What is Silicon's limit?

[a_ump]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but i'm also sure the answers been proven wrong with time as well. So i've just been curious, what's the limit on how small silicon will get? we're coming up on 28nm retail products withing the next year. How small can we go on current tech? I thought i remembered 20 some nm like 3 yrs ago but dunno if its changed any.

 

[Mussels]

they hit a wall, they shrink it with new tech.


for example, there was a news article about replacing copper wiring with in-chip fibre optics. that'd solve a lot of problems.

 

[cadaveca]

10nm.

EDIT, apparantly 8nm is in problem-solving.

 

[Hockster]

I've seen some 46 DDDD's that were silicone based, but that's a whole different story.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

How come companies don't snatch up the rights to new tech like those ballistic deflection processors? 3 Thz at a 10th the power consumption before even using any modern energy saving tricks sounds like something that needs billions invested, not tiny grants, because it would easily yield billions in profit..

 

[enzolt]

How come companies don't snatch up the rights to new tech like those ballistic deflection processors? 3 Thz at a 10th the power consumption before even using any modern energy saving tricks sounds like something that needs billions invested, not tiny grants, because it would easily yield billions in profit..

cost to manufacture....especially cost for the consumer...we're simply not there yet


to op. it obviously hit a thermal wall (power density) a long time ago, power consumption, power dissipation and the electrons are simply not moving any faster. thats why were stuck at around 3ghz. what companies decided to do was improve on efficiency thus multi-core spawned and new materials were used for manufacturing processors.

source: own knowledge from EE courses

 

[AsRock]

I've seen some 46 DDDD's that were silicone based, but that's a whole different story.

But they get bigger not smaller lol.

 

[Phxprovost]

personally i dont think the problem is with the materal so much as its the current system. Once we start to really stray from binary is when all the fun stuff is going to happen

 

[enzolt]

personally i dont think the problem is with the materal so much as its the current system. Once we start to really stray from binary is when all the fun stuff is going to happen

take an engineering class...

 

[W1zzard]

1 atom wide

 

[Deleted member 67555]

1 atom for one electron pathway..i'd like to see it work..That would be efficiency at it's finest

 

[Mussels]

1 atom wide

or do a star trek and go sub atomic.

 

[Deleted member 3]

38KKK

Other than that, they went past the limit several times already. New technologies allow further miniaturization. Sure, eventually some new material will be used, but this does not change a thing for us as users. For all I care they make chips out of dung.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

cost to manufacture....especially cost for the consumer...we're simply not there yet

I don't think that's true. It would simply be targeted at replacing business/government supercomputers. You could charge 1 million per BDT system and it'd replace 100s or thousands of systems. The power savings alone would pay for it in the first week. Then over the years costs would be reduced for consumer grade products. If you can sell it despite high cost then manufacturing expenses probably aren't the reason companies aren't buying the tech...

 

[btarunr]

How come companies don't snatch up the rights to new tech like those ballistic deflection processors? 3 Thz at a 10th the power consumption before even using any modern energy saving tricks sounds like something that needs billions invested, not tiny grants, because it would easily yield billions in profit..

Because that wouldn't let them maintain a steady income. That "ballistic deflection processors? 3 Thz at a 10th the power consumption" could be 30 years of "steps" away, guaranteeing them 30 years of income. The industry always takes small steps towards something, just so it can make people pay for each of those small steps, maintaining its income.

 

[Hayder_Master]

or maybe they find something to replace silicon, maybe something Organic

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Because that wouldn't let them maintain a steady income. That "ballistic deflection processors? 3 Thz at a 10th the power consumption" could be 30 years of "steps" away, guaranteeing them 30 years of income. The industry always takes small steps towards something, just so it can make people pay for each of those small steps, maintaining its income.

Alright, but couldn't they still buy it and do preliminary work? As far as I know they've only gotten a small government grant. In general it just seems like every few months there's something promising that crops up that no company buys the rights too. I'd figure stuff would be getting picked up left and right while it's still cheap.

 

[btarunr]

Alright, but couldn't they still buy it and do preliminary work? As far as I know they've only gotten a small government grant. In general it just seems like every few months there's something promising that crops up that no company buys the rights too. I'd figure stuff would be getting picked up left and right while it's still cheap.

Yeah, they'll do preliminary work, but never tell the public about it, unless they want to lure investment. Right about now Intel or IBM could be ready (at least on paper/design) with the technology they're going to sell between 2015 and 2020.

 

[Mussels]

or maybe they find something to replace silicon, maybe something Organic

'my video card smells like its rotting, plz halp!'

 

[dr emulator (madmax)]

38KKK

Other than that, they went past the limit several times already. New technologies allow further miniaturization. Sure, eventually some new material will be used, but this does not change a thing for us as users. For all I care they make chips out of dung.

i thought they did already on some

joking aside i often wonder about the longevity of these new chips
my current pc has lasted me 7 years
i wonder if that could be said about the latest systems?

 

[Hayder_Master]

'my video card smells like its rotting, plz halp!'

it's dead if smell like shit