Who’s up for some more Intel roadmap rumoring? The latest scuttlebutt from “notebook players” over in the far East is that the chip giant has finally settled on names, speeds, and prices for its first three Arrandale CPUs, which are expected to arrive in the first half of 2010. The Core i5-520UM and Core i7-620UM both run at 1.06GHz, while the top Core i7-640UM model speeds ahead at 1.2GHz, with bulk-buying prices of $241, $278, and $305 per unit of each processor. Even if the processing speeds might not impress on paper, these 32nm chips splice two processing cores, the memory controller, and graphics engine all into the same package and thereby deliver major power savings. Platform pricing is expected to remain at around $500 for netbooks, while the ultrathins these chips are intended for should hit the $600 to $800 range… if Lord Intel wills it so.
If you’re looking for pundits with an end date for Moore’s Law, you don’t have to look far. You also don’t have to look far to find a gaggle of loonies who just knew the world was ending in Y2K, so make of that what you will. The latest duo looking to call the demise of the processor mantra that has held true for two score comes from Boston University, with physicists Lev Levitin and Tommaso Toffoli asserting that a quantum limit would be achieved in around 75 to 80 years. Scott Aaronson, an attention-getter at MIT, expects that very same limit to be hit in just 20 years. Of course, there’s plenty of technobabble to explain the what’s and how’s behind all this, but considering that the brainiacs of the world can’t even agree with Gordon Moore’s own doomsday date, we’re choosing to plug our ears and keep on believin’ for now. Bonus video after the break.
Mmm, nothing like a pinch of predictability to wake us in the morning. Just days after the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) finally announced that a North American mobile DTV standard was struck, Samsung has jumped in with what it’s calling the planet’s first single chip solution designed to handle those very transmissions. All we’re told is that the solution combines RF and “digital chip components” into one 65 nanometer chip, making it ideal for smaller devices such as smartphones, car-mounted televisions and portable media players. Of course, Sammy doesn’t even bother to mention a mass production date, so we’re guessing we all just rise awkwardly and start a roaring slow clap to celebrate the accomplishment.
Core Values is our new monthly column from Anand Shimpi, Editor-in-chief of AnandTech. With over a decade of experience poring over the latest in chip developments, he’s here to explain how things work and why our tech is the way it is.
Remember this chart? It’s interesting for a number of reasons, but I want to highlight that all present day Android phones use virtually the same Qualcomm application processor, all based on a sluggish 528MHz ARM11 core. Blech.
I’ve got nothing against Qualcomm, but a big reason most Android phones feel slow is because they’re running on slow hardware. The ARM11 core was first announced in 2003. It’s old and creaky, and it’s used so frequently because it’s cheap. But the basic rules of chip design mean that things are about to change fast.
Researchers at IBM have found a way to meld biology and computing to create a new chip that could become the basis for a fast, inexpensive, personal genetic analyzer. The DNA sequencer involves drilling tiny nanometer-size holes through computer-like silicon chips, then passing DNA strands through them to read the information contained in their genetic code.
“We are merging computational biology and nanotechnology skills to produce something that will be very useful to the future of medicine,” Gustavo Stolovitzky, an IBM researcher, told Wired.com.
The “DNA transistor” could make it faster and cheaper to sequence individuals’ complete genomes. In so doing, it could help facilitate advances in bio-medical research and personalized medicine. For instance, having access to a person’s genetic code could help doctors create customized medicine and determine an individual’s predisposition to certain diseases or medical conditions.
Such a device could also reduce the cost of personalized genome analysis to under $1,000. In comparison, the first complete sequencing of a human genome, done by the Human Genome Project, cost about $3 billion when it was finally completed in 2003. Since then, other efforts have attempted to achieve something similar for a much lower cost. Stanford researcher Stephen Quake recently showed the Heliscope Single Molecule Sequencer that can sequence a human genome in about four weeks at a cost of $1 million. Services such as 23&me offer DNA testing for much less, but only do partial scans, identifying markers for specific diseases and genetic traits rather than mapping the entire genome.
Because of the expense, so far only seven individuals’ genomes have been fully sequenced. IBM’s personalized DNA readers, if successful, could extend that privilege to many more people.
“If there’s a chance that this could go behind the counter at hospitals, clinics and someday even a black bag then it would change how we approach medicine,” says Richard Doherty, research director at consulting firm Envisioneering Group. “All it would take is a simple test to look at anyone genes.”
DNA, or Deoxyribonucleic acid, contains the instructions needed for an organism to develop, survive and reproduce. A gene comprises the set of instructions needed to make a single protein. For humans, the complete genome contains about 20,000 genes on 23 pairs of chromosomes.
IBM scientists hope to change that by taking advantage of current chip-fabrication technology. Researchers took a 200-millimeter silicon-wafer chip and drilled a 3-nanometer-wide hole (known as a nanopore) through it. A nanometer is one one-billionth of a meter or about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
The DNA is passed through the nanopore. To control the speed at which it flows through the pore, researchers developed a device that has a multilayer metal and dielectric structure, says Steve RossNagel, a researcher at IBM’s Watson lab in New York.
This metal-dielectric structure holds the nanopore. A modulated electric field between the metal layers traps the DNA in the nanopore. Since the molecule is easily ionized, voltage drops across the nanopore help “pull” the DNA through. By cyclically turning on and off these gate voltages, scientists can move the DNA through the pore at a rate of one nucleotide per voltage cycle –- a rate the researchers believe would make the DNA readable. IBM hasn’t specified how fast a strand of DNA can be read, though researchers say a fully functional device could sequence the entire genome in “hours.”
