Technology

Humanoid robot hit and killed by a self-driving Tesla at CES

A self-driving Tesla Model S hit and “destroyed” an autonomous robot in a car accident in Las Vegas on Sunday night, ahead of Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019.

The incident took place around 7 p.m. in Paradise Road, Las Vegas where the robots called Promobot, were being transported to the Congress Hall by the Promobot engineers to be used in the company’s booth in CES 2019.

For those unaware, Promobot, the company’s new model v4 robots, is a part of a collection of autonomous robots designed for business purposes, which can be rented for $2,000 a day. They perform the functions of administrators, promoters, hostesses, Museum guides, consultants, concierges, and many others.

Although all the robots were moving in a line, one of them missed its way and drove to the roadway of the Congress Hall’s parking lot. Just then, it was hit by a self-driving Tesla car.

The impact of the car pushed the robot aside and it fell down. However, the car continued driving after the accident and stopped only some 50 meters away from the accident site.

The passenger, George Caldera, who was in the car at that time, said that he was trying out the self-driving mode (Full Self-Driving Capability mode) and decided to test it in an empty area.

Caldera said, “There was nobody there, no men, no cars.‘I switched this Tesla into a self-driving mode and it started to move. And wow! A robot on the track! I thought the flivver would come round, but it bumped straightly into it! I am so sorry, the robot looks cute. And my sincere apologies to the engineers.”

The robot suffered some serious damage, as parts of its body, head, arm mechanisms, and movement platform were completely destroyed.

Oleg Kivokurtsev, Promobot’s Development Director said, “Of course we are vexed. We brought this robot here from Philadelphia to participate at CES. Now it neither can participate in the event or be recovered. We will conduct an internal investigation and find out why the robot went to the roadway.”

The incident is currently being investigated by the Nevada Police Department.

GitHub’s free users will now have unlimited access to private repositories

Microsoft-owned GitHub, the largest source-code repository in the world, has announced a GitHub Free plan, which offers users unlimited private repositories for free.

For those unaware, this is GitHub’s first major update since it was officially acquired by Microsoft for $7.5 billion in October last year.

While GitHub always had a free tier that developers can use to store and manage their code, the company, however, charged $7 a month for a private repository.

“For the first time, developers can use GitHub for their private projects with up to three collaborators per repository for free,” the company said in a brief blog post.

“Many developers want to use private repos to apply for a job, work on a side project, or try something out in private before releasing it publicly.

“Starting today, those scenarios, and many more, are possible on GitHub at no cost.”

GitHub Free will give unlimited private repositories with up to three collaborators per repository for free. However, if you need more than three collaborators, you would have to get a paid account, which is now called GitHub Pro. Also, GitHub Enterprise, compromising of GitHub Business Cloud and GitHub Enterprise will be unified into a single plan.

Given below is detailed information of the offerings by GitHub:

• GitHub Free gives you unlimited private repositories with up to three collaborators per repository at no cost—and continued access to unlimited public repositories with unlimited collaborators.
• GitHub Developer is now called GitHub Pro. It includes everything in GitHub Free, unlimited collaborators for private repositories, and advanced code review tools for private and public repositories.
• GitHub Enterprise is the new unified product for Enterprise Cloud (formerly GitHub Business Cloud) and Enterprise Server (formerly GitHub Enterprise). Organizations that want the flexibility to use GitHub in a cloud or self-hosted configuration can now access both at one per-seat price.

Public repositories will continue to remain free and include unlimited collaborators, the company said. The new offering of unlimited private repositories will be an advantage to students and small developers.

Source: GitHub

Raspberry Pi finally receives touchscreen support via Linux 4.21

Raspberry Pi will officially get touchscreen support in the mainline Linux kernel. Google engineer Dmitry Torokhov on Wednesday issued a git pull request that added support for the 7-inch touchscreen monitor with 800 x 480 display in the mainline Linux 4.21 kernel.

