For sheer drama and resonance, few tech breakthroughs can match the invention of the neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnet in the early 1980s. It’s one of the great stories of corporate intrigue: General Motors in the US and Sumitomo in Japan independently conceived the technology, and then worked in secret, racing to commercialize the technology, and without […]
Engineers designing communications products need access to information—the latest research, lists of parts and components, and technical standards to help ensure that their design will work seamlessly with others. But tracking down resources across multiple websites can be time-consuming, and the material might not be relevant or the sources could be questionable. The new IEEE […]
“Hardware is hard,” venture capitalist Marc Andreessen famously declared at a tech investors’ event in 2013. Explaining the longstanding preference for software startups among VCs, Andreessen said, “There are so many more things that can go wrong in a hardware company. There are so many more ways a hardware company can blow up in a […]
Today even the least tech-savvy consumers can attach a camera, printer, scanner, or other accessory to their PC effortlessly. But in the early 1990s, attaching a peripheral to a computer was not so simple. Before the development of USB (Universal Serial Bus), it was often tricky to connect external devices. Users sometimes needed to open […]
When Yann LeCun gives talks, he’s apt to include a slide showing a famous painting of a scene from the French Revolution. Superimposed over a battle scene are these words: “THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE SUPERVISED.” LeCun, VP and chief AI scientist of Meta (formerly Facebook), believes that the next AI revolution will come about […]
It’s a tough time in electronics manufacturing, especially for small outfits. The Great Semiconductor Shortage is driving up the cost of components—if they can be found at all. But Stefany Allaire has not been deterred, delivering products and developing new ones for her dedicated community of customers. Allaire runs Feonix Retro Systems, which caters to […]