IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough • Hacker News Board

Re: IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough

#11

Post by vmception » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 1:42 AM UTC

jliptzin wrote: post #2

“Energy intensive processes, such as cryptomining operations and data encryption, could require significantly less energy and have a smaller carbon footprint.” Wouldn’t the difficulty just go up such that you’d need to expand the number of computers calculating hashes until the electricity usage again becomes the limiting factor?

Eventually, yes.

Could quickly phase out the less efficient hardware in the nearer term or cause a temporary stasis in energy use keeping it the same as now.

So you’ll want to keep innovating on all parts of the stack, consensus models, proof of work hashing algorithms that work orders of magnitude better on boutique lower powered hardware architectures (optical/analog is gaining interest), and municipal regulations

Re: IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough

#12

Post by garmaine » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 1:47 AM UTC

travoc wrote: post #5

Hjfrf wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best part is that all the old ASICs go in the bin each time a performance improvement is found.

Where are these bins full of ASICs?

eBay.

Re: IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough

#13

Post by analognoise » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 1:51 AM UTC

This makes me think about all the hardcore researchers who still work for IBM, and how IBM consistently discriminates against senior staff.

Re: IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough

#14

Post by kgwxd » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 1:54 AM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #6

jliptzin wrote: post #2

“Energy intensive processes, such as cryptomining operations and data encryption, could require significantly less energy and have a smaller carbon footprint.” Wouldn’t the difficulty just go up such that you’d need to expand the number of computers calculating hashes until the electricity usage again becomes the limiting factor?

Shouldn't Watson be smart enough to tell them that? Clearly, IBM doesn't dogfood

Watson told them most readers wouldn't understand any of that so go ahead an use it in the press release because it sounds good looking.

Re: IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough

#15

Post by Tempest1981 » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 2:07 AM UTC

Does this shift the balance between TSMC and Samsung and Intel? Or is it copyable?

How soon could it be in production?

Re: IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough

#16

Post by ucha » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 2:11 AM UTC

jliptzin wrote: post #2

“Energy intensive processes, such as cryptomining operations and data encryption, could require significantly less energy and have a smaller carbon footprint.” Wouldn’t the difficulty just go up such that you’d need to expand the number of computers calculating hashes until the electricity usage again becomes the limiting factor?

Not really.

If operational expenditure decrease while capital expenditures stays constant, it could still cost the same amount of money to mine but use less electricity. A miner pays both for power and the mining rigs.

Re: IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough

#17

Post by tmaly » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 2:30 AM UTC

dieselerator wrote: post #10

tl;dr This all the information: "With new Vertical Transport Field Effect Transistors, or VTFET, IBM and Samsung have successfully implemented transistors that are built perpendicular to the surface of the chip with a vertical, or up-and-down, current flow." The rest is marketing. It is nice to see innovation. I hope they put it in production.

There was also mention of a 2nm process

Re: IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough

#18

Post by dogber1 » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 2:35 AM UTC

Better gate control results in lower leakage compared to fins, and there are probably also some better thermals associated with this approach due to the surrounding metals. However, the density is crap - stackable nanoribbons are likely the better path.

The rest is just atrocious marketing smoke and mirrors from a zombie company that is essentially dead, but somehow manages to linger on as a shell of its former glory.

Re: IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough

#19

Post by naasking » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 2:53 AM UTC

naikrovek wrote: post #9

sbierwagen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.ebay.com/b/Virtual-Currency-Miners/179171/bn_164... Once a year or so I check on the prices of used miners to see if it would be reasonable to use one as a space heater. Payback period has never been low enough for me to be comfortable with it. (If you buy $300 of equipment and mining becomes illegal tomorrow, then those miners are worthless.)

mining will never be illegal. at best it will be heavily taxed as a discouragement. doesn't matter, though; just buy a space heater if you want a space heater.

Come again? It's already happened:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/business/china-cryptocurr...

Re: IBM and Samsung Unveil Semiconductor Breakthrough

#20

Post by RobLach » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 2:56 AM UTC

tmaly wrote: post #17

dieselerator wrote: post #10

tl;dr This all the information: "With new Vertical Transport Field Effect Transistors, or VTFET, IBM and Samsung have successfully implemented transistors that are built perpendicular to the surface of the chip with a vertical, or up-and-down, current flow." The rest is marketing. It is nice to see innovation. I hope they put it in production.

There was also mention of a 2nm process

Xnm is pure marketing at this point.

# of transistors / area is the closest metric to compare different processes against, which this should be a step up from the status quo.