4 ms·

Physicist proposes a new type of computing at SXSW

95 points by chunky1994 13y ago

Permit 13y ago
It looks like the speaker, Josh Turner, gave a similar talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy7y6a1okd4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy7y6a1okd4
- chunky1994 13y ago
  Just as a point of observation. We go to the same school, we should connect some time.
- officialjunk 13y ago
  the quality of that video is much better than the official site's: https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/community/past-lectures/quantum-lightswitch-new-direction-ultrafast-electronics https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/community/past-lectures/quant...
grej 13y ago
When I clicked the link, I was certain it was going to be Stephen Wolfram. Glad to see I was wrong :) Nothing against the man. He's a genius - it's just that he's EVERYWHERE. In all seriousness, this looks really cool. It is yet to be seen which technology will be most cost effective and performant, but between optical computing, 3D transistors, and technologies such as this, the exponential rise in the price/performance of computing power looks like it is not going to stall out any time in the next 10-15 years.
- trhway 13y ago
  >the exponential rise in the price/performance of computing power looks like it is not going to stall out any time in the next 10-15 years. research is good, yet it isn't enough for progress. You need driving force like market competition. With AMD out of the game (hopefully temporarily) Intel, with Ivy Bridge, went of to sell smaller chips (instead of doubling the number of cores on the same area chip) for the same money and with Haswell they decided that they can sell it much longer before introducing new generation (Broadwell). We need AMD back, or much faster ARMs, or whatever to start breathing into Intel's neck again ...
  - GarvielLoken 13y ago
    The next revolution is widespread GPGPU programming, which can yield great increase in performance when leverage correctly. Java 8 already have libraries for HSA and Java 9 will support it out of the box. And this is AMD lead technology.
    - Avshalom 13y ago
      While i'm vaguely excited for HSA i'm pretty skeptical of anything that needs to be 'leveraged correctly' there's a history of sufficiently smart compilers not materializing.
      - sharpneli 13y ago
        Depends. Multithreading is a common method nowadays despite sufficiently smart compilers not existing. It just requires someone who knows what they are doing, just like good multithreaded code.
  - grej 13y ago
    True, and I love AMD and wish they were still competing effectively. No doubt if they were, the recent (relative) stagnation in chip price depreciation would not have been so pronounced. But it's important to remember how innovations such as these change the landscape for competition. As a large pseudo-monopoly, Intel can be complacent, but not indefinitely. While the barrier to entry is very high in chip fab, and maybe insurmountable by anyone assuming current chip designs, there are a lot of very well capitalized electronics corporations in the world. If they believe a new manufacturing process will be required for the next generation in chips and Intel's margins are too high, they may well seize upon the opportunity to go after it. This type of research it exactly what is needed to help sew the seeds for those next generation processor technologies that will help shake up the competitive landscape and dislodge the stodgier players who sit on high margins and care more for next quarter rather than the next decade.
  - gradi3nt 13y ago
    Market competition is good, but it isn't enough for progress either. Current microprocessors are quickly reaching fundamental physical limits. We will still see speed increases from architectural and algorithmic development, but not from faster (...5Ghz) processors.
- maxharris 13y ago
  When I clicked the link, I was certain it was going to be Stephen Wolfram. Tearing someone down in order to build someone else up makes no sense. Why not just cut the snide comment altogether?
  - Smaug123 13y ago
    I, too, was sure it was going to be Wolfram - I was going to comment to that effect, too, because it's faintly amusing that it's not Wolfram doing "a new kind of <thing>".
  - grej 13y ago
    My comment was hardly tearing down Wolfram. I stated pretty clearly that I have nothing against him and that he's a genius. I was simply pleased when I saw it was something different.
leni536 13y ago
Any link to the original scientific article this came from?
Zenst 13y ago
Isn't this just a flavour of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spintronics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spintronics ?
- gradi3nt 13y ago
  No. Spintronics still uses electron transport, but the electrons are spin polarized. Atoms aren't individually excited in spintronics.

