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Tilera's balancing act: 100 cores vs. market realities

While we're all familiar with the steady increase in the number of cores in mainstream PC and server processors, the corresponding progress in the embedded-processor market has been anything but steady.

With mainstream PC microprocessors standardizing on four-core designs such as Intel's Core i7 and leading-edge server chips ranging from 8 to 16 cores, single-core chips are no longer competitive. For embedded systems, however, one core may still be the right answer; if more are needed, the choices range up into the hundreds.

The latest announcement in the many-core embedded processor market is Tilera's Tile-Gx family, which … Read more

Versatile calculator

DreamCalc Professional Edition is an attractive and versatile calculator that can meet the needs of both casual calculator users and those who have more demanding tasks to perform. Its multiple interfaces and many features make it a great choice for people with a wide variety of calculating needs.

The program's interface is clean and sleek, appearing very much like a real-life calculator. An assortment of skins allows users to customize the calculator's appearance. Users can choose between four types of calculators: Simple, Standard Scientific, Scientific with Base- N Keys, and Financial Scientific. This ensures that users have access … Read more

Will a facial expression recognizer help autistic kids?

Computer scientists at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore are developing a system that could help autistic children identify the emotions of those around them by first locating the edges of faces, then finding crucial fiducial points to extract and process features, and finally classifying those features into corresponding emotions.

Their paper, "Towards a Portable Intelligent Facial Expression Recognizer," is available online through the journal Intelligent Decision Technologies (Volume 3:3).

"Emotion is a state of feeling involving thoughts, physiological changes, and an outward expression," write the paper's authors, Teik-Toe Teoh, Yok-Yen Nguwi and Siu-Yeung Cho … Read more

Mulling mobile broadband options

I've been thinking about buying a new gizmo, and it turns out I'm not the only one in the family having these thoughts.

My sister sent me an e-mail over the weekend:

I need a 3G card for my laptop and I'm going to get it from Verizon. What should I ask for? I just don't want them to try to sell me more or less than I need.

Coincidentally, I've been looking into the latest options for mobile broadband access for a couple of months now, ever since the two-year contract ran out on … Read more

Apple releases iTunes 9.0.1, and updates to Main Stage and Logic Suites

Apple has released a few updates to their audio programs, including iTunes, Main Stage, and their Logic Express and Logic Pro suites. These updates are available via Software Update or the links provided here, and address the following bugs and issues with previous versions:… Read more

A text editor made for developers

SubEthaEdit is a full-featured text editor and live collaboration platform with many specialized tools for software developers. Its streamlined interface focuses on speedy workflow--whether you're working solo or in tandem--and several users can edit a single document simultaneously using a simple, Bonjour-based system that lets you effectively drag and drop fellow collaborators into (and out of) docs, without any cumbersome setup.

SubEthaEdit also puts a premium on customization, with detailed choices in its preferences, good interoperability with most third-party apps you're likely to be using (like FTP clients and IDEs), and support for AppleScript and multiple coding languages (… Read more

VMware service links public and private clouds

VMware has introduced a service for developers that want to test out building cloud-based applications that will work with virtualized environments based on its products.

The infrastructure service, vCloud Express, will be offered via a number of cloud service providers that have signed up as partners, the company said in its announcement at the VMworld conference on Tuesday.

vCloud Express is based on the company's vSphere virtualization platform. As with other recently launched services, such as the Xen Cloud Platform, it aims to allow a business' internal cloud to work with an external cloud. It offers developers a way … Read more

Handy scientific calculator

DreamCalc Graphing Edition is a calculator with scientific and graphing capabilities. It offers three different views (Simple Calculator, Scientific Standard, Scientific Base-N) to handle all of your math needs.

The program has an attractive interface that looks like an actual calculator. When DreamCalc opens, the window is small so you can easily use the calculator in tandem with other applications. This is a practical design for students, accountants, and math professionals. DreamCalc's display is easy to read and use, and those familiar with standard and scientific calculators will be able to navigate its menus and features deftly. It can … Read more

Basic Tagalog translator

Tagalog Translator is a basic program that lets users look up words in English and Tagalog and get translations. Although the program works, its interface could be better, and some of its extra features are a waste of time.

The program's interface is basic; not particularly attractive, but easy enough to understand. The dictionary contains lists of words in English and Tagalog, and users enter the word they're looking for and search to find the translation. The problem with this approach is that results are returned if the word in question matches any portion of any word. For … Read more