Third Anniversary Special : Winds of Change

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2009/08/05/camspotlight_power.htm

Photo: Md Akhlas Uddin

ONE of the major drawbacks that has been holding us back as a nation is our inability to think on a collective scale; most of us tend to be self-centred, if not selfish, and fail to understand the power of WE and concentrate in our personal gains instead. All the problems, it seems, have the root in the mindset of ours, which, I believe, is desperately in need of a change.

Corruption, one of the most talked about problems on talk shows, newspaper articles and in high profile seminars, can hardly be solved with new laws and drastic actions unless we are able to come out of the box of ME. Those of us in power, the power to make important decisions on a national, or even a smaller scale, tend to think of our personal benefits that can be derived while making those decisions. We tend to assign the contract of making a bridge or a road not to the lowest bidder or one who can assure the best quality, as it ideally should have been, but to someone who has taken advantage of our low morale and has bribed us into believing that he would be the best person for the job. Little do we understand that in doing so, often enough, we bring about our own doom, with underquality constructions often resulting into dire consequences that can hardly be prevented.

In the job market, nepotism seems to be prevalent as an overwhelming number of employers seem to think that their shalas and bhaginas are more aptly fitted for a certain job compared to someone who truly has the merits and the required skills for the job. In hiring someone less able, the organization loses the brightest of minds who had a higher probability of performing better and thus taking it forward. Here too, ME seems to be the predominant factor.

Many streets in Dhaka, and in other parts of the country are made dirty mostly by its local inhabitants rather than from outsiders. If we cannot keep the streets in front of our homes clean, how can we really expect the city to be clean and spotless? All of us should play our individual roles in the society to bring about the collective change that we so desperately need!

Examples like the above seem to be countless and unending but I believe my message has been well explained already so this article would no longer be prolonged. It is high time that we change our mindsets in order to take the country forward or lag behind everyone else in this fast paced world. Change, as they say, seems to be the only constant!

mahdin@thedailystar.net

What exactly is a ‘Jakaater Shari’?

http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2009/08/04/perceptions.htm

Come Ramadan and you will be able to see good old Dhaka with a festive look. Shopping malls getting all decorated with lights, the vast majority of the people attending the Jumma prayers in huge congregations and thousands of Iftar Shops springing up, all of them equipped with the ‘authentic’ recipes of Bombay Jilapi, Shahi Haleem and Doi-bara. But among all these festivities, there is an enigmatic label in some banners which is seen all across the city. ‘Ekhaney Jakaater Shari O Lungi Pawa Jai’(Sarees and Lungis for Zakaat are available here) is what it says. Perhaps because of my ignorance in such matters, I fail to comprehend what exactly this means!

So I went forward and did a little research on ‘Zakaat’. Here is the summary :

Zakaat is one of the five pillars of Islam. It has been mentioned, along with daily Prayers (Salaat), over seventy times in the Holy Qur’an. Linguistically, Zakaat has two meanings: purification and growth. Technically, it means to purify one’s possession of wealth by distributing a prescribed amount to the poor, the indigent, the slaves or captives, and the wayfarer. Zakaat has many benefits on the socio-economic scenario but I’ll try to highlight the two key features. Firstly, it functions as a social security for all. Those who have enough money today pay for what they have. If they need money tomorrow they will get what is necessary to help them live decently.

Secondly, and more importantly, Zakaat is the best check against hoarding. Those who do not invest their wealth but prefer to save or hoard it would see their wealth dwindling year after year at the rate of the payable Zakaat. This helps increase production and stimulates supply because it is a redistribution of income that enhances the demand by putting more real purchasing power in the hands of poor. Zakaat becomes obligatory for a Muslim for a minimum amount of money or other assets he/she possesses. After adding up the cash values of the assets, a 2.5% /year Zakaat has been prescribed for all the able Muslims.

Now, coming back to the original question, what could probably describe a ‘Jakater Shari’? Something which is of such a low quality that we cannot give to our mothers, sisters or daughters? Something which won’t even last till the next year’s Eid? Why do we tend to discriminate the poor even while donating? If our sister wears a sari worth 6000 Taka, why can’t we give someone poor the same Sari instead of getting 30 low quality, unwearable Saris worth 200 Taka each?

