suitti@haddock.ima.isc.com (Stephen Uitti) (01/20/89)
The AWST (Aviation Week) Jan 16th issue had a little blurb about TI's announcement. It went something like this: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS has fabricated the first quantum effect transistor. The device, called a bipolar resonant tunneling transistor, has active regions measuring 0.01-0.02 microns and offers the possibility of switching speeds 1,000 times faster than today's best semiconductor devices. Experts regard this line of research as the most likely to produce the next generation of integrated circuits. AT&T Bell Labs is also involved in the research. Quantum effect transistors operate on the principles of quantum mechanics, where electrons act more like waved than particles when confined to regions the size of their wavelength. This effect limits the minimum dimensions of today's semiconductor integrated circuits. Practical applications, which could include single-chip supercomputers, real-time pattern recognition and advanced expert systems are still at least 10 years away, according to company officials. Any comments on probable device speeds & likely delivery schedules of this technology as compared with, say GaAs, Josephson Junctions, etc.? Other comments? Stephen. PS: quoted without permission from Aviation Week & Space Technology, a high signal to noise weekly magazine.
mbkennel@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Matthew B. Kennel) (01/20/89)
In article <11462@haddock.ima.isc.com) suitti@haddock.ima.isc.com (Stephen Uitti) writes:
) The AWST (Aviation Week) Jan 16th issue had a little blurb
)about TI's announcement. It went something like this:
)
)TEXAS INSTRUMENTS has fabricated the first quantum effect transistor.
)The device, called a bipolar resonant tunneling transistor, has active
)regions measuring 0.01-0.02 microns and offers the possibility of
)switching speeds 1,000 times faster than today's best semiconductor
)devices.
0.01-0.02 um????? Just how _did_ they make it?
) Stephen.
Matt Kennel
mbkennel@phoenix.princeton.edujs9b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon C. Slenk) (01/20/89)
In a world of Japenese development and marketing, it is heart-warming to see TI come out with something like this first. I only hope that they can capitalize on it as much as possible, and make themselves richer than anything else around. This would, eventually, help the US. Lets keep it up and kick some economic butt, so to speak. Sincerely, Jon Slenk / js9b CMU. P.S: I just hope TI really _is_ an American company. Is it?
berryh@udel.EDU (John "Blue" Berryhill) (01/20/89)
In article <5621@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> mbkennel@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Matthew B. Kennel) writes: >In article <11462@haddock.ima.isc.com) suitti@haddock.ima.isc.com (Stephen Uitti) writes: >)regions measuring 0.01-0.02 microns and offers the possibility of >)switching speeds 1,000 times faster than today's best semiconductor >)devices. > >0.01-0.02 um????? Just how _did_ they make it? That's a vertical dimension (base width), not a horizontal dimension. There are a number of deposition technologies that can produce layers of monoatomic size. While fast transistors are nice, just remember that in order to use that speed, you're going to need one heck of an interconnection technology. --------------------------=< John Berryhill >=-------------------------- 143 King William St. Newark, DE 19711 (302) 453-1578 "Them that killed her would have done so for a hatpin, let alone a hat."
