IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-07-06DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595926
{"title":"Robot of the Month: TRON 1","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595926","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 7","pages":"45-45"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11595926","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148442811","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 : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-07-06DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595939
Andrew Cavalier
{"title":"Why Orbital Data Centers are so Hard: The Idea Might Run Aground on the Second Law of Thermodynamics","authors":"Andrew Cavalier","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595939","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595939","url":null,"abstract":"“Space Computing, the final frontier, has arrived,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared at the Nvidia GTC conference in March.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 7","pages":"18-23"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148443150","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 : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-07-06DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595931
Mario Lanza;Sebastian Pazos
{"title":"The Lab Mistake: That Might Revolutionize Computing: The Result is a Simple and Efficient Device That Mimics a Brain Cell","authors":"Mario Lanza;Sebastian Pazos","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595931","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595931","url":null,"abstract":"Today, you probably asked a question of a large language model, or accepted a connection suggestion on LinkedIn, or watched a recommended video on YouTube, or took a different route to work based on a traffic prediction from Google Maps. In other words, you probably used artificial intelligence. But what you might not know is how much energy that interaction consumed or why. • AI requires processing massive amounts of data, which is usually done in large data centers populated by thousands of GPUs capable of executing up to trillions of operations per second. But each of those GPUs achieves that by consuming as much as 1,000 watts apiece. For comparison, if you've got a newer smartphone, it probably uses less than 1 W. That kilowatt figure puts GPUs on the same level as vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, and stoves, but with the big difference that data-center processors are operating uninterrupted around the clock.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 7","pages":"24-29"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148442532","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 : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-07-06DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595934
Edd Gent
{"title":"Careers: Salome Mikadze-Struk: This Ukrainian Founder Built Her Software Company Through a Pandemic and a War","authors":"Edd Gent","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595934","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595934","url":null,"abstract":"Salome Mikadze-Struk is no stranger to adversity. The daughter of refugees, she built a software-development business as an undergraduate at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and kept it running despite the outbreak of war in her native Ukraine. Now, she's drawing on her experiences to mentor tech-startup founders and speak publicly about the importance of resilience in entrepreneurship.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 7","pages":"15-16"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11595934","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148442552","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 : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-07-06DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595944
Emily Waltz
{"title":"5 Questions: Ian Magruder: Why the U.S. Uses Only Half of its Grid Capacity","authors":"Emily Waltz","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11595944","url":null,"abstract":"By most accounts, the United States appears poised to fall woefully short of meeting new electricity demand over the next five years as data centers and domestic manufacturing proliferate.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 7","pages":"17-17"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11595944","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148442553","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 : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-06-05DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11553266
{"title":"Robot of the Month: Flapper Nimble+","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11553266","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11553266","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 6","pages":"13-13"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11553266","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148171904","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 : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-06-05DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11553279
Emily Seyl
{"title":"“The Last Human Will See What We Saw”: The Test of the World's First Atomic Bomb Left its Observers Stupefied","authors":"Emily Seyl","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11553279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11553279","url":null,"abstract":"In the North 10,000 photography bunker, Berlyn Brixner was listening to the countdown on a loudspeaker, his head inside a turret loaded with cameras and film. He was one of the only people instructed to look toward the blast—through his welder's glasses—ready to follow the path of the fire-ball as it launched into the sky. The two Mitchell movie cameras at his station would deliver the best footage to come out of the Trinity test, used by Los Alamos scientists to make some of the first measurements of the effects of a nuclear explosion.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 6","pages":"40-49"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148171916","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 : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-06-05DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11553261
Harry Goldstein
{"title":"The Roots of Renewables Resistance: To See why Sardinians Reject Renewables, You Need to Understand 2,700 Years of Invasion and Exploitation","authors":"Harry Goldstein","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11553261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11553261","url":null,"abstract":"The phrase “not in my backyard” is the rallying cry of citizens everywhere resisting projects proposed for their locality. Whether it's affordable housing, a waste treatment plant, or a new data center, they may recognize the benefit of the activity. They just don't want it near them. And the roots of that resistance differ from place to place. When it comes to the ongoing transition from fossil fuels to renewables, companies and policymakers need to know where, exactly, people are coming from.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 6","pages":"2-2"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11553261","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148172003","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}