Connectivity, Communications & Cloud News - Page 2

SpaceX continues to push satellite internet technology, with their latest Starlink satellites rocking newer laser communication instead of radio links.

The company has been launching its lastest generation satellites into lower Earth orbit since September 2021, but they will soon go active and we'll see laser-based SpaceX Starlink satellite internet connectivity. The new inter-optical connectivity aka lasers will be used to serve users in the polar regions, where SpaceX filed an application with the FCC's International Bureau with the Committee approving the temporary use of Starlink satellites at latitudes higher than 53 degrees.

Elon explained in a tweet: "Starlink inter-satellite laser links should be operational by end of year. This will dramatically reduce global latency. Light travels ~40% faster in vacuum/air than in fiber optic cables & satellite path length is shorter (cables follow coastlines)".

Google has tripled a previous world record it set for calculating digits of pi only three years ago.

Google Cloud was used to calculate 31.4 trillion digits of pi in 2019, a world record later broken in 2021 by the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons, which calculated another 31.4 trillion digits. On June 9th, 2022, Google has now announced that it has reclaimed the record, using Google Cloud once again to calculate 100 trillion digits of pi.

Google Cloud's compute service, Compute Engine, has gotten faster in the years since it first crunched a record number of digits of pi, thanks to recent upgrades such as the "Compute Engine N2 machine family, 100 Gbps egress bandwidth, Google Virtual NIC, and balanced Persistent Disks."

Earlier this year rumors started swirling that Google was working on a "less expensive" version of their Chromecast video streaming dongle. It would make sense for Google to offer a device for the market segment that does not need a device that supports more than a 1080p resolution as the current model supports 4K HDR.

Recently it has been revealed that Google has submitted a device, G454V, for review to the FCC. In the filing, it is described as a "wireless device", which in the past Google has used the same description for products like the Nest Audio, Chromecast Voice Remote, and Daydream View Controller.

From the filing, the device supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The biggest reveal of what this device could possibly be comes from its description in the test configuration, which describes it as a wireless streaming device. Additionally, the unit is being tested with a remote control device being described in the FCC testing documentation.

The future of display connectivity cables is constantly changing, with DisplayPort 2.0 monitors and graphics cards debuting later this year, HDMI 2.1a is also being introduced.

HDMI 2.1a was recently announced by the HDMI Licensing Administrator, designed to give active cables more power directly from the source device... all without needing additional power cables. This means that cables that are longer than 5M won't have as many issues, especially when driving the full 40Gbps or higher 48Gbps through HDMI 2.1 cables.

The big difference with the new HDMI 2.1a specification: the active cables can only be attached in one direction -- with one end of the cable specifically labeled to attach to the HDMI Source, while the other side will be connected ot the HDMI Sink device. If you hook the cable up in reverse, well, it won't actually work.

The results of the data transmission experiment were presented at the International Conference on Laser and Electro-Optics (CLEO) 2022 on May 19th, 2022.

Researchers from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) managed to transmit 1.02 petabits of data per second using multi-core fiber (MCF) with a standard cladding diameter of 0.125 millimeters. The NICT broke the one petabit per second data transmission rate first in December 2020 but did so with a 15-mode optical fiber.

Such a transmission system requires complex MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) digital signal processing to make sense of the signals and limits its practical applications. The latest transmission system uses 4-core MCF and can transmit 1.02 petabit per second over 51.7 kilometers (32.1 miles), compared to the 610 terabits per second previously achieved in a similar fiber.

Mellanox was acquired by NVIDIA a few years ago at a cost of $6.9 billion, and now we're seeing NVIDIA unveil its new ConnectX-7 SKUs that have some impressive features.

NVIDIA's new ConnectX-7 SKUs come in PCIe, OCP NIC 3.0, and IC form factors. At the International Supercomputing Conference, Serve the Home spotted a single-port PCIe version of NVIDIA's new ConnectX-7 that uses a SuperMicro SuperBlade.

We're only just seeing PCIe 5.0 connectivity hitting consumer boards with the new Intel Z690 chipset and Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs, while AMD and its new X670 + X670E chipsets and upcoming Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 series CPUs supporting PCIe 5.0 on upcoming motherboards. But in servers and data centers, PCIe 5.0 is used for its super-high-speed bandwidth.

New York City has just removed its last payphone booth from the city, a once iconic symbol across NYC -- where Clark Kent would turn into Superman -- has been replaced by the world of smartphones.

This isn't something that has happened overnight, with the de Blasio administration taking in proposals on how to reimagine the replacement of public payphones across New York City. The officials then accepted CityBridge to come in and develop + operate LinkNYC kiosks, which offer services to people like free phone calls, Wi-Fi, and even charging your device.

Commissioner Matthew Fraser said in the release said: "As a native New Yorker, saying goodbye to the last street pay phone is bittersweet because of the prominent place they've held in the city's physical landscape for decades. Just like we transitioned from the horse and buggy to the automobile and from the automobile to the airplane, the digital evolution has progressed from payphones to high-speed Wi-Fi kiosks to meet the demands of our rapidly changing daily communications needs".

We knew they were coming, but it looks like they're here: next-gen USB-C cables that are capable of delivering a rather crazy 240W of power.

The new USB-C 2.1 cables can deliver up to 240W of power, as well as up to 40Gbps of data... turning up out of nowhere by Club 3D. The cables aren't exactly for sale, nor are they on retailer shelves just yet... but the new Club 3D CAC-1573, CAC-1575, and CAC-1576 cables are on their way.

Which one will you want? Well, if you want the fastest then the Club 3D CAC-1576 is a USB4 Gen3x2 Type-C bi-directional cable that offers the full 240W of USB-PD (Power Delivery) and up to 40Gbps of bandwidth which is enough to drive up to 8K 60Hz. It's a small 1m cable, so make sure you're very close.

Intel and Lockheed Martin already collaborate with strategic relationships that have been nurtured for over 10 years now, but the two have just entered a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the future of 5G technology.

The companies will use 5G software and hardware solutions to push for faster, and quicker actions for the U.S. Department of Defense. Intel already provides 5G solutions that are integrated into Lockheed Martin's 5G.MIL Hybrid Base Station.

Lockheed Martin's 5G.MIL Hybrid Base Station "acts as a multi-network gateway for ubiquitous communications between military personnel and current and emerging platforms including satellites, aircraft, ships and ground vehicles". Inside, Lockheed Martin also uses Intel's advanced processor technologies and innovations on network and the edge "to bring cloud capabilities to the areas of tactical need".

If you're living in Russia right now, I can't imagine how it must feel being cancel cultured out of civilized society so quickly... but now rumors are flying that Russia is going to "disconnect from the global internet".

Belarus-based media outlet Nexta tweeted: "#Russia began active preparations for disconnection from the global Internet. No later than March 11, all servers and domains must be transferred to the #Russian zone. In addition, detailed data on the network infrastructure of the sites is being collected".

Now, I don't want to sit here and write doomsday clickbait BS when it comes to a topic like this... but Russia has been toying with disconnecting from the "global internet" for a while now. Back in July 2021, Russia "managed to disconnect itself from the global internet during tests in June and July", not even a year ago, reported Reuters at the time.