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Frozen Chip from IBM hits 500 GHz

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the there's-a-catch-,,, dept.

sideshow2004 writes "EETimes is reporting this morning that IBM and Georiga Tech have demonstrated a 500 GHz Silicon-germanium (SiGe) chip, operating at 4.5 Kelvins. The 'frozen chip' was fabricated by IBM on 200mm wafers, and, at room temperature, the circuits operated at approximately 350 GHz."

6 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I RTFA.. by peragrin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Several cell phones just run at real time. So they really do run at 2.4 ghz for the signal processor, while the system itself is on another chip at a different speed.

    REmember even though it's running at 2.4 ghz it's extremely dedicated and doesn't produce a lot of heat.

    --
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  2. Why? by reset_button · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's interesting, but wouldn't it be better to just use two of these chips at room temperature, rather than spend time/money/space on cooling the chip to 4.5 Kelvins?

  3. Can these these chips do any calculations? by the_humeister · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or have they just been fabricated to demonstrate that they can attain high GHz rates?

  4. Re:I RTFA.. by Tim+C · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think that's the point. Reading between the lines, this isn't about general-purpose CPU chips, this is about specialised signal processors. In other words, don't expect to be buying an Intel or AMD chip running at 30+GHz anytime soon.

    --
    It's official. Most of you are morons.
  5. Joke/Your Head by DragonHawk · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You do know Moore's Law relates to the number of transistors on a chip, and doesn't have anything to do with clock speed, right?

    You do know that jokes are meant to be funny, and don't have to be factually accurate, right?
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    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
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  6. Re:computers in space by Skinny+Rav · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Since these temperatures only occurs naturally in space, why not build a super, big cluster of these things, hook them up to a satallite and launch it into orbit.


    Maybe because heat dissipation in space is poor? I know you can do magic with water evaporation under such low pressure to dissipate heat, but how much water would you need to send up there to provide cooling for reasonable time?

    Cheers

    Raf