systems YouTuber's backyard fab ambitions expand from RAM to homebrew LEDs Dr. Semiconductor's latest project lights the path toward what he tells us he hopes becomes a cottage chip industry
offbeat Russian missile uses Nvidia AI chip to help target Ukraine Kyiv wants tighter controls to keep foreign silicon out of Moscow's weapons
security MIT boffins' TONTOU attack slips through Spectre defenses on Intel and AMD CPUs Timer interrupts reopen branch predictor poisoning window, with a working Zen 2 exploit to prove it
security Millions of California-bought cars can be hijacked via Bluetooth Aftermarket dealer-installed KARR/SWDS security systems all use the same secure key, say UCSD researchers
offbeat Web app turns your old phone into a new smart display ScreenWall's creator tells El Reg he doesn't want those obsolete devices going to waste
personal tech Raspberry Pi goes large with 10.1-inch Touch Display 2 More screen, more pixels, and a Pi 5 required to drive the lot
personal tech David Potter, the man who put Psion in the palm of your hand, logs off at 82 Physicist, philanthropist, and pioneer of pocket computers, SSDs, smartphones… and duvets
personal tech Arm64 on the desktop? It’s spendy and it’s sluggish Even with lots of RAM, GPU, and fast disks, you probably don’t want it
offbeat HS2's latest reset ditches autonomous train tech to get project back on track Britain's most expensive train set loses some of its best toys in bid to actually leave the station
personal tech Apple passes RAMpocalypse costs on to consumers Fondleslab and Mac prices rise by hundreds; phones safe ... for now
ai and ml OpenAI gets chippy with Broadcom Jalapeño is the latest announcement that attempts to portray OpenAI as more than a race-to-the-bottom model maker
offbeat Inspired by musical greeting cards, DARPA demands tiny, cheap, self-modifying systems One can't help but see a very clear instance of the triple constraint problem in action here
personal tech The memory crisis is getting so bad that even retro RAM prices are going to the Moon Some hardware firms redesigning products to use older DDR2 and DDR3 components
ai and ml Midjourney pivots from AI image generation to body scanning medical spa where patients bathe in 'golden light' The underlying technology is real...and borrowed from a partner the company failed to mention
systems Uncle Sam bets $500M that Alphabet spinoff's AI can dig up new semiconductor materials AI drug discovery is so last year, even though it hasn't accomplished much yet
personal tech Smartphone market to shrink 15 percent this year due to memory crisis Buyers put off by rising prices expected to turn to second-hand phones instead
offbeat Hand-cranked AI box lets you get a workout while you wait for answers We're all familiar with AI cranks by now, but what about crank-powered AIs?
systems SpacemiT shows off usably quick RISC-V mini desktop Actual RVA23 hardware and useful performance – for a certain price
personal tech Logitech knows when to fold 'em Meet Mobi Fold - creased popster or clever portable mouse
systems Our systems editor flew all the way to Taiwan and still couldn't get away from AI Every show now is an AI show, and that included this year's Computex
personal tech Exploding rockets and exploding hardware prices make for a lousy new normal This week on The Kettle, we mull over whether the Steam Deck is a canary in the coal mine for the future of hardware prices, and the effect of Blue Origin's blowout on NASA's Moon missions
personal tech Steam Deck prices go through the roof as Valve blames component shortages Same handheld, same specs, just a much steeper bill
personal tech Logitech unveils a cushioned mouse for all-day use Ideal for aching palms – though only if you're right-handed
offbeat Yes, you can serve a website from a $1 microcontroller Well, page is more accurate, but the source code is available if you want to try doing something even crazier
offbeat Grad-to-be turns graduation cap into Rust-powered light show Eric Park tells us he doesn't plan to wear his modified cap to commencement, but his code's available for anyone with no such qualms and an upcoming ceremony
personal tech Google launches line of Android laptops festooned with Gemini AI If you're not a fan of having AI baked into your OS, look elsewhere
offbeat Young evil genius forces hamster to run on wheel to power his gadgets Okay, the rodent was a willing participant - after all, who turns down treats for a spin that charges a phone?
offbeat DIY mystery box will wow your friends by hinting at what the ionosphere is up to A rough guide to when your signal will behave, or not
offbeat Hobbyist xenomorphs Raspberry Pi into Alien-themed DIY laptop Everything you need to build the PS-85 is available from its designer's website, even if you can't get to space
on_prem Inside Amazon Web Services' plan to make networking disappear The Register gets a look inside AWS' networking lab in Cupertino
security Researchers move in the right direction, develop powerful GPS interference alarm ORNL says portable detector kit can separate real GPS signals from fake ones even at equal strength
on_prem YouTuber has DIMM idea, builds working DRAM in backyard What are you doing to solve the memory crisis?