Prior to this, touchscreen support was provided either by using customized Linux kernels for distributions like Raspbian, a Debian-based computer operating system for Raspberry Pi devices or by custom kernel patching.

Instead of HDMI, the Raspberry Pi touchscreen connects via the DSI port with power provided via GPIO pins. The touchscreen drivers will support 10-finger touch and other basic features.

With now Raspberry Pi receiving support for the touchscreen, it can be used to make a DIY tablet or any other smart devices that need display. The input changes were seen in the Linux 4.21 kernel with 200+ lines of code input driver, which obtains information from a memory mapped area via the Raspberry Pi firmware.

The 7-inch touchscreen display for Raspberry Pi will allow users to create all-in-one, integrated projects such as tablets, infotainment systems, and embedded projects.

The Raspberry Pi 7-inch touchscreen will cost about $60 USD.

NSA will release a free open source reverse engineering tool ‘GHIDRA’

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) will be releasing a free open source reverse engineering tool for public use in a session at the RSA conference 2019 in San Francisco titled “Come Get Your Free NSA Reverse Engineering Tool!”

For the unaware, NSA has until now officially shared its own software tools only with government agencies, secret services, and other countries.

Dubbed as GHIDRA, the software reverse engineering framework is developed in Java and has a graphical user interface (GUI). It is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. However, in order to use the tool, the system is required to run Java 1.7.

“NSA has developed a software reverse engineering framework known as GHIDRA, which will be demonstrated for the first time at RSAC 2019,” states the RSAConference session description. “An interactive GUI capability enables reverse engineers to leverage an integrated set of features that run on a variety of platforms including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux and supports a variety of processor instruction sets. The GHIDRA platform includes all the features expected in high-end commercial tools, with new and expanded functionality NSA uniquely developed, and will be released for free public use at RSA.”

GHIDRA includes a disassembler that breaks down executable files into assembler code, which in turn can be read and examined by humans. It can be utilized to analyze binary files used by programs, as well as malware, that runs on different operating systems such as Windows, macOS, Linux as well as mobile platforms like Android and iOS.

Spoiler – it's a lot like IDA except slower (written in Java), its best feature is an architecture-agnostic C decompiler (uses a p-code translation layer) – not sure how many architectures the open source release will support. I have a bunch of friends that use it.

— e * v * m (@evm_sec) January 3, 2019

Apparently, the existence of GHIDRA has never officially been a secret, until it was first publicly released by WikiLeaks in CIA Vault 7 leaks in March 2017. Developed back in the early 2000s, the tool has been used extensively ever since, including outside the US and several other law enforcement agencies.

GHIDRA is expected to be released soon on NSA’s open source repository at https://code.nsa.gov/ and also on the associated GitHub account.

The term DevOps references the combined efforts of software developers and information technology operations to speed up how software is developed while still delivering fixes, updates and new product features. The ultimate goal is to build a system that creates the necessary tools based on how the business is growing or changing.

Big Data refers to the huge data piles most organizations have collected and encourages teams to find new and helpful ways to leverage the data to make better products or services.  

Applying DevOps concepts to Big Data can unlock great insights for an organization and help them act on exciting opportunities. Collaboration between developers creating code and analyst who understand algorithms can help provide valuable operational perspective to business leaders. But, marrying the two does present some unique challenges.

The Challenge of Coordinating the Dev with the Op

DevOps operations is a growing movement that essentially combine the activities of developers with that of operational staff.

No longer are software developers just coding and leaving the implementation or delivery to other team members. Likewise, the operational workers aren’t just waiting until the code is written. Program development now sees a collaborative effort from tech minds on both ends of the spectrum.

But the challenges are abundant – why? The specific reason is because many organizations with a large team of both software developers and IT operations staff tend to be huge and coordinating efforts can be challenging. Additionally, analyzing data can be a new skill and asking the wrong questions or pulling the wrong data can lead to an incorrect answer.

