Apple?s Design Concepts

Apple’s design concepts are simple: sleek lines; ease of use; and concern for the environment. These concepts disguise the amount of thought, development, and hard work that go into everything Apple manufactures, but they generate products that are style icons.

Sleek lines

One of the most exciting Mac computer design concepts Apple has recently introduced is the unibody. This is the enclosure for the MacBook Air, the 15 inch MacBook Pro, and the new MacBook.

The unibody begins life as a single piece of aluminium. Using CNC (computer numerical control) milling machines, Apple then creates a laptop casing that accommodates a keyboard, trackpad, ports, display, and the comprehensive interior electronics.

The result is robust and lightweight. The new aluminium MacBook weighs in at just 2.04 kg (4.5 pounds). This is modest for a laptop packed with so many features. It is still heavier, though, than the wonderfully thin MacBook Air’s 1.36 kg (3 pounds). These two laptops, together with the MacBook Pro, catch the eye with their engineering perfection and elegance.

The unibody is a simple concept but an extremely difficult idea to achieve in practice. This is why laptop manufacturers generally build their casings from separate parts. These allow room for error. The unibody, however, must be precise in every respect; if not, the interior components won’t fit.

This bold approach to design is typical of Apple Mac. Another example is the iMac, Apple’s desktop computer that holds its technology behind the 20 inch and 24 inch widescreen displays. The iMac’s enclosure is a single sheet of aluminium, apart from a compartment on the bottom that gives access to the memory cards. The ports, iSight camera, microphone, optical drive slot, and inner parts are all discretely integrated. Together they provide a powerful computer that takes up far less space than any comparable PC.

The Mac mini is not as slim as the Apple laptops and the iMac, but it doesn’t need to be thin to be stylish. Instead, it’s a fine example of how a quality computer can reduce clutter by being just 16.5 cm (6.5 inches) square, and 5 cm (2 inches) high. The anodised aluminium enclosure, pearly white cover, curved corners, and quiet running make the Mac mini a desirable object to have sitting on a desk. It certainly compares well to the bulk of a standard desktop PC.

Apple’s iPods have a similar design philosophy. Aluminium, glass, and highly polished stainless steel feature alongside subtle curves and carefully positioned controls. The Click Wheel design of the classic and nano has even become a style icon in its own right, deriving from the Scroll Wheel and Touch Wheel of earlier generation iPods.

iPod design, like the laptops, is also about weight or, to be exact, the lack of it. The iPod nano is a mere 36.8 grams (1.3 ounces), although the iPod shuffle beats this with its feather-like body of 15.6 grams (0.55 ounce).

Ease of use

Exterior design alone, however, has not kept Apple’s products at the forefront of multimedia technology. The hidden designs and compatibility of the hardware and software within a Mac and iPod have also helped to achieve this.

This compatibility means that the user of an Apple product has an enjoyable and trouble-free experience. The design of Mac OS X, for instance, provides a fast and logical operating system that outshines Windows Vista in almost every respect.

Ease of use extends to the software that comes with every Mac such as the Safari web browser. Safari doesn’t just find information quickly on the Internet – it keeps up with the latest web technology, organises your data, and helps you distinguish one item from another.

Safari’s success as the world’s best web browser, and the popularity of other Apple software such as the iLife suite of applications, is partly due to frequent revisions. Apple’s software design specialists never wait for things to happen: they are always searching for ways to develop and improve. Mac users can therefore be confident that their software is up to date.

The same is true of the iPod designers. Recent design improvements include Genius, which automatically creates playlist of songs that match; the accelerometer, which makes games more fun to play and provides the iPod nano with its shake to shuffle feature; and the 3D graphics of the iPod touch.

The iPod touch, of course, has an outstanding Multi-Touch screen that is a major design feature by itself. Apple also uses the Multi-Touch concept on its laptops, and has now given the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air larger trackpads made of glass and with more features than previously. The result not only makes these laptops more fun to use – they look sleeker as well.

Concern for the environment

The third element of Apple’s approach to design is concern for the environment. The LED backlighting for displays doesn’t contain mercury; internal cables don’t have PVC; and components are free of toxic BFRs (brominated flame retardants).

Apple also promotes the recyclable qualities of the aluminium and arsenic-free glass that make up many of the Mac and iPod casings, and has cut back on the packaging it uses.

Such efforts are considerable, and are developing all the time. Among the acknowledgements are the granting of Energy Star status for Macs, thanks to their excellent energy efficiency, and much-coveted EPEAT (electronic products environmental assessment tool) gold ratings for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

These successes prove that environmental concerns can play a major role in design concepts. No doubt other companies will follow Apple’s lead.

Innovation

Innovation has not featured here as a design concept because it is a separate principle. With Apple, innovation is fundamental to the company’s existence and strategy. Some manufacturers view innovation as an end in itself, but Apple treats it as part and parcel of everyday design and development.

