The International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) being held this week in San Francisco should feature a number of announcements. Most notably, IBM will announce that it has created the world's smallest transistor. The 6 nanometer transistor was actually created using enhanced 248 nanometer lithography, which is used to craft today's chips. Another form of lithography will be needed, however, to mass produce these transistors. Although few details of the transistor are currently available, it appears that the device is not a standard bulk CMOS Field Effect Transistor (FET), but rather some form of a 3D device. IBM conceded that more work is needed to control power and increase performance. It is interesting to see how fast this device is, how manufacturable, and how the device deals with electrical leakage issues. IBM's science and technology VP Randy Isaac claimed that “The ability to build working transistors at these dimensions could allow us to put 100 times more transistors onto a computer chip than is now possible.” He acknowledged that there were “… fundamental challenges of scaling, namely power density, that must be addressed as silicon is pushed to molecular dimensions.” As impressive as this accomplishment is, solving the problems of mass-producing and cooling these components are monumental tasks.
USER COMMENTS 13 comment(s)
|Dude.. (2:33pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)
Where's my nanocar? - by Nanodune
|First Post DUH!!!! (2:36pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)
I hope to make a teeny tiny transistor radio with it some day!
The question is when will it appear in CPU's??? That's what I want to know.
- by Eleven Fingered Boy!
|News Flash (3:33pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)
Intel contacts IBM to help them develop production. - by Andy Grove
|And a man landed on the moon (4:02pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)
yeah right - by Eat my glorious ass
|Cool (6:20pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)
my question is will this improve proformance of a CPU?? - by SoniANDanny
|Hot (6:28pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)
imagine the heat… - by Bassie.
|dont drop it (11:21pm EST Mon Dec 09 2002)
Imagine the trouble your gonna go through finding it if you loose it in your carpet… - by the new guy
|Deep Heat (4:23am EST Tue Dec 10 2002)
What's the frequency of the light from a fast food joint's infra-red heat lamps?
Shouldn't system clocks be approaching that frequency real soon? How would you cool a system that fast, or would you even want to try? - by Xenu
|Xenu? (6:54am EST Tue Dec 10 2002)
Xenu? Is that you? We've been looking for you for thousands of years!
L.Ron misses you so much. Please call home!
|Hot chips (6:56am EST Tue Dec 10 2002)
If you guys think that chips made with these 6nm transistors will be really hot
Just imagine how hot one would be if made with my patented 6m transistors!
- by Genius
|Stupid Comments (8:47am EST Tue Dec 10 2002)
So far all comments have been really LAME! - by People are Stupid
|Ditto (11:01am EST Tue Dec 10 2002)
My theory is that gnats attract more gnats. Clouds of gnats deter the 400 lb guerillas (LOL) from joining in. I still don't feel like writing something pithy or particularly sanguine … because of the swarm.
- by GoatGuy
|Heat lamps (4:45pm EST Tue Dec 10 2002)
My 2 cents worth is this: Frequency of light from heat lamps is a few tens or hundreds of terahertz. - by Dr. Dean