Fastest-ever logic gates could make computers a million times faster

newatlas.com ^ | May 11, 2022 | Michael Irving

[upchuck]

Thanks for the ping Red Badger.

Logic gates are the fundamental building blocks of computers, and researchers at the University of Rochester have now developed the fastest ones ever created. By zapping graphene and gold with laser pulses, the new logic gates are a million times faster than those in existing computers, demonstrating the viability of “lightwave electronics.”

Logic gates take two inputs, compare them, and then output a signal based on the result. They can, for example, output a 1 if both incoming signals are a 1 or a 0, or if either or neither of them is a 1, among other “rules.” Billions of individual logic gates are crammed into chips to create processors, memory and other electronic components.

Logic gates don’t work instantaneously though – there’s a delay on the order of nanoseconds as they process the inputs. That’s plenty fast enough for modern computers, but there’s always room for improvement. And now the Rochester team’s new logic gates blow them out of the water, processing information in mere femtoseconds, which are a million times shorter than nanoseconds.

[upchuck]

This is the graphene ping list.

Click Private Reply below to join or leave this list.

Interesting: 10 Uses for Graphene.

[blueunicorn6]

I put a new gate on the backyard fence, but I don’t think the computer got faster,

[DannyTN]

Great! I want AI to consider many possible solutions. Not just the ones that work by eliminating man.

[WeaslesRippedMyFlesh]

If it only swings one way its a diode.

[dblshot]

So I can hit the wrong key and the error will occur a million times faster.

[wally_bert]

Microsoft will come out with a bloated operating system that will reduce this to 386 speeds.

[TexasGator]

“If it only swings one way its a diode.”

My gate only swings one way but you can walk through both ways.

[butlerweave]

so did Moore’s Law jump out the window ?

[upchuck]

:)

[rhinohunter]

Hmmm…. Perhaps this is the real reason for the collapse of crypto….

[Mark]

Hurray! New voting machines coming!

[Secret Agent Man]

Microsoft can blue screen your computer so much faster now.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

It will be The Big Bang of the Blue Screen of Death.

[Yossarian]

From the article:

To reach these extreme speeds, the team made junctions consisting of a graphene wire connecting two gold electrodes. When the graphene was zapped with synchronized pairs of laser pulses, electrons in the material were excited, sending them zipping off towards one of the electrodes, generating an electrical current.

By adjusting the phase of the laser pulses, the team was able to generate a burst of one of two types of charge carriers, which would either add up or cancel each other out – the former can be considered a 1 output and the latter a 0. The end result is an ultrafast logic gate, marking the first proof of concept of an as-yet theoretical field known as lightwave electronics.

So they have photons (an optical system) creating a fast switch resulting in the production of electrons (an optical system).

Some basic questions:

1. To perform logic operations, you need to "adjust the phase of the laser pulses" - by what method? Costing how much space and power?
2. For one device to drive the inputs of the next device, you have to convert electrons to photons (laser pulses) - by what method? Costing how much space and power?
3. The majority of cycle time in a synchronous circuit is taken by the "interconnect" that transfers signals between circuits, and then at the end of a clock cycle, into a "flop" or a "memory" for safekeeping until the launch of the next clock edge. This technology doesn't tackle that.

The tech may have some applications, but the headline is bogus clickbait.

-Yossarian
(Very Experienced Chip Designer)

[BiglyCommentary]

Hasn’t there been work on using light for the interconnects?

[TheCipher]

If it only swings one way its a diode.

But with the woke policies of the Biden regime, it will soon be illegal to make logic gates that only swing one way. They will require manufactures to make all gates swing both ways.

[WMarshal]

"If it only swings one way its a diode."

I guess I am a diodesexual.

[WeaslesRippedMyFlesh]

But with the woke policies of the Biden regime, it will soon be illegal to make logic gates that only swing one way. They will require manufactures to make all gates swing both ways.

Biode

[null and void]

ping