USB 3.0

On September 18, 2007, Pat Gelsinger demonstrated USB 3.0 at the Intel Developer Forum. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced on November 17, 2008, that version 3.0 of the specification had been completed and was transitioned to the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the managing body of USB specifications. This move effectively opened the spec to hardware developers for implementation in future products. The first USB 3.0 ports were featured on the Asus P6X58 motherboard; however this board was canceled before production. 

Features

•    A new major feature is the SuperSpeed bus, which provides a fourth transfer mode at 4.8 Gbit/s. The raw throughput is 4 Gbit/s, and the specification considers it reasonable to achieve 3.2 Gbit/s (0.4 GByte/s or 400 MByte/s) or more after protocol overhead.
•    When operating in SuperSpeed mode, full-duplex signaling occurs over 2 differential pairs separate from the non-SuperSpeed differential pair. This results in USB 3.0 cables containing 2 wires for power and ground, 2 wires for non-SuperSpeed data, and 4 wires for SuperSpeed data, and a shield (not required in previous specifications).
•    To accommodate the additional pins for SuperSpeed mode, the physical form factors for USB 3.0 plugs and receptacles have been modified from those used in previous versions. Standard-A cables have extended heads where the SuperSpeed connectors extend beyond and slightly above the legacy connectors. Similarly, the Standard-A receptacle is deeper to accept these new connectors. A legacy Standard-A cable will operate as intended and will never interact with the SuperSpeed connectors, ensuring backward compatibility. The Standard-B modifications could not be made as elegantly; the SuperSpeed connectors had to be placed on top of the existing form factor, making legacy Standard-B plugs workable on SuperSpeed Standard-B receptacles, but not vice versa.
•    SuperSpeed establishes a communications pipe between the host and each device, in a host-directed protocol. In contrast, USB 2.0 broadcasts packet traffic to all devices.
•    USB 3.0 extends the bulk transfer type in SuperSpeed with Streams. This extension allows a host and device to create and transfer multiple streams of data through a single bulk pipe.
•    New power management features include support of idle, sleep and suspend states, as well as Link-, Device-, and Function-level power management.
•    The bus power spec has been increased so that a unit load is 150 mA (+50% over minimum using USB 2.0). An unconfigured device can still draw only 1 unit load, but a configured device can draw up to 6 unit loads (900 mA, an 80% increase over USB 2.0 at a registered maximum of 500 mA). Minimum device operating voltage is dropped from 4.4 V to 4 V.
•    USB 3.0 does not define cable assembly lengths, except that it can be of any length as long as it meets all the requirements defined in the specification. However, electronicdesign.com estimates cables will be limited to 3 m at SuperSpeed.
•    Technology is similar to a single channel (1x) of PCI Express 2.0 (5-Gbit/s). It uses 8B/10B encoding, linear feedback shift register (LFSR) scrambling for data and spread spectrum. It forces receivers to use low frequency periodic signaling (LFPS), dynamic equalization, and training sequences to ensure fast signal locking. 

Availability

Consumer products are expected to become available in 2010. Commercial controllers are expected to enter into volume production no later than the first quarter of 2010.NEC is aiming to produce its first USB 3.0 controller in June 2009, initially priced at US$15.00. Monthly production of NEC Electronics' µPD720200 host controller is expected to reach approximately 1,000,000 units in September 2009.On September 24, 2009 Freecom announced a USB 3.0 external hard drive.
On October 27th, 2009 Gigabyte announced 7 new P55 chipsets motherboards that included onboard USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s and triple power to all USB ports.
On October 29, 2009 Asus announced the November release of their first USB 3.0 motherboard, the "P7P55D-E Premium", as well as a PCI-Express x1 add-on card for existing motherboards to provide USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps support
Drivers are under development for Windows 7, but support will not be included with the initial release of the operating system. The Linux kernel has supported USB 3.0 since version 2.6.31, which was released in September 2009.
At least one complete end-to-end test system for USB3 designers is now on the market.
Intel will not support USB 3 until 2011, which will slow down mainstream adoption. Current AMD roadmaps indicate, that the new southbridges released in the beginning of 2010 will not support USB 3. These delays may be due to problems in the CMOS manufacturing process, a focus to advance the Nehalem platform  or a tactic by Intel to boost its upcoming Light Peak interface. Market researcher In-Stat does not predict a relevant market share of USB 3 until 2011.

