A glimpse of the post-silicon age; how does Graphene Valley sound to you?
Posted 02.05.2010 at 6:11 pm
22 Comments
Graphene Transistors
Fly, electrons, fly!
IBM
Silicon Valley may want to update its name, because IBM has created graphene transistors that blow away the silicon competition. The transistor prototypes were made from sheets of carbon just one atom thick that could switch on and off at 100 billion times per second. The 100-gigahertz speed is about 10 times faster than any silicon equivalents, Technology Review reports.
The transistor creation is supposedly compatible with existing semiconductor manufacturing, and so experts anticipate a scaling-up process that could put transistors into high-performance imaging devices, radar and communication gadgets within the next few years. Graphene-based computer processors might take another decade at least.
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Technology, Jeremy Hsu, computers, COMPUTING, graphene, IBM, processors, silicon, silicon valley, TRANSISTORSBy contrast, IBM grew its graphene transistors on a silicon-carbide wafer, and then added an insulating layer which prevents short circuits in the transistors. Their work was supported by DARPA, the Pentagon's research arm for all things mad science.
Other materials, such as bismuth telluride, may eventually usher in the quantum computing age even further beyond silicon, but most of us won't sport quantum computers on our desktops within the foreseeable future. So don't be too disappointed with your blazing-fast graphene-based computers.
[via Technology Review]
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This is a big improvement, but it will probably still be quite expensive when it comes out onto the commercial market.
I think 15 years untl it is bought in really large quantities. Tou know? Mainstream.
Hearing about this now means DARPA already has it.
@old-scratch that would not surprise me one bit, pentagon probably has one of these thing put into a supercomputer in it's basement, lol
INSERT SKYNET REFERENCE HERE
Cools stuff. Since it's "...supposedly compatible with existing semiconductor manufacturing" hopefully we'll see it sooner than 15years.
But; at 100GHz, it's still going to be slow cause of software being too buggy. I can already see: MS Windows 2020, min requirements 100GHz, 4TB drive; and they will still take too long boot.
Sure you'll be able to do all kinds of stuff with 100GHz; including getting viruses and spam at blazing speeds!!!
The only need for this much speed and power is for having high def everything and communicating mostly in video/sound. All websites will be evolving/interactive and more crazy stuff.
suck it AMD!!!!
suck it AMD!!!!
MacsterTech
As we know today Ghz in computing refers to the amount of times the transistors can switch.
But Graphite can only work in analog(as of right now).
So what is the Ghz measuring here?
Is it bits processed, frequencies changed, furlongs, what?
Quote: The transistor prototypes were made from sheets of carbon just one atom thick that could switch on and off at 100 billion times per second. The 100-gigahertz speed is about 10 times faster than any silicon equivalents...
That should cover your question
@matt1q2aw3 must be running an Intel chip. It took two tries to get it right.
Tek, good one, lol.
This would be the base material for the memristor that would eliminate the hard drive and processor i guess?
Tek_Freek, Its called the double tap....
How hot would this thing get? I mean, I don't know how much juice it would require since it's only like an atom thick...but some of these silicon based processors (45-90 nanometers) are almost catching on fire running at just 2-3 GHz. Imagine if the fan went out on one of these things. Instant mushroom cloud in your office.
@rpenri: It will probably run pretty hot at 100GHz, but maybe not as hot as one would assume as graphene has a pretty low (read: damn-low) electrical resistance to start with.
In addition to this, graphene tolerates heat quite well, so heat as such might not be such a problem as it is with traditional silicon based chips that fry already at the relatively low temperatures of 100C.
Most newer computers are already $1000-1500 space heaters, especially the ones used for gaming. Even if graphene has a really low electrical resistance, it'll still put out some BTUs. That heat has to go somewhere, and most computers push that heated air through the back vent, where it fills your room up.
The room with my desktop gets 5-8 degrees warmer when it's on compared to other rooms already. I imagine if you ever need a sauna or a spare space heater, pick one of these up.
@matt1q2aw3
02/06/10 at 5:23 am suck it AMD!!!!
Bend over,suck your own! If youhad one nitwit of an atom of expertise that AMD has, you'd be way ahead!
The silicon era has ended. I'm quite amazed how fast these carbon particles can be and IBM deserves our admiration for coming up with such a thing. Considering the fact that 20 years ago computers were as big as a room and now we even have them s small as a palm, IBM's development might bring absolutely new and amazing pieces of technology in the near future.
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The transistor prototypes were made from sheets of carbon just one atom thick that could switch on and off at 100 billion times per second. The 100-gigahertz speed is about 10 times faster than any silicon equivalents...
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@rpenri
And that's precisely why this thing will hit commercial markets after 10-15 years, as this article states. There is simply quite wide range of things to resolved in order for you to have a table row in some computer's shop offer set with entry: "GraphenIntel, 95 GB" or something. Cooling, manifacturing process, safety certificates (heat generation problem mostly is just one of those), electrical power consuming tests, utilization tests and all that stuff usually any large company has to provide for their new, revolutionery product to hit the markets and conquer the world :)