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Researchers build optical transistor out of silicon, provide path to all-optical computing
The speed of light is the universal speed limit, so naturally, optical technologies appeal when trying to construct speedy computational devices. Fiber optics let us shoot data to and fro at top speed, but for the time being our CPUs still make their calculations using electronic transistors. Good news is, researchers from Purdue University have built an optical transistor out of silicon that can propagate logic signals -- meaning it can serve as an optical switch and push enough photons to drive two other transistors. It's constructed of a microring resonator situated next to one optical line that transmits the signal, and a second that heats the microring to change its resonant frequency. The microring then resonates at a specific frequency to interact with the light in the signal line in such a way that its output is drastically reduced and essentially shut off. Presto, an optical transistor is born. Before dreams of superfast photonic computers start dancing in your head, however, just know they won't be showing up anytime soon -- the power consumption of such transistors is far beyond their electronic counterparts due to the energy inefficient lasers that power them.
Intel's Ivy Bridge will offer '20 percent more performance with 20 percent less average power'
So, there's still a little while to go before Intel gives Ivy Bridge a full unveiling, with official benchmarks, pricing and all those trimmings. But in the meantime, the BBC has detailed just how different this new architecture is compared to 32nm chips like Sandy Bridge and also AMD's coming Trinity processors. Most of this stuff we already knew -- like the fact that Intel has switched to a 3D or 'tri-gate' transistor design -- but what's new is a direct and official boast about performance. According to Kirk Skaugen, Chipzilla's PC chief, we can expect Ivy Bridge to deliver "20 percent more processor performance using 20 percent less average power." Now, judging from leaked desktop and laptop benchmarks, this broad-brush claim masks some very different realities depending on what type of CPU or GPU workloads you want throw at the chip, so stay tuned for more detail very soon.
Single atom transistors point to the future of quantum computers, death of Moore's law
Transistors -- the basic building block of the complex electronic devices around you. Literally billions of them make up that Core i7 in your gaming rig and Moore's law says that number will double every 18 months as they get smaller and smaller. Researchers at the University of New South Wales may have found the limit of this basic computational rule however, by creating the world's first single atom transistor. A single phosphorus atom was placed into a silicon lattice and read with a pair of extremely tiny silicon leads that allowed them to observe both its transistor behavior and its quantum state. Presumably this spells the end of the road for Moore's Law, as it would seem all but impossible to shrink transistors any farther. But, it could also points to a future featuring miniaturized solid-state quantum computers.
IBM builds 9 nanometer carbon nanotube transistor, puts silicon on notice
It's not the smallest transistor out there, but the boffins at IBM have constructed the tiniest carbon nanotube transistor to date. It's nine nanometers in size, making it one nanometer smaller than the presumed physical limit of silicon transistors. Plus, it consumes less power and is able to carry more current than present-day technology. The researchers accomplished the trick by laying a nanotube on a thin layer of insulation, and using a two-step process -- involving some sort of black magic, no doubt -- to add the electrical gates inside. The catch? (There's always a catch) Manufacturing pure batches of semiconducting nanotubes is difficult, as is aligning them in such a way that the transistors can function. So, it'll be some time before the technology can compete with Intel's 3D silicon, but at least we're one step closer to carbon-based computing.
Transistor pioneer Norman Krim dies at 98
A man who helped make our world smaller died last week. As noted in the New York Times obituary linked below, Norman Krim didn't invent the transistor, but he was a driving force behind its use, having persuaded his employer, Raytheon, to manufacture them on a large scale. They were designed for use in hearings aids initially but, as IEEE Spectrum's Harry Goldstein explains, some later batches proved too "noisy" for that purpose and wound up in the hands of hobbyists instead, who used them in a variety of electronic projects. Krim was also intent on making things smaller even before the transistor, and led a team at Raytheon in the late 1930s that developed miniaturized vacuum tubes for use in battery-powered radios. Later in his career, he was also involved the early days of the Radio Shack chain, buying two stores in Boston then expanding to seven before selling the business to the Tandy Corporation. He was 98.
