New CPU materials to cut voltage by 50% and power consumption by 90%

[c627627]

Transistors that Keep their Cool
April 3, 2009

Intel recently disclosed advancement details on a P-channel transistor, built on a silicon substrate, that makes use of compound semiconductors, also known as III-V materials because they are made of elements that straddle silicon in the periodic table, silicon being in column IV. This research resulted in the highest performing P-channel transistors reported to date. A year earlier, Intel described III-V N-channel transistors, also built on a silicon substrate. When combined, these two results could form the building blocks for CMOS logic circuits, which use both N-channel and P-channel transistors. Potentially suitable for future microprocessors, they run far cooler - at about ½ the voltage, consuming only 1/10th the power of today's transistors.


http://www.intel.com/pressroom/innovation/innovation.htm

 

[Priv]

This is good, processor manufacturers were hitting the limits with the newer processors already, I hope they come out with this early and are able to combine it with 32nm!

 

[AlabamaCajun]

By contrast the human brain has 100 Billion transistors, operates on 70mV using N channel technology, runs around 36C idle or loaded. Gate switch times run 10 to 100ms but speed is not so much a concern with neural nets just effective use. Heat sink optional, does suffer from cold bugs and over clocking is not recommended as it may void the 100 year warranty.

By comparison to transistors, we still have a ways to go but dang we are getting close. When transistors gain plasticity and have adaptive gates then we might be close to what biology figured out billions of years ago.

 

[dejo]

but the human brain has stock liquid cooling, not really a fair comparison. and some of said brains struggle to make the stock clocks.

 

[Badbonji]

some of said brains struggle to make the stock clocks.

LOL that is the weirdest saying I have ever heard!

Talking about a human brain as a pc sounds weird.

 

[White_Pawn]

but the human brain has stock liquid cooling, not really a fair comparison. and some of said brains struggle to make the stock clocks.

if you are a lucky one. I heard you can hit 1 terahertz. I heard that's when you try to solve all the physics in the world by creating something called the "theory of relativity".

I doubt they'll use these new transistors by 32nm. Atleast a few more years. I'm thinking another 3+.

 

[deathman20]

Might be in some small items in a few years... where talking very small circuits, maybe wireless devices.

GPU's and CPU's will probably be upwards of 5-10 years due to there development cycles.

 

[Firestrider]

By contrast the human brain has 100 Billion transistors, operates on 70mV using N channel technology, runs around 36C idle or loaded. Gate switch times run 10 to 100ms but speed is not so much a concern with neural nets just effective use. Heat sink optional, does suffer from cold bugs and over clocking is not recommended as it may void the 100 year warranty.

By comparison to transistors, we still have a ways to go but dang we are getting close. When transistors gain plasticity and have adaptive gates then we might be close to what biology figured out billions of years ago.

I heard the brain has 100-500 trillion synapses and 50-100 billion neurons, if that is what you are trying to correlate to transistors. The average brain has an area of 1130 cm³ which is 1130000 mm³. Even though the brain has more functional units, current processors have better compute density. The neuron density would be that of 88,000 neurons per mm³. Nehalem in comparison, has 731 million transistors at the size 263 mm² which equates to 2.7 million transistors per mm².

The brain has much lower power consumption though: based on a 2000 Calorie diet and assuming the brain consumes 20% of the bodies' energy, the brain has an average energy consumption of 19W.

 

[deathman20]

The brain has much lower power consumption though: based on a 2000 Calorie diet and assuming the brain consumes 20% of the bodies' energy, the brain has an average energy consumption of 19W.

Is that 19W an hour or per day?

 

[Firestrider]

Is that 19W an hour or per day?

An average per day, assuming your brain uses 20% of the 2000 Calorie daily diet intake.

 

[Quailane]

Is that 19W an hour or per day?

Watts are irrespective of time.

 

[Shiggity]

The CPU game is going to get really exciting again after Moore's Law runs out once they get under 22nm and standard Lithography / Silicon won't cut it anymore.

I hope AMD isn't out of business by then

 

[Shiggity]

Watts are irrespective of time.

Can you please add to the conversation instead of simply pointing out how people are wrong?