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LuNaTiX
Quarterback




Registered: 07/28/03
Posts: 5,142
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More CPU Powah
#7724439 - 12/06/07 01:00 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
December 6, 2007 IBM scientists have announced a breakthrough that could lead to a new generation of supercomputers that squeeze the processing power of today's giants into the form factor of a laptop. The research is based on the use of a light pulses sent through silicon instead of electrical signals on wires which make up conventional computer chips and also promises incredibly energy efficient processors that would expend only the energy of a light bulb to achieve what current supercomputers do with enough power to run hundreds of homes.
The paper, published in the journal Optics Express, concerns the silicon Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator - a device which converts electrical signals into pulses of light and promises to significantly reduce cost, energy and heat while increasing communications bandwidth between the cores by a factor of more than 100 over wired chips. The new modulator, which according to IBM is 100 to 1,000 times smaller in size compared to previously demonstrated devices of its kind, acts as a very fast “shutter” to modulate the intensity of the input laser beam and converts a stream of digital bits (“1”s and “0”s) from electrical signals into light pulses.
“Work is underway within IBM and in the industry to pack many more computing cores on a single chip, but today’s on-chip communications technology would overheat and be far too slow to handle that increase in workload,” said Dr. T.C. Chen, vice president, Science and Technology, IBM Research. “What we have done is a significant step toward building a vastly smaller and more power-efficient way to connect those cores, in a way that nobody has done before.”
IBM explain the potential of the technology in terms of the current processor which powers the Sony Playstation 3 - while this contains nine cores on a single chip, the new technology aims to connect hundreds or thousands of cores together on a tiny chip by eliminating the wires required to connect them.
“We believe this is a major advancement in the field of on-chip silicon nanophotonics,” said Dr. Will Green, the lead IBM scientist on the project. “Just like fiber optic networks have enabled the rapid expansion of the Internet by enabling users to exchange huge amounts of data from anywhere in the world, IBM’s technology is bringing similar capabilities to the computer chip.”
The report on this work, entitled “Ultra-compact, low RF power, 10 Gb/s silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator” by William M. J. Green, Michael J. Rooks, Lidija Sekaric, and Yurii A. Vlasov of IBM’s T.J.WatsonResearch Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. is published in Volume 15 of the journal Optics Express and was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) through the Defense Sciences Office program “Slowing, Storing and Processing Light”.
http://www.gizmag.com/ibm-optical-modulator-processing-breakthrough/8468/
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TheCow
Stranger

Registered: 10/28/02
Posts: 4,790
Last seen: 15 years, 6 months
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Re: More CPU Powah [Re: LuNaTiX]
#7727429 - 12/07/07 05:20 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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finally, it begins
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chodamunky
Cheers!


Registered: 02/28/02
Posts: 2,030
Loc: sailing the seas of chees...
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Re: More CPU Powah [Re: LuNaTiX]
#7727473 - 12/07/07 05:56 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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this is huge news, our imagination is the limit!
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus



Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
Last seen: 3 hours, 59 minutes
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Re: More CPU Powah [Re: LuNaTiX]
#7729914 - 12/07/07 06:01 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Whenever you think you have achieved the height of mans technology just remember...the guy who built the first steam engine thought the same thing.
We wouldn't even recognize the technology that will be common place a century from now. Shit, make that a quarter-century. Look at where its come since the first Apple Macintosh computer (less then 25 years ago)!
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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DieCommie


Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: More CPU Powah [Re: TheCow]
#7729923 - 12/07/07 06:02 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
TheCow said: finally, it begins
Ha, as I was reading this I thought of you
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TheCow
Stranger

Registered: 10/28/02
Posts: 4,790
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Re: More CPU Powah [Re: DieCommie]
#7729950 - 12/07/07 06:07 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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 Next semester Im going to be doing some all-optical processing research. Ideally I want to start my own project, but I'm not sure they do that for a masters student that might have to wait till the PhD. Maybe with a fellowship though? I don't know the details. Anyways I realized why a PhD is useful. It costs nothing, and you get years of expensive ass research for free. So if one wants to start a business afterwards, all the groundwork has been set for free.
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nobhdy
ETNAV



Registered: 05/12/06
Posts: 1,401
Loc: CT
Last seen: 9 years, 6 months
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Re: More CPU Powah [Re: TheCow]
#7733533 - 12/08/07 02:42 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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i found an article not too long ago about a processor that had reached 350ghz through current design....though it involved liquid nitrogen...
-------------------- [quote]Gumby said: And if you are going to waste peoples time with your stupid questions, at least try to have grammar skills higher then that of a 7th grader. READ DAMNIT! [/quote]
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Le_Canard
The Duk Abides


Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 94,392
Loc: Earthfarm 1
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Re: More CPU Powah [Re: LuNaTiX]
#7733739 - 12/08/07 03:34 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Intersting article. I figured optics would be the next big thing in CPU's.
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Sell Your Soul
Nutmeg shaman



Registered: 03/15/00
Posts: 40,819
Loc: Over there
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Re: More CPU Powah [Re: LuNaTiX]
#7734033 - 12/08/07 04:59 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I'm just waiting for the new Octo-Core CPU at 5 GHz to come out. Then I can run Folding@Home on a couple of the cores, and use the remaining six cores for fun stuff.
Something like that would probably require a liquid-nitrogen cooler unit. It may be worth it.
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