New Chip Design Promises Terahertz Processors

InformationWeek ^ | Aug 18, 2006 | Thomas Claburn

[annie laurie]

Proponents of the new Ballistic Deflection Transistor technology say it will produce computers that are faster, more powerful, and more efficient at using power.

Scientists at the University of Rochester have come up with a new "ballistic computing" chip design that could lead to 3,000-gigahertz — that's 3-terahertz — processors that produce very little heat.

Marc Feldman, professor of computer engineering at the University, characterizes the design, the Ballistic Deflection Transistor (BDT), as radical. "There's a real problem for standard transistors to keep shrinking," he says. The BDT doesn't have a capacitance layer that becomes problematic at very small scales the way current transistor designs do.

Quentin Diduck, the graduate student at the University who came up with the idea, describes the BDT as the next step on the evolutionary track after relays, tubes, and semiconductors.

The BDT, according to the University of Rochester, "[bounces] the electrons into their chosen trajectories — using inertia to redirect for 'free,' instead of wrestling the electrons into place with brute energy." It functions more as an intersection for electrons than as a device that expends energy to stop and start them. Because of this approach, far less power is required.

The BDT relies on a layer of a semiconductor material called a "2D electron gas," which facilitates the transit of electrons without the interference of impurities.

Feldman says he expects the BDT to put out very little heat. "We don't have the mathematics to predict how small this is going to be," he says. "But the currents it would take are very small. So the power has to be small."

The heat generation for early versions of the design should be around a few microwatts per transistor, Feldman estimates, orders of magnitude less than current high-frequency transistors. "Now that's without doing any tricks to cut down the power," he says. "There are great opportunities for low-power design. But that's the future."

Companies that maintain large, energy-hungry data centers like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, to name a few, are no doubt looking forward to that day.

The BDT still has a ways to go before it ends up in PCs and servers, however. "Up to now this has been a one-graduate-student effort," explains Feldman. "We don't have any transistor behavior yet, but probably soon."

The National Science Foundation has just granted the University of Rochester team $1.1 million to develop a prototype.

[null and void]

Great. Now my 'puter can go ballistic...

[martin_fierro]

Water-cooled CPU.

Just damn.

[null and void]

ping

[Dumpster Baby]

AND water cooled video chips AND water cooled RAM modules. The overclockers know how to push the limits on speed versus heat dissipation.

I wish I could afford to do this, sigh. :^)

[Right Wing Assault]

Grammar police:

a ways to go

Should be " a WAY to go". You shouldn't use "a" with a plural.

[headstamp]

Put the whole computer in the refrigerator. LOL

[Billthedrill]

Hokey smokes! My Visicalc spreadsheets are gonna fly!

[annie laurie]

The sequel: Grammar nitpickers vs grammar police ...

"You shouldn't use "a" with a plural"

Since I'm not the author of the article, you should've said:

"One shouldn't use 'a' with a plural"

Sorry, couldn't resist ;-)

[Richard Kimball]

Wht say ye, Martin? Is this smoke and mirrors, rabbits and top hats, or the real deal?

I think there are going to be some incredible breakthroughs in the next few years.

[Viking2002]

Cost is the only reason why my new rig on the bench in my computer shop isn't water-cooled. But I have one honkin' Cooler Master fan and heat sink on that sucker. When it's done, I gotta post a few pics. The effects pimp job I did on it will make Steven Spielberg green with envy. LOL All black, with blue LED's (right down to the chrome fan grille bolts having blue LED's in the center and all five 90mm fans), LED ground effects, and blue LCD readouts on the front panel hard drive coolers and fan controllers. And a blue-backlit keyboard with heads-up LCD display, and optical mouse with blue LED-lit baffles and cooling fan. Looks like a bloody UFO landed. My wife is already bitching about how much light it'll throw off. I shut her up when I told her that I'll put a porthole on top and strap in a couple of cold cathode tubes if she didn't clamp up her piehole. LMAO

[Revolting cat!]

You shouldn't use "a" with a plural.

Sigh. Tell it to the editors ("editors" or "editor"?) of every newspaper in the country these days. Every one! Every morning I read somewhere "there are a lot..." and "there is many...", or equivalents of such idiocies, which, incidentally, have their advocates here.

[SFConservative]

"a ways to go" is very common colloquial usage. 749,000 references on Google can't be wrong.

"In American English ways is often used as an equivalent of way in phrases such as a long ways to go. The usage is acceptable but is usually considered informal." - The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language

[Right Wing Assault]

"One shouldn't use 'a' with a plural"

I was indirectly addressing the author through you;-)

[Dumpster Baby]

I'm seen pictures of "theme" mods on various web sites, and can't believe some of that stuff. LOL

My esthetic tastes run to classic military electronics style, but have never seen a pc modded like that. Doom theme mods, yes, but no Missile Launch Control Room themes. :^)

[Right Wing Assault]

749,000 references on Google can't be wrong.

I just searched "Bush is a moron" on Google and got 78,900 hits. They can't be wrong, can they?

[Viking2002]

Gimme a minute to find the link - I can show you a case (retail) that looks like an army ammo can.

[Viking2002]

Here's one:

[annie laurie]

I know; I just couldn't let that one pass without comment ;-)

All in good fun :)

[Dumpster Baby]

Wow, that's wild! I saw a mod done in a big 20mm ammo can, but it was a one of a kind. Let me backtrack from your pic and see who that is.