IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705370
Peter Fairley
{"title":"Powering Taiwan's Silicon Shield","authors":"Peter Fairley","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705370","url":null,"abstract":"The wind blowing in from the Taiwan Strait regularly blasts across Changhua Coastal Industrial Park. On this expanse of reclaimed land outside Taichung, Taiwan's second largest city, 80 wind turbines, a pair of gas-fired power plants, and 4.3 square kilometers of solar farms generate electricity for Taiwan's grid. More than 170 wind turbines installed offshore in the strait send more than a gigawatt of power to a hulking, typhoon-ready substation, its circuits primed for more power coming within months. Shiny new transmission towers strung with steel cables lead to a second massive substation, still under construction, which will absorb 2 gigawatts of additional offshore wind power.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142376772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705383
Allison Marsh
{"title":"Past Forward: The First Transistor Radio","authors":"Allison Marsh","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705383","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705383","url":null,"abstract":"On 1 November 1954, the first transistor radio hit store shelves just in time for the holiday shopping season. The Regency TR-1 was advertised as the world's first pocket radio, although at 12.7 by 8.7 by 3.5 centimeters, it required pretty big pockets—literally and figuratively. The radio sold for US $49.95, or more than $580 today, which is coincidentally about what it'll cost you to buy one on eBay. Still, the radio was significantly smaller than any vacuum-tube model.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10705383","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142377070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705377
Tim Kuhlbusch
{"title":"A No-Fuss Particle Detector: An Inexpensive and Robust Way to See the Invisible","authors":"Tim Kuhlbusch","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705377","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705377","url":null,"abstract":"There's nothing like particle physics to make you aware that we exist in an endless three-dimensional pinball game. All around us, subatomic particles arc, collide, and barrel along with merry abandon. Some originate within our own bodies, others come from the far ends of the cosmos. But detecting this invisible tumult requires equipment, which can be costly. I wanted to create a way to detect at least some of the pinballs for less than US $15.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142376888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705384
Harry Goldstein
{"title":"Defending Taiwan with Chips and Drones: Taiwan Doubles Down on its Silicon Shield Strategy while the U.S. Promises a Storm of Drones","authors":"Harry Goldstein","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705384","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705384","url":null,"abstract":"The majority of the world's advanced logic chips are made in Taiwan, and most of those are made by one company: Taiwan Semi-conductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). While it seems risky for companies like Nvidia, Apple, and Google to depend so much on one supplier, for Taiwan's leaders, that's a feature, not a bug.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10705384","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142376847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705373
Tariq Samad;Gus Gaynor
{"title":"Careers: Do You Actually Want to be a Manager?: Understand the Pros and Cons Before You Decide to Switch Tracks","authors":"Tariq Samad;Gus Gaynor","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705373","url":null,"abstract":"As you begin your professional career, freshly armed with an engineering degree, your initial roles and responsibilities are likely to revolve around what you learned at school. If you do well in your job, you're apt to be promoted and gain responsibilities, such as managing projects, interacting with other departments, making presentations to management, and meeting with customers. You will probably also acquire a general understanding of how your company and the business world work.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10705373","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142377095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705368
Stephen Cass
{"title":"5 Questions: Libi Rose: Letting People Play with the Past","authors":"Stephen Cass","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705368","url":null,"abstract":"The Media Archaeology Lab is one of the largest public collections in the world of obsolete, yet functional, technology. Located on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, the MAL is where you can watch a magic lantern show, play Star Castle on a Vectrex games console, or check out the weather on an Atari 800 via Fujinet. IEEE Spectrum spoke to managing director Libi Rose about the MAL's mission and her role in keeping all that obsolete tech functional, so that people of today can experience the media of the past.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10705368","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142376549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705380
Alfred Poor
{"title":"How to Make TV Screens Disappear: See-Through TVs Could Banish the Big Black Rectangle—at a Cost","authors":"Alfred Poor","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705380","url":null,"abstract":"A transparent television might seem like magic, but both LG and Samsung demonstrated such displays this past January in Las Vegas at CES 2024. And those large transparent TVs, which attracted countless spectators peeking through video images dancing on their screens, were showstoppers.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142376773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705385
Bryan Clark
{"title":"Sea Drones in the Russia-Ukraine War Inspire New Tactics: Military Strategists See a Possible Means of Defending Taiwan","authors":"Bryan Clark","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705385","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10705385","url":null,"abstract":"AGAINST ALL ODDS, Ukraine is still standing more than two and a half years after Russia's massive 2022 invasion. Of course, hundreds of billions of dollars in Western support as well as Russian errors have helped immensely, but it would be a mistake to overlook Ukraine's creative use of new technologies, particularly drones. While uncrewed aerial vehicles have grabbed most of the attention, it is naval drones that could be the key to bringing Russian president Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142376967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}