Who will be first? Mac or Intel

[RickM]

Loosely following this for a few years. I thought Lucent was at the forefront..... "Israeli Processor Computes at Speed of Light"

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031029/sc_nm/tech_israel_lenslet_dc_1

This would be a nice kick in the pants to the economy.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

This has better applications for DSP as opposed to logic. This thing is very very fast, yes, but has very very narrow bandwidth. Perhaps in a few years....

[widebody911]

Originally posted by RickM
the economy.

How?

[RickM]

IMO:

In time, when this technology makes it to the chip level, miniaturization will be essentially reinvented. Opportunities to redesign everything from PCs,TVs and Cell phones to medical equipment/aids will be enormous.

Coupled with the Light Cube memory technology that Lucent has invented and you have some very small, light, cool running, fast, efficient (using a mere fraction of the power) computing capabilities.

Hopefully, communication technology will make meaningful strides to complete the picture.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

The more advanced semiconductor companies are already sampling stuff with 90-nm linewidths. They've made progress with 60-nm and have 22-nm on their roadmap.

Silicon isn't going away anytime soon. 22-nm is narrower than the width of a DNA strand, IIRC.

[RickM]

I don't profess to be an expert on this subject but I understood there to be fundamental limits to the capabilities of semi conductors. And that Bio and/or Light based computing would make up the next generation of super processors.

Not saying Semi conductors will become extinct anytime soon.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I'm no expert either...but every time some wag announces the end of silicon, i.e., "we've reached the limit to how far silicon technology can take us," some geek in Birkenstocks and a ripped t-shirt figures out how to squeeze out more performance.

Also remember the semicon industry has billions and billions invested in equipment, tooling, technology, etc. So they'll make sure silicon is around for a while. The same way Duracell has hidden the technology for 99% efficient solar cells in their vaults.

[RickM]

...and Shell Oil had the inventor of the 100 MPG carbuerator "taken care of" in the 60's.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Didn't that run on water?

[RickM]

That one too.....

[350HP930]

Old news but optical computing technology is one of those 'strategic' technologies that has never been widely publicised.

I think I read about the first optical processors back in 91.

Its only a matter of time before such ideas become commercially viable products.