Customers can therefore take innovation for granted. It underwrites products that are great to look at, straightforward to use, and that respect the environment. In other words, they’re brilliant designs.

Computers Will Make Going Out of the House Unnecessary

It is safe to say that the modern man can no longer live without computers. The comforts of modern living have made it increasingly indispensable in getting things done right at home. The kings, royalties and aristocrats of the 19th century in all their pomp and circumstance are sure to envy the lowly housewife of the 21st century of the extent of sheer comfort and convenience with which they get things done. So much so that in the future, no one needs to get out of the house anymore.

- Videos games from computer controlled games consoles like the PS3, Wii and the Xbox as well as on the PCs have taken over the television as the object of focus among couch potatoes. They are more intuitive, interactive and their graphics is amazingly realistic and immersive thanks to the high definition imaging and full surround sounds they produce courtesy of the powerful computer processors in their hardware. Soon virtual reality engines will take gaming to the next level that makes staying at home even more compelling.

- The internet is not just a gigantic library of information but has evolved into a virtual social landscape dotted with forums, blogs, communities, social networking sites, chat rooms and dating/match-making services that some psychologist have started airing alarms that the modern generation is losing touch with real friendships and interaction with the family. When kids start to spend inordinate amounts of time on the internet chatting, uploading photos on social network sites and posting messages on forums more than playing baseball or spending time with family members, then you start to wonder if we are looking at a future with an entirely new set of social values – one that is more virtual than real.

- Just about anything can be virtualized these days. With an increasing computing power promised with nanotechnology, even visiting historic sites and taking a vacation in beaches and exotic places can be made on virtual reality PCs. You already have virtual video conferences participated by people around the world without ever leaving their homes. Virtual interaction is now a new dimension to societal relationships. It is not surprising to see airlines suffer shrinking travel revenues when fewer people are taking business trips for overseas meetings, trade conferences and seminars. A computer on the internet makes these travels redundant.

- Home entertainment using the immersive experience of 3D video and surround sound could not have been possible with analog technologies. The digital revolution of the 90s with CDs and DVDs have opened the path for home entertainment to where they are today, thanks in large measure to computers processing billions of pixel and sound bits behind the home entertainment appliance we now have. It can be pretty much predictable with such an alluring form of divertissement that the tribe of couch potatoes will increase.

Conclusion

The future will find us inexorably home-bound. No need to go out the house to visit the mall, as you can shop and pay on the internet. No need to bring the family to the theater, as your 3D home video system does the job. No need to attend get-togethers with friends as Facebook and Twitter sites do the same job. No need to play baseball at the school gym since virtual gaming does the job. No need to go to the office since you can do whatever you need to do in the office at home. No need to take a vacation to the Bahamas or attend a conference in England as you can do a virtual tour and a virtual conference over the internet. In short, the future is bright for social nerds who just need a chair and a computer hooked to the internet. GP

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Nanotechnology Will Improve Computer Efficiency and Power

The next 10 years promises to be an exciting period in the history of computers and networks as nanotechnology takes off to redefine a new level in the way computers are manufactured. It’s not entirely radical as the Lithographic principles behind the manufacturing process can be adopted for nanotech processes. What is revolutionary are the minute molecular-level sizes at which those circuit boards can now be made. This is the core of nanotech – derived from the Greek nano which means tiny. And in this case, we’re talking molecular tiny. In quantitative scientific terms, “tiny” is in the area of a billionth of a meter or around 1/500th the width of a hair strand. That’s “nano” mathematically.

Nanotechnology in Computers

Nanotechnology ushers in a more meaningful and useful age of miniaturization. The Integrated Chip of the 70s did the same thing that was seminal in manufacturing increasingly smaller chips that now power our cellphones and computers. But they have their limits and we have reached that.

With molecule-sized nanotech based manufacturing of processor chips, memory modules and storage devices, these limits can be breached that will eventually bring two things: (1) more powerful, more cost-effective and more power-efficient computers across all platforms, from mainframes down to laptops; and (2) smaller computer footprints for the same power and efficiencies we currently have.

- Nanotech Microprocessors

With greater transistor densities, processor chips these days have grown so powerful that they require more effective cooling systems employing fans and even water-based coolants usually reserved in mainframes. Lithographic technologies that create those wafer thin circuits containing millions of etched transistors have reached practical limits. Nanotechnology’s molecular-level lithography is the next step. Not only will it produce more powerful computer engines, it can make them operate cooler and with less bulk. Associated circuits in the motherboards and even add-on daughterboards like video graphics and sound processors can be integrated into smaller boards so that computers over the next decade can be no larger than the largest cell phones of today.

- Nanomemories

Memory modules in the 1GB to 2GB range are becoming common these days. Even cellphones have memories in that magnitude. But just like processor chips, you have a manufacturing limit to contend with which bears down on the maximum speed, size and powering efficiency of memory chips. Over the next few years, more powerful RAM with higher capacities and speeds but lower costs can be made from nonmagnetic technology.