Big data means big projects – let the team come together for a more cohesive workflow.

Automate the Process, Produce Better Products

Producing a superior product isn’t just about having the right talent – in many cases, it is about having the right platform for talents to use. This is especially true for big data projects where there can be huge amounts of data.

In order to release software faster and cheaper, more big data companies are now looking to automate their DevOps projects.

For example, cloud platforms designed to support the development of major technologies in all stages of the software lifecycle can support massive workforces, even if they’re distributed. From management of core files to streamlining work under a single system, cloud platforms do a lot. Automating the data going in can help get code built reliability and deployed in a consistent manner.

Workers who are accustomed to using different systems and handling different parts of the product lifecycle can come together more seamlessly on a platform designed to help them all work together.  Pairing massive cloud computing with machine learning, bigger, more complicated computations can be done quickly and accurately.

Cloud automation makes DevOps environments more efficient, with the only challenge being understanding what to automate.

How the DevOps Environment Facilitates Better Use of Data

Let’s say a big data company’s analytics reveal more success with one program over another. In a DevOps automated environment, programmers can use this data to produce better products.

Operational workers can then use this data for their next move, which can in turn present opportunities for more coding innovation, showing how both can facilitate productivity in the other.

These are just some of the advantages of automating workforces in a DevOps culture, and the benefits it can provide to product development.

Top 29 U.S. tech companies to work for in 2019, according to Glassdoor

Glassdoor, the renowned career job site, has released its annual report of 100 best places to work in the U.S. in 2019 under the name “Employees’ Choice Awards.” The compiled list of 100 companies to work for, includes 29 companies that belong to the technology sector.

Organizations were ranked based on employee ratings across several factors, such as overall satisfaction, career opportunities, corporate culture, transparency, compensation and benefits, work-life balance, culture, values, and business outlook.

Based on employees’ reviews, companies received overall ratings on a scale of one to five, with five signifying the most satisfied employees.

It has been a rather tough year for tech big-wigs like Facebook, Google, Tesla, and Salesforce, who were marred with scandals and controversies. As a result, it has hampered their overall ranking, which saw Facebook fall from the first position last year to the seventh overall rank. Also, the search giant, Google dropped down from second overall position to eight overall ranking

While you can check the entire list of Glassdoor here, let’s have a look at the top 29 tech companies to work for in 2019:

Zoom Video Communications

Overall ranking: #2

Company rating: 4.5

About: Zoom Video Communications provides remote conferencing services using cloud computing.

An employee says: “Honesty, this is the best company I have ever worked for, hands down. Our CEO practices what he preaches with Delivering Happiness. Management is great, no micromanaging, and always willing to help. The sales floor is competitive, but not toxic at all. Everyone is more than happy to help each other. We realize we are all a part of something special right now, and that this should be a team effort.”— Zoom Account Executive (Santa Barbara, California).

Procore Technologies

Overall ranking: #4

Company rating: 4.5

About: Procore Technologies is a construction project management software company.

An employee says: “From the day I started working at Procore, I’ve felt welcome, engaged, and energized. The work is challenging and fast-paced, but the people and culture make coming to the office something I look forward to every day. Procore truly lives its values of Ownership, Optimism, and Openness.” — Anonymous Procore Employee (Carpinteria, California).

LinkedIn

Overall ranking: #6

Company rating: 4.5

About: LinkedIn Corporation is a social networking website specifically designed for people in professional jobs and for recruiting professionals.

An employee says: “Linkedin has a very strong emphasis on employee wellness and goes the extra mile to care how employees feel and does everything to make them more productive in their daily work. Linkedin offers best quality food, continuous wellness programs, clear paths to advance careers and everything else necessary for happiness.” — Anonymous LinkedIn Employee (Mountain View, California).

Facebook

Overall ranking: #7

Company rating: 4.5

About: Facebook is the world’s biggest online social networking service and website.

