IBM Builds First Graphene Integrated Circuit 77
AffidavitDonda writes "IBM researchers have built the first integrated circuit (IC) based on a graphene transistor. The circuit, built on a wafer of silicon carbide, consists of field-effect transistors made of graphene. The IC also includes metallic structures, such as on-chip inductors and the transistors' sources and drains. The circuit the team built is a broadband radio-frequency mixer, a fundamental component of radios that processes signals by finding the difference between two high-frequency wavelengths."
Re:This is an extremely important accomplishment. (Score:4, Informative)
portable language like Java.
Right.... One can find a C compiler for pretty much every processor since the 80s. I can point out a number of still widely used architectures that have no JVM.
Re:This is an extremely important accomplishment. (Score:5, Informative)
Remember when it used to be first, by a huge margin? It's not dead by any means, and still a very active language, but it's not taught as much anymore. Within a generation, it'll be in the same class as FORTRAN - only used to support legacy apps.
... and kernels, and drivers, and embedded applications, and core libraries, and runtimes, too, unless those go away.
C is a fantastic language that very effectively performs a much-needed role in software development: to provide a lightweight, usable, and readable language while retaining (most of) the capabilities of machine code. C is intended to interface directly with the system, or closely with the operating system.
C is in decline because many modern programming challenges don't benefit from working on the level of machine code or operating system, nor should they. If I want to write a game, I want to focus on the game design and mechanics, not bit blitting pixels onto a buffer. Libraries, interfaces, and abstraction levels are all things higher-level languages leverage to constrain the perspective and duty of the developer to the most productive (and, oftentimes, interesting) areas.
Also, let's not forget that in the common non-kernel case, most of the reason C is even usable is because C, itself, leverages a massive host of support libraries and a not-so-lightweight runtime.
It's a diode! (Score:4, Informative)
The circuit the team built is a broadband radio-frequency mixer, a fundamental component of radios that processes signals by finding the difference between two high-frequency wavelengths.
Did someone paid directly by IEEE write that? "Two high-frequency wavelengths?"
The device is a nonlinear summing element. In other words, it has a transfer function of the form y=Sum(ax^n) for integer values of n from zero to at least 2. A very common example is a diode. But it could also be a transistor in the saturation region, or something more esoteric.
Due to the nonzero second-order transfer function coefficient, provides not only the superposed sum of the two signals at their original frequency, but also at the sum and difference of the two input frequencies. Add filters to throw away the parts you don't want, and you can make a modulator, a frequency upconverter, or a downconverter... all of these are used every day inside things you probably have in your pocket or purse, from cellphones to car stereos, television receivers to communications satellites.
But basically, it does the same thing a diode does... just faster.