- Solid State ”hard drives”

Disk drives have likewise reach the size and capacity limits. If you look at your flash drives now commonly sporting 4, 8 and 16 GB capacities, they are all solid state storage devices that hold the promise of greater storage capacities and efficiencies in computers.

They are also immune to physical shocks or mechanical crashes that hard disks are prone to suffer. But they are expensive to produce and have the highest costs per megabyte of memory compared with a 1Terrabyte hard disk we have at this time. Nanotechnology should take care of that. Expect nanotech-based flash drive technology to evolve with higher memory capacity that will eventually make it more cost effective to replace current electro-mechanical hard drives. GP

EC funds nanoscale memory project

EC funds nanoscale memory project
Within the next decade microchips are expected to incorporate billions of transistors creating ultra-powerful computer systems that can process terabytes of data per second.

Read more on EE Times Asia

Nanowires key to future transistors, electronics

A new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips using tiny structures called semiconducting nanowires are closer to reality after a key discovery by researchers at IBM, Purdue University and the University of California at Los Angeles.

The researchers have learned how to create nanowires with layers of different materials that are sharply defined at the atomic level, which is a critical requirement for making efficient transistors out of the structures.

“Having sharply defined layers of materials enables you to improve and control the flow of electrons and to switch this flow on and off,” said Eric Stach, an associate professor of materials engineering at Purdue.

Electronic devices are often made of “heterostructures,” meaning they contain sharply defined layers of different semiconducting materials, such as silicon and germanium. Until now, however, researchers have been unable to produce nanowires with sharply defined silicon and germanium layers. Instead, this transition from one layer to the next has been too gradual for the devices to perform optimally as transistors.

The new findings point to a method for creating nanowire transistors.

The findings are detailed in a research paper appearing Friday (Nov. 27) in the journal Science. The paper was written by Purdue postdoctoral researcher Cheng-Yen Wen, Stach, IBM materials scientists Frances Ross, Jerry Tersoff and Mark Reuter at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y, and Suneel Kodambaka, an assistant professor at UCLA’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Whereas conventional transistors are made on flat, horizontal pieces of silicon, the silicon nanowires are “grown” vertically. Because of this vertical structure, they have a smaller footprint, which could make it possible to fit more transistors on an integrated circuit, or chip, Stach said.

“But first we need to learn how to manufacture nanowires to exacting standards before industry can start using them to produce transistors,” he said.

Nanowires might enable engineers to solve a problem threatening to derail the electronics industry. New technologies will be needed for industry to maintain Moore’s law, an unofficial rule stating that the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles about every 18 months, resulting in rapid progress in computers and telecommunications. Doubling the number of devices that can fit on a computer chip translates into a similar increase in performance. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue shrinking electronic devices made of conventional silicon-based semiconductors.

“In something like five to, at most, 10 years, silicon transistor dimensions will have been scaled to their limit,” Stach said.

Transistors made of nanowires represent one potential way to continue the tradition of Moore’s law.

The researchers used an instrument called a transmission electron microscope to observe the nanowire formation. Tiny particles of a gold-aluminum alloy were first heated and melted inside a vacuum chamber, and then silicon gas was introduced into the chamber. As the melted gold-aluminum bead absorbed the silicon, it became “supersaturated” with silicon, causing the silicon to precipitate and form wires. Each growing wire was topped with a liquid bead of gold-aluminum so that the structure resembled a mushroom.

Then, the researchers reduced the temperature inside the chamber enough to cause the gold-aluminum cap to solidify, allowing germanium to be deposited onto the silicon precisely and making it possible to create a heterostructure of silicon and germanium.

The cycle could be repeated, switching the gases from germanium to silicon as desired to make specific types of heterostructures, Stach said.

Having a heterostructure makes it possible to create a germanium “gate” in each transistor, which enables devices to switch on and off.

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The work is based at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center and Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center in the university’s Discovery Park and is funded by the National Science Foundation through the NSF’s Electronic and Photonic Materials Program in the Division of Materials Research.

Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu

Source: Eric Stach, (765) 494-1466, eastach@purdue.edu

Related Web site:

Eric Stach: https://engineering.purdue.edu/MSE/People/ptProfile?id=12299

PHOTO CAPTION:

Researchers are closer to using tiny devices called semiconducting nanowires to create a new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips. The researchers have grown the nanowires with sharply defined layers of silicon and germanium, offering better transistor performance. As depicted in this illustration, tiny particles of a gold-aluminum alloy were alternately heated and cooled inside a vacuum chamber, and then silicon and germanium gases were alternately introduced. As the gold-aluminum bead absorbed the gases, it became “supersaturated” with silicon and germanium, causing them to precipitate and form wires. (Purdue University, Birck Nanotechnology Center/Seyet LLC)

A publication-quality image is available at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/+2009/stach-nanowires.jpg

Abstract on the research in this release is available at: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009b/091126Stachnanowires.html