KWSN Orbiting Fortress Forum Index KWSN Orbiting Fortress
KWSN Distributed Computing Teams forum
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

IBM Discloses Working Version of a Much Higher-Capacity Chip

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    KWSN Orbiting Fortress Forum Index -> KWSN Round Table
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
sir spuddly buddly
Prince
Prince


Joined: 27 Nov 2004
Posts: 1048
Location: here, I think.

PostPosted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 2:17 am    Post subject: IBM Discloses Working Version of a Much Higher-Capacity Chip Reply with quote

IBM Discloses Working Version of a Much Higher-Capacity Chip
IBM said on Thursday that it had made working versions of ultradense computer chips, with roughly four times the capacity of today’s most powerful chips.

The announcement, made on behalf of an international consortium led by IBM, the giant computer company, is part of an effort to manufacture the most advanced computer chips in New York’s Hudson Valley, where IBM is investing $3 billion in a private-public partnership with New York State, GlobalFoundries, Samsung and equipment vendors.

The development lifts a bit of the cloud that has fallen over the semiconductor industry, which has struggled to maintain its legendary pace of doubling transistor density every two years.

Intel, which for decades has been the industry leader, has faced technical challenges in recent years. Moreover, technologists have begun to question whether the longstanding pace of chip improvement, known as Moore’s Law, would continue past the current 14-nanometer generation of chips.

Each generation of chip technology is defined by the minimum size of fundamental components that switch current at nanosecond intervals. Today the industry is making the commercial transition from what the industry generally describes as 14-nanometer manufacturing to 10-nanometer manufacturing.

ach generation brings roughly a 50 percent reduction in the area required by a given amount of circuitry. IBM’s new chips, though still in a research phase, suggest that semiconductor technology will continue to shrink at least through 2018.

The company said on Thursday that it had working samples of chips with seven-nanometer transistors. It made the research advance by using silicon-germanium instead of pure silicon in key regions of the molecular-size switches.

The new material makes possible faster transistor switching and lower power requirements. The tiny size of these transistors suggests that further advances will require new materials and new manufacturing techniques.

As points of comparison to the size of the seven-nanometer transistors, a strand of DNA is about 2.5 nanometers in diameter and a red blood cell is roughly 7,500 nanometers in diameter. IBM said that would make it possible to build microprocessors with more than 20 billion transistors.

“I’m not surprised, because this is exactly what the road map predicted, but this is fantastic,” said Subhashish Mitra, director of the Robust Systems Group in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford University.

Even though IBM has shed much of its computer and semiconductor manufacturing capacity, the announcement indicates that the company remains interested in supporting the nation’s high technology manufacturing base.
_________________
a monster can be excused for his behaviour . . . The problem is not how a monster could do it, but how a human being did it.
Scaring 11 year olds since 2005
"There is only one path to Ni!-dom - through the shubbery"
Click every day at http://naturarvet.se/en/ to save a forest!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    KWSN Orbiting Fortress Forum Index -> KWSN Round Table All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
Optimized Seti@Home App | BOINC Stats