On second thoughts, we the so called privileged classes of the society deserve to wear those cheap lungis and Sari more than the underprivileged. Might sound like a crazy thought at first, but digging a little deep, this idea becomes quite comprehensible. Firstly, we have a closet full of clothes, so if one of them (the Jakater Shari or Lungi) becomes unusable soon, we can always look for alternatives. Secondly, the people who are on the receiving end of these clothes are usually day-labourers and maid-servants which involves strenuous hard work and thus demands strong, long lasting clothes.

We have seen quite a few times in newspapers on how poor people have died in stampedes after going to collect their lungi or Sari for Zakaat. We tend to forget such loss of lives very easily, and the number of deaths become nothing more than a statistic! There should be dependable government and non government organisations involved in this. The floods last year have shown how government organisations like the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund and non government organisations like BRAC and a newspaper Prothom Alo have efficiently collected and distributed huge amounts of money and relief goods. This can well be applied to Zakaat as well. It is said that if everyone gave their Zakaat in a proper, systematic way, there would be no poverty left in the country. We are taking different steps in poverty reduction. So let us try to attain a Bangladesh free of poverty through Zakaat.

Helping Primary School Teachers Teach English

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2009/08/03/feature_cfl.htm

Cfl-BRACU comes forward
THE Center for Languages at BRAC University (Cfl-BRACU) has recently launched a program to help primary school teachers at the BRAC schools, spread all across the country, to better teach English to their students. Still in the phase of being a pilot project, the department now plans to go full scale, covering teachers from all the primary schools of BRAC, spread all across Bangladesh.

BRAC, the largest NGO of the world in terms of the number of employees has established a network of 35,000 schools all across the country. These one-room schools usually have one female teacher who has passed the SSC (Secondary School Certificate) examinations and teaches 30-40 children. Through extensive research conducted in these schools, it was found that most of these teachers lack the basic communication skills and English language skills that are necessary in a school teacher.

To resolve this problem, Cfl-BRACU has launched this unique programme to enable the teachers to teach English better to students. Several faculty members from the department trained the school teachers in different aspects of English language including speaking, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Through a 12 week training started in January this year, divided into 4 phases, the teachers were equipped with all the necessary skills to teach English better to their students. Emphasis was given on language, speaking grammar, methodologies (CLT Method), content based learning, drama performances and others.

In the drama performances, participants (trainees) were asked to write scripts about different socio-economic scenarios and much to the amazement of the trainers, all these dramas were of superior quality. The participants were also provided diaries to write their personal journals, with the topics to write about being of increasing difficulty over the weeks.

The seven teachers of the department who coordinated this training program tried to ensure that the primary school teachers who attended the program had the following necessary skills after the programme ended:

– be able to speak English well

– be able to teach English well and explain subject matters in a clear and concise manner

– be able to teach through different methods and be flexible about the ways of teaching.

Most of the trainees showed marked improvement after the training and became more confident in delivering their lessons. The department hopes to soon go to the next stage of this training programme and train teachers from all the 35,000 schools of BRAC countrywide.

Quality growth is essential for universities (Says SUB VC )

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2009/08/03/feature_quality.htm

WITH a vision to emerge as a leading university in the South Asian region by providing need-based education to meet the ever-increasing demand for quality professionals at home and abroad, the State University of Bangladesh (SUB) started its journey in mid 2002. The people behind it wanted to build skilled professionals in different fields ready to join the industry. Starting small with undergraduate and graduate majors in the field of Business Administration and Computer Science, the university has today grown to be home to more than 2000 students in its own building in the prime location of Dhanmondi, Dhaka. In an exclusive interview with Star Campus, Professor Iftekhar Ghani Chowdhury, Vice Chancellor of the university, has shared the university’s story of growth, its key achievements and its future plans.

Prof. Chowdhury mentioned that the university is an outcome of the passion of two entrepreneurs, Dr A.M Shamim and Dr M Mahbubur Rahman, for expanding into the tertiary sector of education as they faced shortage of qualified professionals in running their health enterprises. They took expert help and had discussions with the academics and the professionals, at home and abroad, to decide on an ideal enterprise they could venture. The outcome was the State University of Bangladesh. The formal permission to launch the university under the Private University Act (Act 34) 1992 of the Government was received in June 2002.

BIMDT, a sister concern of LABAID GROUP, paved the way to what is today known as SUB. The organization had been working in the field of education since 1996 with a vision to develop skilled professionals in the field of Medical Technology and Science. Initially BIMDT Ltd. offered three-year Diploma courses in Health Technology. With its success and growing reputation in imparting custom designed education, BIMDT ventured into the university to promote innovative approaches in nurturing academic and professional skills in people with potential.

