Arthur.Yuter@f823.n102.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Arthur Yuter) (05/03/90)
The Air Force had a problem: from a satellite, how to detect a target against the earth's background to insure that its the real thing and not a decoy. A physically small and light computer was needed that could very quickly digest and analyze enormous quantities of mathematical data from sensors, and then use that information to guide a counter missile. As reported in the April 30 issue of Federal Computer Week, there's a possible solution. Based upon a chip designed for the Air Force by Texas Instruments and Rockwell, the Air Force predicts a computer the size of a deck of cards capable of operating 500 times faster than todays desktop computers. According to this article, the breakthrough is based upon a new way to package semiconductors: the chips are mounted directly onto a silicon substrate rather than on ceramic, which permits stacking of the elements, assertedly resulting in a lower impedance, closer connections, a higher transfer rate between elements, and ultimately a much faster clock speed. It was claimed that an entire micro computer, including the CPU, memory chips, i/o chips, power chips and other needed semiconductors could be mounted in a package about two inches square by half-inch high. This new signal processor has a claimed weight of about 75 grams and is capable of up to 500 million operations per second. Texas Instruments projects shipping a prototype in May, 1991. -- Arthur Yuter via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH UUCP: ...!osu-cis!n8emr!cmhgate!102!823!Arthur.Yuter INET: Arthur.Yuter@f823.n102.z1.FIDONET.ORG