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How the Global Positioning System Works

Michael Brown — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:11:31 -0600

In the immortal words of Buckaroo Bonzai, “Wherever you go, there you are.” But if you want to know precisely where “there” is, you need a GPS device. Let’s examine how this technology operates.

The fundamental idea of a satellite-based navigation system was conceived prior to Word War II, but no one pursued the idea aggressively until the Russians launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Research continued through the 1960s, and the U.S. Department of Defense settled on the first design in 1973.

The first developmental GPS satellite—Navstar 1—was launched in 1978, the first fully operational GPS satellite was put into orbit in 1989, and the system was declared fully operational in 1995. Although GPS remains an indispensable military tool (and is maintained by the U.S. Department of Defense), the technology was made available to consumers in the 1980s and can now be found in relatively inexpensive devices ranging from cellphones and PDAs to dedicated handheld GPS receivers.

Everything You Need to Know About Photovoltaic Cells

Michael Brown — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:49:11 -0500

In one second, the nuclear fusion process taking place inside the sun produces enough energy to satisfy the needs of the earth’s population for nearly 500,000 years. Photovoltaic cells are capable of capturing some of that energy and converting it into usable electricity; unfortunately, today’s technology can’t do this very efficiently.

French physicist Edmond Becquerel first described the photovoltaic effect in 1839. He discovered that some materials were capable of producing small amounts of electricity when exposed to sunlight. The first photovoltaic cell, however, wasn’t created until 1883, and more than 70 years passed before the next major scientific advance took place, when researchers at Bell Labs developed the first crystalline silicon photovoltaic cell in 1954.

Everything You Need to Know About GDDR Memory

Michael Brown — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:11:36 -0500

We invariably refer to the video memory in modern videocards as GDDR, differentiating it only by version (GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, and now GDDR5), but the technology’s full acronym is actually GDDR SDRAM, which stands for Graphics Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory.

“Double data rate” describes the memory’s capacity for double-pumping data: Transfers occur on both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal. This endows memory clocked at 800MHz with an effective data-transfer rate of 1.6GHz. “Synchronous” refers to the memory’s ability to operate in time with the computer’s system bus. This allows the memory to accept a new instruction without having to wait for a previous instruction to be processed, a practice known as instruction pipelining.

Think you know everything about GDDR? Read on.

White Paper: Raster vs. Rays

Zack Stern — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:42:14 -0500

The shiny, new hatchback you nudge in a street race dents slightly on the driver’s side door. Although you’re playing a PC game, created with beaucoup equations, the bend looks almost real. The 3D renderer sculpts all those numbers into images, with help from the video API (application program interface). However, several completely different rendering techniques can be the source of those images. Currently, the hardware and software industries are debating how to best utilize two graphics-rendering techniques: ray tracing and rasterization.

Hit the jump to see how 3D game rendering is changing with hardware advancements.

How Ethernet Works

Zack Stern — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:01:31 -0500

We tend to take things for granted when they work exceptionally well. Take Ethernet, for instance; it’s almost magical: Plug a simple cable into a computer, and it can exchange data with another rig—or many others. Peek behind the curtain and you’ll discover a brilliantly simple yet continually evolving networking system.

But let's make one thing clear: Ethernet technology doesn't actually contain ether.

White Paper: Radio Frequency Identification

Gord Goble — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:33:29 -0500

RFID: modern marvel or an easy way for Big Brother to keep tabs on us?

White Paper: The Evolution of Viruses

Zack Stern — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:29:47 -0500

These technological beasties can take on lives of their own—much like their biological namesakes

White Paper: PC Recycling

Zack Stern — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:38:24 -0600

It's finally time to put that old rig down, but what happens to your PC in the afterlife?