IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-04-07DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11476973
Tereza Pultarova
{"title":"Rise of the Autonomous Attack Drones: AI-Enabled Drones Being Developed by Ukraine and Russia are Remaking the Battlefield","authors":"Tereza Pultarova","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11476973","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11476973","url":null,"abstract":"When Kyiv-Born Engineer Yaroslav Azhnyuk thinks about the future, his mind conjures up dystopian images. He talks about “swarms of autonomous drones carrying other autonomous drones to protect them against autonomous drones are trying to intercept them, controlled by AI agents overseen by a human general somewhere.” He also imagines flotillas of autonomous submarines, each carrying hundreds of drones, suddenly emerging off the coast of California or Great Britain and discharging their cargoes en masse to the sky.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 4","pages":"40-47"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147665530","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 : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-04-07DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11476837
Harry Goldstein
{"title":"AI Is Insatiable: And it's Got the Munchies for Memory Chips","authors":"Harry Goldstein","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11476837","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11476837","url":null,"abstract":"While browsing our website a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon “How and When the Memory Chip Shortage Will End” by Senior Editor Samuel K. Moore. His analysis focuses on the current DRAM shortage caused by AI hyperscalers' ravenous appetite for memory, a major constraint on the speed at which large language models run. Moore provides a clear explanation of the shortage, particularly for high bandwidth memory (HBM).","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 4","pages":"2-2"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11476837","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147665321","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 : 2026-03-09DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427071
Matthew Hutson
{"title":"AI Hunts for the Next Big Thing in Physics: There's a Crisis in Particle Physics. Researchers Hope AI can Help","authors":"Matthew Hutson","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427071","url":null,"abstract":"In 1930, a young physicist named Carl D. Anderson was tasked by his mentor with measuring the energies of cosmic rays—particles arriving at high speed from outer space. Anderson built an improved version of a cloud chamber, a device that visually records the trajectories of particles. In 1932, he saw evidence that confusingly combined the properties of protons and electrons. “A situation began to develop that had its awkward aspects,” he wrote many years after winning a Nobel Prize at the age of 31. Anderson had accidentally discovered antimatter.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 3","pages":"22-31"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147374373","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 : 2026-03-09DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427084
Allison Marsh
{"title":"Past Forward: Charles Proteus Steinmetz Loved His Electric Car","authors":"Allison Marsh","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427084","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427084","url":null,"abstract":"He was an intellectual titan of the electrification of the United States. Charles Proteus Steinmetz was also an evangelist for electric vehicles. On fine days, he could be seen decked out in a suit and top hat, smoking his trademark BlackStone panatela cigar and riding around Schenectady, N.Y., in his 1914 Detroit Electric sedan. Sometimes, both he and his chauffeur sat in the backseat—you could control the car from both the front and the rear—so that it would appear to be a driverless car.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 3","pages":"68-68"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11427084","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147374364","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 : 2026-03-09DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427086
Rohan S. Puranik
{"title":"Jimi Hendrix, Systems Engineer: His Iconic Sound Came from Precise Modulation and Feedback","authors":"Rohan S. Puranik","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427086","url":null,"abstract":"3 February 1967 is a day that belongs in the annals of music history. It's the day that Jimi Hendrix entered London's Olympic Studios to record a song using a new component. The song was “Purple Haze,” and the component was the Octa-via guitar pedal, created for Hendrix by sound engineer Roger Mayer. The pedal was a key element of a complex chain of analog elements responsible for the final sound, including the acoustics of the studio room itself. When they sent the tapes for remastering in the United States, the sounds on it were so novel that they included an accompanying note explaining that the distortion at the end was not malfunction but intention. A few months later, Hendrix would deliver his legendary electric guitar performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 3","pages":"16-18"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147374368","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 : 2026-03-09DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427075
Greg Uyeno
{"title":"In 1844 Chess was Already Online: The First American Telegraph Line was Only Six Months Old when it Became a Virtual Chessboard","authors":"Greg Uyeno","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427075","url":null,"abstract":"On 18 November 1844, the Washington Chess Club challenged its counterparts in Baltimore to a match. Two teams were organized, and at 4 p. m. on 26 November, the first game commenced with the Sulting members to a side. Washingto began conventionally, pushing a pawn the center of the board. Baltimore immediately responded by mirroring the move. But this was unlike any chess game ever played before. The Baltimoreans were still in Baltimore, the Washingtonians were still in Washington, D.C, 60 kilometers away, and they were playing by electrical telegraph.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 3","pages":"42-48"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147374378","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}