Hardware Tech News

Researchers have reverse-engineered the historic Intel 8087 floating-point coprocessor to uncover the underlying hardware mechanics of its tangent calculation. The analysis reveals that the 1980 chip employs a more complex method than the standard CORDIC algorithm to compute trigonometric functions.

This article explores the unconventional origin story of the Apple Card, reflecting on its development fifteen years after the initial concept. It highlights the extreme and seemingly crazy design choices made during the project's history, specifically noting the unique use of 100% cotton paper.

ASML reported that it sold absolutely nothing in Europe in 2026, signaling a major setback for the region's semiconductor manufacturing ambitions. This stark revelation indicates that substantial government subsidies aimed at building new fabrication plants have failed to stimulate local demand for chipmaking equipment.

A new technical article details a developer's troubleshooting process for a missing atomic update bug on the Loongson CPU. The piece provides practical insights into low-level programming and board-level debugging required to resolve this critical hardware synchronization issue.

HomeBody is a new humanoid robot that integrates advanced vision-language models to autonomously explore, remember, and interact with its physical environment. By leveraging persistent spatial memory and composable skills, the system can perform tasks and adapt to new spaces without requiring environment-specific training or additional policy learning.

A former Fly.io team member is departing to build a new smartphone that reimagines the operating system. The device targets a highly personalized computing future where applications are designed for an audience of just one or two people.

Go 1.27 introduces an experimental, platform-agnostic API to bring SIMD capabilities directly into the language. This addition allows developers to write high-performance, vectorized code that runs consistently across diverse hardware architectures without relying on platform-specific implementations.

Researchers are developing a smart contact lens that functions as a microscopic lab to monitor stress by measuring serotonin concentrations in tears. This non-invasive wearable technology could provide continuous, real-time insights into a user's mental health and emotional well-being.

Toyota is preparing to introduce an electric version of the Corolla, bringing its best-selling vehicle of all time into the EV era. This strategic move marks a significant milestone in the automaker's ongoing push to expand its electric vehicle lineup.

Google's Project Suncatcher aims to deploy machine learning infrastructure directly in space. To achieve this, the company is currently testing hardware survival in harsh orbital environments and engineering specialized cooling systems for AI chips.

WaveDigger is a new open-source tool that discovers the physical locations of wireless signals by leveraging Apple's public Wi-Fi Positioning System. Available on GitHub, the project utilizes BSSID searches to help users accurately map and track specific network locations.

Discussions surrounding the Nokia Design Archive highlight that Nokia's pivot toward treating mobile phones as fashion accessories was a logical market evolution rather than a fatal misstep. Ultimately, the company's decline was driven not by poor industrial design, but by Apple and Android's successful shift toward lucrative, walled-garden app store ecosystems.

This 2016 engineering project details the process of characterizing and selecting optimal motors to power small-scale running robots. By evaluating torque, efficiency, and power output, the research provides crucial insights for building agile and efficient miniature robotic contraptions.

At Snapdragon Summit 2026, Qualcomm announced that the upcoming Snapdragon X2 Series will officially feature Linux support. The event also showcased a broader lineup of new hardware, including agentic AI PCs, Googlebook laptops, and various partner devices powered by Snapdragon processors.

Meta has unveiled its latest lineup of VR glasses, headsets, and AR glasses designed for both entertainment and productivity. The new devices allow users to stream films, shows, and live sports, or work on a virtual infinite screen. The new hardware is now available for purchase.

Nestrilabs has released an experimental virtio device called virtio-nvgpu to provide near-native NVIDIA GPU access inside KVM virtual machines. This new tool aims to significantly improve hardware acceleration and graphics performance for virtualized workloads. By bridging the gap between host and guest environments, it offers a promising solution for developers requiring high-end GPU capabilities in VMs.

Readers are reminiscing about a classic 2003 DIY project that built a fully functional dual-boot PC inside a Windows XP retail box. The discussion highlights a shared nostalgia for early 2000s PC modding culture and the rich, text-based web design of that era. Additionally, commenters reflect on the evolution of PC hardware by comparing the vintage Mini-ITX form factor to the more practical and widely used MicroATX standard today.

