A round-up of technology news in brief

Endgame for Moore's Law

Gordon Moore, the unassuming billionaire co-founder of Intel, says the era of the technology maxim bearing his name is drawing to a close, perhaps as soon as 10 years from now.

Moore's Law - based on the San Francisco native's observation in 1965 that the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles roughly every two years - has for more than 40 years dictated the pace of change in the technology industry.

Many, including Moore himself, have predicted the law's demise numerous times before. But now, as Intel and the rest of the industry have made features on chips so small, they are running out of space to cram in more transistors and bumping against the laws of physics.

"Another decade, a decade and a half, I think we'll hit something fairly fundamental" that would render the continuing pace of Moore's law untenable, Moore said this week at Intel's twice-annual technical conference, now in its 10th year. - (Reuters)

Hotels go for free WiFi

Jurys Hotel group this week became the first four- and five- star Irish hotel group to introduce free WiFi and high speed internet access across all its properties - both in Ireland and abroad.

While free internet access has become a standard in US hotels, Irish hotels have tended to charge for the service.

Taking hassle out of sourcing

Irish start-up Request for Proposal.ie ( www.rfp.ie) hopes to take the hassle out of sourcing products, services and suppliers.

Peter Ingle thought up the concept after spending months researching a better way to source products for his previous employer where he worked in sales and marketing.

RFP, which operates out of the hothouse incubation programme in Dublin Docklands Innovation Park's Project Development Centre, is aimed primarily at small and medium enterprises that are less likely to to have an existing supplier database or preferred vendor list.

Buyers simply describe their requirements on the rfp.ie website and suppliers with the "best fit" can contact them. Buyers are not obliged to select a supplier through the system and pay nothing for the service.

Embarking on new research

Research scholarships worth €3.6 million have been offered to 49 postgraduate students under the second round of the 2007 Embark Initiative.

The awards, under the auspices of the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, support new doctoral and master level research.

Pensioners take to Wii games

Pensioners may not be the usual target audience for the manufacturers of the Nintendo Wii, but one group of care home residents is finding it the perfect way to while away their retirement. Residents at a UK care home have put down their knitting and bridge and picked up the high-tech games console instead. The pensioners, aged up to 103, are using the motion-sensitive console to play virtual golf, tennis, bowling and boxing, competing with each other in their living room. - (PA)