New quantum tunneling transistors to make PCs less power-hungry
Yes, that awesome new 8-core chip in your PC is the fastest thing on the block, but it's got your utility meter spinning accordingly. Fortunately, researchers from Penn State have come up with a new high performance transistor that may turn future chips from power hogs into current-sipping silicon. The group, in cooperation with semiconductor manufacturer IQE, has created a high-performance transistor capable of significantly reducing power demand whether it's idle or switching. Doctoral candidate Dheeraj Mohata's the one who made it happen by inventing an alternative to traditional MOSFET (metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors) technology capable of turning on and off using far less power. Mohata's method uses a tunneling field effect transistor crafted from dissimilar semiconductor materials to provide instant on-off capability at 300 millivolts -- compared to MOSFET's one volt requirement -- to provide a power savings of 70 percent. You can dig deeper into the technical transistor details at the source, but all you really need to know is that the ladies love a PC with paltry power consumption.
AMD shaves 800 million transistors from Bulldozer chip, swears nothing's wrong
When a company cuts 40 percent of its transistors from an upcoming processor, one question comes to mind: why? According to ExtremeTech, AMD issued an update stating that its Bulldozer eight core / four module CPU would feature 1.2 billion transistors, as opposed to the previously stated two billion transistors. The reduction occurred despite the fact that the die size remains unchanged at 315 square millimeters -- putting it on par with AMD's lesser Llano chip -- and depriving the chip of valuable horsepower before I/O, an integrated memory controller or HyperTransport are added. When approached for comment, company representatives stated they were simply correcting a mistake regarding the chip's actual specifications. Before you bemoan the fate of the Bulldozer chip, remember that the drummer from Def Leppard has had a terrific musical career with only one arm, so what's the loss of several hundred million transistors to AMD's latest?
Cambridge researchers translate graphene into printable circuitry material, bring basic 'Skynet' factory to you
Yes, graphene is amazing and possesses many useful / otherworldly properties. The ability to use graphene itself to print flexible, transparent thin-film transistors via an inkjet printer is just another one of them. Over at the University of Cambridge, researchers have discovered that it's possible to print standard CMOS transistors using a graphene component. Provided the graphene is chipped off a block of graphite using a chemical solvent and the larger (potentially print-head blocking) chips are removed, it can be turned into a polymer ink which can then run through a conventional inkjet printer. The potential result of this is flexible, transparent and wearable computer circuitry coming from ordinary printers as opposed to several multi-million-dollar machines in a factory, which has long been the historical standard. Besides, who wouldn't want to print their own circuitry on a PhotoSmart MFP rather than whatever report might be due the next day?
Intel 4004, world's first commercial microprocessor, celebrates 40th birthday, ages gracefully
Pull out the candles and champagne, because the Intel 4004 is celebrating a major birthday today -- the big four-oh. That's right, it's been exactly four decades since Intel unveiled the world's first commercially available CPU, with an Electronic News ad that ran on November 15th, 1971. It all began in 1969, when Japan's Nippon Calculating Machine Corporation asked Intel to create 12 chips for its Busicom 141-PF calculator. With that assignment, engineers Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff and Stanley Mazor set about designing what would prove to be a groundbreaking innovation -- a 4-bit, 16-pin microprocessor with a full 2,300 MOS transistors, and about 740kHZ of horsepower. The 4004's ten micron feature size may seem gargantuan by contemporary standards, but at the time, it was rather remarkable -- especially considering that the processor was constructed from a single piece of silicon. In fact, Faggin was so proud of his creation that he decided to initial its design with "FF," in appropriate recognition of a true work of art. Hit up the coverage links below for more background on the Intel 4004, including a graphic history of the microprocessor, from the Inquirer.
Korean bendy memory could make plenty of trendy tech
Flexible displays aren't much good unless there's flexible memory alongside. It's been attempted before, but bending memory pushes the individual transistors so close that they begin to interfere with one another -- causing degradation and shortening the device lifespan to just a single day. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has solved the problem by pairing transistors with memristors, which are immune to such annoyances. By fixing both inside a flexible substrate, you can push them as near as you like without any electo-radiation spanners jamming up the works. This also means that the flexible RRAM behaves just like flash memory; maybe in the future it won't just be antennas sewn into our clothes.
The touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our... transistors
Transistors of all shapes and sizes form the foundation of just about every electronic gadget under the sun, and similarly, cotton clothing is a key component of a well-rounded wardrobe. It was only a matter of time before these two got together to form a fashion-forward future, and an international team of scientists have accomplished the trick by creating a transistor using fibers of cotton. Now, this isn't the first organic transistor, but cotton's plentiful, cheap, lightweight and sustainable nature make it a great choice for use as a substrate in carbon-based transistors. To get the fluffy white stuff ready to amplify and switch electric signals, it was conformally coated (to cover all the fiber's irregularities) with gold nanoparticles, semiconductive and conductive polymers in a super thin layer to preserve its wearability flexibility. The result was an active transistor that can be used in integrated circuits sewn into your shirt, socks, or even pantaloons, if you like. The future of fashion is right around the corner, folks, and in that future your pants are the PC.
Korean researchers create stretchy transistors made of graphene
Graphene's greatness comes from its flexibility, both figurative -- you can make everything from transparent speakers to stain resistant pants with the stuff -- and literal. And now researchers in Korea have given us another pliable graphene product by creating a stretchy transistor from the carbon allotrope. The trick was accomplished by first layering sheets of graphene on copper foil and bonding it all to a rubber substrate. To complete the transistor channels were etched onto its surface, then electrodes and gate insulators made of ion gel were printed onto the device. What resulted was a transistor that could stretch up to five percent without losing any electrical efficiency, and the plan is to increase its elasticity through continued research. Keep up the good work, fellas, we can't wait for our flexible phone future.
Ferroelectric transistor memory could run on 99 percent less power than flash
We've been keeping an optimistic eye on the progress of Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FeRAM) for a few years now, not least because it offers the tantalizing promise of 1.6GB/s read and write speeds and crazy data densities. But researchers at Purdue University reckon we've been looking in the wrong place this whole time: the real action is with their development of FeTRAM, which adds an all-important 'T' for 'Transistor'. Made by combining silicon nanowires with a ferroelectric polymer, Purdue's material holds onto its 0 or 1 polarity even after being read, whereas readouts from capacitor-based FeRAM are destructive. Although still at the experimental stage, this new type of memory could boost speeds while also reducing power consumption by 99 percent. Quick, somebody file a patent. Oh, they already did.
Quantum effect transistor is the world's smallest, hopes to make a big impact
What's better than billions of transistors? Billions of miniature two-nanometer ones, leaving room for billions more. A team of researchers accomplished just that, using quantum mechanics to shrink these semiconductors -- and set a new size record in the process -- while also managing to keep them operating at room temperature (note: that photo above is from a different team's study). The team of South Korean, Japanese, and British researchers at Chungbuk National University expect them to "enhance the capabilities of mobile electronic devices" -- a mighty vague claim if ever there was one. Not one for modesty, lead researcher Choi Jung-bum proclaims that it "effectively changes the paradigm of such devices." With no word on mass production, though, we'll just have to wait and see for ourselves how big of an impact these lilliputian circuits will have. [Thanks, Rohit; image credit: University of South Wales]
Intel going 3D for future CPUs
Seems like everything's going 3D these days. Thanks a lot, James Cameron. Now even Intel's getting in on the act, but in a manner that sounds like it has more useful applications than the latest Sony TVs or Nintendo's 3DS. As a bonus, you also don't have to wear any goofy-looking glasses. The New York Times reports Intel has developed a technology called Finfet (or fin field-effect transistor) that will allow Intel to manufacture three-dimensional CPUs. Until now, the conductive area of the transistors used in CPUs has been two-dimensional, which means that in order to pack a higher number of transistors within the same space, the transistors had to shrink to smaller sizes. Over the years, manufacturing tolerances have traditionally been the limiting factor in how small a transistor can get, but these CPU building blocks are now approaching a size where physics itself becomes a barrier to making them any smaller. Intel's Finfet aims to work around this problem by building "fins" into the transistor structure, making the transistor's conductive area three-dimensional. Intel expects chips using this design to be 37 percent faster than current low-voltage chips while consuming half the power. Not all chipmakers are convinced that going 3D is the right solution, and a few of them are taking a "wait and see" approach to Intel's Finfet technology. Intel plans to start producing chips using Finfet later this year, but there's obviously no indication yet when or even if chips using Finfet will find their way into future Macs. Intel's also admitted that the consumer "ecosystem" isn't a favorable market for Intel today, which may mean the chipmaker has its eye on crafting a Finfet-based competitor (or replacement) for Apple's A-series chips used in iOS devices.