Starting with Business Administration and Computer Science, different departments were later added to the repertoire of the university with the target of making a full-fledged institution of higher studies. Health Sciences Department was started in January 2003 with both undergraduate and graduate programs. More departments were added as the university grew over the years. Currently there are 10 departments spread under 3 faculties including Business and Social Science, Health and Computer Science & Engineering.

With the rapid expansion of the university, the stakeholders understood the need for good infrastructure and soon enough, construction of the SUB campus in Dhanmondi started. Dr Chowdhury said that SUB is the first private university to have its own independent campus; the building is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities such as digital and computer labs and on-line surveillance.

Dr Choudhury mentions that the mission of SUB has always been to create human human resources that the market will eagerly embrace once they graduate from the university. This, he explains, is done through the creation of a teaching and learning environment that encourages students to stretch their abilities, both intellectual and physical. A blend of national and international curriculum adapted to the local needs prepares students for the most challenging professions in a cross-cultural environment, he adds.

When asked to name the things that he feels proud of, the VC mentioned the library, which has a rich collection of books and online journals, state of the art laboratory facilities, the modern surveillance system to ensure security and a whole range of different scholarship schemes for meritorious students.

Professor Chowdhury hates to term the different forms of student activities as extra-curricular activities; he says that an ideal university curriculum includes what we commonly term as extra-curricular activities. In order for a student to have complete university education, he must participate in activities like sports, debate, quiz competitions, cultural programmes and things of the sort.

The Vice Chancellor informed that the university encourages the faculty to engage in research and publish their findings in scholastic writings. Two journals are regularly published by the university; the Journal of SUB and SUB Journal of Public Health, Both of which are available in hardcopy and in e-version.

In order to provide education of the highest quality, the university has set up collaborations with world renowned universities including Mahidol University, Bangkok, McMaster University, Canada, Kyrgyz Republic Chui University, Kyrgyztan, ORBIS International Wah Medical College, Pakistan

Tribhuban University, Purbanchal University & Katmandu University, Nepal and Masachussettes University, USA.

Prof. Chowdhury mentioned that he wanted to see the university grow not only in size but in the quality of education it renders. This would be measure in how fast the university’s graduates are employed in the industry, both inside and outside the country. This would also be reflected by the number of times the publications brought out by the teachers and students of the university are cited by other papers of the field.

The major achievements of the university, Prof Chowdhury believes has been its controlled growth over the years, in terms of the number of students that have been admitted and maintaining high standards of faculty members across all departments.

[StarTech] TechViews: Emotional Robots

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=98268

Ever heard of a robot that is emotional? Robots are supposed to be cranky rude metallic creatures that seem to have machine-like robotic and completely emotionless voices, as started to be depicted by Isaac Asimov in his novels and to the more recent movie sequels of the Transformers. But behold! What if a robot, who looks meek and harmless, having stark similarities to one of the greatest physicists of all times, Albert Einstein looks at you and frowns? Or better still, gives you a sarcastic smile?

This week in Star Tech, we will look into some of the major advances in the world of robotics and its recent trends on research and development.

Take for example the Einstein robot head at University of California — San Diego (USA), which performs asymmetric random facial movements as a part of the expression learning process. The hyper-realistic robot at the university has learned to smile and make facial expressions through a process of self-guided learning. The UC San Diego researchers used machine learning to “empower” their robot to learn to make realistic facial expressions.

“As far as we know, no other research group has used machine learning to teach a robot to make realistic facial expressions,” said Tingfan Wu, the computer science Ph.D. student from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering who presented this advance on June 6 at the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning.

The faces of robots are increasingly realistic and the number of artificial muscles that controls them is rising. In light of this trend, UC San Diego researchers from the Machine Perception Laboratory are studying the face and head of their robotic Einstein in order to find ways to automate the process of teaching robots to make lifelike facial expressions.

This Einstein robot head has about 30 facial muscles, each moved by a tiny servo motor connected to the muscle by a string. Today, a highly trained person must manually set up these kinds of realistic robots so that the servos pull in the right combinations to make specific face expressions. In order to begin to automate this process, the UCSD researchers looked to both developmental psychology and machine learning.

Developmental psychologists speculate that infants learn to control their bodies through systematic exploratory movements, including babbling to learn to speak. Initially, these movements appear to be executed in a random manner as infants learn to control their bodies and reach for objects.

