Researchers from North Carolina State University have discovered a new phase of solid carbon, called Q-carbon. It is said to be distinct from known phases of graphite and diamond. They have also developed a technique for using Q-carbon to make diamond-related structures at room temperature and at ambient atmospheric pressure in air.Q-carbon - t...

PENTA – a new EUREKA cluster – has been launched with the ambition to stimulate up to €1.5billion of investment in research and development in the electronics components and systems industry. According to PENTA, it has already received guarantees for the first €500,000 of funding.The organisation says it has been establish...

In a move designed to enhanced security, UltraSOC has extended its on chip monitoring and analytics capability to embedded products ranging from embedded IoT devices to enterprise systems.Called Bare Metal Security, the features are implemented as hardware running underneath the operating system. According to the company, the features are non i...

Imagination Technologies has launched the Creator Ci40 development kit, designed to support the development of smart home, IoT and other connected products. However, according to the developer, the kit also has the ability to be used as a high speed wireless router.The board runs Linux and Brillo and Imagination says Creator has been selected b...

French researchers from within the RS2E network on electrochemical energy storage have developed the first battery using sodium ions in the usual "18650" format, an industry standard. The prototype batteries are claimed to have displayed performance levels comparable to their lithium counterparts, and be used to store renewable energy in...

The CERN magnet group has set a world record with its racetrack test magnet which has produced a 16.2tesla (16.2T) peak field – nearly twice that produced by the current LHC dipoles and the highest ever for a dipole magnet of this configuration.The Racetrack Model Coil (RMC) is one of several demonstration test magnets being built by the...

Volvo and Microsoft have revealed how Microsoft HoloLens, the world’s first fully untethered holographic computer, might be used in future to redefine how customers first encounter and explore a car, as well as how cars might be bought and sold in future.Björn Annwall, Volvos’ senior vice president of marketing, sales and servi...

The Raspberry Pi Organisation has announced the availability of Raspberry Pi Zero, which will cost just $5. The device is also the smallest to be released, measuring 65 x 30 x 5mm.The device, described as a fully fledged member of the Raspberry Pi family, features a Broadcom BCM2835 application processor, whose 1GHz ARM11 core is 40% faster tha...

A first-of-its-kind self-healing gel that is claimed to repair and connect electronic circuits has been developed by researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas. This material could create opportunities to advance the development of flexible electronics, biosensors and batteries as energy storage devices.Technol...

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore), led by Professor Rachid Yazami, have developed a smart chip which can tell you how healthy your battery is and if it is safe for use.Current warning systems only alert users when the battery is already overheating which may be too late for remedial action. Prof Yazami’s chi...