Author: Alastair Scott
Date: 13:08:20 11/01/03
Go up one level in this thread
On November 01, 2003 at 15:29:05, Russell Reagan wrote: >On November 01, 2003 at 15:13:44, Alvaro Jose Povoa Cardoso wrote: > >>Please check: >>http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994331 >> >>I wonder how much longer we must wait for an AMD/Intel with the same technology. > >They said that these chips would be custom made, and not programmable. I would >think that would be a much more desirable chip, and they could make a lot more >money if it was a general purpose chip. Makes me wonder why they aren't offering >this. Full optical processing is one of those things that has been "5 years away" for years. On reflection, it's remarkable that anything at all can be produced now, and I suspect that general-purpose chips will be a long way off. Quite apart from more subtle effects, which I leave to the experts, there are two fairly obvious problems I can see: - the chip will be huge by dint of the physical processes involved. It's relying on optical rather than electrical effects, the first occur on a much larger scale, and there's nothing that can be done about that; - perfectly flat surfaces, mirrors, diffraction gratings, materials of different refractive indices and similar basic components will have to be produced reliably on the nanoscale, which I suspect is a fearsomely difficult manufacturing problem. Now to lie down for about an hour after spouting all those buzzwords ;) Alastair
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.