4 ms·

New CMOS chip can process both light and electricity

45 points by highsea 11y ago

PascLeRasc 11y ago
I appreciated the 12:36 AM time in the video - most researchers I know seem to work best after 10 at night.
legulere 11y ago
> The processor itself is a dual core RISC-V, an architecture used in academic circles; it's capable of operating in the gigahertz range. It's nice to see RISC-V getting adopted more and more. I wonder how long it will take until I will own a product with one or more RISC-V processors.
- _chris_ 11y ago
  This paper uses the open-source Rocket-chip processor (https://github.com/ucb-bar/rocket-chip https://github.com/ucb-bar/rocket-chip), which is the same processor being used (and modified) by lowRISC. So hopefully you can buy RISC-V in the not-to-distant future!
williamjennings 11y ago
Here is the Nature paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature16454 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature16454
justifier 11y ago
Moving data around inside a computer means shoving it through wires, which have inherent bandwidth limitations and produce a lot of heat. Once that data hits a network, however, it often runs across optical hardware, which can send information long distances at high bandwidth without needing a dedicated nuclear reactor for power. is the goal reduced power consumption?
- _chris_ 11y ago
  It's both increased bandwidth and lower energy. It'd be useless if it blew the thermal budget to achieve the higher bandwidth.
  - justifier 11y ago
    can you explain the mechanism for the bandwidth increase? do the photovoltaics act as logic gates? doing calculations? if the mechanism that is controlling the optics is electric:both transmitting and receiving; it would seem the throughput would be the same as pure electric i understand fiber optic because light will travel a longer distance faster than an electric field propagated through wire, but these chips are built using atomic scale welding techniques(i) (o) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFhc8R_uO4&feature=youtu.be&t=2071 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFhc8R_uO4&feature=youtu.be...

45 points by highsea 11y ago

I appreciated the 12:36 AM time in the video - most researchers I know seem to work best after 10 at night.

> The processor itself is a dual core RISC-V, an architecture used in academic circles; it's capable of operating in the gigahertz range. It's nice to see RISC-V getting adopted more and more. I wonder how long it will take until I will own a product with one or more RISC-V processors.

_chris_ 11y ago
This paper uses the open-source Rocket-chip processor (https://github.com/ucb-bar/rocket-chip https://github.com/ucb-bar/rocket-chip), which is the same processor being used (and modified) by lowRISC. So hopefully you can buy RISC-V in the not-to-distant future!

williamjennings 11y ago

Here is the Nature paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature16454 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature16454

justifier 11y ago

Moving data around inside a computer means shoving it through wires, which have inherent bandwidth limitations and produce a lot of heat. Once that data hits a network, however, it often runs across optical hardware, which can send information long distances at high bandwidth without needing a dedicated nuclear reactor for power. is the goal reduced power consumption?

_chris_ 11y ago
It's both increased bandwidth and lower energy. It'd be useless if it blew the thermal budget to achieve the higher bandwidth.
- justifier 11y ago
  can you explain the mechanism for the bandwidth increase? do the photovoltaics act as logic gates? doing calculations? if the mechanism that is controlling the optics is electric:both transmitting and receiving; it would seem the throughput would be the same as pure electric i understand fiber optic because light will travel a longer distance faster than an electric field propagated through wire, but these chips are built using atomic scale welding techniques(i) (o) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFhc8R_uO4&feature=youtu.be&t=2071 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFhc8R_uO4&feature=youtu.be...