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Sun Working to Obsolete Motherboards

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the look-ma-no-solder dept.

perl_camel_jockey writes "Sun is developing a new technology that promises to increase computing power by eliminating the need for physical, soldered chip-to-chip connections on the motherboard. Called 'proximity communications', it portends the ability for chips to talk to one another wirelessly just by being next to each other. Potential applications in computer design abound. Apparently this is part of Sun's Hero program, recipient of a $50 million grant from DARPA's High Productivity Computing Systems program to rejuvenate supercomputing in the US and regain the lead lost to Japan, in particular to NEC's Earth Simulator, ranked as the most powerful supercomputer in the world."

20 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. In other news.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot Microsystems is working hard on a system to eliminate duplicate postings. They hope to have the system working by early 2008.

  2. DUPE by Drakon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...
    You'd think that since they ask subscribers to email them if there's any problem with the story, they'd pay attention when we email them...
    *sigh*

    --
    Buttsex.
    1. Re:DUPE by johnhennessy · · Score: 4, Interesting


      How about allowing subscribers to moderate stories before they hit the main site.

      People who are really busy could browse at +5 "Don't do anything else until you read this !!!" while people with loads of time (or in college) could browse at normal levels.

      Oh, and as a plus, you would eliminate dupes as well.

      --
      [ Monday is a terrible way to spend one seventh of your life. ]
    2. Re:DUPE by cachorro · · Score: 4, Funny

      I wonder how much more Sun would need to pay to get this article posted a third time.

  3. Groundhog day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think this has happened before...

    1. Re:Groundhog day by silverz · · Score: 4, Funny

      A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.

  4. Slashdot working by sien · · Score: 4, Funny

    To obsolete grammar!

  5. Pride by Hypharse · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Nothing like damaged pride to get the government to push along technology. Without Japan's competition this would probably not have happened. All we need is for Russia to cure a type of cancer using stem cells and congress would pass a law funding it the next day.

    About obsolete motherboards I have my doubts though. The Von Neumann (may be spelled wrong) model has been around for a long time because it has proven to work and it also supplies a lot of companies with revenue. If you only have a single chip, then a lot of companies are going to lose money and they won't like that. In fact there may be a silver lining in this that it will push motherboard manufacturers even further for fear of being wiped out by this type of technology.

  6. Am I missing something? by physicsphairy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "it portends the ability for chips to talk to one another wirelessly just by being next to each other."

    Well, unless each chip comes equipped with its own miniaturized nuclear reactor, aren't they still all going to have to have leads running to the powersupply?

    I don't mean to be a heckler, but are you really "doing away" with the motherboard or just reducing it to a voltage bus with transmitters and receivers replacing some of the input and output pins?

    --
    When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
    1. Re:Am I missing something? by syukton · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The system could be inductively charged.

      You can transmit power as well as signals without wire. Really, all a singal is, is waveform-modified electromagnetic radiation. Radio transmission towers have their outputs measured in Watts, computers have their power consumption measured in, you guessed it, watts. Whether it's induction or using RF technology to energize the chips, it's entirely feasible *and* possible.

      I'm all for doing away with the motherboard and the wires all together anyhow. And jumpers too, I hate those little bastards.

      --
      Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
  7. Worried... by rpbailey1642 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I might just be horribly ignorant, so please inform me...security? Even though all it is transferring is system calls and such, I am certain that there are ways to back-engineer what the computer is doing at that time by reading the (very faint, I'm sure) wireless signals. Again, I do not know, so will someone please enlighten me? What exactly is going on, what are the security ramifications?

    1. Re:Worried... by ryouki · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I dont think there is much to be worried about. The system the article discribes seems to be using capasitors spaning 2 chips to interconnect components on the system. One plate on each chip. The gap between the chips woudld work like a dieletric on a normal cap.

      I don't think they are trying to make a small computer with bluetooth or wifi glueing components together. Cables have more bandwidth than wireless.

      The security riskes for these "wireless" connections would be no more than that of a normal capacitor of the same size.

    2. Re:Worried... by Asic+Eng · · Score: 4, Informative
      You have many hundreds of transmitters next to each other in the space of just a few square milimeters. Their transmission power needs to be so low that they don't interfere with their neighbours. The mix of signals which radiate off from that arrangement should be close to impossible to decode.

      In any case, in conventional devices the pins will also work as (very low-power) transmitters, too. So once you've found a method of decoding this signal mix, you can probably get at the information on conventional chips, too.

  8. I see it now... ;-) by Henk+Poley · · Score: 5, Funny

    Honey, I'll warm you something in the microwave!

    Noooo...

    [Beep] rebooting... grmbl...

  9. Great opportunity for Sun by murr · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sun should find this project rather easy going - their motherboards ARE already pretty obsolete anyway.

  10. Re:Sun Invents a new computer form factor by Metallic+Matty · · Score: 4, Funny

    The downside is that kids can no longer tell the difference between their candy bags and your new UBER-1337 computers.

    I got a rock.

  11. Re:uhm... i can see it now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dupe story...$1

    Overused Mastercard joke....$10

    Knowing that WegianWarrior still lives with his mom...priceless

  12. Re:uhm... i can see it now by ca1v1n · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, since the system uses capacitive coupling, you'd have a much bigger problem with the ionized particles released by the vacuum cleaner. The $200 cabinet should keep your system running quite happily.

    --
    WARNING: there is a trojan on your
  13. This isn't about disconnected chips by Julian+Morrison · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's about increasing chip-to-chip bandwidth by using capacitative coupling instead of (comparatively huge) physical wires. This means the chips would have to be more closely connected, probably slotting together like lego bricks.

  14. Re:Sorry. by tiled_rainbows · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't care if it's in the dictionary or not. "Obsolete" is not a verb, damnit.

    The first time I read the headline I thought it meant something like "Sun is working with obsolete motherboards". What would be wrong with "Sun working to make motherboards obsolete"? Whoo, five more characters to read, but it's worth it.

    Maybe it's because I'm English, I don't know, but I do know that when I am king I will de-obsolete public flogging for people who debase the language thus.

    --

    evil math within Nature's Cubic Creation!