swilson@pprg.unm.edu (Scott Wilson [CHTM]) (01/21/89)
In article <gXph=Py00VA-MAoUUZ@andrew.cmu.edu> js9b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon C. Slenk) writes: >In a world of Japenese development and marketing, it is heart-warming to see TI >come out with something like this first. I only hope that they can capitalize on >it as much as possible, and make themselves richer than anything else around. >This would, eventually, help the US. > >Lets keep it up and kick some economic butt, so to speak. ======================= > >Sincerely, >Jon Slenk / js9b CMU. > >P.S: I just hope TI really _is_ an American company. Is it? Quoted from the Wall Street Journal, Friady Dec 2, 1988, titled "Hitachi, Texas Instruments Agree To Jointly Develop Memory Chip" TOKYO - Two of the worlds biggest semiconductor companies - Japans HITACHI and TEXAS INSTRUMENTS have agreed to join forces to develop technology for making the next generation of memory chips. The companies, which until now have been strictly competitors in the semiconductor market, will exchange expertise they have seperately accumulated on chip production. NEW TECHNOLOGY THEY DEVELOP TOGETHER WILL BELONG TO BOTH COMPANIES. But the companies will apply thier findings separately to create marketable products. . . . A similar agreement already exists between TOSHIBA and MOTOROLA. . . . Under the agreement, the two companies will share the technologies they used to develop four megabit chips as well as other "know-how" relevant for creating 16 magabit chips. . . . ...information that is gained by each company's separate, ongoing research during the three years will be exchanged, if it is relevant to the 16 megabit chip project. IRONICALLY, THIS COULD MEAN HITACHI GAINS FROM TEXAS INSTRUMENTS' PARTICIPATION IN *****SEMATECH****, a Pentagon funded consortium for semiconductor research. THe cooperative venture was undertaken by AMerican companies to regain the edge in semiconductors over Japan. Mr. Ishikawa of Texas Instruments said this won't be a problem. Added Kazuo Kimbara, a Hitachi board director in charge of electronic devices: "The project is based on great trust. That is the spirit." END OF ARTICLE. EMPHASIS ADDED. SOME PARTS LEFT OUT. Cute, aye? These folks appear to have sold us out! As for what technology is "relevant" to 16 megabit DRAMS? IT'S ***ALL*** RELEVANT. Draw your own conclusion, and THEN write letters to Congress about why your tax dollars are funding the research through certain America Companies to provide Japan with the tools to swat our fannies with in the coming years! Scott Wilson Research Assistant University of New Mexico Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering swilson@hi.unm.edu
chu@mit-caf.MIT.EDU (Bill Chu) (01/22/89)
In article <5621@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> mbkennel@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Matthew B. Kennel) writes: >In article <11462@haddock.ima.isc.com) suitti@haddock.ima.isc.com (Stephen Uitti) writes: >)TEXAS INSTRUMENTS has fabricated the first quantum effect transistor. >)The device, called a bipolar resonant tunneling transistor, has active >)regions measuring 0.01-0.02 microns and offers the possibility of >)switching speeds 1,000 times faster than today's best semiconductor >)devices. > >0.01-0.02 um????? Just how _did_ they make it? Apparently, the device is a three terminal resonant tunneling structure with a GaAs layer sandwiched between two AlGaAs layers. The structure is grown by molecular beam epitaxy. I'm not sure how they make a connection to the thin GaAs layer. >Matt Kennel -- Bill ---------------------------------------------------------------------- William Chu ARPA Internet: chu@caf.mit.edu MIT Microsystems Technology UUCP: {harvard,rutgers,seismo} Laboratory, 39-655 !mit-eddie!mit-caf!chu Cambridge, MA 02139 Phone: (617)253-0722 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
nather@ut-emx.UUCP (Ed Nather) (01/23/89)
In article <23737@pprg.unm.edu>, swilson@pprg.unm.edu (Scott Wilson [CHTM]) writes: > > Cute, aye? These folks appear to have sold us out! As for what technology > is "relevant" to 16 megabit DRAMS? IT'S ***ALL*** RELEVANT. > > Draw your own conclusion, and THEN write letters to Congress about why > your tax dollars are funding the research through certain America Companies > to provide Japan with the tools to swat our fannies with in the coming years! > I expect the Japanese are equally unhappy about being "sold out" to the ugly Americans. We've been losing this battle for several years -- maybe it's better to join them if we can't lick them. Or, perhaps, we could insist they put billions of yen into armaments, crippling their industries the way we have done it. American "know-how" *is* exportable, you know. -- Ed Nather Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
seeger@beach.cis.ufl.edu (F. L. Charles Seeger III) (01/23/89)
