Computers

You can build just about anything out of Lego, and now that even includes your keyboard. Pixel is a new mechanical keyboard from MelGeek that can be customized with Lego bricks around the rim, on the back or even on the keys themselves.

Minnesota company Upper Story has sent us its Turing Tumble, a fascinating educational toy that quietly tricks kids into inventing binary logic computers using nothing more than tiny marbles dropping through a series of clicky-clacky plastic pieces.

Intel has demonstrated a prototype of the next generation of its Thunderbolt interface. The new connection will be up to three times faster than the existing Thunderbolt 4 – at up to 120 Gbps – when it debuts next year.

Quantum computing requires extremely cold temperatures. To that end, IBM has built and demonstrated a huge “super-fridge” codenamed Project Goldeneye that chills things colder than outer space.

USB devices are set to become much faster in the near future. The USB Promoter Group has now announced the USB4 Version 2.0 specification, which will double data transmission rates to a blistering 80 Gbps.

Why has a major cyber warfare power like Russia launch so few and such ineffective cyber attacks against Ukraine and its sympathizers? New Atlas looks into the digital battle for Ukraine and its implications for the future.

MIT engineers have developed a new type of artificial synapse that’s extremely energy efficient and ultra-fast, processing data a million times faster than synapses in the human brain. The analog device shuttles protons around instead of electrons.

Engineers at MIT have developed a modular computer chip with components that can communicate using flashes of light. This could allow for electronics that can easily be upgraded with new sensors or processors, rather than replacing the whole chip.

A quantum processor, developed by German-Australian start-up Quantum Brilliance, runs at room temperature, and will now work in tandem with classical supercomputers at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre.

Scientists in the Netherlands have made a major step towards quantum computer networks by teleporting quantum information between two nodes without a direct link to each other. The breakthrough heralds a faster and more secure communication system.

Heat is a major hurdle for electronic devices. Scientists have now found that nanowires made of a certain isotope of silicon can conduct heat 150 percent better than regular silicon, potentially leading to drastically cooler computer chips.

Researchers have now developed the fastest logic gates ever created, by zapping graphene and gold with laser pulses. The new logic gates are a million times faster than those in existing computers, demonstrating the viability of “lightwave electronics.”