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Category: computing – Page 100

Something to look forward to: Improved ray tracing performance is one of the key benefits of Sony’s newly unveiled PlayStation 5 Pro console. Prior to its debut, rumors had long suggested that the mid-generation refresh would incorporate ray tracing technology based on AMD’s upcoming RDNA 4 GPU architecture. Recent comments from PlayStation designer Mark Cerny have all but confirmed these theories.

In a detailed interview with CNET following the reveal of Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro console, designer Mark Cerny confirmed rumors that the device’s ray tracing capabilities are built on an architecture not yet available in AMD’s PC graphics cards. While Cerny didn’t explicitly name RDNA 4, no other viable candidates are known.

Cerny explained that the PS5 Pro leverages new ray tracing feature sets developed by hardware partner AMD for the next stage of its roadmap. Reports earlier this year suggested that RDNA 4 GPUs, expected to launch in 2025, will significantly enhance ray tracing performance compared to RDNA 3, and especially to the RDNA 2 chips that power the original PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles.

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Nicholas Agar has recently argued that it would be irrational for future human beings to choose to radically enhance themselves by uploading their minds onto computers. Utilizing Searle’s argument that machines cannot think, he claims that uploading might entail death. He grants that Searle’s argument is controversial, but he claims, so long as there is a non-zero probability that uploading entails death, uploading is irrational. I argue that Agar’s argument, like Pascal’s wager on which it is modelled, fails, because the principle that we (or future agents) ought to avoid actions that might entail death is not action guiding. Too many actions fall under its scope for the principle to be plausible. I also argue that the probability that uploading entails death is likely to be lower than Agar recognizes.

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A new study led by researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is providing new insights into how next-generation electronics, including memory components in computers, breakdown or degrade over time. Understanding the reasons for degradation could help improve efficiency of data storage solutions.

The research is published in ACS Nano (“Uncovering Atomic Migrations Behind Magnetic Tunnel Junction Breakdown”).

For the first time, researchers were able to observe a “pinhole” within a device and observe how it degrades in real-time. (Image: Mkhoyan Lab, University of Minnesota)

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More recently, in a period where we upgraded our H2 system from 32 to 56 qubits and demonstrated the scalability of our QCCD architecture, we also hit a quantum volume of over two million, and announced that we had achieved “three 9’s” fidelity, enabling real gains in fault-tolerance – which we proved within months as we demonstrated the most reliable logical qubits in the world with our partner Microsoft.

We don’t just promise what the future might look like; we demonstrate it.

Today, at Quantum World Congress, we shared how recent developments by our integrated hardware and software teams have, yet again, accelerated our technology roadmap. It is with the confidence of what we’ve already demonstrated that we can uniquely announce that by the end of this decade Quantinuum will achieve universal fully fault-tolerant quantum computing, built on foundations such as a universal fault-tolerant gate set, high fidelity physical qubits uniquely capable of supporting reliable logical qubits, and a fully-scalable architecture.

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This is a U.S. General Services Administration Federal Government computer system that is “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY.” This system is subject to monitoring. Individuals found performing unauthorized activities are subject to disciplinary action including criminal prosecution.

This system contains Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). All individuals viewing, reproducing or disposing of this information are required to protect it in accordance with 32 CFR Part 2002 and GSA Order CIO 2103.2 CUI Policy.

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Dr. Tim Brown.

Taking…

Axon-mimicking Materials for Computing https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2024/09/axon-mimicking-mat…uting.html.

Biology does things differently: some signals in the brain are also transmitted across centimeter distances, but through…

A method using semi-stable edge of chaos in LaCoO3 enables continuous signal amplification in metallic conductors without separate amplifiers, potentially revolutionizing electronic chip design.

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