The Portobello Police Station clock has been partially modernized with an electric time train and a microprocessor-controlled chime, though it currently lacks a mechanical backup for power outages. Readers discussing the setup recommend practical maintenance upgrades to ensure the mechanism continues to operate safely and reliably. Specific suggestions include adding anti-slip treads to the access ladder, replacing the aging backup battery, and installing a PoE IP camera for remote monitoring.

Prompted by an article on Z80 REPLs, readers share nostalgic memories of the built-in assemblers and monitor programs found in classic 8-bit computers like the Apple II, Commodore 64, and BBC Micro. Many commenters recall how these early, integrated environments were crucial tools for learning to program and reverse engineering software. The conversation also touches on the technical implementation of these features, such as the non-maskable interrupts used by freezer cartridges to invoke monitor routines.

A new open-source project called ReBarUEFI has been launched to bring Resizable BAR support to almost any UEFI-based system. The tool is hosted on GitHub, where users can create an account to contribute to its ongoing development.

California is pioneering an innovative project by installing solar panels over irrigation canals in Turlock to generate clean energy. This dual-use infrastructure successfully reduces water evaporation and improves local water quality. The initiative provides a promising model for sustainable resource management in drought-prone regions.

Contrary to claims that CPU innovation has stalled, AMD's Ryzen 7 processors have achieved a remarkable 50% performance increase over the past two years. This rapid acceleration is evident when comparing the Zen 3, Zen 4, and Zen 5 architectures across the comparable 8-core 5800X3D, 7800X3D, and 9800X3D models.

Apple has introduced persistent ads directly into the iOS interface, sparking widespread frustration among its user base. Many customers are criticizing the move, arguing that the new additions cheapen the premium experience traditionally associated with the company's devices.

This feature highlights Charles Bukowski's poem about the 16-bit Intel 8088 chip, offering a unique literary reflection on the iconic early microprocessor. The article provides the full text of the work alongside an analysis of its meaning, poetic devices, and community interpretations.

Reader discussions on Sun Microsystems' decline contrast its frustrating enterprise purchasing experience and highly controlled, vertically integrated ecosystem with the streamlined, commoditized hardware market. Although some debate the technical openness of the SPARC architecture, the consensus is that the company's closed platform ultimately failed to compete against the cheaper, interchangeable x86 and Linux stack.

Copper-Rs version 1.2 enables the live-cloning of running robots over unreliable networks to create deterministic digital twins for remote telemetry and state reconstruction. The system streams minimal state data to accurately reproduce task states, messages, and logs as if running onboard. Additionally, the release introduces smaller log sizes, new stereo depth reconstruction, and improved ROS 2 compatibility.

This 2019 explainer details the underlying technology and operational logic behind modern traffic signal systems. It breaks down how sensors, timers, and centralized networks coordinate to efficiently manage urban traffic flow. The piece provides a foundational look at the engineering that keeps our daily commutes safe and organized.

A recent classroom poll revealed that 80 percent of students fear AI will prevent them from securing jobs after graduation. In response to these growing employment anxieties, the tech industry is increasingly focusing on enabling users to run frontier AI models directly on their own personal hardware. This shift toward local processing aims to democratize advanced AI capabilities and empower the next generation of workers to harness powerful tools independently.

The HERMES radio system supercharges traditional shortwave communication by integrating secure file transfer and encryption capabilities. This technological upgrade allows off-grid communities to reliably transmit voice, data, photos, and GPS coordinates across vast distances. Furthermore, the encrypted network ensures users can send urgent SOS messages even in areas lacking standard infrastructure.

Apple's unreleased Copland operating system can now be booted directly in a web browser using an improved DingusPPC emulator. This breakthrough utilizes a custom set of 11 patches to successfully run the final D11E4 build, marking the first time this notoriously difficult software has been made available through emulation.