New Hybrid Memory Cube Spec to Boost DRAM Bandwidth by 15X
April 4th, 2013Via: Computer World:
Backed by 100 tech companies, the three largest memory makers announced the final specifications for three-dimensional DRAM, which is aimed at increasing performance for networking and high performance computing markets.
Micron, Samsung and Hynix are leading the technology development efforts backed by the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMC). The technology, called a Hybrid Memory Cube, will stack multiple volatile memory dies on top of a DRAM controller.
The DRAM is connected to the controller by way of the relatively new silicon VIA (Vertical Interconnect Access) technology, a method of passing an electrical wire vertically through a silicon wafer.
…
The first Hybrid Memory Cube specification will deliver 2GB and 4GB of capacity, providing aggregate bi-directional bandwidth of up to 160GBps compared with DDR3’s 11GBps of aggregate bandwidth and DDR4, with 18GB to 20GB of aggregate bandwidth, Black said.
Bank of Japan to Pump $1.4 Trillion Into Economy in Unprecedented Stimulus
April 4th, 2013Via: Reuters:
The Bank of Japan unleashed the world’s most intense burst of monetary stimulus on Thursday, promising to inject about $1.4 trillion into the economy in less than two years, a radical gamble that sent the yen reeling and bond yields to record lows.
New Governor Haruhiko Kuroda committed the BOJ to open-ended asset buying and said the monetary base would nearly double to 270 trillion yen ($2.9 trillion) by the end of 2014 in a shock therapy to end two decades of stagnation.
The U.S. Federal Reserve may buy more debt under its quantitative easing, but with the Japanese economy about one-third of the size of the United States, the scope of Kuroda’s “Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing” is unmatched.
“This is an unprecedented degree of monetary easing,” a smiling Kuroda told a news conference after his first policy meeting at the helm of the central bank.
Italy Seizes Record Assets from Wind Farm Tycoon
April 3rd, 2013Via: BBC:
The Italian authorities have seized assets worth 1.3bn euros ($1.7bn: £1.1bn) from a Sicilian businessman involved in renewable energy.
Investigators allege that Vito Nicastri was a front man for the Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, investing illegal earnings in his business empire.
The anti-mafia agency said in a statement it was the biggest ever seizure of mafia-linked assets.
Mr Nicastri has been confined to his home town as investigations continue.
The 57-year-old’s assets include 43 wind and solar energy companies and 98 properties.
So heavily was Mr Nicastri involved in renewable energy, Italian media dubbed him the “Lord of the Wind”.
Arturo de Felice, head of the anti-mafia agency, said: “This is a sector in which money can easily be laundered.”
Mafiosi constantly seek to penetrate areas of legitimate business activity, the BBC’s Alan Johnston reports from Rome.
Not only are they drawn by the profits that can be made in normal trading but they can also use their connections in these areas to launder money that they have made elsewhere in illegal activities such as extortion or drug-trafficking, he adds.
Obama Administration Pushes Banks to Make Home Loans to People with Weaker Credit
April 3rd, 2013Via: Washington Post:
The Obama administration is engaged in a broad push to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit, an effort that officials say will help power the economic recovery but that skeptics say could open the door to the risky lending that caused the housing crash in the first place.
President Obama’s economic advisers and outside experts say the nation’s much-celebrated housing rebound is leaving too many people behind, including young people looking to buy their first homes and individuals with credit records weakened by the recession.
In response, administration officials say they are working to get banks to lend to a wider range of borrowers by taking advantage of taxpayer-backed programs — including those offered by the Federal Housing Administration — that insure home loans against default.
Housing officials are urging the Justice Department to provide assurances to banks, which have become increasingly cautious, that they will not face legal or financial recriminations if they make loans to riskier borrowers who meet government standards but later default.
Officials are also encouraging lenders to use more subjective judgment in determining whether to offer a loan and are seeking to make it easier for people who owe more than their properties are worth to refinance at today’s low interest rates, among other steps.
‘Let Them Eat Teslas’
April 3rd, 2013Why are tuition costs so high in the first place?
Government Inflated the College Loan Bubble:
The real problem is that we’ve been running a higher education bubble, one that — like the real-estate bubble — has been pumped up by cheap government money. Since 1999, student loan debt has increased by 511%, while disposable income has increased by only 73%.
That’s because when the government subsidizes something, producers respond by raising prices to soak up as much of the subsidy as they can. College is no exception. Tuition has been increasing much faster than disposable income, and families — believing that a college education is a can’t-lose investment, much as they used to think houses were — have been making up the difference with debt.
Never mind all of that. The Slashdot hive mind instead seizes upon the stupid government subsidies on the car, which are going to be noise level compared to the trillion dollar student loan boondoggle.
Now, who’s making the easiest money from all of this nonsense?
It’s the usual suspects: The banks.
