New Technology 2

Hello, thank you for watching my blog. I’m afraid that this article is the end of this blog.

Last week, I show you the quantum computer. I will show you “cloud computing” in this week.

Cloud means cloud (kumo, in Japanese) and expresses computer network (Internet). Conventionally, a network is expressed with the figure of clouds in the image figure of computer systems in many cases, and it is called origin. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as the following. ”Cloud computing is one of the model which can access to a common poor of computing resource which can construct a network, a server, storages, applications, and services. And it is quickly provided by the minimum management labor or the mutual operation between service providers, and you can use it. While conventional using computer is that the users maintain and manage their own hardware, software, and dates, Cloud computing is that the users are given services beyond the Internet and pay a fee. The users should have only minimum connection environment. Network between computers, actually carry out the processing, is installed in the company which provides service. 

Cloud computing is often classified the following three kinds, SaaS, PaaS, and HaaS or IaaS.

SaaS : SaaS is providing software packages go through to Internet. (For example, E-mail, groupware, CRM etc…) There are “Salesforce CRM”, “Microsoft Online Services”, and “Google Apps”.

Paas : PaaS is providing the platform for carrying out applications. It is the application server and database which were virtualized. A user can arrange and use own  applications. There are “Google App Engine”, “App Scale”, “Windows Azure”, “Amazon S3”, “Amazon Dynamo DB”, and “Amazon Simple DB”.

HaaS and IaaS : HaaS and IaaS are providing the infrastructure and hardware go through to the Internet. It is server virtualization, desktop virtualization, a shared disk, etc. A user can introduce and construct the system including operating system. There is “Amazon EC2”.

The services provided the form of cloud computing are called “Cloud computing service” or simply “Cloud service” and the enterprise which provide the services is called “Cloud service provider” or simple “Cloud provider”.

The word, Cloud computing, appeared in 2006 by Eric Emerson Schmidt who is former CEO of Google. But the form which provides computer processing in the form of service by a network course exists before. It is time sharing system in 1960s, VAN in 1980s, ASP and SaaS in 1990s.

Advantages

Provider: low cost, low fee.

User: A user loses necessity of holding, designing and developing an own computer, the hardware and software, and equipment, and also performing maintenance and managing.

Problems

A network obstacle, Bankruptcy of provider

Cloud computing is developing now. It will change the form of Internet conveniently in the future.

New technology 1

Nowadays, the technology in the area of computes is developing. In many technologies, a most hot new technology is a quantum computer now. And many companies, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, pay attention to “cloud computing.” At first, I show a quantum computer to you.

A quantum computer is a new generation computer which realizes parallelism using quantum mechanical superposition. An electronic computer has number of 0 or 1 by a bit, but quantum computer can maintain optional rate of 0 and 1 by a bit thanks to quantum bit. If there is a quantum computer has n-quantum bit, it can calculate 2^n states. And if will realize a quantum computer has thousands quantum bit, it can calculate the problem for tens seconds which the modern fastest super computer cannot solve for thousands years. However, the quantum computer is superior to the modern computer in all the points. While the modern computer is general-purpose computer which can perform any calculations, researchers think that the quantum computer is the special-purpose computer which processes a specific algorithm at high speed.

The history of quantum computer

In 1980s

In 1980s, Paul Benioff proved that quantum computer can calculate without consuming energy in a quantum system. In 1982, Richard Phillips Feynman (U.S., Physicist) guessed also that quantum calculation is exponentially efective for classic calculation. In 1985, David Deutsch (U.K., Physicist) defined quantum turing machine which is origin of quantum calculating machine, and designed quantum circuit in 1989.

In 1990s

David Deutsch and Richard Jozsa thought up “Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm” in 1992. In the next year, Umesh Vazirani and Ethan Bernstein who is his student thought up omnipotent quantum turing machine and quantum fourier transform algorithm. In 1994, Peter Shor (U.S., Computer scientist) designed practical algorithm, “Shor algorithm.” Shor algorithm promoted research of quantum computer. It is based on quantum fourier transform algorithm and Simon’s research. Shor algorithm, which is an algorithm peculiar to a quantum computing machine, can perform the factorization in very short time which cannot be solved in realistic time by a classic computer. Since if practical quantum computing machine is realized, the safety of RSA code using the difficulty of factorization into prime factors will collapse. In 1998, QCL (Quantum Computation Language) which is the programming language for quantum computer was announced.