“We applied this same idea to the problem of a robot learning to make realistic facial expressions,” said Javier Movellan, the senior author on the paper presented at ICDL 2009 and the director of UCSD’s Machine Perception Laboratory.

Although their preliminary results are promising, the researchers note that some of the learned facial expressions are still awkward. One potential explanation is that their model may be too simple to describe the coupled interactions between facial muscles and skin.

Moving on to machines which understand how we feel or what our mood is, we will look into a scenario at a New York (USA) restaurant where 46 supporters have gathered to watch the Super Bowl, America’s most popular televised sporting event, the advertisements of which are valued at USD 3 million for 30 seconds! Machines are monitoring these sports fans’ every move and every breath they take.

The viewers are wearing vests with sensors that monitor their heart rate, movement, breathing and sweat. A market research company has kitted out the party-goers with these sensors to measure their emotional engagement with adverts during the highly expensive commercial breaks. Advertisers pay a fortune during the Super Bowl, so they want to be as confident as they can be that their ads are hitting home. And they are willing to pay for the knowledge. “It’s a rapidly growing market – our revenues this year are four times what they were last year,” says Carl Marci, CEO and chief scientist for the company running the experiment, Innerscope Research based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Innerscope’s approach is the latest in a wave of ever more sophisticated emotion-sensing technologies. The latest technologies could soon be built into everyday gadgets to smooth our interactions with them. In-car alarms that jolt sleepy drivers awake, satnavs (satellite navigation systems) that sense our frustration in a traffic jam and offer alternative routes, and monitors that diagnose depression from body language are all in the pipeline. Prepare for the era of emotionally aware gadgets!

The most established way to analyse a person’s feelings is through the tone of their voice. For several years, companies have been using “speech analytics” software that automatically monitors conversations between call-centre agents and customers. One supplier is NICE Systems, based in Ra’anana, Israel. It specialises in emotion-sensitive software and call-monitoring systems for companies and security organisations, and claims to have more than 24,000 customers worldwide, including the New York Police Department and Vodafone.

As well as scanning audio files for key words and phrases, such as a competitor’s name, the software measures stress levels, as indicated by voice pitch and talking speed. Computers flag up calls in which customers appear to get angry or stressed out, perhaps because they are making a fraudulent insurance claim, or simply receiving poor service.

Voice works well when the person whose feelings you are trying to gauge is expressing themselves verbally, but that’s not always the case, so several research teams are now figuring out ways of reading a person’s feelings by analysing their posture and facial expressions alone.

Using different techniques, computer programs can correctly recognise six basic emotions – disgust, happiness, sadness, anger, fear and surprise – more than 9 times out of 10, but only if the target face uses an exaggerated expression. Software can accurately judge more subtle, spontaneous facial expressions as “negative” or “positive” three-quarters of the time, but they cannot reliably spot spontaneous displays of the six specific emotions – yet. To accurately interpret complex, realistic emotions, computers will need extra cues, such as upper body posture and head motion.

All in all, we have seen major advancements in machines portraying emotions themselves and being able to comprehend, analyze and act accordingly to human emotions. Robots are fast becoming humans, or so it seems!

Compiled by Mahdin Mahboob

Information Sources: UCSD Website, NewScientist, stltoday.com

[News Room] Seminar on Fiscal Budget 09-10 at BRAC University

http://www.thedailystar.net/campus/2009/07/01/newsroom.htm

A seminar on Fiscal Budget 09-10 was held on the 24th of June at BRAC University. Organised by the Economics Club of the university, the seminar had Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) as its chief speaker. Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, Pro Vice Chancellor of the university presided over the event and delivered a speech on the historical aspects of Bangladesh’s budget.

[StarTech] TechViews: Tools of advanced warfare (Where is the limit?)

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=95152

Before writing this article, I was having second thoughts as to how relevant this topic would be in the context of Bangladesh. But I was soon brought out of my dilemma by the fact that relevance has nothing to do with people’s interest in a certain subject. So here goes this week’s Lead News on the Star Tech page, on some of the recent advances of warfare tools the world has seen.

Imagine a scenario where, half a mile outside the enemy-held airport that is on the night’s objective, 100 U.S. Special Forces operatives stow their parachutes, regroup into squads, and prepare their attack. In the past, these soldiers wouldn’t have known where the enemy was or whether they were walking into an ambush –until the shooting started. They would have relied on printed maps with information that was likely to be several hours old when they boarded their C-130 for transport to the objective.

