Category Technology/Electronics

Computer scientists discover new security vulnerability in Intel processors

Researchers discover new security vulnerability in Intel processors
To compute faster, a predictor in the computer processor anticipates certain calculation steps. Hackers can exploit these anticipations to bypass security barriers and access confidential information. In the illustration, a hacker manages to overcome the protective measures (privileges) at step 3. Credit: ETH Zurich / COMSEC, HK

Anyone who speculates on likely events ahead of time and prepares accordingly can react quicker to new developments. What practically every person does every day, consciously or unconsciously, is also used by modern computer processors to speed up the execution of programs. They have so-called speculative technologies which allow them to execute instructions on reserve that experience suggests are likely to come next...

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Record-setting lithium-ion conductors: Researchers develop new material for solid-state batteries

World record for lithium-ion conductors
Prof. Thomas F. Fässler in his laboratory at the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry with a Focus on Novel Materials. Credit: Wenzel Schuermann / TUM

Researchers at TUM and TUMint.Energy Research have taken a significant step towards improving solid-state batteries. They developed a new material made of lithium, antimony and scandium that conducts lithium ions more than 30% faster than any previously known material. The work is published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

The team led by Prof. Thomas F. Fässler from the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry with a Focus on Novel Materials partially replaced lithium in a lithium antimonide compound with the metal scandium. This creates specific gaps, so-called vacancies, in the crystal lattice of the conductor material...

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Text-to-video AI blossoms with new metamorphic video capabilities

GIF of two vases filled with dandelions blossoming to illustrate text-to-video artificial intelligence advances.
MIGHTY MORPHING: “MagicTime is a step toward AI that can better simulate the physical, chemical, biological, or social properties of the world around us,” says computer science PhD student Jinfa Huang. (University of Rochester GIF created using MagicTime)

Using time-lapse videos as training data, computer scientists have developed video generators that simulate the physical world more accurately. While text-to-video artificial intelligence models like OpenAI’s Sora are rapidly metamorphosing in front of our eyes, they have struggled to produce metamorphic videos. Simulating a tree sprouting or a flower blooming is harder for AI systems than generating other types of videos because it requires the knowledge of the physical world and can vary widely.

But now, these models have ta...

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New era of magnetization: Research sheds light on future applications in spintronics and valleytronics

New era of magnetization: Research sheds light on future applications in spintronics and valleytronics
Suppression of intervalley scattering observed in the QPI pattern. Credit: Nature Physics (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-025-02864-2

Altermagnets, which exhibit momentum-dependent spin splitting without spin–orbit coupling (SOC) or net magnetization, have recently attracted significant international attention.

A team led by Prof. Liu Junwei from the Department of Physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), along with their experimental collaborators, published their latest research findings in Nature Physics, which unveiled the first experimental observation of a two-dimensional layered room-temperature altermagnet, validating the theoretical predictions in Nature Communications made by Prof. Liu in 2021.

The realization and control of spin-polarized e...

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