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Category: computing – Page 3

Dual torque from electron spins drives magnetic domain wall displacement

A research team has taken a major step forward in the field of spintronics, a technology that uses not only the charge but also the spin of electrons to create faster, smarter, and more energy-efficient electronic devices. Their discovery could pave the way for the next generation of memory chips that combine high speed with low power consumption.

In spintronic memory, information is stored using tiny magnetic regions called . A magnetic domain with its magnetic moments pointing upward represents a “1,” while one pointing downward represents a “0.” Data can be read or written by shifting these domains with an .

The boundaries between them, known as domain walls, play a crucial role, as moving domains means moving these walls. Achieving fast and efficient domain wall motion is essential for developing advanced memories such as magnetic shift registers and three-terminal magnetic random access memories (MRAM).

Oxford Physicists Simulate Quantum “Light from Darkness” for the First Time

Scientists have created the first real-time 3D simulations of how lasers alter the quantum vacuum. Using cutting-edge computational modeling, scientists from the University of Oxford, in collaboration with the Instituto Superior Técnico at the University of Lisbon, have successfully produced the fi

Revolutionary Prosthetic Eye Chip Restores Sight in Medical First

A tiny chip implanted into the eyes of people suffering vision loss from irreversible age-related macular degeneration has restored central sight in a dazzling first.

It’s called the PRIMA system, tested across 17 European hospitals, and it restored central vision in 26 of 32 patients who used it for 12 months – many of whom could even read again. The result, developed by a large international team of doctors and scientists over many years, represents a massive breakthrough in treatments for vision loss.

“It’s the first time that any attempt at vision restoration has achieved such results in a large number of patients,” says ophthamologist José-Alain Sahel of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, co-senior author on a paper describing the results.

Netherlands tightens export restrictions on microchip machines, mainly targeting ASML

The Dutch government is tightening its export restrictions on microchip-making machines, specifically deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithographic machines. A licensing requirement will apply to the export of older types of DUV machinery beginning on Saturday, a decision which primarily impacts Dutch business ASML. Foreign Trade Minister Reinett Klever cited national security concerns when announcing the measure on Friday.

According to ASML, the licensing requirement update is a technical change that mainly means that the company will apply for export licenses from the government of the Netherlands, not the United States, for two older types of DUV immersion lithography systems (1970i and 1980i). The Dutch government already implemented a licensing requirement for the newer generations of DUV machines (2000i and later) in September last year.

DUV lithography machines are the second-most advanced microchip-making machines, after extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines. Dutch company ASML is the world’s only manufacturer of EUV lithography machines and is also a global leader in the production, refurbishment, and repair of DUV lithography machines. DUV machines can still be used to make highly sophisticated microchips, and some of China’s leading tech companies, like Huawei, are actively pushing the limits of the older technology.

Investigating the Individual Performances of Coupled Superconducting Transmon Qubits

The strong requirement for high-performing quantum computing led to intensive research on novel quantum platforms in the last decades. The circuital nature of Josephson-based quantum superconducting systems powerfully supports massive circuital freedom, which allowed for the implementation of a wide range of qubit designs, and an easy interface with the quantum processing unit. However, this unavoidably introduces a coupling with the environment, and thus to extra decoherence sources. Moreover, at the time of writing, control and readout protocols mainly use analogue microwave electronics, which limit the otherwise reasonable scalability in superconducting quantum circuits.

Simplified Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model simulated on trapped-ion quantum computer

The simulation of strongly interacting many-body systems is a key objective of quantum physics research, as it can help to test the predictions of physics theories and yield new valuable insight. Researchers at Quantinuum, a quantum computing company, recently simulated a simplified version of a well-known theoretical model, the so-called Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, using a trapped-ion quantum computer and a previously introduced randomized quantum algorithm.

Their simulation, outlined in a paper published on the arXiv preprint server, improves the present understanding of chaotic quantum systems that cannot be simulated using classical computers. In the future, their work could contribute to the simulation of other complex quantum systems and .

“We were interested in the SYK model for two reasons: on one hand it is a prototypical model of strongly interacting fermions in condensed matter physics, and on the other hand it is the simplest toy model for studying in the lab via the holographic duality,” said Enrico Rinaldi, Lead R&D Scientist at Quantinuum and senior author of the paper.

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