95 points by chunky1994 13y ago

It looks like the speaker, Josh Turner, gave a similar talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy7y6a1okd4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy7y6a1okd4

chunky1994 13y ago
Just as a point of observation. We go to the same school, we should connect some time.
officialjunk 13y ago
the quality of that video is much better than the official site's: https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/community/past-lectures/quantum-lightswitch-new-direction-ultrafast-electronics https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/community/past-lectures/quant...

grej 13y ago

When I clicked the link, I was certain it was going to be Stephen Wolfram. Glad to see I was wrong :) Nothing against the man. He's a genius - it's just that he's EVERYWHERE. In all seriousness, this looks really cool. It is yet to be seen which technology will be most cost effective and performant, but between optical computing, 3D transistors, and technologies such as this, the exponential rise in the price/performance of computing power looks like it is not going to stall out any time in the next 10-15 years.

trhway 13y ago
>the exponential rise in the price/performance of computing power looks like it is not going to stall out any time in the next 10-15 years. research is good, yet it isn't enough for progress. You need driving force like market competition. With AMD out of the game (hopefully temporarily) Intel, with Ivy Bridge, went of to sell smaller chips (instead of doubling the number of cores on the same area chip) for the same money and with Haswell they decided that they can sell it much longer before introducing new generation (Broadwell). We need AMD back, or much faster ARMs, or whatever to start breathing into Intel's neck again ...
- GarvielLoken 13y ago
  The next revolution is widespread GPGPU programming, which can yield great increase in performance when leverage correctly. Java 8 already have libraries for HSA and Java 9 will support it out of the box. And this is AMD lead technology.
  - Avshalom 13y ago
    While i'm vaguely excited for HSA i'm pretty skeptical of anything that needs to be 'leveraged correctly' there's a history of sufficiently smart compilers not materializing.
    - sharpneli 13y ago
      Depends. Multithreading is a common method nowadays despite sufficiently smart compilers not existing. It just requires someone who knows what they are doing, just like good multithreaded code.
- grej 13y ago
  True, and I love AMD and wish they were still competing effectively. No doubt if they were, the recent (relative) stagnation in chip price depreciation would not have been so pronounced. But it's important to remember how innovations such as these change the landscape for competition. As a large pseudo-monopoly, Intel can be complacent, but not indefinitely. While the barrier to entry is very high in chip fab, and maybe insurmountable by anyone assuming current chip designs, there are a lot of very well capitalized electronics corporations in the world. If they believe a new manufacturing process will be required for the next generation in chips and Intel's margins are too high, they may well seize upon the opportunity to go after it. This type of research it exactly what is needed to help sew the seeds for those next generation processor technologies that will help shake up the competitive landscape and dislodge the stodgier players who sit on high margins and care more for next quarter rather than the next decade.
- gradi3nt 13y ago
  Market competition is good, but it isn't enough for progress either. Current microprocessors are quickly reaching fundamental physical limits. We will still see speed increases from architectural and algorithmic development, but not from faster (...5Ghz) processors.
maxharris 13y ago
When I clicked the link, I was certain it was going to be Stephen Wolfram. Tearing someone down in order to build someone else up makes no sense. Why not just cut the snide comment altogether?
- Smaug123 13y ago
  I, too, was sure it was going to be Wolfram - I was going to comment to that effect, too, because it's faintly amusing that it's not Wolfram doing "a new kind of <thing>".
- grej 13y ago
  My comment was hardly tearing down Wolfram. I stated pretty clearly that I have nothing against him and that he's a genius. I was simply pleased when I saw it was something different.

leni536 13y ago

Any link to the original scientific article this came from?

Zenst 13y ago

Isn't this just a flavour of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spintronics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spintronics ?

gradi3nt 13y ago
No. Spintronics still uses electron transport, but the electrons are spin polarized. Atoms aren't individually excited in spintronics.