Computing

There's a key aspect of quantum computing you may not have thought about before. Called 'quantum non-​demolition measurements', they refer to observing certain quantum states without destroying them in the process.  If we want to put together a functioning quantum computer, not having it break down every second while calculations are made would obviously be helpful. Now, scientists have described a new technique for recording quantum non-demolition measurements that shows a lot of promise.In this case, the research…

Microsoft’s move to spend more on staff follows similar moves by rivals in its core cloud-computing sector. Photo: Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg News…

A multinational team of researchers have managed to extract useful, photosynthesis-based energy from an algae-powered system, opening up the door for truly sustainable edge computing. The system, similar in size to an AA battery, was used to continuously power an Arm-based Cortex M0+ (the same CPU as in the Raspberry Pi Pico) test board for over a year with nothing more than ambient light in a domestic environment. It's being hailed as a potential enabler for future scaling of IoT (Internet of Things) devices.The system…

Amprius Technologies Inc. has reached a deal with a special-purpose acquisition company that values the maker of silicon-anode batteries at about $1.3 billion and would take it public, company officials said. Based in Fremont, Calif., Amprius makes batteries that it says are more powerful than conventional lithium-ion cells because they use energy-dense silicon in the battery’s anode instead of graphite, the traditional material. The company currently sells them to customers such as…

Baby-formula manufacturers and retailers say they are working to address a long-running shortage in products on store shelves but the hardships facing U.S. families may take months to abate. Abbott Laboratories, ABT 1.59% producer of Similac baby formula, said it is bringing products from its factory in Ireland to the U.S. as it continues talks with the Food and Drug Administration to restart production at its factory in Michigan. However, the company has said it would…

The story of this year’s Google I/O actually started three years ago. At I/O 2019, onstage at the Shoreline Auditorium in Mountain View, California, Rick Osterloh, Google’s SVP of devices and services, laid out a new vision for the future of computing. “In the mobile era, smartphones changed the world,” he said. “It’s super useful to have a powerful computer wherever you are.” But he described an even more ambitious world beyond that, where your computer wasn’t a thing in your pocket at all. It was all around you. It…

More U.S. public companies are going private as deal makers look to use the capital they have built up to buy targets made more attractive amid recent stock-market declines.A handful of deals announced or completed so far in 2022—including for social-media company Twitter Inc. and software firm Citrix Systems Inc. —appear to be setting the stage for another busy year in which public companies are acquired by either private-equity firms or a controlling…

WASHINGTON—Tech-industry representatives are coming to Capitol Hill this week to warn that the remote-work trend will lead to more offshoring of software developer and other technology jobs unless the U.S. admits more high-skilled immigrants.Remote jobs in tech jumped by more than 420% between January 2020 and last month, growth that was intensified by the pandemic, according to a jobs data review by Tecna, a trade group for regional tech councils. In February, more than 22% of all tech jobs were listed as remote,…

TOKYO— Sony SONY -3.37% Group Corp. and Nintendo Co. NTDOY -3.33% said their flagship videogame machines are likely to be in short supply all year owing to component shortages, extending a problem that has plagued both companies. “There’s no end in sight to the semiconductor shortage at this point,” said Nintendo’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa.…

An illustration of the qubit platform made of a single electron on solid neon. Researchers froze neon gas into a solid at very low temperatures, sprayed electrons from a light bulb onto the solid, and trapped a single electron there to create a qubit. Credit: Courtesy of Dafei Jin/Argonne National LaboratoryThe digital device you are using to view this article is no doubt using the bit, which can either be 0 or 1, as its basic unit of information. However, scientists around the world are racing to develop a new kind of…