News & Comment

Thin-film transistors made from indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) are driving the next evolution in active-matrix flat panel displays. Hideo Hosono recounts how demand for a high-performance alternative to amorphous silicon transistors led to their development.

Transient and ingestible electronic devices could play a valuable role in the development of personalized healthcare.

Robert Dennard and 50 years of dynamic random access memory.

The emergence of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) in the 1970s had a huge impact on the future of digital computing. Its inventor, Robert H. Dennard, explains how the drive for simplicity led to this breakthrough.

Technological innovation can require both an understanding of the past and a clear vision for the future — as the development of memristive devices illustrates.

The memristor — a resistor with memory — was first postulated back in 1971, but it took nearly four decades before it was experimentally confirmed. Leon O. Chua explains how he developed a nonlinear circuit theory in which the memristor emerges naturally as the fourth basic circuit element.

As deep neural networks continue to improve and grow, innovations in hardware will be required in order to meet the increasing computational demands.

An international collaboration between Philips and the Sony Corporation led to the creation of the compact disc. Kees A. Schouhamer Immink explains how it came about.