IBM's Snowflake Microchips

Phantom of the Opera writes "The BBC reports that using self-assembled polymers and copying natural patterns, IBM hopes to have microchips that are 30% faster and consume 15% less energy. The secret? Adding a little nothing in all the right places."

Comments

Boo

[fatduck]

What happened to the provocative, editorializing troll-summaries? How am I supposed to start a heated argument based purely on speculation? You give me what, two sentences, like you want me to read TFA? Well, fuck you. Self-assembling polymers? Copying natural patterns? Who makes these things, IBM, or CYBERDYNE? What if these get into the hands of our children? Will the next school shooting be 30% faster and 15% more efficient?

Re:Boo

[pipingguy]

[ IBM ] [ Hardware ] [ Technology ]

fatduck writes:
"What happened to the provocative, editorializing troll-summaries? How am I supposed to start a heated argument based purely on speculation? You give me what, two sentences, like you want me to read TFA? Well, fuck you. Self-assembling polymers? Copying natural patterns? Who makes these things, IBM, or CYBERDYNE? What if these get into the hands of our children? Will the next school shooting be 30% faster and 15% more efficient?"

I wonder what the Slashdot community will say about this?

> [+] hardware, ibm, technology (tagging beta)

Re:Boo

[RealGrouchy]

Yeah, it's a little editorial tactic called "putting a little nothing in all the right places".

- RG>

Re:Boo

[someone1234]

I guess you miss the 'snowflake in hell' notes?

Nature's Little Inventor

[MankyD]

I know it comes as a surprise to no one that Mother Nature has some truly incredible engineering at work. I still, however, find it fascinating and amazing when examples like this come to light; I feel we will continue to see a lot more discoveries like this for the foreseeable future

I have two questions for Slashdot: Are there any other unique examples of learning from nature that you'd like to bring to light? And on a different note, do you think nature has perfected certain tasks and that its engineering can not be surprassed (at least in some areas), or are there things that even nature hasn't perfected?

Re:Nature's Little Inventor

[Shihar]

I think it is safe to say that 'nature' has not 'perfected' anything. Certainly there is a lot out there to be inspired by, but when it comes down to it nature performs a lot of guess and check to solve problems (although, even the use of the word problems is debatable, nature isn't a think that has problems).

Personally, I think that you can step back and view all of 'nature' and include humanity. If you do, I think you will come to the surprising conclusion that humans are just another step on the path. I am not saying the path leads anywhere, but you see a sort of progression going on.

Picture the universe how it was. It used to just be a mess of boring old atom parts. The parts formed up into atoms, and the atoms started forming up into molecules. Now, there are some molecules out there that form pretty easily. Hydrogen merrily grabs other hydrogens, carbon loves a pair of oxygen, so and and so forth. We are still talking about a pretty simple universe. At some point more interesting things started to happen. These molecules started to form into more complex molecules. Long complex strands of organic molecules started popping up (among other things). The universe is starting to get a little more diverse at this point. On Earth, at some point, these organic molecules started to show some really crazy behavior. They started self assembling into even more complex structures and forms. We have a sort of non-biotic evolution going on that slowly leads to more complex molecules and systems of molecules. At some point, we get the first bits and pieces of life.

Once life shows up, things really kick into over drive. This slow multi-billion year process that got us basic organic molecules explodes as pieces of the universe come together to form the truly complex chemical system that makes up life. Evolution takes over and life begins to change rapidly. We are still talking about single celled organisms. At some point in a not-too-distant-past (well, on a cosmic scale) life started to get really complex, really quickly, as multi-celled organisms burst onto the scene. At some point, in just a blink of an eye on the cosmic scale, humans popped up from the evolution of multi-celled life.

With the introduction of humans, this natural evolution towards complexity dramatically speeds up. Non-biotic evolution was slow. Biotic evolution was faster, but still took millions of years. Intelligence though... that was fast. Where evolution found it was by tedious chance, intelligence could find its way through rapid (although messy) computation. Throw in language and writing which allows easier data retention, and intelligence gets even faster.

There is a theme to this. Greater complexity, faster and faster. Personally, I think that we are on the cusp of the next great revolution in this universe. In the same way the universe moving from random molecules bumping around to evolution, and moving from evolution to intelligence was a dramatic change, I think we are on the cusp of the next revolution. The next revolution is of course strong AI, which can create ever accelerating growth in intelligence. I am not saying it is good or bad, just that it is next. I think to separate intelligence and (eventually) AI from evolution and molecules randomly bouncing off each other misses a larger trend. It isn't human Vs inhuman, it is the universe rapidly finding better ways to create more complex systems, and create them faster and faster.

