An antivirus program that detects malware through its behavior Computer antivirus software is based on the search for specific signatures in the code of a suspicious program. Unfortunately, this software is vulnerable and can be bypassed through very slight modifications to the signatures. To overcome the problem, computer specialists have succeeded in developing an antivirus program that can detect a virus on the basis of its behavior. Based on a technique known as model checking, it was able to identify 800 viruses, some of which had not been detected by well-known antivirus programs available on the market. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems, TACAS 2012 (Best paper award) 31 electrons ferroelectric The ferroelectric memristor is a sort of “synapse”. The structure of the material remembers the history of the electric field that was applied to it. Minimal amount of energy required to write a bit of information measured for the first time In agreement with the laws of thermodynamics, writing or erasing a bit of information inside a computer requires a minimal amount of energy whose lowest possible value has been predicted theoretically. Physicists have now experimentally verified the prediction using a tiny bead moving between two traps created by laser beams. The result could find applications in nanosystems, where the energy dissipated is comparable to this minimum value. Nature March 2012 online Ultra-fast magnetic nanocrystals The properties of certain crystals, such as their magnetism or color, can change under the effect of light. Physicists and chemists have synthesized nanometer-scale molecular crystals based on an iron (III) organic complex and shown that ultra-short laser pulses can make them switch from one state to another in the amazingly short time of one ten-thousandth of a nanosecond. The work opens up new prospects for high-density and ultra-fast addressing information storage. Angewandte Chemie International Edition June 2012 online Energy-efficient ferroelectric memories Memristors, nanoresistances that act as memory devices, are components with a big future in electronics. Physicists have just produced a new type of memristor based on a thin layer of ferroelectric material, the electrical equivalent of magnetic materials. The advantage is that, whereas a conventional memristor is based on the motion of atoms or ions, the new device relies on the transmission of electrons and is thus far more energy-efficient. The researchers now want to include it in circuits that mimic the behavior of neurons. Nature Materials September 2012 online Chemists have developed a simple method for ultra-precise insertion of monomers into a synthetic polymer chain. The result, which was published in Nature Communications, marks significant progress in molecular information storage. ---------------------------------------------------- connector connector Why making appointments is such a headache -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How can a function be calculated interactively? For instance, what is the best way of scheduling an appointment with another person? Should you send them your entire agenda so that they can find a slot compatible with their own, or might it not be possible to find a solution through a more targeted exchange of information? By using computing techniques derived from quantum mechanics, computer specialists have demonstrated that the first option is the right one. They have shown that, to agree on an appointment time, at least one of the two participants must provide their whole schedule. Their demonstration can be applied to other functions studied in this field, and shows that, for these functions as well, one of the two participants must disclose all the data in their possession. The findings improve understanding of the link between information and communication. Although of a mathematical nature, these results have computing spin-offs in communications and data protection. 53 rd Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS 2012) IEEE Computer Society, 2012 2012 A year at CNRS
RA2012_en
To see the actual publication please follow the link above