Author: Michael Ballard

PaPeRo Update

Posted by Michael Ballard on Posted in Straight Talk Tagged
It wasn’t until I saw my friend PaPeRo come across the wires that I realized…its been a long time since I’ve posted a blog entry.  With that said, I apologize for the delay.
 
If you’re not familiar with PaPeRo, he is NEC’s robot project that can sing, dance, speak, analyze the tone of your voice and broadcast your live video to the world.  Although his small stature doesn’t make him a candidate for Terminator 4, he does pack a punch when it comes to technical ability. 
 
 
 
Here’s the PaPeRo primer if you are interested:
 
PaPeRo Music Video– A must see!!!

And the Winner Is….

Posted by Michael Ballard on Posted in Straight Talk Tagged , , , ,

altI guess you can say there’s a competition for just about everything in the world.  Hot dog eating, wife carrying, ugliest dog and fastest computing.  Although NEC hasn’t won a best beard contest in a while we just won first place at the HPC Challenge with our Earth Simulator. 

Our “Earth Simulator” you ask? 

Allow me to give you the technical answer: The Earth Simulator is a parallel vector computing system that was launched in March 2002 at JAMSTEC. The renewed Earth Simulator, put into operational use in March 2009, consists of 160 nodes of the SX-9/E system with a theoretical peak performance of 131TFLOPS, which also boasts the world fastest CPU core of 102.4GFLOPS.

Now allow me to translate: A really fast computer that would probably be a killer gaming PC.

 Press Release

 HPC Challenge Website

Fill ‘er Up…With Electric!

Posted by Michael Ballard on Posted in Straight Talk Tagged , , , , ,

NEC electric carIt’s no surprise that a fully electric car will soon be as popular as hybrids are today. To make this endeavor successful, you need a way to charge that car when you’re not at home. In steps NEC and the Portland General Electric Company.

Our two companies have joined forces to open the first quick-charge electric station for electric vehicles in (you guessed it) Portland, Oregon.

But don’t expect to get in and out too very quickly. An 80% battery charge takes about 20 – 30 minutes. This time was proven when Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski took the Nissan Leaf (also co-develop by NEC) for a two-day test drive and charged up at the station during a press event.

Think AAA will soon offer roadside electric charge service?

Photo Gallery

NEC’s 7-Year Journey in Space

Posted by Michael Ballard on Posted in Straight Talk Tagged , , , ,

mainvisi_copyIt was a late night in 2003 when the culmination of NEC Space Systems’ hard work was sent away.  And not just away to college…but to go collect some rocks on an asteroid and come back home.  Sound like the plot from a certain Bruce Willis movie???
NEC acted as the systems integrator in conjunction with JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in the development of Hyabusa.  Hyabusa is an ion engine powered space probe with some advanced technology driving it.

The probe successfully made it to the asteroid, collected the material and shot back to earth.  Of course, like any good space story plot, there was drama.  On its way back to earth Hyabusa lost attitude control due to a fuel leak.  With the support of NEC, JAXA completed a work around and 2 years later the probe made it safely back to its home.

There is a great movie at the website link below that details the story.

Hayabusa Website