SiliCon

The MacBook Pro’s M5 Pro/Max Chip Are More Interesting Than You Think

It completely changes how users can think about price for performance on the new MacBooks.

Mystery Car Full of Concrete Exhumed in Silicon Valley

The Palo Alto area was rocked by a mystery involving an unidentified car buried about 4 feet underground.

Report: New York Comic Con Is Being Planned as a Virtual and Physical Event This Year

As the world slowly begins acclimatizing to the chance of a future where more and more people are vaccinated against covid-19, the convention circuit is beginning to prepare to unleash pop culture fans on each other in person once more. But some circuit stalwarts are planning…a little less recklessly than others. As part of a…

WTF, Comic-Con?

Hey, remember when Comic-Con International: San Diego was going to have a virtual convention once more this summer but try to hold a small, in-person con in November for…some reason? The organization has decided Thanksgiving weekend is the perfect time. In the immortal words of Pugsley Addams: Eat me. Yes, it’s true. As Comic-Con’s WonderCon…

Samsung’s First 5nm Chip, the Exynos 1080, Looks to Keep Pace with Apple

This week has been especially busy when it comes to new silicon, because almost immediately after MediaTek announced a number of new chips for phones and Chromebooks, Apple followed up with its big M1 chip. Now Samsung has announce its first chip designed using a 5-nanometer process: the Exynos 1080. Samsung’s new mobile chip is…

Researchers Made Silicon Glow and It Could Make Computers a Lot Faster

After 50 years of continual invention and innovation into making computer chips faster, Moore’s Law isn’t as dead as it seemed. Researchers have figured out a way to make silicon glow, according to a new report from Wired. That means instead of doubling the amount of transistors in computer chips every two years, it now…

Apple Sues Former Chip Designer, Who Says Apple Also Spied On His Texts

Let it be said, Apple is not afraid to take people to court. The company’s latest beef involves Gerard Williams, a former employee who purportedly spearheaded the design for Apple’s A-series processors. You know, the itty bits of silicon that have powered Apple’s marquee gadgets since the iPhone 5S. Williams left Apple earlier this year…

Moore’s Law Stutters at Intel

Intel has announced that it’s moving away from its current “tick-tock” chip production cycle and instead shifting to a three-step development process that will “lengthen the amount of time [available to] utilize… process technologies.” For years now, Intel has run its chip business on a ‘tick-tock’ basis: First it develops a new manufacturing technique in…

The World’s First Silicon-Based Laser Will Light Up Computing

As optical computing becomes a more realistic prospect, lasers will be required to connect components inside our devices. Now, a new silicon-based laser could make it far easier for researchers to replace wires with beams of light. Researchers have been trying to build a working laser using silicon for years now. That’s because so many…

Amazon Now Sells Its Very Own ARM Chips

If you thought Amazon’s own-branded products were a little strange—baby wipes, anyone?—then things just got a little more serious. The retailer has just announced that it’s starting to sell its own ARM-based silicon chips. Amazon purchased the semiconductor firm Annapurna Labs last year, and now its readied a line of chips under the name Alpine…

Intel’s New Skylake Processors: What You Need To Know

Stop. Don’t buy that new Windows laptop or tablet. Don’t pull the trigger unless you’re getting a truly amazing deal. Because today, Intel’s launching its latest processor—Skylake—and you may want one in your next PC. Why? Let me count the reasons. And afterwards, I’ll help you understand how to tell a Skylake chip apart from…

IBM’s New Chip Is Four Times as Powerful as Today’s Best Silicon

IBM has announced that it’s designed a new kind of ultra-dense chip, which squeezes in four times as much computing power as the best silicon currently available. The ability to squeeze ever more processing power into the same small processors is a result of shrinking the fundamental transistors that make up chips. Until recently manufacturers…

These Silicon Strips Could Make Computers Way, Way Faster

It may not look much, but this tiny piece of etched silicon could make our computers way faster. Designed to split and direct light, it could allow computers to trade electrons for photons—and gain a jump in speed in the process. “Light can carry more data than a wire, and it takes less energy to…

It may look like some very heavy pharmacy branding, but this in fact a piece of silicon, etched to create tiny crosses just 100 microns in size. The resulting surface can absorb virtually all the terahertz radiation you throw at it. [Advanced Optical Materials]

This Tiny 3G Chip Will Pump the Internet Into Anything

It might not look much, but this is the world’s smallest 3G chip—and it could help bring Internet connectivity to even the tiniest of devices. The U-blox SARA-U260 module measures just 16 by 26 millimeters and has recently been certified by AT&T. It can, obviously, handle voice calls, but that’s not really the point; instead,…

A New Kind of Chip Could Make Wearables Last Way Longer on a Charge

Smartwatches, Google Glass, even humble fitness trackers: all great, apart from the fact that the batteries last for what seems like minutes. But now, a new kind of low-power processor could change that. Developed by a startup company Ineda Systems, the new chip is actually intended to work alongside another, more powerful processor—and that’s the…

A Crash Course in Transistors, Processors and Moore’s Law

Do you sometimes wonder what the hell people a talking about when the discuss transistors, processors, binary or Moore’s Law? Or have friends that need a simple introduction to the topics? Then this is the video for you. Here, Sci Show takes a whistlestop tour of the circuitry that makes all computing possible. Electrical engineers…

Carbon Nanotube Transistors That’ll Save Moore’s Law Are Coming in 2020

Our world of amazingly tiny electronics is about to get even tinier. After a decade of research, IBM says it’ll bring carbon nanotube transistors to market by 2020. The company is now readying the technology to take over from silicon transistors, and that opens up a lot of exciting doors. Currently, Intel’s smallest silicon transistor…

Intel’s New Broadwell Processor Could Make Your Next Ultrabook Silent

Intel has just announced a new reference PC design that uses its upcoming Broadwell chipset. Usually, that wouldn’t get us excited—but this concept ushers in the prospect of silent ultrabooks and MacBook Airs. The new design uses 14 nanometer processing to create a slab of PC-grade silicon—this is the next iteration in Intel’s Core range,…

This Brain-Inspired Microchip Is 9,000 Times Faster Than a Normal PC

You’re looking at Neurogrid: a slab of silicon inspired by the human brain, which is 9,000 times faster than a normal computer brain simulator and uses way less energy to boot. Developed by a team of Stanford bioengineers, it’s worth pointing out that this is hardly the first microchip to be inspired by the human…