Semiconductors

energy efficiency

Rohm Circuit Kills Vampire Power, Pulls No Electricity On Standby

Japanese semiconductor maker Rohm is looking to vanquish vampire power, the energy wasted by tech on stand-by, with its new LSI circuits. The circuits consume no electricity even when in stand-by mode, allowing for a quick power up without the power drain. Considering that roughly 10% of a house's energy bill goes to these silent suckers, Rohm's circuits could save money and the planet at the same time. More »

5:00 PM on Sat May 10 2008
By Elaine Chow
9,113 views, 20 comments

graphene

Scientists Build Worlds Smallest Transistor: Just One Atom Thick

Just the other day we were banging on about graphene, the new "wonder material" based on graphite, and now a British team has used it to craft the world's smallest transistor. It's just one atom deep and ten wide, and we don't need to tell you that that's teeny. In fact, it's more than three times smaller than the 32nm transistors at the cutting edge of silicon-based microelectronics: so it looks like Gordon Moore's law of transistor shrinkage has a bit of life in it yet. More »

6:52 AM on Fri Apr 18 2008
By Kit Eaton
4,875 views, 25 comments

Latest by socioecoboy: What'd be really cool is if they could find a way to fit a radio into an Ipod. ;) I don't care what anyone says, sometimes there's no substitute for radio. more »

gadgets

Silicon Out, Graphene In?

Physicists at the University of Maryland have demonstrated that graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of graphite, has a greater ability to conduct electricity than any other known material at room temperature. In fact, electrons can travel up to 100 times faster in graphine than silicon, making it a likely candidate to replace it as a semiconductor material in devices like computer chips and sensors. More »

8:10 PM on Mon Mar 24 2008
By Sean Fallon
8,034 views, 33 comments

news

Samsung 8MP Cellphone Module is World's Slimmest

Good news for those who rely on their cellphones for their photo- taking needs; Samsung has just unveiled the world's slimmest 8MP CMOS, which measures a diminutive, 28mm × 15.3mm × 8.5mm. The semiconductor was designed specifically for cellphones, and it will push handsets beyond their current 5MP restraints. [Ed: 5MP as the limit in slimmer phones.] The new module, which is 10% more compact than current solutions, will have an ISO 1600 sensitivity, anti-shake capability, face detection technology, 1-cm macro and an automated shoot mode that is activated by silly, smiling faces. More »

4:55 AM on Tue Mar 18 2008
By Haroon Malik
7,208 views, 25 comments

Latest by rimplestultskin: dont know about you guys, but i'm at 800x600 and it's enough. i'd rather have a decent-rez sensor with no noise than a high-rez sensor with lots of noise. more »

pcs

Intel Chips 1971 to 2007, Plus a Timeline of the Transistor's 60 Years

As promised, here are stats for 20 different Intel chips from the past 35 years, most of which I included briefly in the Moore's Law video I made earlier, along with bonus factual tidbits I came across while looking over some Intel stuff today. Here you can enjoy it at your own pace (and without the music that some of you found not to your liking), but sadly the pics are not in any particular order, thanks to the way we serve up Flickr galleries. Enjoy it, but remember, it's only Intel's side of the story. Perhaps AMD would be kind enough to shoot over a similar dossier of fun facts. After the chip gallery is a timeline of transistor-related happenings from 1947 up to today. More »

7:00 PM on Mon Dec 10 2007
By Wilson Rothman
24,757 views, 18 comments

Latest by OtakuboyT: Oh 486 how I miss thee... more »

semiconductors

IBM Unleashes Photonic Supercomputer... On a Chip

Modern supercomputers are still at least 100 times faster than the crappy laptop you bought a week ago, and electrons are to blame. Today, IBM introduced a way to speed up the action on regular silicon chips by replacing the wiring with pulses of light, a technology called—what else?—silicon photonics. This method works for longer stretches requiring communication between cores, but it doesn't have a major impact in very tight spaces, so copper can still be used. This all may sound familiar, as it's essentially a teeny tiny version of today's fiberoptic networks. Now that you're kicking yourself about that laptop purchase, here's the good news: photonics won't be marketable on chips for another decade. [InfoWorld]

10:17 AM on Thu Dec 6 2007
By Wilson Rothman
1,542 views, 5 comments

Latest by ideaman2020: @illustriouschin: I think he would leave the robots to Dr. Soong... more »

semiconductors

Sony Sells Cell Chip Business To Toshiba

A month ago we ran a well-circulated rumor that Sony was selling the Cell biz. Today the company formally announced it had struck a deal. Once the $1 billion+ deal is finalized, production facilities would belong to Toshiba, but the result will be a joint venture for producing serious semiconductors, presumably so Sony doesn't have to give up all of its Cell-chip bragging rights. [AFP/Yahoo; Kotaku]

8:14 AM on Thu Oct 18 2007
By Wilson Rothman
1,023 views, 5 comments

Gizmodo

GM's Challenge X Green Car Prototypes in NYC

Gizmodo Team

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