This very short summary will look at the "Future of Computing" from a more fundamental level, that being what researchers and research is being done in the area of Very Large Scale Integration. In particular, what is on the horizon, at least at the college research level, and why we must eventually change direction.For those who are not in the "loop" of things, there are conferences and symposiums in the field of electrical engineering and computer science practically year round. There are so many subgroups of the aforementioned disciplines that even the ACM has their own "special interest groups" group. This year we were lucky to have the IEEE computer society annual symposium on VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) "Emerging Trends in VLSI Systems Design" [1]in town, and I attended. Here I highlight a few presentations given and share my thoughts on at least what people in research think of things to come in regards to semiconductors and layouts.
First of all I wish to point out that I will not be going over the gory details, nor will I present a recap of all of the papers and presentations, as I am sure that most of them would bore the normal computer user and even most uber geeks to no end. I will however, present some ideas proposed, recurring themes that were mentioned throughout the symposium and discuss the key speakers presentation.
The key speaker for the symposium was Dr. Kamran Eshraghian (Director and Distinguished Professor, Electron Science Research Institute, Edith Cowan University, Australia). For anyone who has taken any VLSI or CMOS course, this name is familiar. Indeed, some call him the grandfather of CMOS as he wrote the book on it[2]. His presentation was entitled "Towards Integrated Intelligent MicroPhotonic Systems". Before we get to my comments I would like to say that I have had many professors in the past give presentations, and his was most striking. He was truly enthusiastic about it (without being overly so), which gave a sense of realism and excitement about his topic. He also sprinkled his talk with humor (not of the super-geeky nature either) which is something many professors can learn from. He had our attention for the duration of the speech, which is quite a feat in a room full of engineers with laptops and food.
Dr. Eshraghian's introduction was so thought provoking that it was hard to concentrate on what he was saying for a few minutes after it. He began be recalling when he started in his journey on VLSI and CMOS technology, and in writing his book and his research. He told of the mistaken future projections that were made, specifically the idea in the early 1980's that MOS transistors (which is what every CPU today is built upon) would hit a brick wall at 140nm. (0.14 micron processing), even going so far as to say that we will never be able to get to that size. As the reader is probably aware, Intel, AMD and most others are working in the 130nm range now, and are ironing out the technical details of getting good yields and changing equipment for the 90nm range. For those who really do not know what this means see the bottom notes "Length and Width: confusion" at the end of this writing. After this he then tells the audience that he has yet another prediction. VLSI on the semiconductor is dead. He predicts that in or around 2040, there will be an end to MOS technology in terms of shrinking the transistor any more. Of course, being a physics major I have to agree. There will be a point in time at which we can go no smaller. For example, a single electron transistor. There is no way to make a standard electrical transistor smaller than this. This is a hard reality. This is a harder reality for the PhD. student studying VLSI. Of course, Dr. Eshraghian admits that his previous "great prediction" was wrong before, but it is inevitable that we will reach the physical limitation of making transistors smaller, and indeed major companies are making them smaller just as fast as they can. And they have a LOT of resources to do so.
He then broke into what he is working on now, which is the combination of nanoscale photonics and electronics. In the past people have tried to get full switching and combinational logic from light alone. In many (if not all) situations, this presents serious problems. Most of the past devices have been mechanically or electrically controlled reflectors of some sort or another. His research is more in tune to electronics which interface with nanochemistry and are either controlled by light or are light controllers. Of course, at this scale, one can dream up many future uses for such technology (molecular study, cancer fighting agents, smart dust, etc, etc). All of these will, of course, be tied into a large network. Walls and in fact entire buildings will be "online". Wearable sensors can give vital stats or change the way a pacemaker works on the fly. Energy management could be smart due to the huge array of sensors spread throughout the entire energy network (due to the small size, and network ability of them). Hoe you say does all of this come together? Well, for the most part, the details were hidden to many by a PowerPoint presentation which of course shields us from the gory details[3], but in a nutshell, the interfacing of light with other materials can be used to build precision measuring equipment, fine process tooling, and diagnostic equipment. If photonics, microelectronics and chemistry are stirred in the pot, the resulting research can build devices that can help mankind in all areas of life (does that sound like marketing?).
- "VLSI Symposium, Page 1/2"
- "VLSI Symposium, Page 2/2"