So, to go back to the original poster... I don't think you really can separate the works of man from the works of nature. A computer is a work of nature at its finest. The fact that a computer is wrought from human intelligence doesn't make it any less an awesome work of nature then a monkey that got to be the way it is through evolution, or a molecule that got to be the way it is through a chemical reaction. The greatest work of nature (from my perspective of course, it isn't like 'nature' has a goal in mind) is human intelligence. That said, I doubt that intelligence is the last step on the path. I think the greatest works of nature are yet to come.

Re:Nature's Little Inventor

[lixee]

And on a different note, do you think nature has perfected certain tasks and that its engineering can not be surprassed (at least in some areas), or are there things that even nature hasn't perfected?

My, yes. The human body! Good luck getting anywhere close to that.

Re:Nature's Little Inventor

[FooAtWFU]

On a cosmic timescale, I can agree with you about Strong AI. But, having spent the past semester (exam on Wednesday!) learning about the state of AI, I can indeed assure you that you will need to wait quite a while before you start to see anything really Strong AIish coming to pass. Maybe towards the end of my lifetime you'll start to see something decent, but I'm guessing not. And even if they do have something by then, consider that NIs (natural intelligences) take many years (decades!) to get to the point that they do. Some of that can probably be skipped for the artificial version, but I've got little reason to doubt training the things will be Fast at all.

Re:Nature's Little Inventor

[rm999]

You are talking about technological singularity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singula rity

I think it is a very interesting theory - basically it states that up to now we have had exponential growth in significant "paradigm" shifts. While the first human technologies took 1000s of years to develop, today there is some revolution in technology every few years.

Singularity claims that when AIs become smart enough to take over the human's role in designing technology (and themselves), we will experience something faster than exponential growth.

This is a very similar pattern to what happened with ICs. The first computers were meticulously hand-built by people. Within a few years, computer aided design helped humans build faster, more impressive computers in a fraction of the time. Chip synthesis tools now allow us to design chips with a few 100 lines of code. While chips have remained "only" exponential in growth, this is more of a limitation of the chemical and physical properties than the design limitations.

Re:Nature's Little Inventor

[alphamugwump]

The big problem with humans is we're so low bandwidth. We can type at, what, 50 WPM, and talk maybe twice that? If you gave an AI a reasonable connection to the internet, I thing you could train it a lot faster.

If there is going to be a singularity (I don't really see why there wouldn't) strong AI wouldn't be the really world-changing thing. Humanoid robots are way, way, old school, and not really that interesting. The interesting thing would be what would happen when humanity is networked together with a high-speed connection, without a bottleneck at the eyeballs.

Re:Nature's Little Inventor

[0100010001010011]

Lightning in sand -> injection molding.

I saw some stuff in college where they were studying fulgurites (the glass created when lightning hits sand) for the optimal method of injecting plastic into molds. Lighting will always take the path of least resistance. So you have a part you want to mold, they'd pack it full of sand and then hit it with artificial lightning. They'd then study the way that the lightning propagated through the sand to determine the way that all the injection lines should run.

Obligatory Simpsons reference

[The Hobo]

Ripped from snpp:

Homer, meanwhile, uses a pickaxe to make some speed holes in his own
car.

    Ned: Whatcha diddely-doin', neighbor?
Homer: Aw, putting speed holes in my car. Makes it go faster.
    Ned: Is that so? Well, gee, maybe the old Flanders-mobile could use
              some -- [a shot rings out] aah! [Ned collapses]
                [he gets up slowly] Wow! Lucky I always keep a bible close to
              my heart -- [boom!] aah! [Ned collapses]
                [he gets up] Ho ho, lucky I was wearing an extra large piece of
              the True Cross today. I think I'll go inside.
                [a shot hits Homer's pick axe]
Homer: What keeps doing that?
  Tony: I told you we should have bought more than three bullets. Let's
              just grab him!
-- Louie the henchman, not the marksman, "Homer the Clown"

Just like a snowflake.

[Anonymous Coward]

So, no two will be alike? Programming for them will be interesting.

Vacuum holes?

[Centurix]

Would this mean breaking one in half would make some kind of cool fizzing sound? Move over bubblewrap!

The process mimics...

[mateomiguel]

The process mimics the way snowflakes are developed

Does this mean that they drop the silicon from 3 miles up and then try to catch it on their tongues?

Re:The process mimics...

[Hanners1979]

Nope, it means you create a Beowulf cluster of them, and then throw them at somebody's head while they aren't looking.

Snoflakes and Solar Panels

[Ungrounded Lightning]

So IBM has come up with a manufacturing method using self-assembling molecules to produce regular arrays of 20 nanometer objects on the surface of a silicon wafer with near-perfect yeild. (I presume, since "growth" was involved, it would be possible to use it to construct similarly-spaced objects of sizes within a factor of about 3 to 4 of the size they chose for this process.)