New shuttle to moon in 2014

According to the National Aeronautics and space Administration (NAS),

The space ship that will take astronauts to the moon should be ready for tests in 2012 and for a manned flight in 2014. NASA plans to retire its again shuttle fleet (which has gone through two tragic disasters), by 2010 and replace it with a crew exploration vehicle to take astronauts to the moon by 2020. The current shuttle fleet has taken parts to the international space station but has never been used as a transport to the moon.

NASA has assigned programmed tasks to ten of its centres, from AMES Research centre in California’s Silicon valley to the Kennedy space Centre in Florida for launching.

Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932)

Sir Ronald Ross was a British physician and bacteriologist, born in Almora, India. From 1881 to 1899 he served in the Indian medical service.

Ross is well-known for his work on malaria, a topical disease caused by a parasite plasmodium. He discovered this parasite inside the body of the female anopheles mosquito.

A bite from the infected anopheles mosquito can transfer the malarial parasite in to the blood of humans.

Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine or physiology in 1902.

Ross established an institute for studies on tropical diseases, of which he was the Directed till his death. This institute was later named after his.

  

First Commercial Call On a Mobile Phone in India

The first commercial call on a mobile phone was made in India on August 22, 1995. This call was made from Kolkata on the Modi Telstra Network (now aquired by Bharti Airtel). The event marked the beginning of an era of privatisation in the telecom sector at a time when India had about eight million phones for a population of under a billion, giving the country a teledensity  of 0.8%.

Owning a phone was luxury, not so long ago. But in the fast few years, things have changed- cabbies, plumbers, carpenters and daily wage earners proudly own mobile phones.

The mood in the telecom sector continues to be upbeat. In April 2005, India had the seventh largest mobile subscriber base in the world. By December 2007, when we hope to have 200 million cell phone users, India will be number three or four, after China, the US, and perhaps Russia. We hope to go past the U.K, Italy and Germany.

Periyar National Park

Periyar is a protected area, and a nature reserve in the South Indian State of Kerala, set high in the mountains of the Western Ghats at the border to Tamil Nadu. It lies in the districts of Idukki and Pathanamthitta. The protected area covers an area of 777 km², out of which a 350 km² part of the core zone was made into the Periyar National Park and Tiger Reserve, sometimes dubbed the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. The park is often called by the name thekkady also. Thekkady is located four km from Kumily, approximately 100 km east of Alappuzha, 110 km west of Madurai and 120 km southeast from Kochi. 

Geography

The Periyar protected area lies in the middle of a mountainous area of the Cardamom Hills. In the north and the east it is bounded by mountain ridges of over 1700 metres altitude and toward the west it expands into a 1200 meter high plateau. From this level the altitude drops steeply to the deepest point of the reserve, the 100 meter valley of the Pamba River. The highest peak is the 2019 meter high Kottamalai.
The sanctuary surrounds picturesque 26 km² Periyar lake, formed by the building of Mullaperiyar Dam in 1895. This reservoir and the Periyar River meander around the contours of the wooded hills, providing a permanent source of water for the local wildlife. 

Climate

The temperatures vary depending upon the altitude and it ranges between 15° Celsius in December and January and 31° Celsius in April and May. The annual amount of precipitation lies between 2000 and 3000 mm. About two thirds of the precipitation occurs during the southwest monsoon between June to September. A smaller amount of precipitation occurs during the northeast monsoon between October and December. 

