IBM and Samsung claim they’ve made a breakthrough in semiconductor design. On day one of the IEDM conference in San Francisco, the two companies unveiled a new design for stacking transistors vertically on a chip. With current processors and SoCs, transistors lie flat on the surface of the silicon, and then electric current flows from Read more about New IBM and Samsung transistors could be key to super-efficient vertical chips[…]

What do you get when you combine ancient designs with modern engineering? An exciting new way to convert time and money into heat and noise! I’m not sure whether to call this a catapult or a trebuchet, but it’s definitely the superior siege engine. Have you ever sat down and thought “I wonder if a Read more about How to Build a Supersonic Trebuchet[…]

[…]Even the best hardware eventually becomes obsolete when it can no longer run modern software: with a 2.0 GHz Core Duo and 3 GB of RAM you can still browse the web and do word processing today, but you can forget about 4K video or a 64-bit OS. Luckily, there’s hope for those who are Read more about Replacement Motherboard Brings New Lease Of Life To Classic T60 / T61 Thinkpads[…]

This report provides an overview of the current state of quantum technology and its potential commercial and military applications. The author discusses each of the three major categories of quantum technology: quantum sensing, quantum communication, and quantum computing. He also considers the likely commercial outlook over the next few years, the major international players, and Read more about Commercial and Military Applications and Timelines for Quantum Technology | RAND[…]

When Facebook went down yesterday for nearly six hours, so did Oculus’ services. Since Facebook owns VR headset maker Oculus, and controversially requires Oculus Quest users to log in with a Facebook account, many Quest owners reported not being able to load their Oculus libraries. “[A]nd those who just took a Quest 2 out of Read more about Oculus Quest VR Goggles Becomes a Paperweight When Facebook Goes Down[…]

[…] researchers at Northwestern University have devised a new method for recording information to DNA that takes minutes rather than hours or days. The researchers utilized a novel enzymatic system to synthesize DNA that records rapidly changing environmental signals straight into its sequences, and this method could revolutionize how scientists examine and record neurons inside Read more about Scientists Have Successfully Recorded Data to DNA in Minutes not hours[…]

Smartphones, tablets, and cameras sold within the European Union could be forced to adopt a single standard charging port by the middle of the decade if the latest plans from the European Commission get the go-ahead. The proposals for a revised Radio Equipment Directive would mean that charging port and fast-charging technology would be “harmonised” Read more about Apple miffed by EU’s ‘strict’ one-size-fits-all charger plan[…]

Aggrieved MacBook owners in two separate lawsuits claim Apple’s latest laptops with its M1 chips have defective screens that break easily and malfunction. The complaints, both filed on Wednesday in a federal district court in San Jose, California, are each seeking class certification in the hope that the law firms involved will get a judicial Read more about Apple’s M1 MacBook screens are stunning – stunningly fragile and defective, that is, lawsuits allege[…]

In the past 11 days, both Crucial and Western Digital have been caught swapping the TLC NAND used for certain products with inferior QLC NAND without updating product SKUs or informing reviewers that this change was happening. Shipping one product to reviewers and a different product to consumers is unacceptable and we recently recommended that Read more about Samsung Is the Latest SSD Manufacturer (Crucial, Western Digital) Caught Cheating Its Customers[…]

They discovered a new technique they say will be capable of controlling millions of spin qubits—the basic units of information in a silicon quantum processor. Until now, quantum computer engineers and scientists have worked with a proof-of-concept model of quantum processors by demonstrating the control of only a handful of qubits. […] “Up until this Read more about Engineers make critical advance in quantum computer design[…]

Scientists in China have developed the hardest and strongest glassy material known so far that can scratch diamond crystals with ease. The researchers, including those from Yanshan University in China, noted that the new material – tentatively named AM-III – has “outstanding” mechanical and electronic properties, and could find applications in solar cells due to Read more about Chinese scientists develop world’s strongest glass that’s harder than diamond[…]

Samsung is causing much angst among its SmartThings customers by shutting down support for its original SmartThings home automation hub as of the end of June. These are network-connected home automation routers providing Zigbee and Z-Wave connectivity to your sensors and actuators. It’s not entirely unreasonable for manufacturers to replace aging hardware with new models. Read more about Samsung Bricking Original SmartThings Hubs[…]

Windows 11 was officially unveiled this week, and many eager users are checking to see if their PCs can run the upcoming OS with Microsoft’s Windows Health Check app. However, some are surprised to learn that their PCs aren’t “Windows 11 ready,” despite having new, high-end hardware. What’s a TPM? The main source of confusion Read more about What Is a ‘TPM’ and Why Do You Need One to Run Windows 11?[…]

Stanford researchers have developed a new technique that produces “atomically-thin” transistors under 100 nanometers long. That’s “several times” shorter than the previous best, according to the university. The team accomplished the feat by overcoming a longstanding hurdle in flexible tech. While ‘2D’ semiconductors are the ideal, they require so much heat to make that they’d Read more about ‘Atomically thin’ transistors could help make electronic skins a reality[…]

Featured in Nature Communications, this new research could result in the development of wearable tech that could sense, store, analyze, and infer the activity(s) of its wearers in real-time. The senior author of the study, Yeol Fink, believes that digital fibers like those developed in this study could help expand the possibilities for fabrics to “uncover the Read more about Engineers at MIT Have Created Actual Programmable Fibers – chip clothing[…]

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is shutting its two main car factories temporarily due to a shortage of computer chips. The difficulties at Britain’s biggest carmaker echo similar problems at other manufacturers, including Ford, who have been hit by a global shortage of chips. JLR said there would be a “limited period” of closure at its Read more about Jaguar Land Rover to suspend output due to chip shortage[…]

Companies that sell refrigerators, washers, hairdryers, or TVs in the European Union will need to ensure those appliances can be repaired for up to 10 years, to help reduce the vast mountain of electrical waste that piles up each year on the continent. The “right to repair,” as it is sometimes called, comes into force Read more about EU law requires companies to fix electronic goods for up to 10 years[…]

The demand to store ever-increasing volumes of information has resulted in the widespread implementation of data centers for Big Data. These centers consume massive amounts of energy (about 3% of global electricity supply) and rely on magnetization-based hard disk drives with limited storage capacity (up to 2 TB per disk) and lifespan (three to five Read more about Sub-diffraction optical writing enables data storage at the nanoscale – on disk[…]

Seismologists at Caltech working with optics experts at Google have developed a method to use existing underwater telecommunication cables to detect earthquakes. The technique could lead to improved earthquake and tsunami warning systems around the world. […] evious efforts to use optical fibers to study seismicity have relied on the addition of sophisticated scientific instruments Read more about Using deep-sea fiber optic cables to detect earthquakes[…]

Apple, on its French website, is now publishing repairability scores for its notoriously difficult to repair products, in accordance with a Gallic environmental law enacted a year ago. Cook & Co score themselves on repairability however, and Cupertino kit sometimes fares better under internal interpretation of the criteria [PDF] than it does under ratings awarded Read more about Apple, forced to rate product repair potential in France, gives itself modest marks – still lying, they should be worse[…]