And yesterday we saw a slashdot article referencing work at Rice U, Los Almos Labs, and others, where 5 to 8 nanometer quantum dots on the surface of phovoltaic cells could significantly multiply the efficiency (perhaps into the 60% range) by efficiently creating multiple electron-hole pairs per incoming photon.

Seems to me the two are just ASKING to be combined into an inexpensive manufacturing process for high-efficiency solar panels.

Doubling to quadrupling the output of solar panels while keeping the cost in the current ballpark might push photovoltaic past the cost-breakeven point compared to grid power for rural and even suburban housing loads. And that could lead to enough production to bring in additional economies of scale and drive the price point farther.

This could be big.

Mimicking Nature -

[HW_Hack]

to achieve less power consumption and more speed is the new-GHZ.

Hmmm - I need to make that a bit more snappy .....

New fab

[LarsWestergren]

In order to meet increased demands for hype, IBM also announces the construction of a new fab for hype construction. "For a long time we hoped that we might retrofit the Cell hype fab to construct Snowflake hype, it is now clear that this new processor demands a completely new fab to create the quality and quantity of hype needed. This new hype will be so overpowering every engineer and programmer will have to relearn everything or risk being left behind. We expect our Snowflake hype will outperform our closest competitor by close to 5000%. It will also be cheaper." IBM engineer Thor Larssen stated.

So...

[JonathanJooped]

White space always helps

Calm down, it's only a mask

[BooleanLobster]

FTA: "The process, called airgap, enables trillions of microscopic vacuum holes to be placed between the copper wire in chips to act as an insulator."

Copper wire is not inlaid into silicon chips, as far as I know. I don't think they meant copper wire.

This doesn't have anything to do with snowflakes or nature. Just a self-assembling polymer that can be used as a mask to etch holes in the oxide layer of the silicon chip, making the oxide a better insulator.

Re:Calm down, it's only a mask

[Chris Burke]

They mean copper wire. It isn't inlaid, it's deposited, but the result is still a copper conductor. It first saw use in microprocessors in the later nineties, and now it's used by all major cpu manufacturers instead of aluminum, which is what they used before.

Re:IBM:

[JensenDied]

Its time for the 11 O'clock news:
Global warming is showing signs of 30% growth with 15% decrease in greenhouse gas production.
-- Time Skip --
The global flooding theories are proven incorrect as the polar ice caps are turning directly into steam.
-- Time Skip --
Wolverine is found dead in the bathtub, with melted adamantium due to the heat. In other news Earth is now proclaimed hottest terrestrial planet, eat your heart out Venus.

Tweak the ratio?

[trawg]

I wonder if they can tweak the ratio so that the chips run 10% faster but consume 40% less energy. Chips are pretty fast now, but battery life is still a bit of an issue - I'd be really interested to see if they could eke a few more hours out of portable devices (for example) and I'd be happy to keep it at the same speed.

Re:You skipped a step

[somersault]

Who created the creator being though? I'm a Christian, and I do believe in God and that he created the universe etc, but it's just crazy to me that anything at all even exists, or ever did exist. Something has always existed. It's very strange.

I also don't see how people who believe in evolution etc don't see how if something evolves enough it would be a 'god' to us anyway. It seems that all these people choose to believe that we are the most advanced intelligence/power going, they want to feel in control.

OK Software geeks . . .

[moeinvt]

Now I am the Master!(EE)

I'll default to a "wait & see" perspective, but this has a firm basis in device physics.

One of the major speed limiting factors in microelectronics is capacitive loading. With the tiny scale of contemporary semiconductors "wire capacitance" has become the dominant delay factor. Since the wires are so close together, adjacent wires produce a parasitic capacitance effect(extra load on the circuits) similar to this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_plate_capaci tor

(The article on parasitic cap didn't say much)

As you can see, this capacitance varies directly with the size of the wires, is inversely proportional to the distance between them(shrinking all the time with new process technologies), and directly proportional to the "dielectric constant" of the material between them.

Air has a dielectric constant of ~1.00. Silicon Dioxide, the typical insulator in semiconductors is ~3.9.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-k

Other glass-like materials have been experimented with, but I haven't read about many successes.

So, essentially if you could "leave out" the SiO2 insulating material, you could reduce the parasitic capacitance of the wires by a factor of 3.9. Nothing to scoff at if you can actually pull it off.

Re:OK Software geeks . . .

[Gilmoure]

I'm just bummed the chips don't look like snow flakes. That would be cool.

Re:OK Software geeks . . .

[camg188]

The do on the inside, under an electon microscope.

But what of consistancy!

[Timberwolf0122]

If intel uses snowflake technology then no 1.9999998875 chips will be the same!