Via: Slashdot:
“If you’re a bright kid who wants to prepare for the 21st century workforce (PDF) by studying engineering at Purdue, the government will help your parents pay the $100,000 or so tuition tab with a 7.9% interest loan (plus 4% fees) that’s likely to be non-dischargeable in bankruptcy and paid back with after-tax money. If, on the other hand, you want to buy a tricked-out $100,000 Model S, Tesla has teamed up with the government, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bank on what it calls a ‘Revolutionary New Finance Product’ that enables those who play the game right to avoid paying sales tax, get the government to pick up the first $15,000 (no down payment needed!), and also receive a 2.95% bankruptcy-dischargeable loan for the balance, the payments for which could be tax-deductible. Yep, ‘Revolutionary’ may be about right!”
In Other News: Obama Administration Pushes Banks to Make Home Loans to People with Weaker Credit
Earnings from February and March
April 3rd, 2013Here are Cryptogon’s earnings from February and March.
In February, the total came to $759; a very rare earnings miss. You may have picked up on the fact that this site lives or dies by the U.S. Amazon commissions. Cryptogon readers backed off on Amazon purchases in February, and that’s pretty much the amount by which we missed the $1000 goal.
Moving on to March, the total came to $1240.23. That’s a great result.
Here’s how March worked out:
AM $60
Amazon $563.80
Amazon.ca CA$6.15
Amazon.co.uk £11.74
Anonymous $90
CD $25
DA $25
DS $50
Eileen $75
ID €25
JB $25
KM £50
MW $20
nonsolodenti.net $90
Pookie $75
TM $10
Take the two months together and we’re looking pretty good.
Thanks very much to everyone who kept us going over February and March. Obviously, I appreciate the direct contributions, which are mostly from people who have given far too much already. But looking through those Amazon totals… You guys are force on that thing. There are commissions on single items that range from $0.00 (people buying used books for a penny) up to $35 for a high quality chainsaw. The range of what’s in between is mind boggling. Video rentals, vitamins, tools of every description, books by the truckload, toys, food, cookware… It’s all counting towards the goal. Well, except those used books that cost a penny, but shine on you crazy diamonds who use the affiliate links to buy those! I salute you.
Now, I’d like to acknowledge a very special gift from the Banana Farmers, who are long time Cryptogon supporters from Hawaii. Instead of a check this year, they sent a heavy box full of delicacies that they and other family members produce themselves on their properties in Hawaii. The box contained dried organic bananas, dried organic pineapple rings, a range of hand crafted organic chocolates and three pounds of organic Kona coffee beans. Yeah, man! WOW!
I’ve been drinking coffee since my early 20s, but I’ve never tried Kona coffee before. Trying some had been on my To-Do list for a long time, but it hadn’t happened. (In case you don’t know, Kona coffee is VERY expensive.) Needless to say, I was thrilled to see those packs of coffee beans.
Everything was delicious beyond description. I asked the Banana Farmers if they would like me to promote their businesses on Cryptogon, but it turns out that all of the dried bananas and chocolate products are sold locally and the dried pineapple rings and coffee are not for sale (these are gifts for family and friends). This is keeping them busy enough for now. I could provide a bit more detail, but if their small island community is anything like my small island community… It’s a village. I hope that I haven’t said too much already, in terms of maintaining their privacy.
Thank you, Banana Farmers.
Stanford Bioengineers Make Transistor from Genetic Materials
April 3rd, 2013Via: Extreme Tech:
Bioengineers at Stanford University have created the first biological transistor made from genetic materials: DNA and RNA. Dubbed the “transcriptor,” this biological transistor is the final component required to build biological computers that operate inside living cells. We are now tantalizingly close to biological computers that can detect changes in a cell’s environment, store a record of that change in memory made of DNA, and then trigger some kind of response — say, commanding a cell to stop producing insulin, or to self-destruct if cancer is detected.
Euro Area Unemployment at Record 12 Percent
April 2nd, 2013Via: AP:
The eurozone economy has passed another bleak milestone.
Official figures Tuesday showed that unemployment across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro has struck 12 percent for the first time since the currency was launched in 1999.
Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said the rate in February was unchanged at the record high after January’s figure was revised up to 12 percent from 11.9 percent.
Spain and Greece have mass unemployment and many other countries are seeing their numbers swell to uncomfortably high levels as governments across the region enact tough austerity measures to get a handle on their debts.
WHO Investigating H7N9, New Chinese Bird Flu Strain
April 2nd, 2013Via: U.S. News and World Report:
At least four people in China have been infected with a new strain of bird flu, known as H7N9— and two of the people who have contracted the disease have died, according to the World Health Organization.
The cases were confirmed to be the new strain of bird flu late last week by the China CDC—two of the cases were found in Shanghai and one in the Anhui province. A fourth case was confirmed by the state-run CCTV news channel Tuesday. That case occurred in Nanjing, in eastern China.
According to WHO, sufferers experienced a “respiratory tract infection with progression to severe pneumonia and breathing difficulties. Two of the four victims have died, with a third in critical condition.
WHO says it is “following the event closely” but it has not been able to identify where the disease was contracted and whether or not the virus is transmissible between humans. According to local news reports, some of the victims worked closely with poultry.
The Monsanto Protection Act
April 2nd, 2013Via: Democracy Now:
President Obama outraged food activists last week when he signed into law a spending bill with a controversial rider that critics have dubbed the “Monsanto Protection Act.” The rider says the government must allow the planting of genetically modified crops even if courts rule they pose health risks.