security If malware via monitor cables is a matter of national security, this might be the gadget for you Orgs can now buy UK cyber agency engineered commercial gadget, but details are slim
on_prem Right to repair champ Framework punts modular 13in laptop with Core Ultra Series 3 Latest hardware sports dock for graphic card, power sipping battery
software Task Manager's CPU meter is an obituary for the recent past, says the engineer who built it Spoiler: There's no magic value. Just a timer, some kernel calls, and too much coffee
offbeat California ghost-gun bill wants 3D printers to play cop, EFF says Proposed law could lock down open source tools and give vendors fresh reasons to inspect print files
software Patch to end i486 support hits Linux kernel merge queue After a year of patchwork, maintainers look ready to start retiring 486-class CPUs
on_prem Apple signs meaningless deal to make some less-important parts in America Maybe that's why Tim didn't get an invitation to the President's tech bro club?
on_prem It's not a binary choice. Independent boffin builds a ternary CPU on an FPGA Three is the magic number as first off-the-shelf general-purpose ternary hardware since c 1965 lands
AI + ML Nvidia GTC will be full of surprises - just not for the consumer class Join Brandon Vigliarolo, Tobias Mann, and Avram Piltch to discuss our predictions for this week's GTC
On-Prem Medical equipment techs beg for right-to-repair lifeline OEM delays have become patient care delays
Public Sector Microsoft HoloLens finds second home in the military after failing battlefield tests Let’s hope air cargo checks don’t trigger the same headaches
Systems AMD climbs in desktop and server CPUs while Intel battles supply squeeze Q4 figures reveal shifting market share across PCs and cloud infrastructure
AI + ML This dev made a Llama with three inference engines Meet llama3pure, a set of dependency-free inference engines for C, Node.js, and JavaScript
Public Sector Let there be light! DARPA seeking physics-defying photonic computers to supercharge AI There’s about $35M up for grabs if your circuits can beat today’s limits
Offbeat There's nothing micro about this super-sized Arduino Uno It's 7x the size of the regular board
Offbeat Musk distracts from struggling car biz with fantastical promise to make 1 million humanoid robots a year To what end? Who knows? Tesla isn't even using them in its own factories yet
Offbeat Hacker taps Raspberry Pi to turn Wi-Fi signals into wall art Pipe local wireless noise through an SDR into an RPi, and 64 LED filaments do the rest
Public Sector Trump says he got a deal for rare earths in Greenland, but they won't come easy You can't just grab 'em by the mine shafts - there aren't any
Security Flipping one bit leaves AMD CPUs open to VM vuln Fix landed in July, but OEM firmware updates are required
Personal Tech Maker fight! SparkFun cuts ties with Adafruit in harassment dispute Adafruit claims SparkFun aims to shoot the messenger for criticizing corporate tolerance of intolerance
Offbeat Danish dev delights kid by turning floppy drive into easy TV remote Just insert a disk and the TV starts playing three-year-old’s favorite shows
Offbeat CES 2026 worst in show: AI girlfriends, a fridge that won't open unless you talk to it, and more There's a lot of bad ideas set to create literal waste and be a waste of money
AI + ML Optimus Schmoptimus - Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot is already in mass production Atlas will be deployed to Hyundai and Google facilities this year
Offbeat Lego crams an ASIC in a brick to keep kids interested Neat idea, but with no mention of a dev kit it's another sign of Lego's descent into designing nothing but fun on rails
AI + ML Humanoid robots are still novelty acts, but investment is surging to make them real tomorrow Investment and interest have outpaced technology and society
Offbeat Infinite Machine e-scooter is like the offspring of a Vespa and a Cybertruck Custom-designed $10,000 scooter goes 65mph, has a 60-mile range, and runs silently
Storage The future of long-term data storage is clear and will last 14 billion years SPhotoix moves its 5D Memory Crystal cold storage tech closer to deployment in data centers
Public Sector Congress quietly strips right-to-repair provisions from US military spending bill A win for the contractors
Software Rust core library partly polished for industrial safety spec Ferrous Systems achieves IEC 61508 (SIL 2) certification for systems that demand reliability
Personal Tech Pebble, the e-ink smartwatch that refuses to die, just went fully open source Eric Migicovsky wants to ensure Pebble can’t be killed again, and DIYers benefit most
CxO Apple reportedly peels away some sales staff in small round of layoffs Company has hitherto thought different about sackings
Networks Networking startup Meter takes a page from the Steve Jobs playbook Vertical integration meets subscriptions