But this unit has advanced technology that gives it a decisive edge. Each soldier is equipped with a helmet-mounted GPS navigation receiver, a small wireless intrasquad voice and data comms system, and a wearable computer linked to an intrasquad LAN. From a flip-down display on his helmet, each soldier can scan the darkness with thermal and night-vision sensors mounted on his M-4 rifle. Each soldier navigates his computer through a track pad mounted beneath his uniform on top of his chest. For navigation and situational awareness, a soldier calls up his position on a map that automatically scrolls as he moves in any direction. The relative positions of his squad members are also displayed, as are surrounding buildings and suspected positions of enemy soldiers, updated in nearreal time via radio.

As each soldier and his squad members come within a few hundred meters of the airport buildings, they fan out. The soldiers approach the immediate objective: a structure believed to be, based on the latest intelligence data, the enemy’s sleeping quarters. One soldier takes up a position just outside the main door and swings his rifle into the doorway, surveying the scene via a camera mounted on his M-4 rifle, avoiding exposure to hostile fire.

Although this scenario may sound improbable, all this technology exists, with much of it deployed in parts by the US Defence. The development of smaller, faster, and cheaper computers, interface improvements, networks, database access, and improved software algorithms has put computing power in the hands of U.S. infantrymen and women.

Computers arrived just in time for World War II, and the military quickly adapted the room-size behemoths for ballistics predictions and code breaking. Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. and its allies poured money into IT to improve their weapons. By the time the Berlin Wall came down, radars and other sensors were using computer power to process more target information; missiles relied on embedded processors for guidance and control; and complex algorithms provided fire solutions that let tanks shoot on the move. In fact, computer-controlled avionics (aeronautical electronics) are the only reason the ungainly F-117 stealth fighter can fly.

By the time the Gulf War erupted in 1991, U.S. aircraft, ships, and tanks bristled with technology that boosted the performance of their sensors, communications, fire-control systems, and munitions. Greater processing power let weapons systems fuse their own sensor data with off-board intelligence feeds for greater situational awareness. As a result, U.S. forces could engage more distant targets and detect and defeat guided missiles with jammers that cycled through thousands of jamming techniques in the few seconds it took the missiles to reach their targets.

War vehicles have also recently seen a lot of change, with emphasis on aerodynamics, durability, strength and adaptability. However, interestingly enough, cost has always remained a lower priority with exorbitant price tags to these mighty machines.

One of the latest additions to the armoured vehicle fleet of the British Army will be a category of vehicle called the tactical support vehicle (TSV). In October 2008, 400 TSVs were ordered as part of the $700m protected patrol vehicles package. The new TSVs will be used to accompany patrols, and also to transport supplies such as ammunition and water.

The three types of vehicle include the Wolfhound a heavy armoured support vehicle to support and supply the new Mastiff with heavy mine protection (force protection), the Husky a medium armoured truck to carry out support in less threatened areas and the Coyote a light armoured support vehicle to support the new Jackal 2.

The Wolfhound TSV (heavy) and the Coyote TSV (light) will be produced as one variant, which is a utility flatbed vehicle that will be used to transport combat supplies. The Husky TSV (medium) will be produced as three variants; utility vehicle, ambulance with enhanced protection and command post vehicle.

The Jackal 2 has been designed to a high specification to protect personnel against roadside explosions and mine attack. The vehicle also has a special air-bag suspension system that allows rapid movement of the vehicle across varying terrain.

The vehicle is expected to be used for reconnaissance, rapid assault, fire support and convoy protection. The vehicle will have a range of 800km and will include a 7.62mm general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) and either a .50-calibre heavy machine gun (HMG) or grenade machine gun (GMG) as the main weapon system. The gun ring weapon in this machine has a 360° sweep of fire, much higher coverage than its predecessors.

Although, the key objective of most modern war machines is to minimize the number of personnel casualties by machines doing most of the work, it also means higher precision and hence higher number of people getting killed from the ‘enemy side’. With growing concerns and calls for ‘world peace’ by global leaders, spending on warfare, ironically enough, seems to be on the rise and shows no sign of decline!

Sources: pcmag.com, army-technology.com

Compiled by Mahdin Mahboob

[StarTech] TechViews: Super Fast Processors (How much speed is enough?)

