Frozen Chip from IBM hits 500 GHz 417
sideshow2004 writes "EETimes is reporting this morning that IBM and Georiga Tech have demonstrated a 500 GHz Silicon-germanium (SiGe) chip, operating at 4.5 Kelvins. The 'frozen chip' was fabricated by IBM on 200mm wafers, and, at room temperature, the circuits operated at approximately 350 GHz."
Ah! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ah! (Score:4, Funny)
Cooked gonads tend not to work so well.
Re:Ah! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ah! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Ah! (Score:4, Informative)
No, it isn't. 802.11 kit has an RF power output of around 100mW - absolute peanuts compared to your 800W microwave oven. The RF radiation from an 802.11 network isn't enough to cook anything.
What you might be referring to is the thermal output produced by a laptop, which is down to the CPU and hard drive rather than the 802.11 transmitter and that can cook your privates mostly through conduction, not radiation.
Re:Ah! (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite... 500 Ghz (500 x 10^9) is a LONG WAY away from even the beginning of Infrared 3 TerraHz (3x10^12), and visible light does not start until about 430 TerraHz (4.3x10^14).
Re:Ah! (Score:3, Insightful)
So a 6x factor is a LONG WAY?
Re:Ah! (Score:5, Funny)
Liquid Helium (Score:3, Funny)
I RTFA.. (Score:5, Informative)
I think that speaks for itself.
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:5, Insightful)
REmember even though it's running at 2.4 ghz it's extremely dedicated and doesn't produce a lot of heat.
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:3, Insightful)
This 500GHz chip is massively smaller than a general purpose CPU. With CPUs the size of the modern A64 or P4 (or Core for that matter), 500 GHz would be physically impossible without using some alternative to electricity to propagate signals or at least run async. Electricity literally doesn't flow across the chip fast enough. Now a 2 square millimeter DSP doesn't have near those issues.
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:5, Funny)
I can play Qbert on mine, so it must be fast!!
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:3, Informative)
http://games.yahoo.com/games/downloads/qb.html [yahoo.com]
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems the linked article was writen (badly) for a non technical audiance by a non technical author... So why write about super cold and super fast processors?
Re:Article was in EE Times! (Score:5, Informative)
Not really, because an EE would know that it's not just the RF output on a cellphone that works at 2.4 GHz, but also the signal processing unit. There is a digital system in the phone that natively controls the signal, rather than using older analog techniques. The general-purpose CPU for playing crappy java games and displaying inane text messages from your friends runs at something much lower than that, of course.
-JesseRe:Article was in EE Times! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:4, Funny)
Hah, that's nothing. My microwave runs at 100 Ghz.
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:5, Funny)
However, this is Slashdot... Does your microwave also have a big spoiler (vent), and 30" rims (buttons)?
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:3, Funny)
I don't know about BSD kernels but popcorn comes out fine.
10GHz Microwave? (Score:5, Informative)
Overall, unless your goal was to build a miniature microwave (a 21st century E-Z Bake Oven?), I don't know why you'd want to use 10GHz instead of 2.4Ghz ones. The tolerances of parts in the magnetron and waveguide would have to be much tighter, I think, and this would almost certainly cause it to be more expensive.
Re:10GHz Microwave? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, but the heating would be more even.
Re:10GHz Microwave? (Score:3, Insightful)
There are probably other molecules that you could heat by us
Re:10GHz Microwave? (Score:3, Funny)
Do you have some inherent need to demonstrate your superior knowledge of microwaves?
It wouldn't be slashdot if they didn't!
Re:I RTFA.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Beat that IBM.
Two speeds: Fast enough and not fast enough (Score:3, Informative)
And in other news, apples and oranges usually taste different.
The only question about computer speed that is important is, "Is it fast enough?" Of course, "fast enough" may change over time, and anytime you come up with a faster processor, some company like Microsoft will succeed in loading it down with bloatware. But I've got a customer who runs h
So... (Score:5, Funny)
How long before I can get a kit like that for my P4?
Only one further step now.. (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, you thought I had something insightful to say? Nope ^_^
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:2, Informative)
Joke/Your Head (Score:5, Insightful)
You do know that jokes are meant to be funny, and don't have to be factually accurate, right?
Re:Joke/Your Head (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:In other news... (Score:2, Funny)
Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
THAT WASN'T THE POINT (Score:5, Informative)
Re:THAT WASN'T THE POINT (Score:4, Insightful)
By finding the last point on the temp/speed curve, they are able to much more accurately determine the entire curve. i.e. It's a lot easier to interpolate to more realistic cooling levels. And it makes for a cool headline too.
Re:THAT WASN'T THE POINT (Score:4, Informative)
Don't you mean "decreases"?
ALL CAPS REPLY ZOMG (Score:5, Funny)
The word "increases" does not mean what you think it does.
I've heard of this before (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)
Ob. Spinal Tap reference (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone's gotta say it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Someone's gotta say it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Someone's gotta say it (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Someone's gotta say it (Score:3, Funny)
How complex of a chip? (Score:4, Interesting)
Can these these chips do any calculations? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Can these these chips do any calculations? (Score:5, Interesting)
A CPU like the one we use now in PCs can't go much higher than 10GHz simply because, at light speed, an electron wouldn't have enough time to make it through the long circuit paths before the next clock cycle.
Re:Can these these chips do any calculations? (Score:3, Interesting)
Next gen with 20+ like the Pentium IV have however already flopped.
