haramoto@zodiac.rutgers.edu (01/07/90)
Motorola Inc. and TRW Inc. said they developed a computer chip that packs the power of a supercomputer and can repair its own flaws. Called the CPUAX SuperChip, the 2.1-inch-square device contains four million transistors and can process 200 million calculations per second. The single chip contains all parts necessary to be a full-fledged computer and can perform tasks done by machines requiring entire rooms today, TRW said. The SuperChip's first user will be the U.S. Navy. TRW and Motorola developed the chip under a Defense Department program that seeks to keep U.S. chip companies competitive with the Japanese. It isn't known how the Navy will use the SuperChip, but Motorola said likely applications include computers on board aircraft, missiles and satellites. The chip is a breakthrough for several reasons. Motorola officials said it is the largest, most dense chip in the world. To pack in four million transistors, it has circuits that measure 0.5 microns, or about 1/150 of a hair's breadth. By contrast, the circuits in leading-edge chips, such as four-megabit memory chips, measuring just under one micron wide. "To design a microprocessor that contains that many transistors is quite an achievement," said analyst Rajiv Chaudri of Goldman, Sachs & Co. Current generations of microprocessors, the "brains" of desktop computers, contain about 1.2 million transistors, he said. The other feature, which makes the SuperChip important to the military, is that it can repair itself when wired together with another chip - called a "satellite chip" - that keeps tabs on the SuperChip's inner workings. The SuperChip will have extra circuits built in. If a flaw occurs in use, it will switch to other internal circuits without the user's being aware of the problem. The computer in a stealth bomber flying a mission, say, could fix itself even after nuclear radiation "zapped" some of its internal workings. TRW will begin making the chip for the Navy later this year, Motorola said. Hector Ruiz, Motorola senior vice president, said the chip won't make its way into the commercial marketplace for two or three years, when he expects it to be used in desktop supercomputers and other equipment. "The commercial impact of this in dollars and cents will be negligible for quite a while," said Goldman Sach's Mr. Chaudri. Still, Motorola said it had to develop completely new production technologies to keep factory lines clean enough to create the chips and new techniques - such as methods of printing the tiny circuits - to handle the large-sized chips. Those technologies will be adapted to Motorola's existing chip lines this year, Mr. Ruiz said. "Today's equipment can't build this chip," he said. "The biggest benefit to us is that it accelerates our technology" for building chips, giving Motorola technologies that the Japanese don't have yet. (from The WSJ, 1/5/90)