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=94177

Since the inception of the first Personal Computer (PC), scientists and researchers have always strived towards making faster, cheaper and more efficient processors. Of these factors, speed of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) or the clock-rate of the processors was always the key concern of the computer architects.

The Moore’s law, as described by Gordon E Moore, the co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation describes the trend as: ‘the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has increased exponentially, doubling approximately every two years.’

In recent times though, some groundbreaking innovations have taken place, which seem to be defying all laws in terms of speed.

On May this year, the Japanese company Fujitsu Ltd announced that it developed the fastest central processing unit in the world. The Tokyo-based company presented a CPU that has the ability to carry out 128 billion calculations per second.

It is for the first time since 1999 that Fujitsu received the title of the world’s fastest CPU developer. Having developed the Venus, the Japanese company managed to surpass some of the largest technology corporations in the world, including Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. in terms of speed of the central processing unit.

It was estimated that Fujitsu’s latest creation runs about 2.5 times than the previous record holder developed by Intel. With the help of miniaturisation technology, the Japanese company was able to include twice as many central circuits onto a chip as there were on previous CPU, thus having eight instead of four circuits. The chip measures 2 sq. cm.

Furthermore, the Venus saves energy, reducing the consumption of electricity by about 30 percent compared to current levels.

There are rumours that the CPU is going to be used in the next-generation supercomputer that will start operating at the end of 2010. The supercomputer will be installed at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Science (Riken) and will feature tens of thousands of such CPUs as the Venus.

Engineers believe that the current CPU will be used to help new technologies develop drugs, predicts earthquakes and design rocket engines.

Another processor worth mentioning is the Intel Core i7 processor, dubbed by Intel as its most advanced desktop processor ever. Released in November 2008, the Core i7 processor is the first member of a new family of Nehalem processor designs and is the most sophisticated ever built, with new technologies that boost performance on demand and maximize data throughput. The Core i7 processor speeds video editing, immersive games and other popular Internet and computer activities by up to 40 percent without increasing power consumption.

Broadly heralded by the computing industry as a technical marvel, the Intel Core i7 processor holds a new world record of 117 for the SPECint_base_rate2006 benchmark test that measures the performance of a processor. This is the first time ever for any single processor to exceed a score of 100 points.

“Intel has delivered the fastest desktop processor on Earth to the most demanding users on Earth, the ones who are using their PCs for video, gaming and music,” said Patrick Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group. “When you couple what is Intel’s biggest leap in chip design with other incredible innovations like Intel’s solid state drives, the Core i7 processor has redefined the computer of tomorrow.”

Tech Web sites have been extremely positive in their product reviews. Anandtech states that “Core i7 continues to fuel Intel’s beacon of performance.” “The Core i7 is everything they promised it would be,” says PC Perspective. “Nehalem is a masterpiece,” says the Lost Circuits website. The Tech Report calls it “one of the most consequential shifts in the industry.”

Intel’s unique Turbo Boost Technology accelerates performance to match a computer user’s needs and workloads. Through a sophisticated on-die power control unit and using new “power gate” transistors based on Intel’s advanced 45 nanometer, high-k metal gate manufacturing process, Turbo Boost automatically adjusts the clock speed of one or more of the four individual processing cores for single- and multi-threaded applications to boost performance, without increasing power consumption. The Core i7 also has the latest Intel power-saving technologies, allowing desktops to go into sleep states formerly reserved for Intel-based notebooks.

The Core i7 processor more than doubles the memory bandwidth of previous Intel “Extreme” platforms, speeding the transfer of computer bits and bites in and out of the processor with Intel Quickpath Technology. Designed with Intel’s Hyper-Threading Technology, the processor also allows multiple computing threads to run simultaneously, effectively enabling it to do two things at once. As a result, the Core i7 quad-core processor delivers 8-threaded performance.

The Intel Core i7 processor also offers unrivalled performance for immersive 3-D games – over 40 percent faster than previous Intel high-performance processors on both the 3DMark Vantage CPU physics and AI tests, popular industry computer benchmarks that measure gaming performance. The Extreme Edition uses 8 threads to run games with advanced artificial intelligence and physics to make games act and feel real.

In January 2009, AMD launched its ‘fastest desktop processors ever’. They announced two new quad-core Phenom II processors at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, USA. The Phenom II processors, pack 8MB of cache and are positioned squarely in the consumer desktop market. They also run at up to 3GHz, though AMD has demonstrated an over-clocked Phenom II processor running up to 4GHz just on air cooling.

