5 ms·
If an atom is .1 - .5nm. That means the transistor wires are about 2-10 atoms thick. About what Richard Feynman predicted in his "plenty of room at the bottom".
by nojvek 10y ago
If an atom is .1 - .5nm. That means the transistor wires are about 2-10 atoms thick. About what Richard Feynman predicted in his "plenty of room at the bottom". This is Amazing.
Is it possible to have a cube of 1nm transistors. Like a 100 million ^ 3. The cube would have size of 10cm w.d.h.
- bogomipz 10y agoI am curious how you arrived at the calculation that: "That means the transistor wires are about 2-10 atoms thick" Can you elaborate?
- crooked-v 10y agoIt's right in the article: this design uses a gate that's 1 nm thick. (1 ÷ .1) = 10.
- Pyxl101 10y ago> Is it possible to have a cube of 1nm transistors. Like a 100 million ^ 3. The cube would have size of 10cm w.d.h. Probably, but I suspect operating it would cause it to melt or explode :-) We could probably manufacturer 3D chips today (or more 3D than they are today), but from what I understand cooling them starts to become a major issue. (Not involved in chip design or manufacturing)
- socmag 10y agoYes, cooling would definitely be a problem. Perhaps a design like the Menger Sponge could help with that. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menger_sponge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menger_sponge
- Razengan 10y agoA total newb/layman question incoming; what exactly is the process that generates heat in CPUs? Are there any known/theoretical ways in which information be transmitted and processed at the atomic/subatomic/quantum level without generating any heat?
- pjc50 10y agoa) Resistance. Every switching action is effectively charging a small capacitor (the transistor gate) through a wire. The wire has nonzero resistance. It will also usually be travelling through the gate of one or more transistors, which have a nonzero resistance ('Rdson'). b) Theoretically, all computing that 'destroys' information (overwriting one register value with another) costs entropy, although we're nowhere near that level at the moment - orders of magnitude away. 'Reversible' computing would theoretically not incur that cost.
- iammyIP 10y agob) how is that theorethical? To change the bit information the old state needs to be 'lost' or dissipated as heat into the surroundings. How is this connected to a level from which we are orders of magnitude away (in which direction?).
- techdragon 10y agoExtending your final point. The effort to explore reversible computation technology is driven by a desire to fully minimise the energy cost of computation regardless of architectural details. Substrate or ISA make no difference, reversible computation operates under different rules of physics from non reversible computation. Quite a lot of quantum information theory stuff is involved so I'm going to stop elaborating since I'm merely a layman with more than average interest in the fascinating topic of reversible computation. Best anyone interested in learning further read more from experts who really know what they are saying.
- Poorboyrise 10y agoA collapsing transistor-cube ?! Well anecdotic, but last weekend i "small talked" with a physicist about tech, energy and drive technology - so we came to a point talking about "trendy hydrogen fuel cells, and he told me about the stored hydrogen collapsing in "big tanks". I asked him: "because of the reaction you would'nt use microwaves (protons) to cause maybe a controlled reaction... ?" - i left when my taxi came... ...saying: "it's not a bug, it's a..." (-;
- RangerScience 10y agoI don't know if it's possible, but it's usually called "computronium".
- chris_va 10y agoFor a CPU, you still need to address the transistors somehow. Chips aren't pure transistors, there are wires coming down from above, and that takes up a lot of space. As a result, vertical density doesn't scale as you might hope. For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit#/media/File:Cmos-chip_structure_in_2000s_(en).svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit#/media/File...