IBM has turned to nature to
make chips run faster and consume less energy.
The company has used the natural pattern-creating process that
forms seashells, snowflakes and enamel on teeth to form trillions
of holes to create insulating vacuums around the miles of wires
packed onto computer chips.
In chips
using the new insulation technique, IBM
researchers have found that electrical signals can flow 35% faster
and that 15% less energy is used.
This new form of insulation, commonly referred to as “airgaps”
by scientists, is a misnomer, said IBM, as the gaps are actually a
vacuum.
A vacuum is believed to be the ultimate insulator for what is
known as wiring capacitance, which occurs when two conductors - in
this case adjacent wires on a chip - sap or siphon electrical
energy from one another, generating undesirable heat and slowing
the speed at which data can move through a chip.
Until now, chip designers often were forced to fight capacitance
issues by pushing ever more power through chips, creating, in the
process, a range of other problems.
They have also used insulators with better insulating
capability, but these insulators have become fragile as chip
features get smaller and smaller, and their insulating properties
do not compare to those of a vacuum.
The self-assembly process has already been integrated with IBM's
manufacturing line in East Fishkill, New York, and is expected to
be fully incorporated into IBM’s manufacturing lines and used in
chips in 2009.
The chips will be used in IBM's server product lines and in
purpose-built lines for other companies.
Download a video on IBM’s new chip technology
>>
IBM paves the way for three-dimensional chips
>>
Intel shows 80-core 'supercomputing chip' with
low power consumption >>
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