Slashdot Mirror
Experimental Transistor Breaks 600 Gigahertz
neutron_p writes "The goal of a terahertz transistor for high-speed computing and communications applications could now be within reach. A new type of transistor structure, invented by scientists at the University of Illinois, has broken the 600 gigahertz speed barrier.
A new type of transistor - built from indium phosphide and indium gallium arsenide - is designed with a compositionally graded collector, base and emitter to reduce transit time and improve current density. With their pseudomorphic heterojunction bipolar transistor, the researchers have demonstrated a speed of 604 gigahertz - the fastest transistor operation to date."
And is forced to pay for their replacement as well as 100 hours community service.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
can it be overclocked?
sulli
RTFJ.
their pseudomorphic heterojunction bipolar transistor
*blank stare*
What now? It's pronounced nu-cu-lar!
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
Sure...it's fast now, but just wait until it goes into its depressive phase...
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Yeah, because after the first 600 GHz, the next 400 GHz are a piece of cake.
Just in time for Longhorn!
Are you...Are you some kind of genius?
No, ma'am, I'm just a regular Slashdot reader.
If we assumed that all transistors on a chip (say a P4) were this type of transistor, and could run at 600 GHz, I know there is time required for a signal to cross all of these transistors, etc., and that some chips have a billion transistors on them, how fast could the current chips run with these transistors?
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
They'll be clearly the best engineering team, but will lose in the finals to the more talented squad from MIT.
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
More and more we here about these new HBT circuits that are faster than all get out.
The truth is that nothing will replace CMOS anytime soon. The infrastructure is already there, and it is being optimized over and over again and has a huge work force to man it.
I once heard someone ask Intel is they ever plan to switch to HBT for speed. Their response is, and will probably be for a while, that why would they switch technologies after investing $50 billion a year in their CMOS foundries etc.
These advancements may never make it to the point that the average consumer will take notice of them.
And it may be that these academic inventions will never find any market relevance.
Man, that was Final Jeopardy's question last night! Where was this post when I needed it?
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
OK, I cannot RTFM right now as it is /.ed, but:
This sounds an awful lot like they are giving the zero-gain bandwidth of the transistor - the frequency at which the transistor does NOT amplfy a signal anymore.
So, at 599GHz the transistor will amplify a little. At 600 GHz the transistor takes as much power to drive the input as it is able to switch at the output. At 601 GHz the transistor takes more power to control than it can switch.
Given a 600 GHz zero-gain bandwidth transistor you ARE NOT going to make a 600 GHz clockspeed processor.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Even worse, over 100 watts of the power is lost to heat!
For all practical purposes, ALL the power is "lost" to heat. Information has SOME thermodynamic value, but it's pretty damn small.
If you have a computer that draws 500 watts of power, you have a 499.99999(etc) watt heater.
IMO you are correct that Intel/Microchip/AMD aren't going to change their processes without a damned good reason. But PC parts and logic circuits aren't the only thing transistors go into.
How about the RF modulators/demodulators in all cell-phones, the RF amps in same, the special-purpose chips, regulators, detectors, buffers, amplifiers, etc that mfgrs still crank out by the butt-load, etc?
Personally, I'd really get off on an op-amp designed around these puppies! Imagine the gain-bandwidth product (eff-sub-Tee)!
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
Another article covering it here [www.newscientist.org].
The transistors in a 3.4 GHz chip are capable of switching faster than 3.4 GHz. The chip as a whole runs at that particular speed because heat dissipation becomes problematic at higher speeds. The individual components are there, but we haven't figured out how to put them all together yet to achieve higher speeds. A processor is MUCH more complicated than a single transistor... Don't expect to see 600 GHz chips made out of 600 GHz transistors. Once we get to 10 THz transistors, you might start thinking about 600 Ghz chips...
I just looked on Agilent's website and they don't seem to have any 600,000 MHz oscilloscopes for sale. I wonder how they tested this thing? A string of divider flipflops, perhaps?
Nexsan Technologies SATA RAID
No microprocessor any time soon is likely to be constructed using bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) such as this one, pseudomorphic or otherwise. Microprocessors are generally constructed using metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), in a power-conserving organizational standard known as complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS).
the researchers have demonstrated a speed of 604 gigahertz - the fastest transistor operation to date.
How does one measure 604 gigahertz? Just asking.
Filters of known frequency response can be made by knowing only their geometry. Pass the signal through several filters of different frequency responses (one at a time) and feed the output of the filter into a resistive material. Measure the temperature of the resistive material. The peak frequency of the filter which warms the resistive material the most is the (approximate) frequency being generated.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Our hero, Milton Feng, has discoverred a plot by the evil Terahertz gang to break the Universe's barier.
Pseudomorphic, the evil gang leader, has invented a new device to break through the barrier. "I will cause the failure of all the communication devices and computers." He cries. His sidekick, Heterojunction, says "I will collect the indium the we need to finish our ultimate machine!"
Pseudo's girlfriend, Bipolar Transistor, has a bag full of arsenide and is on the lookout to kill anyone foolish enough to interfere.
Milton stealthily invades the enemy base, where he overhears that the Terahertz gang will strike the bandgap in selected areas. After he finds this out, he speeds his electron flow to warn the others.
But what he doesn't know is that while his group of heroes is made of dissimilar and equally spunky men, the Pseudomorphic has his gang thoroughly doped.
Can our hero improve the compositional grading of the transistor components enough?
Or will the PseudoMoprh defeat them with his awesome signal charging time?
Find out on the next episode of "Moore's Law"!
-Ben