http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/ Engadget Comments for NEC and Toshiba hop on IBM's Semiconductor Alliance train for the ride to 28nm http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/Jun 18th 2009 7:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/Jun 18th 2009 7:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/
One upside, hopefully the next Xbox and PSX will launch with 28nm CPUs. ]]>Jun 18th 2009 2:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/Jun 18th 2009 8:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/Jun 18th 2009 8:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/Jun 18th 2009 4:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/
The problem with this is electricity generates heat. The faster you calculate (the higher the frequency), the hotter it gets, so there's an upper limit to the frequency you can achieve. This is why recently they've been concentrating on making processors multicore and perform better instead of simply increasing the frequency.

The thing is, we don't care what is doing the calculations, we just want the output. If we were to use pulses of LIGHT (on = 1, off = 0) instead of electricity to perform calculations, processors could get much faster and much cooler. The final output would still be electric though, but that's just fine.]]>Jun 18th 2009 4:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/
Ok genius, let's see your design plans for making a processor core using "optical" logic gates...]]>Jun 18th 2009 7:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/

"All-optical XOR gate using semiconductor optical amplifiers without additional input beam

Jae Hun Kim; Young Min Jhon; Young Tae Byun; Seok Lee; Deok Ha Woo; Sun Ho Kim
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
Volume 14, Issue 10, Oct 2002 Page(s): 1436 - 1438"


People have been working on optical circuits for years.

You being ignorant doesn't make other people stupid. ]]>Jun 18th 2009 9:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/Jun 19th 2009 6:23AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/Jun 18th 2009 8:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/Jun 18th 2009 9:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/Jun 18th 2009 9:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/nec-and-toshiba-hop-on-ibms-semiconductor-alliance-train-for-th/Jun 18th 2009 9:46AM