Submitted by Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday said it has invented a revolutionary computer chip that uses nanotechnology to achieve a significant performance boost. Researchers at the world’s largest computer maker said the new approach can allow an eightfold increase in the number of transistors that can be squeezed onto a variety of programmable chips, while bringing savings in energy consumption.
It never ceases to amaze me. Every few years someone from the chip development field says that they know where their going in the next five or ten years, but after that, we are in big trouble. Other naysayers claim we’ve plateaued already. Without fail, something unexpected comes along and proves them wrong.
I’m additionally happy to see it come from HP. I was under the impression they had traded their research departments in for marketing to become the next Dell.
Here’s a link with more detail:
http://eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=19690101…
Even if it’s for FPGA only, it’s still an interesting discovery if it pans out.
Next step, Quantum Processing!
How one reaches the conclusion that this discovery will enhance performance? from the articles provided, the only improvement mentioned is the number of transistors on chip. The computational units will remain at 45 nanometers, but the signaling circuit will be greatly reduced in size. Does that reduction account for the speed increase?
> Does that reduction account for the speed increase?
Yes. Parasitic RC delays reduced and the removal of a lot of transistors from signal propagation paths.
Edited 2007-01-17 14:11