What employees say: “Learning from great software engineers and/or researchers in AI. Too many political debates inside the company.” — Facebook Research Scientist (New York, New York).

Google

Overall ranking: #8

Company rating: 4.4

About: Google Inc. is an American multinational corporation that is best known for running one of the largest search engines on the World Wide Web (WWW) and also creates cloud computing, hardware, and software products, and more.

An employee says: “If you’re a software engineer, you’re among the kings of the hill at Google. It’s an engineer-driven company without a doubt (that *is* changing, but it’s still very engineer-focused).” — Google Software Engineer (New York, New York).

Salesforce

Overall ranking: #11

Company rating: 4.4

About: Salesforce is an American cloud computing company that helps companies manage their sales, marketing, and application programming projects.

An employee says: “Supportive and inclusive environment, clear and reasonable expectations, challenging environment, awesome corporate mission, lots of room and support for professional growth.” — Salesforce Solutions Engineer (Cincinnati, Ohio).

HubSpot

Overall ranking: #16

Company rating: 4.4

About: HubSpot is a developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing and sales.

An employee says: “I’ve been at HubSpot now for almost 4 years and there’s nowhere else I’ve even thought about working in that time. Why? HubSpot is a great place to work. I feel like I’m valued. I have a lot of autonomy in how and when and where I work. I feel strongly about the mission of the company.” — Anonymous HubSpot Employee (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

DocuSign

Overall ranking: #17

Company rating: 4.4

About: DocuSign provides electronic signature technology and digital transaction management services for facilitating electronic exchanges of contracts and signed documents.

An employee says: “We’re on a good path with no signs of slowing down and a lot of untapped market potential. This is great news. Because the company is growing fast, there’s a lot of opportunity to grow your career and step up into new roles.” — DocuSign Enterprise Corporate Sales(San Francisco, California).

Ultimate Software

Overall ranking: #18

Company rating: 4.4

About: Ultimate Software is an American technology company that develops and sells UltiPro, a cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solution for businesses.

An employee says: “Amazing company. It’s the only payroll / HCM organization that truly cares about the customer – and while it’s not easy – the organization has maintained an amazing culture all in an effort to provide the best support to the customer. I love that.” — Ultimate SDM

Paylocity

Overall ranking: #20

Company rating: 4.4

About: Paylocity is a provider of cloud-based payroll and human capital management software solutions for medium-sized organizations.

An employee says: “Great company culture. People that really believe in what we do, and investment in technology to push the envelope.” — Paylocity Account Executive (Tampa, Florida).

Fast Enterprises

Overall ranking: #26

Company rating: 4.4

About: Fast Enterprises provides software and information technology consulting services.

An employee says: “Fast, even at the 1000+ size it is, still cares deeply about each and every employee. Their benefits, even the way they help people move, the way they bring individuals AND their spouses/families into the culture, it super impressive and I love that about Fast.” — Fast Enterprises Implementation Consultant (Boston, Massachusetts).

SAP

Overall ranking: #27

Company rating: 4.4

About: SAP is a multinational software corporation that develops enterprise software to help manage business operations and customer relations.

An employee says: “We have yoga and meditation classes, mindfulness workshops. Many invited guests from technology industries to provides you with information. Leadership women workshops, global coaching, mentoring programs, and flexible work environment.? It is truly a top-notch company that will give back to their employees.”— SAP Manager (Montreal, Québec).

Adobe

Overall ranking: #30

Company rating: 4.4

About: Adobe Inc. is an American multinational computer software company best known for its design and photo-editing solutions.

An employee says: “Relentless commitment to customer success. This is the core of most day to day decisions and the North Star for all activity. This makes it a place to be proud to work. Incredible products. Amazing benefits and culture that draws incredibly talented individuals.” — Adobe Learning Specialist (San Jose, California).

