There’s a lot of risk in deploying new technology for cutting-edge computer chips. So Intel executives were understandably cautious in executing a plan that next year simultaneously introduces both a new transistor—RibbonFET—and a new way of powering it—PowerVia. To take some of the risk out of this high-wire act, the company has built and tested […]
There was a time, decades really, when all it took to make a better computer chip were smaller transistors and narrower interconnects. That time’s long gone now, and although transistors will continue to get a bit smaller, simply making them so is no longer the point. The only way to keep up the exponential pace […]
Stephen Cass: Hi, I’m Stephen Cass, for IEEE Spectrum’s Fixing the Future. This episode is brought to you by IEEE Xplore, the digital library with over 6 million pieces of the world’s best technical content. Today I have with me our own Samuel K. Moore, who has been covering the semiconductor beat pretty intensely for […]
What’s the career outlook for AI professionals? In a word, growing, for all skill sets. But dig down into the data, and you’ll find some differences. This latest look at the AI job market comes from the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), which this month released its 2023 AI Index Report, more than […]
Making 5G/6G technology real requires an increased density of more complex electronic systems in smaller form factors. As 5G/6G proliferates into safety critical systems and infrastructure, such as autonomous vehicles and healthcare, reliability is paramount. Engineers must determine the performance and the lifetime of the systems they are designing and deploying. The increased density of […]
The perpetual problem with scaling up most quantum computers is a seemingly mundane one—too many cables. Experts say quantum computers might need at least a million qubits kept at near absolute zero to do anything computationally noteworthy. But connecting them all by coaxial cable to control and readout electronics, which work at room temperature, would […]
Scientists today reported that they’ve observed room-temperature superconductivity. Superconductivity is a rarefied state of matter in which electrical resistance in a material drops to zero while its electrical and magnetic capacity vastly expands. Until now, the phenomenon has been observed only at cryogenic temperatures or phenomenally high pressures. Such a discovery, if confirmed, could open […]
The European Commission wants Europe to boost its share of global semiconductor production to 20 percent by 2030, from 10 percent today. To that end, it is forwarding plans for more than €43 billion in public and private investment through a European Chips Act. To accomplish that increase in chip capacity, the legislation will approve […]
Interconnects—those sometimes nanometers-wide metal wires that link transistors into circuits on an IC—are in need of a major overhaul. And as chip fabs march toward the outer reaches of Moore’s Law, interconnects are also becoming the industry’s choke point. “For some 20-25 years now, copper has been the metal of choice for interconnects. However we’re […]
“Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it.” With the phenomenal success of the transistor’s first 75 years, it feels like maybe we should both know and repeat. That seems to have been the reaction you (dear devoted IEEE Spectrum reader) took with your semiconductor article consumption. You dove deep with […]