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Category: computing – Page 337

How We’ll Reach a 1 Trillion Transistor GPU

Largely thanks to advances in semiconductor technology, a measure called energy-efficient performance is on track to triple every two years (EEP units are 1/femtojoule-picoseconds).

In particular, the EEP increase will be enabled by the advanced packaging technologies we’ve been discussing here. Additionally, concepts such as system-technology co-optimization (STCO), where the different functional parts of a GPU are separated onto their own chiplets and built using the best performing and most economical technologies for each, will become increasingly critical.

Practical Quantum Devices Now Closer to Reality — Scientists Unveil Room Temperature Photonic Chips

A new study by Hebrew University has made a significant breakthrough by successfully incorporating single-photon sources into small chips that operate at room temperature. This development marks a crucial progress in the field of quantum photonics, opening up possibilities for its use in quantum computing and cryptography. It represents a key achievement in creating usable quantum photonic devices, signaling an optimistic outlook for the complete realization of quantum technologies, including computing, communication, and sensing.

A recent study, spearheaded by Boaz Lubotzky during his Ph.D. research, along with Prof. Ronen Rapaport from the Racah Institute of Physics at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with teams from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the USA and from Ulm University in Germany, unveiled a significant advancement toward the on-chip integration of single-photon sources at room temperature. This achievement represents a significant step forward in the field of quantum photonics and holds promise for various applications including quantum computing, cryptography, and sensing.

Quantum interference could lead to smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient transistors

As transistors get smaller, they become increasingly inefficient and susceptible to errors, as electrons can leak through the device even when it is supposed to be switched off, by a process known as quantum tunneling. Researchers are exploring new types of switching mechanisms that can be used with different materials to remove this effect.

In the nanoscale structures that Professor Jan Mol, Dr. James Thomas, and their group study at Queen Mary’s School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, quantum mechanical effects dominate, and electrons behave as waves rather than particles. Taking advantage of these quantum effects, the researchers built a new transistor.

The transistor’s conductive channel is a single zinc porphyrin, a molecule that can conduct electricity. The porphyrin is sandwiched between two graphene electrodes, and when a voltage is applied to the electrodes, electron flow through the molecule can be controlled using .

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