Compass

Overall ranking: #32

Company rating: 4.4

About: Real estate agency and platform for buying, selling, and renting a home.

An employee says: “Having recently joined Compass, all I can say about the company, its mission, and the people in it is… ‘simply amazing.’ Compass is a unicorn. It is that rare company that combines passion, focus, execution, vision, and has a heart and a soul.” — Anonymous Compass Employee (San Francisco, California).

Microsoft

Overall ranking: #34

Company rating: 4.4

About: Microsoft Corporation (MS) is an American multinational technology company that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services.

An employee says: “Respect for the individual, constant stressing of core cultural values of letting everyone be heard, etc. Decent work/life balance, though it’s hugely dependent on the individual to enforce. Individuals are encouraged to engage with managers at any level (for example with your manager’s manager’s manager…). There’s a general high-level of passion for the products we make.” — Senior Microsoft Electrical Engineer (Redmond, Washington).

NVIDIA

Overall ranking: #36

Company rating: 4.3

About: Nvidia Corporation designs graphics processing units (GPUs) for the gaming, cryptocurrency, and professional markets, as well as system on a chip units (SoCs) for the mobile computing and automotive market.

An employee says: “I’ll be up front and say that it has always been my dream to work here. With that in mind, I came in telling myself to look at this place as objectively as possible to not cloud my judgement. After working here for over a year, I must say, the hype is real.” — Senior Nvidia Systems Engineer (Santa Clara, California).

Intuit

Overall ranking: #38

Company rating: 4.3

About: Intuit Inc. is a business and financial software company that develops and sells financial, accounting, and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants, and individuals.

An employee says: “Incredible company that has market dominance, yet also has so much room to grow. Management constantly preaches disruption, and its reflected in our priorities and work.” — Intuit Data Scientist.

TaskUs

Overall ranking: #40

Company rating: 4.3

About: TaskUs is a global outsourcing company that provides back-office support and customer care solutions.

An employee says: “Taskus puts their people first, they understand that their people are the ones who make their company! I have gone through many interviews with other companies and Taskus is the first one who truly shows it!” — TaskUs Digital Content Moderator (San Antonio, Texas).

Cengage

Overall ranking: #41

Company rating: 4.3

About: Cengage is an educational content, technology, and services company for the higher education, K-12, professional, and library markets worldwide.

An employee says: “The leadership of the company has been jaw-droppingly motivated, visionary, and transparent. They have turned a company haunted by downturns in the market into a trendsetter that is adapting profitably. Along the way, they have been committed to employee growth and job satisfaction. I am thrilled with what we are doing for learning.” — Senior Systems Analyst (Rapid City, South Dakota).

Kronos Incorporated

Overall ranking: #44

Company rating: 4.3

About: HR, payroll, recruiting, and timekeeping software.

An employee says: “The culture is positive. Employees are hard working and care. Leadership cares for employees and their experience. The company also cares for their customers.” — Anonymous Kronos Employee (Denver, Colorado).

VMware

Overall ranking: #51

Company rating: 4.3

About: VMware, Inc. is a subsidiary of Dell Technologies that provides cloud computing and platform virtualization software and services.

An employee says: “Lots of smart and talented coworkers who are happy to share information you will learn a lot in a short amount of time but are expected to contribute. Slackers need not apply. If you’re a slacker you won’t survive the high stress and fast pace.” — VMware Technical Support (Broomfield, Colorado).

AppDynamics

Overall ranking: #58

Company rating: 4.3

About: AppDynamics is an application performance management (APM) and IT operations analytics (ITOA) company that focuses on managing the performance and availability of applications across cloud computing environments as well as inside the data center.

An employee says: “Great encouraging and supportive leadership. Promotional opportunities every quarter. Family atmosphere, where everyone has a genuine interest in you as an individual and employee.” — AppDynamics Business Development Representative (Dallas, Texas).