In article <6944@louie.udel.EDU> berryh@udel.EDU (John "Blue" Berryhill) writes: |>)regions measuring 0.01-0.02 microns and offers the possibility of |>)switching speeds 1,000 times faster than today's best semiconductor |>)devices. | |While fast transistors are nice, just remember that in order to |use that speed, you're going to need one heck of an interconnection |technology. I'm no physicist, but there seems to be the possibility of quantum interconnects that exhibit ZERO propogation delays. The idea is to create a macroscopic quantum state to interconnect a sender and receiver. When this quantum state is perturbed enough to jump by the sender, the state changes instantaneously across its entire extent. Therefore, the receiver can detect this change without a speed-of-light delay. Terry Clark at the University of Sussex was working on this sort of thing a few years ago, but I haven't seen anything recently. Vaguely, a superconductor is used placed in an RF field to generate the macroscopic quatum state, and this superconductor can be relatively large (they were contemplating a linear conductor on the order of a meter long). This is, I think, in some way related to or derived from work in SQUIDs (Superconducting QUantum Interference Devices), which are commonly used for very sensitive measurements of magnetic fields. If anyone has heard anything about this recently, I'd sure like to hear about it, including references, if possible. The "great" UF library has not been a good place for finding papers about this, though I do have one in German (I don't read it, and everyone I've found to translate it wanted a fair bit of money in return). I'm suspicious that either things didn't pan out, or else it got classified. Even so, this approach may not be practical for on-chip interconnect, but could still be useful for constructing large parallel processors. BTW, this is NOT prevented by Relativity Theory, which is valid for describing the large scale universe. Quantum Theory is required to describe many physical systems that a classical theory like Relativity can not handle. What is interesting in this thread is that Relativity predicts the existence of black holes, which require Quantum Theory to be modeled, i.e. Relativity predicts its own downfall, so to speak. Relativity is still valid where quantum effects are ignorable. Of course, Relativity has its competitors, but, to my knowledge, there is no experimental evidence to prefer them over Relativity itself. -- Charles Seeger 216 Larsen Hall Electrical Engineering University of Florida seeger@iec.ufl.edu Gainesville, FL 32611
mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (01/23/89)
>I'm no physicist, but there seems to be the possibility of quantum >interconnects that exhibit ZERO propogation delays. The idea is to >create a macroscopic quantum state to interconnect a sender and receiver. >When this quantum state is perturbed enough to jump by the sender, the >state changes instantaneously across its entire extent. Therefore, the >receiver can detect this change without a speed-of-light delay. Uh-- well yes, maybe it can, or at least appear to. But that doesn't mean that you can carry information that way. If you succeed, send me e-mail REAL QUICK, I'll try to duplicate it, and, given success, see that you are nominated for the Nobel Prize muy pronto! :-) In my grad school days we were able to detect the effects of the speed of light at distances of less than 100 angstroms.
davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) (01/24/89)
In article <5621@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> mbkennel@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Matthew B. Kennel) writes: | 0.01-0.02 um????? Just how _did_ they make it? Sizes are about to take the jump in units which memory took in the 70's from microsec to ns. I heard someone at a party the other night talking about CMOS in "4000 angstrom design rules." What we're talking here is 200 angstrom active areas, using that nomenclature. -- bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa) {uunet | philabs}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me
brooks@vette.llnl.gov (Eugene Brooks) (01/24/89)
In article <19680@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> seeger@beach.cis.ufl.edu (F. L. Charles Seeger III) writes: >I'm no physicist, but there seems to be the possibility of quantum >interconnects that exhibit ZERO propogation delays. The idea is to I am a physicist, and the laws of quantum mechanics (relativistic formulation) abide by the biz of no signal traveling faster than the speed of light. Sorry, but there is no possibility of sending information faster than light with the current understanding of nature.
friedl@vsi.COM (Stephen J. Friedl) (01/24/89)
In article <13009@steinmetz.ge.com>, davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) writes: > I heard someone at a party the other night > talking about CMOS in "4000 angstrom design rules. Uh, Bill, what kind of parties *do* you go to? :-) Steve -- Stephen J. Friedl 3B2-kind-of-guy friedl@vsi.com V-Systems, Inc. I speak for you only attmail!vsi!friedl Santa Ana, CA USA +1 714 545 6442 {backbones}!vsi!friedl Nancy Reagan on these *stupid* .signatures: "Enough already, OK?"
