The pink glow you see above is coming from the world’s smallest plasma transistor, an unfathomably miniscule device 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair. It’s not just tiny, it’s tough, and theoretically able to withstand brutal environments. And it could massively change consumer electronics.
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IBM’s mad scientists have created a graphene-based circuit that’s 10,000 times more powerful than existing alternatives. This radio receiver is so sophisticated and futuristic, in fact, that it can… send a text message to your friends.
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Futurists are always talking about how flexible electronics will change our lives in amazing ways, but we’ve yet to see anything mind-blowing come to market. A team of scientists from the University of Texas in Austin, however, think they’ve found the key to changing that: ultrafast graphene transistors printed on flexible plastic.
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Graphene has the power to change computing forever by making the fastest transistors ever. In theory. We just haven’t figured out how yet. Sound familiar
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Transistors are the magical electronic components that make your computer, smartphone and virtually every other gadget on the planet function—but how the hell do they work?
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Transistors were one of the most revolutionary developments in modern computing. And that was without directly implanting them in our brains. Now, the first microscopic organic transistor arrays promise to let us do just that. More »
The increasingly ambiguous divide between man and machine just got blurred that much more with Stanford’s recent announcement: scientists have successfully created the first truly biological transistor made entirely out of genetic material. More »
Globalfoundries wants to show that it can play the 3D transistor game as well as Intel. Its newly unveiled 14nm-XM (Extreme Mobility) modular architecture uses the inherently low-voltage, low-leak nature of the foundry’s FinFET layout, along with a few traces of its still-in-development 20nm process, to build a 14-nanometer chip with all the size and power savings that usually come from a die shrink. Compared to the larger processors with flat transistors that we’re used to, the new technique is poised to offer between 40 to 60 percent better battery life, all else being equal — a huge help when even those devices built on a 28nm Snapdragon S4 can struggle to make it through a full day on a charge. To no one’s shock, Globalfoundries is focusing its energy on getting 14nm-XM into the ARM-based processors that could use the energy savings the most. It will be some time before you find that extra-dimensional technology sitting in your phone or tablet, though. Just as Intel doesn’t expect to reach those miniscule sizes until 2013, Globalfoundries expects its first working 14nm silicon to arrive the same year. That could leave a long wait between test production runs and having a finished product in your hands.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets
Globalfoundries unveils 14nm-XM chip architecture, vows up to a 60 percent jump in battery life originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Sep 2012 21:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
If you’ve been paying attention, you know the quantum computing revolution is coming — and so far the world has a mini quantum network, not to mention the $10,000 D-Wave One, to show for it. Researchers from the University of Melbourne and University College, London, have now developed the “first working quantum bit based on a single atom of silicon.” By measuring and manipulating the magnetic orientation, or spin, of an electron bound to a phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon chip, the scientists were able to both read and write information, forming a qubit, the basic unit of data for quantum computing.
The team used a silicon transistor, which detects the electron’s spin and captures its energy when the spin’s direction is “up.” Once the electron is in the transistor, scientists can change its spin state any way they choose, effectively “writing” information and giving them control of the quantum bit. The next step will be combing two qubits into a logic step, with the ultimate goal being a full-fledged quantum computer capable of crunching numbers, cracking encryption codes and modeling molecules that would put even supercomputers to shame. But, you know, baby steps.
Researchers create working quantum bit in silicon, pave way for PCs of the future originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A fundamental challenge of developing spintronics, or computing where the rotation of electrons carries instructions and other data rather than the charge, has been getting the electrons to spin for long enough to shuttle data to its destination in the first place. IBM and ETH Zurich claim to be the first achieving that feat by getting the electrons to dance to the same tune. Basing a semiconductor material on gallium arsenide and bringing the temperature to an extremely low -387F, the research duo have created a persistent spin helix that keeps the spin going for the 1.1 nanoseconds it would take a normal 1GHz processor to run through its full cycle, or 30 times longer than before. As impressive as it can be to stretch atomic physics that far, just remember that the theory is some distance from practice: unless you’re really keen on running a computer at temperatures just a few hops away from absolute zero, there’s work to be done on producing transistors (let alone processors) that safely run in the climate of the family den. Assuming that’s within the realm of possibility, though, we could eventually see computers that wring much more performance per watt out of one of the most basic elements of nature.
Filed under: Science
IBM creates consistent electron spin inside semiconductors, takes spintronics one twirl closer originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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