Earlier quoted context omitted.
Usually the alternatives switch much faster, such as GaAs
Sorry, what’s a GaAs?
What's different about next-gen transistors
51–59 of 59 posts
Re: What's different about next-gen transistors
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Memristor and analogue processors to accelerate ML are doing this. Neural networks are ok with operations on noisy, analogue states. Analogue operations such as op-amp multiplication are more power hungry than individual digital gates, but some are less power hungry than digital multipliers which use thousands of gates. For digital, noise-free logic, it's generally more power efficient and physically simpler to have…
> Memristor and analogue processors to accelerate ML are doing this. Neural networks are ok with operations on noisy, analogue states. Analogue operations such as op-amp multiplication are more power hungry than individual digital gates, but some are less power hungry than digital multipliers which use thousands of gates. I checked Mouser just now and memristors are not in stock: https://www.mouser.com/c/?q=memristor…
If you are interested in learning, the idea of memristors (and other computational memory technology) is not to replace traditional memory, but rather to augment small portions of it with increased/additional computational functionality.
For example, you could add a (relatively speaking) extremely small number of memristors to an existing memory module, load two matrices into that area of memory, and reading from the adjacent region of memory would immediately yield the result of multiplying those two matrices. If you could simply instruct the RAM module where the existing data lies, this would be an immense boost in efficiency to AI/deep learning prediction algorithms. Here is a video explanation of how this could be use to perform matrix vector multiplication in O(1): https://youtu.be/30K5i8bdiyg?t=1492 .
That video mentions later that something similar can be used in solving linear and partial differential equations. Applications for deep learning training is discussed at 40:20 .
You'll notice everything discussed in the keynote has experimental results. At 41:27, he mentions that you can actually send images to their memristor chip over their website . Though the link is unfortunately dead, it definitely worked, and was in fact performing neural network computations using memristors over the network.
Re: What's different about next-gen transistors
#53There's a lot coming down the pipe in term of next-gen components in the SOI and 3D subthreshold world, ULP (ultra-low power), MEMS (pretty much everything you find in your phone these days, outside of the CPU itself), 3D integration, the problem is summarizing it in a neat little comment. Memristors are huge, and are going to be, huge-er still. World changing huge. Which ties in to new analogue design techniques. 3D…
Has there been an acronym shift? MEMS used to mean mechanical contrivances like dlp mirrors. Memristors are surely different?
Memristors are a specific electric component.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microelectromechanical_systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor
While MEMS is already huge and still getting way bigger, memristors ain't really a thing yet.
Re: What's different about next-gen transistors
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has there been an acronym shift? MEMS used to mean mechanical contrivances like dlp mirrors. Memristors are surely different?
MEMS means Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, iow. a category of a type of sensor/actor elements that work with mechanical effects but are minuscule and often constructed using lithographic processes, not milled or the like. Memristors are a specific electric component. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microelectromechanical_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor While MEMS is already huge and still getting way…
Re: What's different about next-gen transistors
#55So carbon atoms are spaced about 0.15 nm apart in carbon metal. So a 3nm process is about 20 carbon atoms. Impressive.
It's just a name. No actual features are 3nm specifically.
Re: What's different about next-gen transistors
#56Re: What's different about next-gen transistors
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you look at IBM's history you can see how reliability and the ability to manufacture components in quantity played a huge role in the adaptation of both. Bell Lab's early point contact ones weren't manufacturable. IBM didn't move to proper ICs until 1970 with the System/370 because anything they made including the low end would be sold in quantities too high for ICs before then (System/360 Models 85 and 195 preced…
So memristors are almost here, is that what you're saying?
Re: What's different about next-gen transistors
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
MEMS means Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, iow. a category of a type of sensor/actor elements that work with mechanical effects but are minuscule and often constructed using lithographic processes, not milled or the like. Memristors are a specific electric component. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microelectromechanical_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor While MEMS is already huge and still getting way…
Comments felt like they conflated them. Also what are all the MEMS chips in phones? Another element of the threads is they're all over phone builds. The accelerometer? The lens systems?
Re: What's different about next-gen transistors
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's just a name. No actual features are 3nm specifically.
We always have this discussion in these threads. There should be a HN wiki for these things. It's not just a name because it does measure true progress over time. We should just use density of transistors per area because that is increasing at the same rate as the name of the process is decreasing. It's just been done in other ways than just shrinking every feature. This article is about one of those steps in the des…