In theory you could have a 100GHz Pentium V with 100 pipeline stages. The problem is really that it most likely wouldn't be faster than a 2GHz Pentium M.
Re:Can these these chips do any calculations? (Score:3, Informative)
Not to mention that signals don't travel at c inside the chips. However, the signal path lengths can be decreased substantially by producing 3D integrated circuits. However, then heat dissipation becomes a real problem since there's more silicon for the heat to pass through before it gets to your heatsink. Of course this may not be a problem if your heatsink has a
Re:Can these these chips do any calculations? (Score:3, Insightful)
It doesn't need to go through the long circuit path...
In fact, signals haven't gone through a whole path since (at the latest!) the 286. The processing is already divided into stages, and it only passes through one stage in each clock cycle. (Look up pipelining.)
It would be theoretically possible to design a chip that operated at a lot higher clock speed just by making the stages short
Just a sec... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just a sec... (Score:2)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
The tempurature at which books freeze (Score:5, Funny)
So how fast was this chip? (Score:5, Funny)
Uberistor? (Score:3, Insightful)
Safety tip (Score:4, Funny)
Do not place one of those "thin, mint wafers" on Mr. Creosote's tongue.
You are welcome.
Re:Safety tip (Score:3, Informative)
1.2mm per cycle (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:1.2mm per cycle (Score:3, Informative)
:
:
*sighs in dismay*
Re:1.2mm per cycle (Score:2, Informative)
Re:1.2mm per cycle (Score:2)
I guess we're reaching the level where CPUs have to wait not for the peripherals hardware, but for itself, 'cause the signals are simply too slow.
Re:1.2mm per cycle (Score:3, Informative)
Finally they froze the design (Score:4, Funny)
Might help speed up... (Score:2, Funny)
computers in space (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:computers in space (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:computers in space (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe because heat dissipation in space is poor? I know you can do magic with water evaporation under such low pressure to dissipate heat, but how much water would you need to send up there to provide cooling for reasonable time?
Cheers
Raf
Re:computers in space (Score:3, Insightful)
Radiation, most likely (Score:4, Insightful)
There's a reason why NASA is trying their best to get their fingers on ancient CPUs.
Re:computers in space (Score:3, Funny)
Because then your KVM cables would have to be really, really long.
--Rob
Obsolete Units (Score:3, Insightful)
From TFA - my emphasis
IBM (Armonk, N.Y.) and Georgia Tech (Atlanta) claimed that they have demonstrated the first silicon-based chip capable of operating at frequencies above 500 GHz by cryogenically "freezing" the circuit to minus 451 degrees Fahrenheit (4.5 Kelvins).
Is anyone in the scientific world still seriously using Fahrenheit? What happened to si. Ok, for old farts like me it's nice to have the weather in Fahrenheit because I know that 60 is a nice spring day, 70 is hot and 80, phew, what a scorcher, but if I'm doing science I would no more use Fahrenheit than I would measure distance in poles.
Re:Obsolete Units (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Obsolete Units (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Obsolete Units (Score:3, Insightful)
He's giving a figure that most americans will be able to at least somewhat relate to.
500 Giggles (Score:3, Funny)
"The achievement is a major step in the evolution of computer semiconductor technology that could eventually lead to faster networks and more powerful electronics at lower prices, said Bernard Meyerson, vice president and chief technologist in I.B.M.'s systems and technology group. He said developments like this one typically found their way into commercial products in 12 to 24 months."
I think I'll put off buying a new computer for a couple of years or so...
NEWS ITEM: Computer industry collapses due to consumers putting off purchases in anticipation of 500 GHz computers coming real soon now.
Doom, Quake!! (Score:5, Funny)
*ahem*
Sorry about that, Pavlovian reaction...
Even faster at 0 Kelvins! (Score:4, Funny)
Imagine how fast it would run if they got it down to 0 Kelvins!
the sky is the limit! (Score:4, Funny)
""a 500 GHz Silicon-germanium (SiGe) chip, operating at 4.5 Kelvins.""
"Imagine how fast it would run if they got it down to 0 Kelvins!"
Imagine how fast it would run if they got it down to -5 Kelvins!
This doesn't mean 500 GHz CPU's (Score:4, Informative)
Miss a picture... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I had no idea (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I had no idea (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I had no idea (Score:2)
isn't that kind of the point of the scoring system in winvista? the 500GHz processor would get a score of 243, but the overall system would score a 2 because there's only 128Mb of video memory.
Re:I had no idea (Score:4, Funny)
How else would they be able to run java?
Re:i want (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:i want (Score:5, Funny)
The poor soul uses gentoo.
Re:Obligitory Yes but... (Score:2)
2. No. Not enough cache mem, too slow RAM bus speeds.
3. This is not a harddrive.
Re:cell phones? (Score:3, Insightful)
Now saying that the chip is running 1000X faster than the chip in your cellphone would have been a good comparison, or some quote about the average PC chip being 2Ghz & this being 250X faster would have been good comparisons, but comparing the chip to the transmit frequency of the cell phone was stupid.
Re:cell phones? (Score:4, Funny)
Do you think that 2.4Ghz digital transmission is generated by magic?
The problem isn't that the writer is incompetent, it's that he assumed his readers weren't.
Re:cell phones? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes you are (Score:3, Informative)
You're making the erroneous equation