Vegetation

Approximately 75% of the entire protected area are covered of unaffected evergreen or semi-evergreen rain forest. There typically tall tropical tree species such as Vateria indica, Cullenia exarillata, Hopea parviflora, Canarium strictum, Artocarpus hirsutus and Bischofia javanica are seen. They reach heights of 40 to 50 Metres.
Scarcely 13% consists of damp leaves forest, 7% of Eucalyptus plantation and 1.5% of grassland. The remainder (around 3.5%) of the protected area is covered by the Periyar artificial lake as well as the Periyar River and Pamba rivers.
Altogether the reservation counts nearly 2000 kinds of flowering plants (Angiosperms), three kinds of seed plants (gymnosperms) and 170 different species of ferns. Among the Angiosperms, there are 169 families of sweet grasses and 155 kinds of Fabaceae. Orchids, with 145 representative types, are the most frequent flower.
About 350 of the occurring plant types can be used for medical purposes. 

Periyar Tiger Reserve

Periyar Tiger Reserve is one of the 27 tiger reserves in India.Periyar Tiger Reserve is located in the Western Ghats in Idukki District of the Kerala state in India. The terrain of the Reserve is undulating and the drainage is dendrite. North-eastern boundary of the Reserve is a ridge, which also forms boundary between Kerala and Tamil Nadu states for 90 km.Its a must to go for Jungle Trek during your visit to the Periyar National Park. There are different kind of options available for the Jungle Trek. There are options available for the short trek of 4 hours starting in morning and afternoon. One can also trek with the night patrol with the forest guard through the jungle, when there are better chances of spotting wildlife from up close.During the trek the flora and fauna can be experienced at close quarters and if one is lucky enough there are chances to sight the bigger animals of the cat family. 

Tourists and Pilgrims

There are allegations that The Periyar tiger reserve is a poorly monitored National park and the welfare of the wildlife has been compromised for the Ecotourism project which is undoubtedly considered to be a commercial success in India. The core zone of the park is not accessible to the tourists. Within the buffer zone of 430 km², a zone of 55 km² is kept apart for tourism. Game wardens and staff have been recently spotted illegally fishing and gathering specimens within the sanctuary area. The facilities within the sanctuary are in need of much maintenance and are presently in very poor standards. This has also contributed a steady decline in returning tourists to the sanctuary.
In the buffer zone there is also the temple of Sabarimala, which is visited by about 4 million pilgrims annually.
Its important to recognize, however, that for the very purpose of protecting its wildlife and shielding them from human interference, Periyar National Park allows extremely limited access to the territory under its jurisdiction, restricting tourist entry only to the northern corner adjacent to man-made lake Periyar. Despite this, Park authorities are engaged in a constant struggle against tiger and elephant poachers and other illegal intruders, many of whom destroy the forest to cultivate cannabis in its most inaccessible reaches.  

Fauna

Mammals

Altogether 62 different kinds of mammal have been recorded in Periyar, including many threatened ones. There are an estimated 24 tigers in the reserve.[1] Tourists also come here to view the Indian elephants in the act of ablution and playfulness by the Periyar lake.The elephant number around 900 to 1000 individuals. Other mammals found here include gaur, sambar (horse deer), barking deer, mouse deer, Dholes (Indian wild dogs), mongoose, foxes and leopards. Also inhabiting the park, though rarely seen, are the elusive Nilgiri tahr.
Four species of primates are found at Periyar - the rare lion-tailed macaque, the Nilgiri Langur, the common langur, and the Bonnet Macaque. 

Birds

So far 320 different kinds have been counted in Periyar. The bird life includes darters, cormorants, kingfishers, the great Malabar hornbill and racket-tailed Drongos. 

Reptiles

There are 45 different kinds of reptile in the protected area out of which there are 30 snake, two turtle, and 13 lizard species. Among those are Monitor lizards that can be spotted basking in the sun on the rocks along the lake shore. Visitors who trek into the Periyar national park often see a Python and sometimes even a King Cobra. 

Amphibians

Twenty seven different kinds have been recorded, of which ten are endemic to the Western Ghats, such as some species of frogs and salamanders.