Sony Develops Highly Efficient Wireless Power Transfer System

Tired of messy power cables connecting all your electrical devices? Sony’s latest innovation, the “Wireless Power Transfer System”, eliminates the need to use power cables and may be the solution everyone has been looking for.

Sony has managed to develop a wireless power transfer systemthat delivers a very good level of efficiency, around 60 Watts of power over a distance of 50cm (equivalent efficiency of approximately 80%; approximately 60% including rectifier). The system incorporates a form of contact-less electrical energy transmission technology based on magnetic resonance. With magnetic resonance, “electromagnetic energy is only transferred to recipient devices that share the identical resonant frequencies as the energy source, so energy transfer efficiency is maintained, even when misalignment occurs. Furthermore, even if there are metal objects located between the transmitter and receiver, no heat induction occurs.”

Sony also claims that the transfer distance can be increased, with passive extender units placed between the transmitter and receiver units, without any degradation in efficiency. Based on their research, it was possible to extend the distance from 50cm to 80cm by using extenders – which implies in theory, relatively larger transmitter and receiver units are required over longer distances so that “passive extender units can be used to relay power between small-sized transmitter and receiver units.”

Sony’s Wireless Power Transfer System is certainly an impressive technological feat and if it does take off, truly wireless homes and offices may in time become a reality. Looking forward to the day our television, home entertainment equipments etc are all powered wirelessly from a single source...

“Sony Corporation today announced the development of a highly efficient wireless power transfer system that eliminates the use of power cables from electronic products such as television sets. Using this system, up to 60 Watts of electrical energy can be transferred over a distance of 50cm (at an efficiency of approximately 80%, approximately 60% including rectifier).”

News via [Sony]

Polycom goes mobile with release of RealPresence Mobile for Tablets

Essentially, businesses that deploy the Polycom RealPresence Platform will now be able to use a tablet such as the Apple iPad2 to collaborate face-to-face with their colleagues. These colleagues could be joining via other tablets devices, desktops, laptops, or even immersive video room systems.

Other than the iPad2, support for Android 3.0 devices such as the Motorola XOOM and Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 are also mentioned. The RealPresence Mobile software application can be downloaded for free as of last week from the Apple App Store and Android Market.

The company says delivering Polycom video to mobile platforms is a key component of its recently announced software strategy to bring secure high definition (HD) video collaboration to the broadest range of business, video, mobile, and social networking applications.

"RealPresence Mobile is a significant step toward achieving our vision to make it possible for millions of people to use video collaboration as their preferred method of communicating - easily, reliably, and securely - no matter what network, carrier, protocol, application, or device they use," said Andy Miller, president and CEO of Polycom.

According to Polycom, RealPresence Mobile supports firewall traversal and virtual private network clients, both of which are important capabilities for the travelling executive. RealPresence Mobile delivers support for up to 75,000 devices and 25,000 concurrent sessions, and also offers universal bridging to support both on-premises and cloud-based delivery.

The Polycom RealPresence Platform is available through Polycoms certified channel partners. More information about RealPresence Mobile or the RealPresence Platform can be obtained at www.polycom.asia.

Trust Unveils 4-port USB 3.0 Hub

Trust International, manufacturer of affordable accessories andperipherals for PC, laptops and netbooks, has released its SuperSpeed 4 Port USB 3.0 Hub.





Measuring 140 x 70 x 230mm, the compact device features four USB 3.0ports and support data transfer speeds up to 5 Gbps (compatibledevices). The SuperSpeed 4 Port USB 3.0 Hub, bundled with a USB 3.0cable, wall power adapter, and user's guide, can be pre-ordered frommajor e-tailers at a MSRP of Euro 45.

Key features

4 Port Superspeed USB 3.0 hub to connect up to 4 USB 3.0, USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 devices within hand-reachUp to 5 Gbps data transfer rate; 10x faster than USB 2.0, ideal to usewith external hard disks or other applications using large data *Backwards compatible: Also works with all USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 productsOptimized Power Efficiency for a lower power consumptionIncluding high performance USB 3.0 cable and wall power adapter to ensure stable operation of connected devices5 Gbps performance only possible when connecting USB 3.0 devices to a USB 3.0 port News via [Trust]

Samsung introduces new SENS-240 navigational tablet in Korea

Everybody knows the drill: if you want the convenience of being able to perform general purpose computing tasks while on the move, you go for a device such as a smartphone or a tablet. On the other hand, if you only want a device to perform a very specific task, you get a specialized gadget that does its designated task properly. However, leave it to Samsung to do what no other OEM has done: to release a tablet device that, instead of being the general purpose device it is intended to be, is designed to serve only one purpose: navigation. Such is the nature of Samsungs new SENS-240 navigational tablet, which was reportedly launched in Korea today.

According to a report published by Akihabara News, the SENS-240 is more of a hybrid tablet than a full-fledged navigational device in that it is designed to be operated alongside Samsungs Android-powered smartphones and tablets. Apparently, when paired together via Bluetooth, the SENS-240 is reportedly capable of serving as an external display for the paired smartphone or tablet, in addition to it still fulfilling its primary role as a navigational tool.

In addition, Akihabara News also claims that the SENS-240 is powered by a powerful 1.43GHz CPU (manufactured by Samsung, no less) that is capable of displaying 3D Maps as well as handling playback of media files. Furthermore, the device features a seven-inch display which sports a native resolution of 800×480, 256MB of RAM, a USB 2.0 Host and an SD Card slot. Last but definitely not least, Samsung claims that the SENS-240 can be remotely controlled by its Android-powered smartphones and tablets, although we really should point out that drivers would be better off keeping their hands on the steering wheel and not on their digital toys when driving on the roads.

Source: Akihabara News

Nvidia Preparing G96 (D9M) Card For Launch

Nvidia plans to add another member to the GeForce 9 series soon with their G96 (D9M) card for the mainstream market. This G96 card is meant to replace the current GeForce 8500 GT card so most likely the official marketing name will be GeForce 9500 GT. Final specs are 550MHz core clock, 512MB (32MX16) GDDR2 memories clocked at 1GHz on 128-bit memory interface. It is using P729 PCB that has DVI-I, VGA and HDTV functions.

Penryn Has 410M Transistors, 110mm2 Die Size

45nm Penryn Die

65nm Conroe Die

Intel dual core 45nm Penryn will contain 410M transistors compared to 65nmdual core Conroe with 291M transistors. The die size of Penryn is not revealedyet but we knew it is around 110mm2, still smaller than the Conroe die size of 143mm2. The quadcore Yorkfield will double the number of transistors at 820M by just putting twodual core Penryn dies together onto the same package similar to the current quadcore Kentsfield made up of two Conroe dies. Yorkfield will not the the firstnative quad-core from Intel yet as Intel thinks it is more economically andfaster time to market to slap two dies together instead of creating a singlenative quad core chip out. Three 300mm fabs will be producing 45nm processors byH1 2008 where D1D Oregon and Fab 32 Arizona will start ramping first in H2 2007,followed by Fab 28 Israel. The 45nm Penryn processors will follow the currentpower envelope; 35W for mobile, 65W for desktop, and 80W for server and extremeeditions.