Paycom

Overall ranking: #62

Company rating: 4.3

About: Paycom is an online payroll and human resource technology provider.

An employee says: “This is honestly the best job I think I’ll ever have. The benefits are amazing and the pay is more than I ever thought I could get. BE WARNED this job is hard. Never in my life have I had so much stress. That’s the reason why it pays so well. Be prepared to be stressed every day and have heavy daily workloads and have new procedures constantly thrown at you from management. But guess what it’s your job so you either adapt or you don’t make it.” — Paycom Specialist (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma).

Cisco Systems

Overall ranking: #69

Company rating: 4.3

About: Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational technology that develops, manufactures and sells networking hardware, telecommunications equipment, and other high-technology services and products.

An employee says: “Military Friendly Culture empowers and gives transitioning veterans the opportunity to learn develop self to full potential. As a Military Retiree I feel there could not have been a better company to transition to than Cisco and the leadership team is very understanding and appreciative of what we bring to the table.” — Cisco Program Manager (Austin, Texas).

Apple

Overall ranking: #71

Company rating: 4.3

About: Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services.

An employee says: “The company is AMAZING. There are limitless advancement opportunities. You work with some very cool people and the leadership cares about your development. You may get coaching but you never get battered or belittled.” — Apple At Home Advisor (Lakewood, Colorado).

NetApp

Overall ranking: #82

Company rating: 4.2

About: NetApp, Inc. is a hybrid cloud data services and data management company that offers hybrid cloud data services for management of applications and data across cloud and on-premises environments.

An employee says: “Great team chemistry. Interesting work. This company cares about its employees a lot and there are numerous events at work and outside work which show this.” — NetApp HPC Solutions Architect (Sunnyvale, California).

HP Inc.

Overall ranking: #87

Company rating: 4.2

About: HP Inc. is a provider of a wide variety of hardware components as well as software components.

An employee says: “HP’s global footprint makes it unique in allowing you to have a BIG impact. Senior leaders are quality execs who’ve proven their mettle. Lots of opportunity to contribute given the size of the businesses.” — Anonymous HP Employee.

Expedia Group

Overall ranking: #92

Company rating: 4.2

About: Expedia Group is an American global travel technology company.

An employee says: “Expedia is the best place to work. I have been here for 11 months and enjoying every single day. The culture is upbeat, leadership is transparent, clear on direction, very well organized process oriented company. Awesome work life balance.” — Expedia Software Engineering Manager (Chicago, Illinois).

World Wide Technology

Overall ranking: #99

Company rating: 4.2

About: World Wide Technology, Inc. (WWT) provides technology and supply chain services with a focus on the enterprise commercial, public and telecom service provider sectors. The company provides planning, procurement and deployment of IT products and solution selling.

An employee says: “Bar none, THE BEST place I have ever worked.” — World Wide Technology Senior Consultant (Denver, Colorado).

With tons of new technology coming out in the 21st century, it’s extremely important that you know what each of these terms means. You don’t want to be looking like a complete fool when your tech-savvy buddies are going around using these terms and you have no idea what they are talking about.

Even if you don’t like technology that much, knowing these insider terms can get you into a lot of new conversations and they will help you connect with many new people.

Read the terms, write them down, make a Quizlet out of them. Do what you got to do to learn them. Just know them.

1. Asset

An object that is valuable to a person or an organization.

2. Authentication

A process used to verify people to confirm their identity.

3. Brainjacking

Brainjacking is the term used for hacking into brain implants. In the future, we may all have brain implants but they come at the risk of getting hijacked, altering pain levels and even behavior.

4. Certification Body

A separate, independent organization which gives certification services to its customers.

5. Machine Bias

Machine bias is when the data in an algorithm machine gets influenced over time by human bias and prejudices from the people whom the data was collected from.

6. Crowdturfing

Crowdturfing is when you hire someone to write reviews for you. This is getting used in large scale by attackers and it makes it very hard to separate what is fake from what is real.