In 2000s

The quantum computer’s hardware development had big progress. In 2008, David Jeffrey Wineland (U.K., expert in ion trap) proved that each ion iced by laser can be caught. And research of the ion trap type quantum computer which manipulate each ion in quantum entanglement state progressed.

The quantum computer is investigated in the world now. If the practical quantum computer is realized, many problems will be solved and many researches will be progressed. I want to see it until I pass away.

The Smart Phone

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The smart phone is more popular among in particular young people these days. The mainstream form of cell phone is changing from Galapagos cell phone to smart phone. According to research by Impress R&D, the saturation level of smart phones is 39.9% in Japan, and increased 10% for last five month. I am also using a smart phone. I show you the advantage of smart phone.

A smart phone is a cell phone which is based on computer and has various functions. Smart phone has a lot of function such as connection of the Internet, reading PDF, Word and Excel, multi media player, camera, games, GPS, and Wi-Fi etc.

1.    Operating system

There are two mobile operating systems which spread in Japan. It is Android and iOS.
Android is the operating system which Google is developing. It is most common operating system in Japan. The smart phone which I am using adopt Android OS. iOS is the operating system which Apple is developing and the smart phone such as iPhone has.

And there are the other operating systems, for example, Black Berry, Bada, Symbian, and Windows Phone.

2. History

1996 and 1999 are important years for smart phone. In 1996, Nokia, which the maker in Finland now has the second largest share of cell phone in the world, announced “Nokia 9000 Communicator.” It was longwise straight type mobile phone and a device which realized set of cell phone and PDA. It is said that it is the origin of modern smart phone. In 1999, Research In Motion (RIM), which is the maker in Canada, put “Black Berry” into the market. It had better been called the pocket bell with a key board which can use an E-mail at the beginning of sale. Now it became the smart phone which has many functions such as push type E-mail, voice telephone call function, browsing the website on the Internet, and referring to Microsoft Office application file and PDF file.

3. Mainstream

Now, the mainstream of smart phone is Android smart phone and iPhone. iPhone is the smart phone which Apple put into the market in USA, 2007. iPhone was sold one million between the first three days of sale. Android smart phone is the smart phone which adopts Android operating system. Many companies such as Intel, HTC, Qualcomm, KDDI, and NTT DOCOMO develop and sell this type smart phone.

The Tablet Computers

In 2010, Apple put “iPad” into the market and expanded a new market. After that, the tablet classified into the smart phone equipped with AndroidOS which Google developed appeared. The number of people have a tablet computer is increasing now.

The sub topic of week 7 is “Tablet Computer.”

A tablet is a name attached to the thin plate peripheral equipment for computers, or computer products because the form is associated with lithograph. Pointing devices which takes a plate form is using the name of the tablet before. In recent years, however, especially the computer products of an all-in-one form equipped with the touch panel and the display are pointed out in many cases, and it is also called a tablet computer and a tablet terminal. I think I will introduce two products.

First, I introduce “iPad.” iPad is a tablet computer currently developed and sold by Apple. iPad was announced on January 27, 2010 in the product exhibition held in San Francisco. iPad has followed iPhone which is the mobile phone and iPod touch which are the portable media players which Apple puts on the market as a product, and many functions, such as the operation method by multi-touch and a design of a user interface, are shared. However, unlike iPhone, iPad does not have the telephone call function. There are two models of iPad has only the function of Wi-Fi and has the function of Wi-Fi and 3G. iPad put on the market now is the fourth generation and was announced on October 23, 2012. iPad adopts iOS which iPhone uses. As of September, 2012, the cumulative shipments of iPad is 98,150,000.

Specification of the fourth generation iPad

Operating system: iOS 6.0

CPU: 1.4 GHz dual core Apple Swift

GPU: Quad core PowerVR SGX 554MP4

Main memory: 1GB

Storage Capacity: 16, 32, or 64 GB flash memory

Display: 9.7 inches (250 mm) 2,048 × 1,536 px color IPS LCD display at (264 ppi) with a 4:3 aspect ratio, fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating

Dimension: 241mm(height), 186mm(width), 9.4mm(depth)

Weight: 652g

Second tablet computer is “Nexus7.” Nexus7 is Android tablet which Google sells. The feature of Nexus7 is high quality, high specification, and low price. Nexus7 is the tablet computer which is sold most in Japan now. It is said that Google expects the profit from contents service and sells it at the thin margin. I think I will buy it.

