https://techxplore.com/rss-feed/hardware-news/ en-us The latest news on consumer electronic hardware, electronic gadgets, hardware and electronics. I spend my days looking inside chip packages to find out why they failed. With X-ray tomography or an acoustic microscope, I can see through a finished package without opening it: every solder bump, every copper trace, every buried layer. It is satisfying detective work. Somewhere along the way, I realized it is also exactly what a reverse engineer does. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-11-reconfigurable-mems-chip-package-wiring.html Hardware Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:40:02 EST news713712403 Large language models have transformed natural language processing through their ability to generate and interpret humanlike text. Most modern language models rely on transformer architectures, whose self-attention mechanisms provide powerful capabilities for learning relationships within long sequences. However, training and running these models can require substantial computational resources and energy, creating challenges for their wider use in embedded systems, edge devices and other environments where computing resources are limited. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-11-exploring-faster-language-hardware-reservoir.html Hardware Thu, 12 Nov 2026 16:00:10 EST news713721421 Artificial intelligence is increasingly pervasive and capable but is also very hungry for power. Researchers, including those at the University of Tokyo, have developed a new approach to building physics-based AI—systems that use the natural behavior of physical systems to process information—that dramatically reduces the amount of computation required for them to run. The approach simplifies both how these systems learn and how they are structured. It was demonstrated using an optical computing system that processes information with light and could help pave the way toward faster and more energy-efficient AI hardware. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-11-ai-framework-optical-hardware.html Hardware Thu, 05 Nov 2026 05:00:01 EST news713029861 When you think of archives, you probably think of dusty old boxes of paper documents, photos, diaries, letters and flyers, filed away in storage. But increasingly, our archival materials are digital, and material from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s is often stored on formats like floppy disks and CD-ROMs. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-11-floppy-disk-history.html Hardware Wed, 04 Nov 2026 19:00:08 EST news713009339 Strong wins for Democratic candidates threaten the prospects for energy-guzzling data centers in key U.S. states, potentially slowing the AI rollout that has carried Wall Street forward over the past four years. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-11-democratic-victories-cloud-outlook-ai.html Hardware Wed, 04 Nov 2026 06:50:01 EST news712996853 Today's sophisticated microchips are a wonder, designed by engineers squeezing ever more detail onto ever-smaller chips, then built in ultraclean billion-dollar fabrication facilities. Just one speck of dust or an errant signal from a device like a cell phone can spell ruin. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-scientists-resistant-microchips-satellites-nuclear.html Hardware Tue, 27 Oct 2026 20:00:08 EDT news712315237 Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a therapeutic technique that delivers electrical pulses to specific areas of the brain via an implant to modulate neural activity. It is already widely used for movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, and researchers are increasingly exploring its potential for severe psychiatric illnesses including major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-power-neural-chip-brain-cognitive.html Hardware Fri, 23 Oct 2026 13:20:13 EDT news711980221 With artificial intelligence (AI) data centers consuming electricity at a growing rate, identifying a sustainable computing solution to offset these massive community and environmental disruptors is proving critical. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-brain-semiconductor-chips-smarter-greener.html Hardware Wed, 21 Oct 2026 16:40:20 EDT news711818581 Smart glasses need compact, efficient displays that can produce detailed images without drawing too much power. Laser beam scanning is one approach to meeting these requirements. Rather than using a fixed array of pixels, these displays steer a laser beam across the field of view, building an image point by point. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-voltage-photonic-chip-smart-glasses.html Hardware Tue, 20 Oct 2026 12:00:06 EDT news711713575 Software can be updated. Hardware cannot. Manipulation deep within a chip would be almost impossible to detect—and could threaten entire infrastructures. At the same time, it is now more important than ever that we prepare hardware for impending attacks using quantum computers. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-hardware-tampering-chips-quantum.html Hardware Mon, 19 Oct 2026 07:00:11 EDT news711607876 Bubbles can be useful tools for microscopic robots, helping them move, steer, create flows of liquid and perform other functions. But designs based on trapping a bubble, a common approach, are unwieldy and unpredictable because bubbles can be hard to catch and control. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-tiny-chip-ultrasound-powered-microbubbles.html Hardware Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:40:15 EDT news711294541 Some information, such as exam questions or bid prices, must remain unreadable until an agreed time, even if it has already been delivered. KAIST researchers have used changes in the electric current inside a semiconductor to develop encryption in which information is revealed only after a set amount of time has passed, or can be read correctly only at a specific time. In addition to the key needed to restore the original information, the technology adds a second condition: when the information is read. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-hardware-method-condition-decoding-encrypted.html Hardware Wed, 14 Oct 2026 14:20:15 EDT news711206350 Microsoft said Monday it will roll out its in-house Maia artificial intelligence chips on a massive scale starting in 2027, making them the main hardware for running AI across its products—a move that could reduce its reliance on Nvidia. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-microsoft-homegrown-ai-chip-nvidia.html Hardware Mon, 12 Oct 2026 16:40:19 EDT news711039702 Integrated circuits are electronic chips containing the interconnected components that process information or control electrical signals inside many electronic devices. These chips are known to generate heat as they operate, which can affect the safety and performance of electronics. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-vapor-channels-powerful-chips-cool.html Hardware Mon, 12 Oct 2026 14:40:10 EDT news711030353 Construction of a massive Google data center in the Indian city of Visakhapatnam has been met with resistance from residents who fear the impact on the environment and their lives. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-power-jobs-google-india-center.html Hardware Sun, 11 Oct 2026 11:40:06 EDT news710937102 Handcuffs encircle Google's logo on one campaign poster, while another warns that people "cannot drink data", as opposition mounts to the tech giant's planned AI mega-facility in India. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-google-backlash-india-center.html Hardware Sun, 11 Oct 2026 11:29:03 EDT news710936899 Just as carbon atoms arranged in different ways can form either graphite or diamond—the hardest natural material—semiconductor materials can also exhibit completely different properties depending on their atomic arrangements. Now, a previously overlooked crystal structure of indium selenide (In2Se3) has been brought to life as a promising material for next-generation logic electronics. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-overlooked-indium-selenide-phase-enables.html Hardware Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:00:31 EDT news710682062 If computer chips could be built from semiconductors just one atom thick, they could pack far more transistors into a smaller space while using less power. So far, however, the technology has been held back by the weakness of "p-type" transistors, which make up half of every modern chip. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-atom-thin-material-key-transistor.html Hardware Mon, 05 Oct 2026 09:20:02 EDT news710410722 When designing new computer chips, engineers need to make various decisions about how to connect their underlying components while efficiently using limited space. Planning these connections involves combinatorial optimization, or, in other words, a search for the best combination of choices under specific rules. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-magnetic-tackle-complex-optimization-problems.html Hardware Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:20:01 EDT news709994220 Britain's approach to electronic waste is prioritizing disposal over repair, allowing valuable devices and materials to slip through the cracks, according to new research from the University of Surrey. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-britain-recycling-electronics.html Hardware Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:20:20 EDT news709978562 For a wearable device to distinguish walking from a brief swing of the arm, it must recognize how movement changes over time. Korean researchers have developed a technology that stacks semiconductor devices with different response speeds, allowing them to recognize both a change that has just occurred and earlier changes. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-stacked-ai-chip-fast-layers.html Hardware Mon, 28 Sep 2026 11:00:01 EDT news709811157 When we read a car's license plate, we tend to focus on the numbers and letters, paying little attention to the surrounding buildings or sky. An artificial-intelligence (AI) system, however, may still process those surrounding details, consuming energy even when they contribute little to the task. As cameras capture ever more detailed images, this unnecessary processing wastes more energy—a growing problem for electronics with limited power, such as battery-powered security cameras, drones and other edge devices. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-ai-hardware-filter-irrelevant-visual.html Hardware Fri, 25 Sep 2026 12:00:10 EDT news709556281 Modern data centers, high-precision measurement systems and high-resolution radar sensors rely on extremely broadband amplifier chips that combine low noise with high output power. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF have developed a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) with strong performance in these areas. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-broadband-amplifier-centers-sensors.html Hardware Wed, 23 Sep 2026 20:20:01 EDT news709372735 Digital computing using silicon chips has transformed nearly every aspect of modern life and enabled the remarkable growth of artificial intelligence. But as AI models scale up, that growth comes with increasing demands for energy, water and computing infrastructure. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-physical-ai-hardware-neural-network.html Hardware Mon, 21 Sep 2026 11:50:01 EDT news709208170 Solid-state drives (SSDs), which store data in computers and servers, are critical to data center reliability. When they fail, they can contribute to service disruptions, data loss and high maintenance costs, making early failure prediction important. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-ai-method-failure-imperfect-ssd.html Hardware Wed, 16 Sep 2026 08:10:02 EDT news708761424 Researchers have developed a learning mechanism that uses the natural variability of neural activity—often dismissed as random "noise"—to understand how synapses buried deep inside brain networks—or brain-inspired devices—can adapt to improve the learning capabilities of the networks as a whole. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-brain-noise-neural-networks.html Hardware Thu, 10 Sep 2026 17:00:08 EDT news708278101 A new approach to computing has quietly taken shape at Sandia National Laboratories, where researchers have developed a way to store information that could make future electronics more energy efficient. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-analog-memory-smart-devices-smarter.html Hardware Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:20:04 EDT news708173885 Researchers in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and the Centre for Advanced Semiconductors and Integrated Circuits (CASIC) at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have made a breakthrough in brain-inspired computing. In collaboration with Hewlett Packard Labs, the team has developed a memristor chip that overcomes a long-standing limit on the capacity of "associative memory," the brain-like ability to recall complete information from a partial cue, while keeping it reliable even when a large fraction of the hardware fails. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-memristor-chip-capacity-limit-brain.html Hardware Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:20:08 EDT news708102662 The next generation of microelectronics relies on radical improvements in transistor switching performance to advance computing power. However, conventional semiconductor technology has hit a physical limit known as the "Boltzmann tyranny," which restricts the energy efficiency of traditional transistors and stalls progress in high-performance electronics. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-quantum-tunneling-field-effect-transistor.html Hardware Mon, 31 Aug 2026 11:00:11 EDT news707392742 Texas engineers teamed up with the world's largest semiconductor foundry to fabricate and test an emerging memory technology that could help meet the increasing energy demand of artificial intelligence. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-magnetic-memory-edge-ai-faster.html Hardware Fri, 28 Aug 2026 14:00:04 EDT news707044682