Category: Engineering

ENG: NASA’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing processor is a next-generation space chip designed to give spacecraft much stronger onboard computing abilities. Unlike ordinary processors, it is radiation-hardened, meaning it is built to resist damage from high-energy particles coming from the Sun and from deep space. It is also designed to tolerate extreme temperature changes, shocks, and other difficult spaceflight conditions. NASA expects it to provide up to 100 times the computational capacity of current spaceflight computers, while early testing indicates performance as high as 500 times faster than radiation-hardened chips now in use.

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ENG: Engineers at the University of California San Diego have designed a new chip that could improve the energy efficiency of data centers by changing the way power is delivered to GPUs. The chip addresses a central problem in modern computing systems: converting the 48 volts commonly distributed in data centers into the much lower voltages needed by GPUs, usually between 1 and 5 volts. Since data centers consume large amounts of electricity, improving this conversion process can help reduce energy loss, lower heat production, and support more compact computing hardware.

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ENG: Doom, the video game released in 1993, later became more than a form of entertainment. Over the years, researchers started to use it in scientific studies and technical experiments. Its role in science grew after the game’s source code was released publicly in 1997, because scientists and developers could then modify it and adapt it to many different systems. As a result, Doom became a research tool and a widely recognized example of experimental computing.

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ENG: A University of Houston scientist and an international research team have identified serious weaknesses in many of the world’s long-span bridges and proposed a practical way to detect problems earlier. In a study of 744 bridges, they found that bridges in North America are in the poorest condition, followed by those in Africa. The findings are linked in part to bridge age, especially in North America, where construction peaked in the 1960s and many structures are now close to or beyond their intended design life. The researchers argue that satellite-based monitoring can help authorities track bridge stability more regularly and respond before damage becomes severe.

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