IBM has tweaked the transistor, adding a coating that allows ions to complete the circuit instead of electrons. That’s some heavy science, but it could help keep Moore’s Law going. Read more »
When a trio of engineers led by Bill Shockley built the first solid-state transistor at Bell Labs in 1947, they thought they had consigned the vacuum tube to oblivion. But vacuum tubes – or at least their underlying principles – may be set to make a resurgence. Read more »
In the latter half of the 19th century, the introduction of elevators and steel trusses enabled us to put up taller buildings with denser cores. It changed urban landscapes forever–packing more people into small spaces. Now, chips are set to benefit from a similar design leap. Read more »
Intel has introduced its latest generation of processor cores at 22 nanometers. The new chips are up to 20 percent faster and consume 20 percent less energy, but the biggest news is that these chips are the first that will use Intel’s new 3-D transistors. Read more »
Bright Capital, KPCB, August Capital and NEA have contributed to a $17.6 million funding round in SuVolta, a process technology company. SuVolta doesn’t design chips; it has come up with a novel way to manufacture transistors in a way that makes them use less power. Read more »
Stealthy startup SuVolta has pioneered an improvement in the chip-manufacturing process that will help cut the power usage of semiconductors by half while maintaining their performance. The process, which it plans to license, changes a few of the ingredients used to make chips. Read more »
Hey Jeff, thanks for reminding me that on December 16th, 1947 William Shockley, John Bardeen & Walter Brattain created the first working transistor, the basic building block that helped build some nations and a few trillion dollar fortunes. Six decades later, the computer business is facing […] Read more »
