishing simulated tasks under the guidance of 3-D ultrasound, and we believe that it warrants additional study,” Whitman said.

The researchers said that adding this 3-D capability to more powerful and sophisticated surgical robots already in use at many hospitals could hasten the development of autonomous robots that could perform complex procedures on humans.

[Richard Merritt @ Duke University]

Motorola’s Z9 is a slider phone with a mahogany exterior, which is a nice color to differentiate the Z9 from the rest. The external controls continue to be standard with a volume rocker and music shortcut on the left spine, and a camera shutter and a microUSB port on the right spine. The front packs a gorgeous 2.4-inch display with 262k color support, a crispness that’s required to view today’s digital content, including videos, photos and text. We had a blast navigating through the menu just because the display was so vibrant and exciting to use. Of course similar to a lot of smartphones, you can adjust the brightness and backlighting time to conserve battery, and trust us, with the display this bright, you are almost certainly going to have to work on reducing the brightness.

Going back to the navigation menu, do note that Motorola hasn’t updated its menu at all. It’s the same old way of browsing through your phone. We’re not pleased; half of the fun of getting a new phone is to take advantage of new features, and the Z9 is lackluster in that category.

Underneath the display is your OK button with four corresponding keys for navigation. Additionally, there are two soft keys, Talk/End-Power keys, a Clear-Back key and a Web browser shortcut key to further occupy the rest of the device.

Once you slide open the phone, you are welcomed to its keypad with alphanumeric keys. All keys offer tactile feedback that are difficult to feel. The keys underneath the display, especially, didn’t offer the best tactile feedback that we have experienced. Motorola needs to work on getting the most basic necessities of the phone right.

On the back, you will find the integration camera with its lens and flash. It’s a 2.0-megapixel camera with support for four resolutions (1,600×200, 1,280×960, 640×480, 320×240), three quality settings and 8x digital zoom. Other options, such as lighting (five), color tones (six), and exposure metering are all present. You can also record video in three resolutions (320×240, 176×144 and 128×96) with three quality settings. You can record for up to 30 seconds for MMS clips, or for an unlimited amount of time depending on onboard storage. The phone is equipped with 45MB of onboard storage + a microSD expandable slot for additional memory. There’s a memory meter to alert of you of total available memory, a delightful option.

The Z9 lacks a mirror, so taking self-portraits would be an interesting task at best. The camera quality was decent. It took crisp pictures, but there was some blurriness in them due to dull lighting. Even in the brightest of times, the photo quality didn’t quite get the colors right. While sharp, there were some issues with color contrast in our testing. We would qualify the overall quality to be good with reservations, or decent.

Motorola’s Z9 feels good when you are holding it, as it’s a sturdy, solid unit.

In addition to the onboard camera, it packs an alarm clock, a calendar, text and multimedia messaging and a host of other default, expected features. Most notable is AT&T’s Navigator GPS application, AT&T’s Video Share service, AT&T Music (thanks to 3G support), and a music player with support for MP3, AAC and WMA formats; playlists, shuffle and repeat modes; it also packs a host of mobile multimedia (music, video and weather) services to round out its features set. We liked the feature set in general. Although it’s limited in its potential, Motorola did its best to include as many applications as the phone would hold.

On the performance side, in one word: “Excellent!” The Z9 is an amazing phone with its excellent audio quality. We had no problem understanding callers, or vice versa, thanks to Motorola’s CrystalTalk and auto background noise canceling technology. The phone automatically adjusted our volume depending on extraneous noise, which is something we are greatly fond of with Motorola handsets.

The speakerphone was good, but not quite there with standard output. The volume output was poor, and we really had to focus on what callers were saying to understand them. That defeats the point of turning on the speakerphone option.

Signal strength for 3G was superior and so were audio and video streaming. Though video quality was okay, it was expected. Our videos didn’t pause for buffer or any other technical issues. We loved interacting with our digital control through Z9 and its speedy connection. For some odd reason, however, loading time for music and video files was all over the graph. Some files took longer to load, while others were fairly rapid.

Volume output for audio on the phone was surprising good, especially with a headset.

The Z9 is rated for four hours of talk time and 13 days of standby time. We confirmed these numbers in our lab, and they were inline with the company’s estimates. Four hours is a little iffy for our taste considering it’s a multimedia phone with a handful of battery heavy options.

All in all, the Z9 is a very good phone with solid exterior and a host of features. It’s not the phone for consumers who are looking for mobile innovation, but if you just want a cell phone without a learning curve, but with a bit trendy design, the Z9 is a superb option.

[Gundeep Hora]

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