7. AI Cyber-Attacks

AI chatbots are being used to trick people into giving up private information like their credit card information, private documents, and passwords.

8. Computer Hallucinations

Self-driving cars and AI technology rely on cameras and algorithms to figure out what things are and how to navigate around obstacles. The problem is that the AI doesn’t always recognize things properly and it is possible that cars with computer vision could get attacked.

9. Encryption

A process that allows one to convert data into a secure form to hide its content.

10. Instant Messaging

Allows conversations between multiple people through typing on devices.

11. Keyboard Logger

A software the records all keys pressed, usually used to reveal credit card details and private information.

Keyloggers can be extremely dangerous because usually when they are installed they come equipped with trojans to help attack your computer.

Make sure you check out the conclusion to this article to learn how to defend against these kinds of dangerous malware with the best antivirus solution.

12. Macro Virus

A macro virus is a special type of malware that uses regular spreadsheet and word document software to infect a computer.

These Terms are Cool But A Quality Antivirus is Superior

Antivirus has multiple layers of antivirus protection and it has the ability to completely defend your computer from the malware listed above.

When it comes to antivirus protection, Norton Antivirus is essential in cybersecurity. They have won many awards for their superior antivirus protection.

Next Apple iPhone may have a hole in its display, patent reveals

Apple who started the “notch” design standard that saw every other Android OEM incorporating in its smartphone is looking to trend set another legacy.

The Cupertino giant who had filed a patent back in June for a camera cut-out in the display has finally been approved. The patent titled “Integrated Camera Window” was approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on November 8.

The folks at LetsGoDigital who discovered Apple’s new patent shows an iPhone with a hole for the camera in the display. In other words, Apple is looking to place the iPhone’s front camera under the device’s screen in its future phones, thereby killing the notch design.

With this patent, Apple joins the list of companies such as Samsung, Asus, and LG who have filed similar patents in the past. However, Apple’s patent is a bit different from its contemporaries.

According to the patent, Apple wants to fit the camera window with a ‘cover glass’ where cover glass refers to the display. This display technology is presently applicable only to the LCD screen.

“Apparatus, systems, and methods for camera integration with a cover glass and for processing cover glass to provide a camera window for an electronic device are disclosed. A camera window can be integrated into the cover glass. The apparatus, systems, and methods are especially suitable for cover glasses, or displays (e.g., LCD displays), assembled in small form factor electronic devices such as handheld electronic devices (e.g., mobile phones, media players, personal digital assistants, remote controls, etc.,” the patent description reads.

Besides iPhones, other electronic devices such as portable computers, tablet computers, displays, monitors, televisions as well as iPads, MacBooks, and iMacs could see in-display camera technology soon.

While patents are filed all the time, it is not necessary that every patent is converted into a finished commercial product or even a prototype. Whether or not, Apple will go ahead and implement the display technology in its future devices, only time will tell.

NVIDIA announces mid-range Quadro RTX 4000 with Turing GPU, 2304 Cores and 8 GB VRAM

NVIDIA announced its new Quadro RTX 4000 graphics card for workstation professionals at the annual Autodesk University Conference in Las Vegas yesterday. This is the company’s first mid-range professional GPU in Quadro RTX family that is powered by the NVIDIA Turing architecture and the NVIDIA RTX platform.

The Quadro RTX family already consists of the Quadro RTX 8000, RTX 6000, and RTX 5000. The single-slot design of the new Quadro RTX 4000 allows the GPU to fit in a variety of workstation chassis.

“Meet today’s demanding professional workflows with GPU accelerated ray tracing, deep learning, and advanced shading. The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000, powered by the NVIDIA Turing architecture and the NVIDIA RTX platform, delivers best-in-class performance and features in a single-slot PCI-e form factor. Design and create like never before with faster time to insight and faster time to solution,” NVIDIA said.

