As IEEE Spectrum editors, we pleasure ourselves on recognizing promising applied sciences and following them from the analysis section by means of improvement and in the end deployment. In each January situation, we deal with the applied sciences that are actually poised to attain vital milestones within the new yr.
This situation was curated by Senior Editor Samuel Okay. Moore, our in-house knowledgeable on semiconductors. So it’s no shock that he included a narrative on Intel’s plan to roll out two momentous chip applied sciences within the subsequent few months.
For “Intel Hopes to Leapfrog Its Rivals,” Moore directed our editorial intern, Gwendolyn Rak, to report on the chance the chip large is taking by introducing two applied sciences directly. We started monitoring the primary know-how, nanosheet transistors, in 2017. By the point we gave all the small print in a 2019 characteristic article, it was clear that this gadget was destined to be the successor to the FinFET. Moore first noticed the second know-how, back-side energy supply, on the IEEE Worldwide Electron Units Assembly in 2019. Lower than two years later, Intel publicly dedicated to incorporating the tech in 2024.
Talking of dedication, the U.S. army’s Protection Superior Analysis Initiatives Company has performed an unlimited half in bankrolling a number of the basic advances that seem in these pages. Lots of our readers will likely be acquainted with the robots that Senior Editor Evan Ackerman coated throughout DARPA’s humanoid problem virtually 10 years in the past. These robots have been basically analysis initiatives, however as Ackerman studies in “Yr of the Humanoid,” a couple of firms will begin up pilot initiatives in 2024 to see if this era of humanoids is able to roll up its metaphorical sleeves and get all the way down to enterprise.
Extra not too long ago, totally homomorphic encryption (FHE) has burst onto the scene. Moore, who’s been protecting the Cambrian explosion in chip architectures for AI and different various computing modalities for the reason that mid-teens, notes that, just like the robotics problem, DARPA was the preliminary driver.
“You’d anticipate the three firms DARPA funded to provide you with a chip, although there was no assure they’d commercialize it,” says Moore, who wrote “Chips to Compute With Encrypted Knowledge Are Coming.” “However what you wouldn’t anticipate is three extra startups, independently of DARPA, to come back out with their very own FHE chips on the identical time.”
Senior Editor Tekla S. Perry’s story about phosphorescent OLEDs, “A Behind-the-Screens Change for OLED,” is definitely a deep lower for us. One of many first characteristic articles Moore edited at Spectrum manner again in 2000 was Stephen Forrest’s article on natural electronics. His lab developed the primary phosphorescent OLED supplies, that are vastly extra environment friendly than the fluorescent ones. Forrest was a founding father of Common Show Corp., which has now, after greater than 20 years, lastly commercialized the final of its trio of phosphorescent colours—blue.
Then there’s our cowl story about deepfakes and their potential influence on dozens of nationwide elections later this yr. We’ve been monitoring the rise of deepfakes since mid-2018, after we ran a narrative about AI researchers betting on whether or not or not a deepfake video about a politician would obtain greater than 2 million views throughout the U.S. midterm elections that yr. As Senior Editor Eliza Strickland studies in “This Election Yr, Search for Content material Credentials,” a number of firms and trade teams are working arduous to make sure that deepfakes don’t take down democracy.
Finest needs for a wholesome and affluent new yr, and luxuriate in this yr’s know-how forecast. It’s been years within the making.
This text seems within the January 2024 print situation.
