Ultraquick telecommunications at terahertz frequencies are now possible using “electronic metadevices,” which may set the stage for the next generation of speedy gadgets. The way in which these novel devices control electric fields is similar to how invisibility cloaks manipulate light, heat, and sound, a new study finds. As electronics shrink, following Moore’s Law, they […]
This is a guest post in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the invention of the transistor. It is adapted from an essay in the July 2022 IEEE Electron Device Society Newsletter. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not represent positions of IEEE Spectrum or the IEEE. On the […]
The most obvious change in transistor technology in the last 75 years has been just how many we can make. Reducing the size of the device has been a titanic effort and a fantastically successful one, as these charts show. But size isn’t the only feature engineers have been improving. In 1947, there was only […]
Perhaps the most far-reaching technological achievement over the last 50 years has been the steady march toward ever smaller transistors, fitting them more tightly together, and reducing their power consumption. And yet, ever since the two of us started our careers at Intel more than 20 years ago, we’ve been hearing the alarms that the […]
Imagine a portable computer built from a network of 86 billion switches, capable of general intelligence sophisticated enough to build a spacefaring civilization—but weighing just 1.2 to 1.3 kilograms, consuming just 20 watts of power, and jiggling like Jell-O as it moves. There’s one inside your skull right now. It is a breathtaking achievement of […]
Lidar is increasingly giving 3-D scanning capabilities to autonomous cars, drones and robots, as well as smartphones, but it typically employs moving parts that limit how much it can shrink. Now scientists have developed a solid-state lidar chip the size of a fingertip that could one day lead to ubiquitous 3-D sensors, a new study […]