Even though the Phenom II processors represent the fastest processors ever released by AMD, they flounder when pitted against Intel’s fastest Core i7. Benchmarks show the Intel processor coming out about 22% faster, though the AMD system delivers better “performance per watt” figures.

Although the majority of PC users around the world are not high end users, who do not require top speed, it is also a matter of prestige of the processor manufacturing companies to be the proud owners of the fastest processors. The war is on!

Information Source: infoniac.com, intel.com, fiercecio.com and wikipedia.

Compiled by Mahdin Mahboob

[StarTech] TechViews: Budget 2009-10 (What’s in for IT, telecom and science?)

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=93173

On June 11, Finance Minister AMA Muhith unveiled the proposed budget for fiscal 2009-2010. In addition to the pressure of having to meet demands of different key sectors with limited resources and great expectations, the minister also had to take into account the demands of the people from ICT industry, and anyone and everyone remotely or directly connected to it.

The promise of a digital Bangladesh by the year 2021 made the expectations even higher from this year’s budget. In this issue of StarTech, we have looked into the pros and cons of the proposed budget and what experts are thinking about it.

The proposed budget for fiscal 2009-10 aims at making technology accessible to all and this was sharply reflected by the allocation of Tk 563 crore in ICT and telecommunication sectors, which is a giant leap from the Tk 265 crore in the revised budget for fiscal 2008-09. The allocation includes Tk 142 crore in Annual Developed Programme for science and ICT ministry, Tk 221 crore for post and telecommunication ministry, a special allocation of Tk 100 crore for ICT development and Tk 200 crore for equity and entrepreneurship fund for ICT promotion.

The finance minister also said that automated system would be introduced in the administration, educational institutions, land and health sectors and tax administration phase by the phase within a few years. If successfully implemented, an automated system would increase transparency and reduce corruption and hence fulfill the government’s pledge of a digital Bangladesh.

The commitment to connect the country with the second submarine cable for providing internet service to more people is likely to give ICT a major boost.

“We have to use information and communication technology extensively for accelerated development. Therefore, we are moving ahead with a dream of establishing digital Bangladesh by 2021. The transition to digitisation process will, on one hand, help accelerate production and on the other hand, facilitate curbing corruption,” said Muhith. The minister was also hopeful that the employment in ICT sector will rank second only to textile sector by 2021.

Mustafa Jabbar, president of Bangladesh Computer Samity, has termed the proposed budget a milestone — a great achievement of Bangladesh for being able to leap from the ‘Agricultural Age’ to the ‘Digital Age’, bypassing the ‘Industrial Age’. He was particularly impressed by the government’s massive plans for power sector, the current state of which many consider to be the single largest obstacle to bringing about digital Bangladesh. The finance minister informed the government’s decision to increase power generation by 950 MW this year and 2810 MW more by 2013 under different public and private initiatives. Jabbar appreciated the decision of withdrawing tax from internet usage at educational institutions but failed to understand why it did not apply for home users. The increased taxes on monitor, printer, toner and refill have also worried him and he suggested that they should immediately be withdrawn.

The proposed tax on mobile handsets and non withdrawal of tax on SIM cards is likely to hinder the growth of the fast growing telecommunications industry in Bangladesh, fear industry people and experts. In the proposed budget, a whopping 25 percent customs duty has been imposed on the import value of each set, scrapping the existing flat import duty of Tk 300 on each set. Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers’ Association (BMPIA) has opposed the new duty structure saying they will have to pay at least Tk 800 for import of each low-priced handset. This decision will make a new handset and connection more expensive and perhaps deter first time buyers availing this service, people who need it the most.

Habibullah N Karim, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, has welcomed the allocation of Taka 500 crore for ICT development but hoped to see the allocation of more Tk 500 crore in the revised budget.

“We are happy to see that the finance minister has rightfully emphasised the use of indigenous software and IT enabled services for the sustainable development of this sector. We also hope that the government will undertake all possible e-government projects in line with the action plan given in the ICT Policy 2009,” says Karim.

Although highly applauded by ICT people, Prof Haseena Khan of the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Dhaka has described the proposed budget by saying “Our frustration stems from the fact that to our policymakers ICT is the only science and technology worth pursuing” and like to see specific allocations in the biotechnology research sector in the revised budget. She said it was high time to grow this promising technology which could improve the quality of human life by leaps and bounds.

