Slashdot Mirror
Sun Working to Eliminate Circuit Boards
lokedhs writes "Sun Microsystems is coming out with new chips without connectors. According to the article, this will have a lot of advantages: 'Performance, for instance, could greatly escalate because the speed of transferring data among chips and the number of channels for the transfers would increase. Energy consumption could also decline. Just as important, overall costs could fall, because defective chips could be removed like Scrabble tiles.' This technology will also lead to new CPU's without cache: 'The technique could also allow designers to remove the cache--the large pool of memory currently found on the processor--and put it on a separate chip. Caches were integrated onto processors to amplify bandwidth. Adding cache, however, bumps up manufacturing costs, as it greatly increases the number of transistors. With the bandwidth constraint gone, caches could once again be made independent without it having an impact on performance.'"
so basically they want to stack the chips? umm, heat?
They should get together with Pringles or Lays -- they've both been doing this for a while...
I figured Sun would have laid off their entire R&D department by now :)
Love,
Zaq
This wireless chips integrated for a purpose thing reminds me of Replicators
Either way, I'm thrilled and spooked.
Just as important, overall costs could fall, because defective chips could be removed like Scrabble tiles.
With my luck I'll get a dead Pentium Z or Q that I just can't get rid of.
The angel in the oatmeal.
"There is a huge need for higher-bandwidth kind of chips," Robert Drost, a senior researcher at Sun Labs, said at an open house last week. "Rather than have the chips soldered onto a printed circuit board, the printed circuit board is taken out of the system."
And in other news, scientists are developing a computer with no electronic parts at all!
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Wow, this announcement reminds me of an awesome book I just read: http://www.kuro5hin.org/....
kuro5hin link on slashdot? Go fark yourself.
Let's see, in 2 weeks the've anounced that they were looking a buying Novell and getting rid of circuit boards. I guess a positronic brain will be next.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
...as will your friendly neighborhood competitor, spy organization, etc. And you thought the Tempest effect was bad.
It is strikingly funny. Makes me wonder if they were planning a flux capacitive coupling.
Moreover if capacitance and and inductance have opposite signs then would a capacitive inductance coupling be manifestly real (1/j *j =1)? If it is purely real can it transmit information?
I work in a Faraday Cage, you insensitive cl... err... you insightful... uh...
Since you can "upgrade" your cache by replacing a peer-chip, now you can pay-as-you-go.
Wow, were back to my old 386 PC!
-- "Makes Little Debbie look like a pile of puke!" - Moe Szyslak
As long as they don't bring olestra into the mix.
It's only a special service given to subscribers. All of us freeloaders have to put up with the normal, always-on service.
The next 503 error will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
I've managed to 'Eliminate Circuit Boards' without even trying in the past. I need a better soldering iron... and to control my temper
Sun service engineer: I'm trying to fix this CPU, but all I have is sky pieces, anyone have a piece with a little bit of a boat?