Never content to let a paradigm remain a paradigm, DARPA has issued a broad agency announcement seeking the development of super-low-power, non-volatile logic integrated circuits that retain their computational states as well as their data even after their power supplies have been removed. Focusing on magnetic-moment-based approaches, the agency wants a new breed of portable electronics, sensors and UAVs that can compute even when the lights go out. Read more »
Scientistsu, engineers, and doctors yearn for tiny sensors to record a vast array of events in the world's many hard-to-reach places. And so far, the tradeoff between battery life and size has prevented sensors from becoming small enough to fit unobtrusively in the human body, or inside very small machines. Now, University of Michigan researchers seem to have solved that puzzle by creating a chip that draws energy through solar power, heat, or movement. By forgoing a large battery for perpetual environmental power, the U of M scientists managed to produce a sensor 1,000 times smaller than any other similar device. Read more »
Flash an exotic prototype, then-Presto!-get people to buy your more boring stuff. That kind of thinking still rules at most electronics companies. Apple under Steve Jobs only shows off actual products. The difference? Apple's arcane secret to success. Read more »
Electronics geeks hacking oscilloscopes fall, for me, into the same category as support truck racing at Dakar: Technicians having fun with their tools. Following in the proud tradition of Oscilloscope Tennis, Oscilloscope Pong, and Oscilloscope Clocks, Matthew Sarnoff has built a VT100 serial terminal - from an oscilloscope. Here's why this entirely impractical idea is also entirely awesome. Read more »
New light-emitting electrochemical cells could replace OLEDs
Graphene may brighten the future more literally than we had originally anticipated, besides merely revolutionizing electronics and Silicon Valley. Swedish and American researchers have transformed the one-atom-thick carbon material into a new, inexpensive lighting component that could give organic light diodes (OLEDs) a run for their money. Read more »
Moore's Law provides the axiom that the number of transistors that can be placed on a circuit will double every two years, but as we reach for smaller and smaller tech, silicon and other transistor materials are reaching their physical limits. Lucky for Moore, a European research group has produced graphene of a size and quality that can be practically developed for eventual commercial use. Read more »
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