All in all, the proposed budget for fiscal 2009-2010 has had a mixed bag of responses from people related to ICT and other scientific fields and industry. With recommendations and suggested changes from the experts and people the final budget is expected to bring about positive change in the country.

mahdin@thedailystar.net

[StarTech] TechSpotLight: The USB story

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=92258

Many of us have recently seen the Intel’s TV advertisement which shows Ajay Bhatt, the co-inventor of the USB, aptly termed as our rockstars aren’t like your rockstars walking and moving like a celebrity would. Interesting advertisement, to say the least. To those of you are thinking that this article is about Intel or the advertisement industry in general, behold! It’s about neither and is about the Universal Serial Bus or USB in short.

For most of us using personal computers in our day-to-day lives, whether it be for office or college work or simply checking emails and facebooking, the USB port is a common device about which we barely ever think about.

Initially designed to replace the many varieties of serial and parallel ports that were jumbling up our PCs with every new gadget, and thus making the production of standard devices increasingly difficult, it has today become the quintessential bridge to connect computer peripherals like mice, keyboards, PDAs, gamepads and joysticks, scanners, digital cameras, printers, personal media players, flash drives, and external hard drives.

Although it was designed to be used for personal computers, USB has today become commonplace on other devices such as PDAs and video game consoles, and as a power cord between a device and an AC adapter plugged into a wall plug for charging. According to a PC World report published in 2008, there are about 2 billion USB devices sold every year with total about 6 billion sold to date!

The history of the USB dates back to 1994 when the specifications for the first generation of USB or USB 1.0 were introduced. The intention was to replace the multitude of connectors at the back of PCs, as well as to simplify software configuration of communication devices. The original USB 1.0 specification had a data transfer rate of 12 Mbit/s.

The creation of USB was a result of research conducted by a core group of companies that consisted of Intel, Compaq, Microsoft, Digital, IBM, and Northern Telecom. Intel produced the UHCI (Universal Host Controller Interface) host controller and open software stack; Microsoft produced a USB software stack for Windows and co-authored the OHCI host controller specification with National Semiconductor and Compaq; Philips produced early USB-Audio; and TI produced the most widely used hub chips.

Six years later, the USB 2.0 specification was released in April 2000 and was standardized at the end of 2001. Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent following its merger with Alcatel in 2006), Microsoft, NEC, and Philips jointly led the initiative to develop a higher data transfer rate, 480 Mbit/s, than the 1.0 specification of 12 Mbit/s.

The latest in line, the third generation of USB, or USB 3.0 specification was released on November 17, 2008 by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group. It has a transfer rate of up to 10 times faster than the USB 2.0 version and has been dubbed the SuperSpeed USB.

The benefit of USB is equipment conforming with any version of the standard will also work with devices designed to any previous specification (a property known as backward compatibility).

Every USB system has an asymmetric design, consisting of a host, a multitude of downstream USB ports, and multiple peripheral devices connected in a tiered-star topology. A USB host may have multiple host controllers and each host controller may provide one or more USB ports. Up to 127 devices, including the hub devices may be connected to a single host controller.

USB devices are linked in series through hubs and there always exists one hub known as the root hub, which is built into the host controller. This sharing hubs, as they are popularly know to be, allow multiple computers to access the same peripheral device(s), also exist and work by switching access between PCs, either automatically or manually. They are popular in small-office environments.

A physical USB device may consist of several logical sub-devices that are referred to as device functions. A single device may provide several functions, for example, a webcam (video device function) with a built-in microphone (audio device function).

When a USB device is first connected to a USB host, the USB device enumeration process is started. The enumeration starts by sending a reset signal to the USB device. The speed of the USB device is determined during the reset signaling. After reset, the USB device’s information is read by the host, then the device is assigned a unique 7-bit address. If the device is supported by the host, the device drivers needed for communicating with the device are loaded and the device is set to a configured state. If the USB host is restarted, the enumeration process is repeated for all connected devices.

The host controller directs traffic flow to devices, so no USB device can transfer any data on the bus without an explicit request from the host controller. In USB 2.0, host controller polls the bus for traffic, usually in a round-robin fashion. In SuperSpeed USB, connected devices can request service from host.

Technical jargon aside, the Universal Serial Bus or USB has come as a blessing for PC users all over the world and in the coming days, it is all set to become even more faster and convenient for the users.

Information Source: The Internet.