Offbeat Happy holidays: AI-enabled toys teach kids how to play with fire, sharp objects Consumer advocacy researchers at PIRG tested four AI toys, and none of them passed muster
AI + ML AWS Stargate-smashing Rainier AI megacluster is up and running Half a million Trainium2 chips now running Anthropic workloads, with half a million more waiting in the wings
Supercomputing Month Nvidia, Oracle to build 7 supercomputers for Department of Energy, including its largest ever 100,000 Blackwell GPUs and 2,200 exaFLOPs make for a big system
Science Cyborg dreams move closer to reality with low-power artificial neuron UMass Amherst research promises better bioelectronic communication
Research Tile trackers are a stalker's dream, say Georgia Tech researchers Plaintext transmissions, fixed MAC addresses, rotating 'unique' IDs, and more, make abuse easy
Personal Tech Logitech's MX Master 4 mouse buzzes with haptic feedback but lacks lefty love Ergonomic, feature-packed, and still right-handed only
Offbeat 800,000 tons of mud probably just made electronics a little more expensive Accident causes major copper mine to suspend operations, as commodity and share prices soar
Cyber-crime SIM city: Feds say 100,000-card farms could have killed cell towers in NYC Secret Service seizes 300-server network allegedly tied to nation-state hackers
Science Li-ion roars can predict early battery failure, MIT boffins say Batteries emit distinct acoustic signatures depending on how they're failing – a bit like people, really
Offbeat Inventor who encouraged Elon Musk to make Optimus says most humanoid robots today are 'terrifying' Scott LaValley, CEO of Cartwheel Robotics, says robot makers should prioritize social acceptance over capabilities
Personal Tech Apple's 'Awe Droppings' fall close to the tree iPhone 17 Air shows company lightening up
Public Sector US Army straps on another mixed-reality gamble with Anduril, Rivet Microsoft invitation lost in mail after HoloLens made soldiers sick
Public Sector Sky-high budget gap: FAA launches air traffic overhaul, lacks cash to finish it Agency wants a single private integrator to herd 74K bits of kit with only 40% of the funding so far
Personal Tech Kilopixel creator kills livestream switch before woodblock display hits Crysis point All good things must come to an end
Systems AMD Ryzen CPUs fry twice in the face of heavy math load, GMP says GMP library test meltdown has AMD looking for answers
Edge + IoT Nvidia touts Jetson Thor kit for real-time robot reasoning GPU modules for AI and robotics take aim at latency
Personal Tech Trump's gold-plated smartphone can't seem to decide which design to copy Latest ad for the T1 looks suspiciously like a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in a Spigen case
AI + ML Post-privacy AI glasses claim to listen to your every word Digitally enabled omniscience is neat, if you can bear the cost of being constantly monitored by an AI agent
Security Lock down your critical infrastructure, CISA begs admins The agency offered some tips for operational technology environments, where attacks are rising
AI + ML Robots can program each other's brains with AI, scientist shows It's a step toward The Terminator, built 20 times faster than people can program
Security Gene scanner pays $9.8 million to get feds off its back in security flap Illumina allegedly lied about its testing devices meeting government standards
Public Sector Weapons jam: Pentagon sucks at removing foreign objects from its gear, auditors say Component origin isn't tracked, says GAO, meaning the circuits in equipment could be from anywhere
Personal Tech Caught between China and Trump, Apple spends $500M on rare earth recycling MP Materials aims to deliver US-made, recycled magnets by 2027
Research Nvidia A6000 GPUs flip memory bits if beaten by GPUHammer Rowhammer returns for more memory-meddling fun
Public Sector Pentagon snaps up ownership stake in America's only rare earths mine Rare earth metals are vital to electronics, and most of them are mined in China
Public Sector Army and Navy have both asked for right to repair, now Senators want to give it to them You want that military contract? Then no more proprietary repairability clauses!
Offbeat So you CAN turn an entire car into a video game controller Pen Test Partners hijack data from Renault Clio to steer, brake, and accelerate in SuperTuxKart
AI + ML HPE puts all its chips in the agentic AI pot Another OEM has decided we're now in the agentic AI age
Public Sector US Transpo Sec wants air traffic control rebuild in 3 years, asks Congress for blank check
Black Hat and DEF CON DEF CON badge disagreement gets physical as firmware dev removed from event stage
Black Hat and DEF CON Faulty instructions in Alibaba's T-Head C910 RISC-V CPUs blow away all security
Personal Tech Contrary to its fine print, Google says it won't confiscate repair returns that have unapproved parts
Personal Tech World checks it's not April 1 as Apple signals support for full US right-to-repair rule