Ultimately, several such nanopores can run parallel on a chip to create a complete genomic analyzer.
Though researchers have figured out the basics, it could still take up to three years to get a working prototype. The challenge now is to slow and control the motion of the DNA through the hole so the reader can accurately decode what is in the DNA.
They also need to determine exactly how the DNA will be decoded when it passes through the nanopore. It’s an area of “intense research” within and outside of IBM, says Stolovitzky. One way to do it would be to measure the electrical properties of the different DNA bases such as capacitance and conductivity.
“This is a knowledge that most people would like to have,” says RossNagel. “If we could have a big enough database of human genomes then you can see the interplay of genetics. That would change how we approach medicine.”
Top Photo: A cross section of IBM’s DNA Transistor simulated on the Blue Gene supercomputer shows a single stranded DNA moving in the midst of invisible water molecules through the nanopore/ IBM
In the video below, IBM researchers explain how they came up with the idea for the DNA Transistor. The video includes an animated simulation showing a DNA strand moving through the nanopore.
It’s no big secret that NVIDIA’s potent Tegra chip will be powering Microsoft’s forthcoming Zune HD, but up until now, the former company had been rather quiet about its involvement in the project. Just a few days after the OLED-equipped portable media player went up for pre-order around the web, NVIDIA has stepped in to affirm that its own Tegra processor will be “providing the multimedia muscle in Zune HD.” We’re told that no fewer than eight independent processors make up Tegra’s collective whole, with each one engineered for a specific class of tasks; among them are an HD video processor, an audio processor, a graphics processor and two ARM cores. Each of the chips can work together or independently to minimize power consumption, and the built-in nPower technology is said to optimize system power use and enable extended HD video / MP3 playback time. Sounds good in print, but we’ve got just under a month to find out how it performs for real.
IBM is already making a beeline to 28nm process technology, but it looks like the train may deviate a bit before it even reaches the bottom. Reportedly, the company responsible for PowerPC, the original business laptop and all sorts of underground things that we’ll never comprehend is now looking to use DNA as a model for crafting the world’s next great processor. DNA origami, as it’s so tactfully called, can supposedly provide a cheap framework “on which to build tiny microchips,” with IBM research manager Spike Narayan proclaiming that this is “the first demonstration of using biological molecules to help with processing in the semiconductor industry.” Sir Spike also noted that “if the DNA origami process scales to production-level, manufacturers could trade hundreds of millions of dollars in complex tools for less than a million dollars of polymers, DNA solutions, and heating implements.” The actual process still seems murky from here, but we’re told to expect real results within ten years. Which should be just in time for the robot apocalypse to really hit its stride — awesome.
Intel wants you to know that the rumor that its Z-series Atom chips are headed for the “discontinued” pile is not true. A few days back, we heard that the chips — which were initially designated for MIDs but made their way into some netbooks — could no longer be ordered from Intel. A spokesperson for the company, however, speaking with Register Hardware, said that the rumors were “100 percent inaccurate.” We’ll just have to wait and see how this all pans out, but we’re still not feeling terribly positive about poor little MIDs’ odds.
Get on down with your bad self, Mr. Spaceman — AMD just shipped its 500 millionth x86 processor! Shortly after the company celebrated 40 years of hanging tough and doing its best to overtake Intel, the outfit has now revealed that a half billion x86 CPUs have left its facilities over the past two score. We pinged Intel in order to find out just how that number stacked up, but all we were told is that the 500 million milestone was celebrated awhile back down in Santa Clara. We’ll just chalk the vagueness up to Intel not wanting to spoil an otherwise raucous Silicon Valley shindig. Classy.
The suits in Cupertino already confirmed the existence of a proprietary chip in the new iPod shuffle headphones, but if you’re squarely in the tin foil hat crowd, we’ve got one more shred of evidence to win you over. iLuv’s newest adapter, the iEA15, outrightly asserts that it is “equipped with a remote control chip provided by Apple, Inc.,” but it’s the functionality of said adapter that has our interest piqued. Rather than settling for a set of VoiceOver-capable earbuds that you aren’t really fond of, this here go-between enables any headphones with a 3.5 millimeter jack to connect with (and control) Apple’s newest shuffle. Moreover, it’ll play nice with the iPhone family as well, and the built in microphone enables you to handle a call without ever removing your ‘buds. The frightening part is that no price and release date have been set, which probably means iLuv’s lobbying to get that Made for iPod tax down in order to not charge $50 for this thing.
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Who’s up for some more Intel roadmap rumoring? The latest scuttlebutt from “notebook players” over in the far East is that the chip giant has finally settled on names, speeds, and prices for its first three Arrandale CPUs, which are expected to arrive in the first half of 2010. The Core i5-520UM and Core i7-620UM both run at 1.06GHz, while the top Core i7-640UM model speeds ahead at 1.2GHz, with bulk-buying prices of $241, $278, and $305 per unit of each processor. Even if the processing speeds might not impress on paper, these 32nm chips splice two processing cores, the memory controller, and graphics engine all into the same package and thereby deliver major power savings. Platform pricing is expected to remain at around $500 for netbooks, while the ultrathins these chips are intended for should hit the $600 to $800 range… if Lord Intel wills it so.
