Gizmodo: csiro

Buffalo Might Be Back in the Cheap Router Business With Patent Victory

matt buchanan — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:20:00 EDT

As the happy owner of a cheapass Buffalo WHR-G125 router running DD-WRT, the ridiculous BS patent lawsuit that got Buffalo being banned from selling routers in the US was deeply aggravating. Great news for Buffalo and reasonable people everywhere, CSIRO's patent claims have been ruled invalid, and Buffalo is getting a new trial, so we'll be able to buy Buffalo's awesome cheapo routers again. One day, anyway. [Buffalo via Slashdot - Thanks Chubbs!]

Carbon Nanotube Manufacturing Breakthrough Could Mean Bye-Bye Steel

Kit Eaton — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:07:56 EDT

Carbon nanotubes have been popping on Giz for a while, touted as one of the next wonder-materials—but a new development in their manufacture means they may not remain "future technology" for long. In fact the work of a team at CSIRO and the University of Texas at Dallas means that commercial-scale production of sheets of carbon nanotube "textile" is possible at up to seven meters per minute.

And these are no ordinary textiles either: they're transparent and way stronger than a sheet of steel. The team's technique involves chemically-growing "forests" of nanotubes that self-assemble, and is reported in Science currently. If it proves true we may see nanotube materials replacing metals like steel pretty soon—though I'm not sure how many people would balk at flying in a plane with wings you can partly see through. [Physorg]

Buffalo Banned from Selling 802.11a and 802.11g Gear in the US

Matt Buchanan — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:39:20 EDT

Australia-based Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has won a patent infringement suit against Buffalo in a US district court, enjoining sales on all 802.11a, g and n products made by Buffalo as of Oct. 1 (full list here). CSIRO is apparently suing the entire wireless LAN industry, so Buffalo has the quite the list of friends filing briefs on their behalf: Microsoft, 3COM Corporation, SMC Networks, Accton Technology Corporation, Intel, Atheros Communications, Belkin International, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel Networks, Nvidia Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP AG, Yahoo, Nokia, and the Consumer Electronics Association. If Buffalo doesn't win its appeal, it clears the way for CSIRO to take on the rest of the industry, which could result in licensing fees being tacked on to all 802.11a, g and n products. Booooo fees. [Buffalo via Wi-Fi Networking News, Flickr]

Blazing Wireless: How's About 6Gb Per Second?

Charlie White — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 09:48:43 EST

We always want to show you the world's strongest, biggest and fastest, and now researchers have created the world's fastest wireless link, cramming over 6Gb per second through a point-to-point wireless link. This speedy wireless trick was demoed last month by CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, which is Australia's national science agency.

Jeez, that's fast. Just think, at that rate, it will only take Time Warner about .02 seconds to throttle my Internet connection. But wait. It gets even faster!

The CSIRO researchers say this just the beginning, where soon they'll achieve wireless links that are twice as fast. They say their transmission technique yields the highest efficiency ever achieved, and they hope to use the technology in place of fiber optic cables over rivers, across valleys or through congested urban environments.

Figuring that a 6Gb/sec link can download an entire DVD's worth of video in six seconds, this kind of speed could come in handy. Can you spell H-D-T-V? – Charlie White

CSIRO demonstrates world's fastest wireless link [CSIRO]