Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has introduced a technology that speeds up transaction processing for Hyperledger Fabric, one of the Hyperledger blockchain frameworks hosted by the Linux Foundation. In a trial where this technology was implemented in Hyperledger Fabric v0.6.1, it increased the performance by approximately 2.7 times as compared to the earlier method. With blockchain, groups of nodes based on the number of participants form a network and work together to perform a series of processes from executing transactions to validating the legitimacy of transactions. For this reason, the number of transactions that can be executed per unit of time is limited by communication bottlenecks through the network, as compared to previous centralized systems.

Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. collectively introduced a gallium-nitride (GaN) high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT) power amplifier for use in W-band (75-110 GHz) transmissions. The newly developed power amplifier will be used in W-band transmissions offering both high output and high efficiency.  It will also deliver an improved transistor performance through the reduction of electrical current leakage and internal GaN-HEMT resistance. Fujitsu has achieved 4.5 watts per millimeter of gate width which is the world’s highest output density in the W-band. It has also confirmed a 26% reduction in the energy consumption as compared to the conventional technology.

Intel has officially announced the launch of the world’s first USB-based deep learning interference kit and self-contained artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator. Dubbed as Movidius Neural Compute Stick, the device delivers dedicated deep neural network processing capabilities to a wide range of host devices. The Movidius stick has been designed particularly for product developers, researchers, and makers so as to reduce barriers to developing, tuning, and deploying AI applications by delivering dedicated high-performance deep neural network processing in a small form factor. Intel is aiming to render the most comprehensive set of development tools and resources to ensure that the developers are retooling for an AI-centric digital economy.

VR Challenger League- the first competitive VR esports event- has finally kicked off. The league was officially announced last month by Intel, Oculus, and ESL during the E3. And now Intel has made an official declaration that the first brackets of the gaming series are now open online.  The whole league will take place online at some key events with participants from all around the world. After going through all these regional games, the finalists will head to Katowice, Poland for the main game at 2018 Intel Extreme Masters. A cash prize of more than $200K has been fixed for the Summer of Rift’s esports blowout throughout the league.

Fujitsu Limited has developed a new AI-based algorithm that will help in estimating ongoing heat stress in workers such as security guards. The platform has been named as Human Centric AI Zinrai. Through this technology, Fujitsu aims to enhance solutions deployed on its digital business platform that use IoT to support on-site safety management.  The new algorithm will be made available from July end while the implementing solutions will start from June through September. The algorithm will be incorporated in a field trial with security guards at the Kawasaki Plant. Fujitsu’s new algorithm aims to enhance the safety of outdoor workers in extreme environments.

Intel has officially launched the Xeon Scalable Processors in order to provide a breakthrough performance to the businesses for handling compute-hungry tasks like real-time analytics, virtualized infrastructure and high performance computing. The launch has also marked advancements in terms of data center and network processors. Reportedly, 500,000 Scalable Processors have been already sold to leading enterprise, high performance computing, cloud and communication services provider customers. Customers will be able to avail a dramatic performance increase of 1.65x on average over previous iterations.

Intel often collaborates with Hollywood studios, filmmakers and developers to deliver best-in-class content to the audiences. This time the tech giant has joined hands with Warner Bros. and Practical Magic to create a new Virtual Reality Experience (VRE) to promote the upcoming flick ‘Dunkirk’. This feature film has been written and directed by Christopher Nolan, the man behind some amazing masterpieces like Inception and Interstellar.  The Dunkirk VRE allows viewers to get engaged with the film’s three perspectives viz. land, water, and air. While the custom content is only available in high-resolution 360-degree video, viewers can also enjoy an epic visual narration of the pivotal World War II Battle of Dunkirk ahead of the movie’s release on July 21. 

Fujitsu has launched the latest version of its 3D CAD software for industrial machinery design labeled as iCAD SX V7L6. It incorporates a proprietary 3D CAD engine which is the world’s fastest and can process 1 million components in 0.2 seconds. It has become important for the machinery and equipment industry to improve development facilities and design quality so as to reduce design man-hours. Even though the design department can avail efficiency through 3D designs, the manufacturing departments still need multiple 2D blueprints implying that the reduced man-hours have not been realized across the whole design process. 

STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader, and Security Platform Inc., a Korea-based technology innovator for IoT, have come together to offer easy-to-use, robust, and efficient security solutions for IoT devices. IoT comprises billions of tiny, embedded computing devices that are connected to the internet and share data with the Cloud. Hence there is a need for a strong, yet lightweight and convenient security to prevent cyber-attackers intercepting sensitive information or infecting connected devices with malware. 

Intel is going to power a face recognition engine that can identify people even when they are moving in a crowd. This is to detect and prevent possible mishaps at critical facilities and public places. NEC is backed by Intel’s Arria 10 field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) operating on Intel Xeon processor-based servers.  This would aid in increasing the performance of its NEC NeoFace facial recognition engine to a level where any individual could be identified from a high-resolution image with dozens of faces. The accuracy of the technology has been evaluated by the NIST test in two real-life test scenarios. In the test for entry-exit management at an airport passenger gate, it determined whether and how well the engine could identify people as they walked through an area one at a time without stopping or looking at the camera.

Intel has successfully delivered world’s first commercially available 64-layer, TLC, 3D NAND solid state drive (SSD). The tech giant has made an official announcement regarding the new SSD545s for the computer client. It is a superior quality, reliable drive for the mainstream market that delivers great performance for older PCs or new vale PCs.  This technology leadership product is available to be purchased by the customers at Newegg. With an aim to drive platform-connected solutions that deliver a better user experience, Intel is investing in both 3D NAND technology and Intel Optane technology. Using its 30 years+ experience, Intel has optimised the 3D NAND floating gate architecture and manufacturing process.

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has announced to develop a virtual machine (VM) control technology in order to improve the server rack mounting density for each datacenter rack. As of now, the number of servers mounted to a rack in data centers is limited by the total rated electrical power of the servers, which is supposed to be less than the power supply of the rack. However, often the server load is low at approximately 10%-50% and the power usage of each rack proportional to the load is low as compared to the rated power. This leads to a lower server mounting density of the racks. So, with an aim to increase the server mounting density in data centers, Fujitsu’s new technology is going to enable efficient server placement by setting up a partition made up of backup servers in the datacenter. 

Fujitsu has announced the development of an AI-based technology that will retrieve similar disease cases from a computed tomography (CT) database of previously taken images. It has been developed with joint efforts of Fujitsu Laboratories and Fujitsu R&D Center Co. Ltd. It will work by retrieving similar cases of abnormal shadows expanding in a 3-dimensional manner. There are existing technologies used by doctors to specify an area of focus in a certain slice image and retrieve other patients with similar slice images. Such techniques have proved to be beneficial when the abnormal shadows are concentrated at one place, like an early-stage lung cancer.

The official announcement for pre-orders of 4-to 10-core Intel Core X-Series processors has been made recently by Intel. The shipping to consumers will begin on June 26. This is the first set containing five of the nine total SKUs that will be rolled out in this new family of processors.  The Intel Core X-series processor family is Intel’s most powerful, scalable, and accessible desktop platform. It will offer a range of processors from 4 to 18 cores with price points to match. The new platform is going to deliver extreme performance to meet the processing demands for today’s enthusiasts regarding gaming, VR, content creation, and overclocking.

Virtual Reality has grown unexpectedly during the past few years unraveling a highly immersive world to the users. Continuing its leadership in creating amazing VR experiences, Intel has collaborated with Sony Pictures Virtual Reality. This collaboration aims to render a virtual reality experience (VRE) that complements Columbia Pictures upcoming “Spider-Man: Homecoming” movie. This is the most highly anticipated movie of the summer, arriving in theaters on July 7. The VRE would allow users to avail the chance of suiting up as Spider-Man, honing their web-shooting skills, and sling high above New York City in pursuit of the Vulture, just like the Spiderman. Equipped with Intel hardware technology and software tools, the award-winning developers at CreateVR have made use of dual Intel Xeon processor-based Dell workstations to create and render 360-degree, ultra-high-resolution graphics of New York.