Sun Microsystems once built the most powerful workstations, pioneered Solaris and Java, and attracted top engineers, but a series of strategic missteps, market shifts toward Linux and Intel, and the dot‑com bust led to its rapid decline and eventual acquisition by Oracle.
QR codes, evolving from simple barcodes, now serve as a universal bridge between the physical and digital worlds, enabling rapid data capture, secure transactions, and massive industrial tracking, while their design, error correction, and standards ensure reliability across billions of daily scans worldwide.
Jack Kilby’s invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 solved the "Tyranny of numbers" problem by integrating all components onto a single silicon chip, sparking a technological revolution that powered the space race, transformed computing, and reshaped modern electronics.
The article examines the rise and fall of Symantec's Ghost system, explaining its imaging technology, early advantages, and the multiple technical, security, and market forces that led to its disappearance in favor of newer Windows installation methods.
In this speech, academician Wang Jian reflects on the short, seven‑year history of modern AI, distinguishes AI, AI+ and AI infrastructure, explains how data, models and compute power have become the new foundational layer, and examines the roles of Google, OpenAI, transformers, and cloud services in shaping today’s AI revolution.
This article introduces the "You Call This Thing Cloud Native" series by tracing the evolution of container technology—from early virtual machines and Linux namespaces to Docker’s image system—explaining why containers surged in popularity around 2013 and what fundamentals readers should grasp.
ICQ, the pioneering instant messaging platform that once boasted over 100 million users, announced its shutdown on June 26, urging users to migrate to VK Messenger, while reflecting on its historic rise, influence on Chinese services like QQ, and multiple ownership changes over nearly three decades.
Browser engines handle rendering and JavaScript, evolving from Norway’s Qt to KDE’s KHTML, Apple’s WebCore, Google’s Blink, and others, while China’s weak 1990s software base and the massive, long‑term investment required have prevented it from creating a domestic engine, leading Chinese firms to rely on repackaged foreign technologies.
The article chronicles John Warnock’s journey from a struggling student to co‑founder of Adobe, highlighting his technical innovations, leadership roles, entrepreneurial lessons, and lasting impact on digital publishing, graphics, and the broader tech industry.
The article explores the remarkable number of groundbreaking computer technologies originating from Nordic countries, such as Linux, MySQL, V8, and Unity, and analyzes how superior education, early IT exposure, generous welfare, and a culture that encourages innovation have fostered this success.
In this talk, AI expert Wu Jun explains why ChatGPT has caused widespread fear, traces the historical development of language models from the 1970s to today, clarifies the massive computational and data requirements, and discusses the real impact and opportunities of large‑scale AI systems.
This article explores Elon Musk’s early fascination with computers, his self‑taught mastery of BASIC, the creation of his first game Blastar, and how his programming skills helped launch ventures like Zip2, X.com, and ultimately shaped his entrepreneurial success.
This article chronicles the origins, competition, legal battles, and strategic innovations of Intel and AMD from the 1950s semiconductor breakthroughs to recent market resurgence, illustrating how their rivalry shaped the modern CPU industry over more than half a century.
From early computer chess and arcade experiments to modern AI and virtual reality, games have continuously pushed hardware, software, and networking advances, inspiring breakthroughs such as UNIX, GPUs, game engines, and even medical research, proving that play is a powerful catalyst for technological progress.
The article defines System‑on‑Chip (SoC), outlines its key components and advantages, presents market size data showing rapid growth from 2017 to 2023, reviews the technology’s origins in the mid‑1990s, and highlights emerging trends such as the convergence of SoC, MEMS and SiP technologies.
From rockets exploding to financial crashes, this article chronicles twenty historic software bugs, detailing their losses, how they unfolded, and the programming mistakes that caused them, illustrating the massive economic and societal impact of faulty code.
The article examines the historical development of PC and mobile operating systems, explains why China has not produced a mainstream OS or programming language, and argues that future opportunities will depend on aligning technological timing, geographic advantages, and human resources within China's growing IT ecosystem.
The article analyses the historical development of PC, server, and mobile operating systems, explains why China has not produced a mainstream OS or language, highlights the importance of timing, market ecosystem, and talent, and explores future opportunities for Chinese platforms.
From a 1995 book that first hinted at a connected world to the rise of Tencent, Huawei, Xiaomi and AI‑driven startups, this article chronicles two decades of China’s IoT evolution, government support, and the fierce competition that continues to drive innovation across the industry.
This article explores the historical development of artificial intelligence, its interplay with big data and cloud computing, examines realistic expectations for AI applications, and explains how massive data and scalable cloud resources together drive modern AI advancements.
From the first tentative steps of Alibaba Cloud in 2006 to the fierce CDN price wars and the rise of new players like UCloud and QingCloud, this article chronicles a ten‑year saga of how cloud computing emerged, matured, and reshaped China’s internet ecosystem, highlighting key investments, strategic battles, and the shifting attitudes of industry giants.
This magazine special issue offers an accessible overview of software history, programming languages, coder culture, and the philosophical impact of code, blending terminology, jokes, and insights to illustrate why learning to program matters in today's evolving economy.
This article debunks the common belief that Wi‑Fi stands for “Wireless Fidelity”, tracing the term’s origin to the 1999 Wi‑Fi Alliance’s branding effort, explaining the backronym myth, and revealing the alternative names that were considered.
The article recounts how Exxon’s early 1970s funding helped Zilog create the influential Z80 microprocessor, yet the oil giant’s over‑ambitious acquisition strategy prevented it from becoming a lasting technology powerhouse like IBM or Intel.
