New CPU Technology

[DualXP4ghz]

If I remember correctly, once we get down passed .05 micron, everything is so small that information will be to large to be correctly processed. Now, if we are gonna be down to that size in say, around 2 years, what different types of data streams will we be using to process the data. My neighbor who is a computer engineer told me that some companies have been developing units to process information based on a data stream sent by light. I was just curious as to what kinds of new technologies will be used in the near future. Thankyou in advance

 

[Drakkon]

I'm sure someone will correct me...but I would think that radiated(light) based cpu's would be about the mimit of how fast we could transfer data...pushing the light barrier there are all sorts of technicalities when it comes to the theory of relativity...but then that leads into quantum computing i think...
But I think light based processing is the next step after we hit that .05 micron limit. I mean we've only partially tapped the possibliity of light with recent OC lines...if implememnted into a computer chip the possibilities are endless...
There is also the possiblity that instead of going the route of finding new means to transmit data there is also the realm of 64 bit...128 bit...and 256 bit processing....and so on...
Or there is also the chance may go into dual processing as a normallity and quad processors will become the norm or other "off" endevours such as that...

 

[Fatt]

Before we get there I think we'll see a lot more dual or even quad chip machines.

The entire macintosh powermac line is now dual processor for instance. Of course, they're way behind in clock speed and Mhz DO matter eventually, but with their RISC architecture and vector processing they manage to hold their own against much faster intel/amd chips.

So I think you're looking at changes in architecture, vector processing, 64 bit computing and multiple processors for the next couple of years. Also, look for improvements in motherboards and chipsets.

There is a LOT of room with current technology to improve efficiency before moving on to a new one.

 

[rimshaker]

It will be around later this decade (probly beyond) before you actually see optic or RF signal transfers used within a cpu. But by then, a cpu might be defined differently. Everything is pointing to complete SOC (systems on a chip) in the future. So maybe the cpu is but a small part of the entire package. In the mean time, the industry will continue to be using technology with electrical methods.

 

[AluminumStudios]

I don't think optical CPUs or other radically different technology is anywhere near ready to be used. I have a feeling that silicon chips will stall once they reach a certain micron size and for a few years manufacturers will find new ways of gaining performance through agreessive paralellism (within a single chip), and other new approaches such as asynchronous chips where various functional unuts run as fast as they can, rather than the whole chip running at a given frequency.

We've already seen hints at these technologies in the Pentium 4 and P4 based Xeons which feature Hyperthreading (a form of CPU level parallelism) and double clocked ALUs which run faster than the MHz speed of the rest of the chip.

I also think eliminating bottlenecks such as memory bandwidth (look at how fast DDR is evolving), and "growing" accessory CPUs (such as the GPUs now found on video cards or the advanced sound abilities found in an nForce chipset) will be exploited much more before we see a radical shift toward optical or other technologies.

 

[AntiAMD]

Originally posted by: DualXP4ghz
If I remember correctly, once we get down passed .05 micron, everything is so small that information will be to large to be correctly processed. Now, if we are gonna be down to that size in say, around 2 years, what different types of data streams will we be using to process the data. My neighbor who is a computer engineer told me that some companies have been developing units to process information based on a data stream sent by light. I was just curious as to what kinds of new technologies will be used in the near future. Thankyou in advance

If 50nm is the limit that data can be sent through, I guess we'll never see quantum computing Also, there was talk way back when that a pentium chip could not possibly go faster than 200 mhz as then there would be "interference" because the cpu would be "broadcasing" and the signals would get crossed. Thankfully this was bs.

I don't know about so called "light" computers, as the next logical step in computing will be quantum. Now that is an exciting technology that actually exists in more than theory. Think about it, bits are either on or off (1 or 0), and you can work at trying to turn them on and off as fast as possible, and use light to do it I guess, but if you want to take it a step further now, how about your computer being so fast, that it can actually wait on the 'in between' state. Think of a computer that can function at the level that the bits can be both on and off at the same time. That's quantum computing.

 

[Peacekeeper100]

Well there is already technology for more speed. The only problem is it's more money. GaAs is used instead of silicon now for processors that are faster than 10Ghz. Things like high speed switches and the military use it. The problem is finding a cheap way to make the chips. But if silicon reaches a limit they will probably dump a lot of money into GaAs. Also IBM is working on nano-tubes I believe they are called. Its basicly a semiconductor built with Carbon. IBM thinks it will be the next semiconductor material to replace Silicon.

 

[AntiAMD]

Originally posted by: Peacekeeper100
Well there is already technology for more speed. The only problem is it's more money. GaAs is used instead of silicon now for processors that are faster than 10Ghz. Things like high speed switches and the military use it. The problem is finding a cheap way to make the chips. But if silicon reaches a limit they will probably dump a lot of money into GaAs.

GaAs is used for broadcasting 10Ghz through the air