Discover what surprises await in the Computer History Museum's release of the Xerox PARC file system archive.

To reduce electronic waste and cut greenhouse gas emissions from plastic, future computer chips might use a substrate made of mushrooms. This isn’t something out of the Mario Bros. movie, either. That doesn’t mean you’ll have toadstools mounted on the motherboard. A paper published in the journal Science Advances (and spotted by ZDNet) details the process that uses only mushrooms’ skin to create a biodegradable base for electronics.

Wood isn’t usually very good at conducting electricity, but now scientists have created the first functional wooden transistor. It’s not the best, and it requires some processing, but it does work and could help make for biodegradable electronics.

Emerging AI applications, like chatbots that generate natural human language, demand denser, more powerful computer chips. But semiconductor chips are traditionally made with bulk materials, which are boxy 3D structures, so stacking multiple layers of transistors to create denser integrations is very difficult.

Chromebooks have always been a popular option for schools due to the relatively cheap prices, but they exploded in popularity during the Covid pandemic as kids did their schoolwork from home. However, they may not be such a good deal after all, according to a new report called Chromebook Churn from the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). They found that many Chromebooks purchased just three years ago are already breaking, creating electronic waste and costing taxpayers money.

They were the last two extant U.S. computer magazines that had managed to cling to life until now. With their abandonment of print, the computer magazine era has officially ended.

There are three things that I make sure I do when I'm out and about. I seek out the best coffee I can find. I make sure I use a VPN when using public Wi-Fi, and I always make sure I use a USB data blocker, otherwise known as a USB condom, whenever I use a third-party charger (such as those you find in coffee shops).

Scientists were able to keep a qubit in its ideal state for twice as long as normal. Along the way, they demonstrated the practicality of quantum error correction (QEC), a process that keeps quantum information intact for longer by introducing room for redundancy and error removal.

Everyone is talking about the newest AI and the power of neural networks, forgetting that software is limited by the hardware on which it runs. But it is hardware, says USC Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Joshua Yang, that has become "the bottleneck." Now, Yang's new research with collaborators might change that. They believe that they have developed a new type of chip with the best memory of any chip thus far for edge AI (AI in portable devices).

The retail price of an OLED iPad is rumored to be considerably higher than current models, with one key component likely costing Apple three times more than what it pays now. Apple is thought to be working on a update to the iPad Pro line, introducing OLED displays to the range sometime in 2024. While the use of the technology could result in an even thinner design than the current miniLED-backlit models, it could end up being quite expensive to consumers.

Dislike those messages about Ubuntu Pro? Then you won't like this

In the future OSes may be smaller, written specifically for customized chips and systems, with much less overhead.

It is difficult to find the correct payment gateway because there are so many organisations that offer payment gateways and payment processors. Furthermore, practically all payment gateways provide the same functionality, making selecting the proper payment gateway even more difficult.

At CES this week, AMD announced a suite of new chips for notebooks and desktop computers, with one notable announcement being the company's new...

A new leak could confirm rumors that Nvidia’s planning on releasing the “unlaunched” 12GB RTX 4080 graphics card as the RTX 4070 Ti. The company briefly posted the specs for its upcoming RTX 4070 Ti GPU on its website, but Twitter user @momomo_us managed to snag a screenshot before Nvidia pulled the page down. So far, the leaked specs look identical to that of the 12GB RTX 4080, with the chip sporting 7,680 CUDA cores, a 2.61 GHz boost clock, and 12GB of memory.

While many companies are now offering access to general-purpose quantum computers, they're not currently being used to solve any real-world problems, as they're held back by issues with qubit count and quality. Most of their users are either running research projects or simply gaining experience with programming on the systems in the expectation that a future computer will be useful.

AMD has released an official statement regarding the user reports of Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards. In a nutshell, the chipmaker urges affected consumers to contact support. Although the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is one of the best graphics cards, MBA (Made By AMD) models appear to suffer from overheating. The reference design exhibited hotspots peaking up to 110 degrees Celsius; user feedback claims that the RDNA 3 graphics card shows this behavior even with the cooling fans at full throttle.

CES 2023 is now just days away, and there’s already a standout category that we’re particularly excited about: 240Hz OLED gaming monitors. Generally speaking, OLED panels can achieve better picture quality and a faster response time than their LED or IPS equivalents but have historically lacked the ability to match them in providing high-refresh rates. There have been some exceptions — such as the Alienware AW3423DW, a QD-OLED running at 175Hz — but now, OLED gaming displays have finally achieved the optimal 240Hz refresh rate prized by gamers who specialize in eSports and FPS titles.

This is a guest post by Chenming Wu. Wu, the researcher credited with inventing the FinFET. He says: "On the 75th anniversary of the invention of the transistor, I’d like to answer two questions: Does the world need better transistors? And if so, what will they be like?"