Intel will mass produce 3D transistors for all future CPUs, starting with 22nm Ivy Bridge (video)
Looks like 3D isn't just a fad, folks, so long as we're talking about silicon -- Intel just announced that it has invented a 3D "Tri-Gate" transistor that will allow the company to keep shrinking chips, Moore's Law naysayers be darned. Intel says the transistors will use 50 percent less power, conduct more current and provide 37 percent more speed than their 2D counterparts thanks to vertical fins of silicon substrate that stick up through the other layers, and that those fancy fins could make for cheaper chips too -- currently, though, the tri-gate tech adds an estimated 2 to 3 percent cost to existing silicon wafers. Intel says we'll see the new technology first in its 22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs, going into mass production in the second half of the year, and it's planning 14nm chips in 2013 and 10nm chips in 2015. Also, 3D transistors won't be limited to the cutting edge -- Intel reps told journalists that they "will extend across the entire range of our product line," including mobile devices. Three videos and a press release await you after the break. Chris Trout contributed to this report.
IBM shows off 155GHz graphene transistor in the name of DARPA research
IBM might be cautious about touting graphene as a a silicon killer, but that hasn't stopped it from pushing the production of ever faster graphene transistors. With the recent demonstration of a 155GHz graphene transistor, the firm successfully outdid its previous record-setting efforts, which produced a cut-off frequency of 100GHz. What's more, the thing is also IBM's smallest to date, with a gate length of 40 nanometers; that's 200 nanometers less than the 100GHz iteration. This smaller, faster transistor was produced as part of a DARPA research project that aims to develop high-performance RF (radio frequency) transistors. So, no, we probably won't be seeing the things in our PCs anytime soon, but it looks like they could be right at home in war machines of the future.
Intel Sandy Bridge chipset flaw identified as a rogue transistor affecting SATA ports
Intel raised quite a few eyebrows yesterday by disclosing that its Cougar Point chipsets suffer from an incurable design issue that would potentially degrade Serial ATA transfers over time. AnandTech has gone to the trouble of getting in touch with Intel to seek more information and the problem, as it turns out, is a single transistor that's prone to a higher current leakage than tolerable. This can not only diminish performance over the 3Gbps SATA ports, it can actually make them fail altogether. There is more comforting news, however, in that the pair of 6Gbps SATA ports on the chipset are untroubled by this ailment, so devices and users that never plug into the 3Gbps connections can just carry on as if nothing's ever happened. For everyone else, a repair and replacement service is taking place now, with Intel's budget for dealing with this problem said to be a generous $700 million.
IBM says graphene won't fully replace silicon in CPUs
As you may have been able to tell from the flurry of research that's occurred over the past few years (which has even resulted in a Nobel Prize), there's plenty of folks betting on graphene as the next big thing for computing. One of the big players in that respect has been IBM, which first opened up the so-called graphene bandgap and has created some of the fastest graphene transistors around, but is now sounding a slightly more cautious tone when it comes to the would-be demise of silicon-based CPUs. Speaking with Custom PC, IBM researcher Yu-Ming Lin said that "graphene as it is will not replace the role of silicon in the digital computing regime," and further explained that "there is an important distinction between the graphene transistors that we demonstrated, and the transistors used in a CPU." To that end, he notes that unlike silicon, "graphene does not have an energy gap," and that it therefore cannot be completely "switched off," which puts it at quite a disadvantage compared to silicon. Intel's director of components research, Mike Mayberry, also chimed in on the matter, and noted that "the industry has so much experience with it that there are no plans to move away from silicon as the substrate for chips." That doesn't mean that there still isn't a bright future for graphene, though -- Lin gives the example of hybrid circuit, for instance, which could use graphene as a complement to silicon in order to "enrich the functionality of computer chips."
RepRap prints transistors, but fabs have little to fear
Budding hobbyists almost have it too easy these days, what with all the ready-made components, Mindstorms and Arduino boards, but there's still a couple of folks out there kicking it old-school... and printing transistors at home. Yes, that's a RepRap 3D printer you see there, with a MakerBot Unicorn pen head, depositing tiny dots of silver ink to form intricate rows of tiny electrodes. Sadly, the printer doesn't currently automate the entire process, as you'll also need to separately apply a dielectric material and a host of chemicals to get a working field effect transistor from scratch, but once the basic process is perfected the possibilities, as they say, are endless. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got a hot date with some vacuum tubes. Find the basic formula for DIY transistors at our source link.