vincent@ditsyda.oz (David A. Vincent) (01/24/89)
in article <gXph=Py00VA-MAoUUZ@andrew.cmu.edu>, js9b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon C. Slenk) says: > In-Reply-To: <11462@haddock.ima.isc.com> > > In a world of Japenese development and marketing, it is heart-warming to see > TI come out with something like this first. I only hope that they can [...] > P.S: I just hope TI really _is_ an American company. Is it? Thoughts about the nationality of companies bring this quote to mind: "IBM isn't an American company. America is an IBM country." ...D.A.V. David A. Vincent vacation student, CSIRO Division of IT ACSnet: vincent@ditsyda.oz Post: GPO Box 1710-T Phone (w): +61 2 887 9383 Hobart TAS 7001 FidoNet: 3:670/700 Australia ---------------------------------------------------------------- Common sense is not all that common. -- Bertrand Russell. D
smryan@garth.UUCP (s m ryan) (01/26/89)
>>I'm no physicist, but there seems to be the possibility of quantum >>interconnects that exhibit ZERO propogation delays. The idea is to >>create a macroscopic quantum state to interconnect a sender and receiver. >>... The experiment I heard about had a pair of photons created from electron- positron annihilation. The photons have equal energy and speed and exactly opposite velocity. The experiment attempted to measure the energy of one photon and ?position of the other. Since the photons are paired, if the measurements are possible, uncertainity is defeated. As it turned out, measuring one photon perturbed the other apparently instanteously. Thus the LOSS of information might propagate with arbitrary speed. The question is, can the loss of information itself be information? Someone was suppose to look into it, but I have never heard any more. -- When it was caught, then Loki said, -- s m ryan `What fish is this from river's bed? Your doom is near; to Hel you'll fly -- Andwari's Gem unless with gold your life you buy.' -- 1/10
maujt@warwick.ac.uk (Richard J Cox) (01/26/89)
In article <19680@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> seeger@beach.cis.ufl.edu (F. L. Charles Seeger III) writes: .... >the large scale universe. Quantum Theory is required to describe many >physical systems that a classical theory like Relativity can not handle. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Since when was Relativity a Classical theory? - RC /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ JANET: maujt@uk.ac.warwick.cu BITNET: maujt%uk.ac.warwick.cu@UKACRL ARPA: maujt@cu.warwick.ac.uk UUCP: maujt%cu.warwick.ac.uk@ukc.uucp Richard Cox, 84 St. Georges Rd, Coventry, CV1 2DL; UK PHONE: (0203) 520995
anand@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Anand Iyengar) (01/27/89)
In article <2471@garth.UUCP> smryan@garth.UUCP (s m ryan) writes: >>>I'm no physicist, but there seems to be the possibility of quantum > >As it turned out, measuring one photon perturbed the other apparently >instanteously. Thus the LOSS of information might propagate with arbitrary This, of course, is a matter of view-point. One could just as easily argue that information (/signal/etc.) was fed to the photon. >As it turned out, measuring one photon perturbed the other apparently >instanteously. Thus the LOSS of information might propagate with arbitrary >speed. I'd imagine that the distances that they were measuring over were quite small. Could they even be able to detect SOL delays in propagation over such distances? Anand.
jh5c+@andrew.cmu.edu (John Hagerman) (01/27/89)
> *Excerpts from ext.nn.comp.arch:* > *26-Jan-89 Re: TI announcement s m ryan@garth.UUCP (1142)* > The experiment I heard about had a pair of photons created from electron- > positron annihilation. [...] > As it turned out, measuring one photon perturbed the other apparently > instanteously. Thus the LOSS of information might propagate with arbitrary > speed. > The question is, can the loss of information itself be information? Someone > was suppose to look into it, but I have never heard any more. See the article "The Reality of the Quantum World" in Scientific American, Jan 1988. Note especially the middle column on page 50 which explains why this won't work. - John
jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) (01/30/89)
In article <17180@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> brooks@maddog.llnl.gov.UUCP (Eugene Brooks) writes: >In article <19680@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> seeger@beach.cis.ufl.edu (F. L. Charles Seeger III) writes: >>I'm no physicist, but there seems to be the possibility of quantum >>interconnects that exhibit ZERO propogation delays. The idea is to >I am a physicist, and the laws of quantum mechanics (relativistic >formulation) abide by the biz of no signal traveling faster than the >speed of light. Sorry, but there is no possibility of sending information >faster than light with the current understanding of nature. I suspect what seeger@beach.cis.ufl.edu was referring to is ?Bells? theorem, which says that there can be instantaneous effects at a distance, but because of the way they work you can't transmit information with them. You can send data from the sender that allows you to interpret the data at the receiving end, but that data moves at or slower than light, so the information still only travels at lightspeed. Summary: Yes, apparently there can be instantaneous effects at a distance, but you can't use them for anything. -- Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup