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Category: computing – Page 201

Emacs is one of the oldest and most versatile text editors. The GNU Emacs version was originally written in 1984 and is well known for its powerful and rich editing features. It can be customized and extended with different modes, enabling it to be used like an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for programming languages such as Java, C, and Python.

For those who have used both the Vi and the user-friendly nano text editors, Emacs presents itself as an in-between. Its strengths and features resemble those of Vi, while its menus, help files, and command-keys compare with nano.

In this article, you’ll learn how to install Emacs on an Ubuntu 22.04 server and use it for basic text editing.

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Space coiling acoustic metamaterials are static and require manual reconfiguration for sound-field modulation. In a new report published in Communications Materials, Christabel Choi, and a team of scientists in computer science and engineering in the U.K., and Italy, developed an approach for active reconfiguration with standalone dynamics to space-coil unit cells known as dynamic meta-bricks.

The meta-bricks housed an actuatable, magnetorheological, elastomeric flap, to function like a switch and to directly regulate the transmitted ultrasound. The scientists showed the synergy between active and passive reconfigurability to develop multifunctional metamaterials with additional degrees of freedom, for design and implementation.

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QuEra, a quantum computing startup founded by researchers from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently released what may be the most ambitious quantum technology roadmap we’ve seen yet.

The company plans on releasing a quantum computer with 100 logical qubits and 10,000 physical qubits by 2026. It also claims this planned system will demonstrate “practical quantum advantage,” meaning they’d be capable of useful computation feats that classical, binary computers aren’t.

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Producing photons one at a time on demand at room temperature is a key requirement for the rollout of a quantum internet—and the practical quantum computers that would undergird that network. The photons can be used as quantum bits (qubits), the quantum equivalent of classical computing’s 0s and 1s. Labs around the world have devised various ways to generate single photons, but they can involve complex engineering techniques such as doped carbon nanotubes or costly cryogenically-cooled conditions. On the other hand, less complicated techniques such as using traditional light sources do not provide the necessary level of control over single-photon emissions required for quantum networks and computers.

Now, researchers from Tokyo University of Science (TUS) and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have collaborated to develop a prototype room temperature single-photon light source using standard materials and methods. The team described the fabrication of the prototype and its results in a recent issue of the journal Physical Review Applied.

“Our single-photon light source … increases the potential to create quantum networks—a quantum internet—that are cost-effective and accessible.” —Kaoru Sanaka, Tokyo University of Science.

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The research conducted by Elena Hassinger, an expert in low-temperature physics working at ct.qmat—Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter (a joint initiative by two universities in Würzburg and Dresden), has always been synonymous with extreme cold.

In 2021, she discovered the unconventional superconductor cerium-rhodium-arsenic CeRh2As2). Superconductors normally have just one phase of resistance-free electron transport, which occurs below a certain critical temperature. However, as reported in the academic journal Science, CeRh2As2 is so far the only quantum material to boast two certain superconducting states.

Lossless current conduction in superconductors has remained a central focus in solid-state physics for decades and has emerged as a significant prospect for the future of power engineering. The discovery of a second superconducting phase in CeRh2As2, which results from an asymmetric crystal structure around the cerium atom (the rest of the crystal structure is completely symmetrical), positions this compound as a prime candidate for use in topological quantum computing.

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A research team at Osaka Metropolitan University has fabricated a gallium nitride (GaN) transistor using diamond, which of all natural materials has the highest thermal conductivity on earth, as a substrate, and they succeeded in increasing heat dissipation by more than 2X compared with conventional transistors. The transistor is expected to be useful not only in the fields of 5G communication base stations, weather radar, and satellite communications, but also in microwave heating and plasma processing.

Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University are proving that diamonds are so much more than just a ‘girl’s best friend.’ Their groundbreaking research focuses on gallium nitride (GaN) transistors, which are high-power, high-frequency semiconductor devices used in mobile data and satellite communication systems.

With the increasing miniaturization of semiconductor devices, problems arise such as increases in power density and heat generation that can affect the performance, reliability, and lifetime of these devices.

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Explore the digital archaeology of computing’s past with the unearthing of 86-DOS version 0.1-C, the oldest ancestor of MS-DOS

A code archaeologist has unearthed a treasure trove for tech historians: the oldest-known ancestor of Microsoft’s iconic MS-DOS.

Discover the hidden gems of computing history as a code enthusiast shares the earliest-known iteration of 86-DOS online from an archive.

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