According to specifications provided by NVIDIA, the graphics card has 36 RT cores to enable real-time ray tracing of objects and environments with physically accurate shadows, reflections, refractions, and global illumination.

Further, it packs 2,304 CUDA cores, 288 Turing Tensor Cores for 57 TFLOPS of deep learning performance, and comes with 8GB of ultra-fast GDDR6 memory that provides over 40 percent more memory bandwidth than the previous generation Quadro P4000. It also supports video creation and playback for multiple video streams with resolutions up to 8K.

In addition, it provides hardware support for VirtualLink, improved performance with VR applications, including Variable Rate Shading, Multi-View Rendering and VRWorks Audio, and more.

In terms of performance, the Quadro RTX 4000 offers up to 43T RTX-OPS and 6 Giga Rays/s. The FP32 compute performance is estimated at 7.1 TFLOPS, which translates into a boost clock of around 1540 MHz. The TU106-based Quadro has a 160W rated TDP and has been enclosed into a single-slot cooling solution, which should easily fit in any workstation case. It draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector.

Ernesto Pacheco, Director of Visualization at the global architectural firm, CannonDesign, which is one of the early users of the Quadro RTX 4000 said, “Our designers need tools that unleash their creative freedom to design amazing buildings. Real-time rendering with the new Quadro RTX 4000 is unbelievably fast and smooth right out of the gate — no latency and the quality and accuracy of the lighting is outstanding. It will enable us to accelerate our workflow and let our designers focus on the design process without the technology slowing them down.”

The Quadro RTX 4000 will be available starting December on nvidia.com at an estimated price tag of $900. It will also be available from leading workstation manufacturers, like Dell, HPE and Lenovo, as well as its authorized distribution partners in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

‘Shakti’ is India’s first indigenous microprocessor

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) have designed India’s first Microprocessor that will help reduce the country’s dependence on imported systems in communications and defense sectors.

The processor, called Shakti, has been developed at an outlay of about Rs 11 crore and is said to be on par with its international counterparts. It can be used in various consumer electronic devices, mobile computing devices, low-power wireless systems, and networking systems.

“The microprocessor can be used by others as it is on par with International Standards”, a statement from IIT-M said. “The microprocessor will not get outdated as it is one of the few ‘RISC V Microprocessors’ in the world now.”

The ‘SHAKTI’ family of microprocessors was fabricated at Semi-Conductor Laboratory of Indian Space Research Organizations (ISRO) in Chandigarh, making it the first ‘RISC V Microprocessor’ to designed and completely made in India, IIT-M said.

The microprocessor’s design is based on an open Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) named RISC-V, noted Professor Kamakoti Veezhinathan, Lead Researcher, Reconfigurable Intelligent Systems Engineering (RISE) Laboratory, Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT-M. This means anyone can design, manufacture, and sell chips based on this architecture.

The most critical aspect of such an indigenous design, development and fabricating approach is reducing the risk of deploying systems which may be affected by the back-doors and hardware Trojans.

This achievement will get huge implication when systems based on Shakti processors are accepted by strategic sectors such as defense, nuclear power installations, government agencies, and departments.

“With the advent of Digital India, there are several applications that require customizable processor cores. The 180nm fabrication facility at SCL Chandigarh is crucial in getting these cores manufacturers within our Country,” Veezhinathan said.

The project originally began in 2011 and was afterward granted a funding of Rs.11 crore ($1.5 million) from the Government of India in 2017.

“We have proved that a microprocessor can be designed, developed and fabricated in India. This is important for the country. All the countries would like to own the design part. Even from the security point of view, indigenous design gains importance,” noted Veezhinathan.

“The impact of this completely indigenous fabrication is that India has now attained independence in designing, developing and fabricating end-to-end systems within the country, leading to self-sufficiency.

Veezhinathan and his team are also working on a microprocessor for supercomputers, named ‘Parashakti,’ which is likely to be released by the end of the year.