Specification of Nexus7

Operating system: Android 4.1

CPU: Quad core NVIDEA Tegra3 T30L 1.3GHz

Main memory: 1GB

Storage capacity: 16GB or 32GB

Display: 7 inches 1,280 × 800 px color IPS display at (216 ppi) with a 4:3 aspect ration

Dimension: 198.5mm(height), 120mm(width), 10.45mm(depth)

Weight: 340g

If you think to buy any tablet, I recommend Nexus7 to you. Because Nexus7 is much more cheaper than iPad, and specification is the same about iPad.

The Supercomputer

Now, science is continuing progressing. And the supercomputer contributes to progress of science greatly.

A supercomputer is a large-scale computer which is used scientific and engineering calculations as a primary aim. The purpose of supercomputer is huge calculation processing and a supercomputer is equipped with the large-scale hardware and software for realizing it. A supercomputer is used for weather prediction, molecular dynamics, simulation astronomy, an optimization problem, and the simulation based on large-scale numerical analysis like financial engineering. Although the definition of a supercomputer changes a lot with a time, generally speaking, it is the computer of the maximum high performance which is the latest technology of the time.

Introduction of the supercomputer is progressing all over the world. And the concentration situation of the number of introduction which made two poles Japan and the United States. like the beginning of the 1990s is dissolved. The United States and Japan are noticing the simulation capability of a supercomputer being the source of global competitiveness and are planning the next-generation supercomputer concept one after another.

In Japan, there are two kinds of supercomputer. It is NLS and NIS. NLS (National Leadership Supercomputer) is a supercomputer which takes the leadership of the supercomputer literacy in Japan and is prepared as a development project. NIS (National Infrastructure Supercomputer) is a supercomputer which supports supercomputer literacy bearing in mind general research and use in industry. For example, CP-PACS of University of Tsukuba which was started to use as NLS was used as NIS after about two years.

K computer is a name of the supercomputer installed in the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research of Japan. It was completed in July, 2012 and the common start of it was carried out in September of the same year. And, in TOP500 ranking, it ranked the 1^st in June and November, 2011, it ranked 2^nd in June, 2012, and it ranked 3^rd in November, 2012. Moreover, K computer won the HPC challenge prize and the Gordon bell prize in 2011 and 2012.

The notebook Computers

We are using the computer daily. And the computer is a laptop computer in many cases.

Then, I think that I will introduce notebook computers.

A notebook computer includes a display, a keyboard, a pointing device such as a touchpad, a battery which is charged by AC adapter, and a speaker into a single unit. It is the general term of a lightweight personal computer designed considering a user who is premised on making it move to arbitrary places.

The history is short. The beginning is in 1980s. The first laptop computer appeared in the early 1980s. But it was very heavy and was able to be carried somehow. The middle of 1980s, the personal computer which enabled to carry was developed maintaining compatibility with desktop type a personal computer and it was called “Laptops.” However, many of laptops were very heavy, and some of laptops were more heavy 10kg. Toshiba announced “Dynabook” which has been A4 note size and as lightweight as 2.7kg, and equipping the minimum interface on June 27, 1989. And it had the large sized liquid crystal display. Toshiba put it on the market in July of the same year. The price of 198,000 yen gave a shock.” PC-9801n” was put on the market by NEC in October, 1989, and these developed the new market of a notebook computer.

                                              
                                                       (TOSHIBA:T1100)

Nowadays, while the desktop computers became superfluous performance feeling for many users, the price of notebook computers fell and the needs of internal extension also decreased. By such the circumstances, a notebook PC is received also in a general user as main personal computers. Since manufacture of a notebook PC was asked for synthetic technology, such as small size and low-power-consumption of electronic components, and an advanced design of mechanical structure, it had been specialty of Japan for a long time. However, the manufacturer who transfers production of a large-sized model to Taiwan, China, etc., from around 1998, and the manufacturer who entrusts a design and production to an indigenous firm, and withdraws from original design and manufacture succeeded one another. The maker which produces in the mainstream in Japan now is a direct marketer.

 In recent years, a miniaturization and a weight saving progress by development of the high performance of electronic components, density growth, improvement in part mounting technology, the performance gain of a material, etc., and the operation performance is also improving by leaps and bounds. Moreover, the performance gain of a battery also contributes to development of a notebook computer greatly. The price of the whole notebook PC falls and a note form personal computer occupies 50% or more of the personal computers sold all over the world.

(TOSHIBA:T1100)