Did Peking U. Just Make the World's Fastest Transistor - Without Using Silicon? (tomshardware.com) 17
"It is the fastest, most efficient transistor ever," proclaims an announcment from Peking University. "And most important of all, there's no trace of silicon involved," adds ZME Science.
From the South China Morning Post:
A team of researchers at Peking University claims to have shattered chip performance limits and proven that China can use new materials to "change lanes" in the semiconductor race by circumventing silicon-based roadblocks entirely.
The researchers, led by physical chemistry professor Peng Hailin, said their self-engineered 2D transistor could operate 40 per cent faster than Intel and TSMC's cutting-edge 3-nanometre silicon chips, while consuming 10 per cent less energy.... "While this path is born out of necessity due to current sanctions, it also forces researchers to find solutions from fresh perspectives," [Hailin] added.
"Peking's major innovation comes from the two-dimensional nature of their transistors, facilitated by using an element other than silicon," writes Tom's Hardware: BiâOâSe, or bismuth oxyselenide, is a semiconductor material studied for its use in sub-1nm process nodes for years, largely thanks to its ability to be a 2D semiconductor. Two-dimensional semiconductors, like 2D BiâOâSe, are more flexible and sturdy at a small scale than silicon, which runs into reduced carrier mobility at even the 10nm node. Such breakthroughs into stacked 2D transistors and the move from silicon to bismuth are exciting for the future of semiconductors and are necessary for the Chinese industry to compete on the leading edge of semiconductors.
ZME Science adds this note of skepticism. "Turning laboratory breakthroughs into commercial chips typically takes years — sometimes decades..."
Thanks to Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.
The researchers, led by physical chemistry professor Peng Hailin, said their self-engineered 2D transistor could operate 40 per cent faster than Intel and TSMC's cutting-edge 3-nanometre silicon chips, while consuming 10 per cent less energy.... "While this path is born out of necessity due to current sanctions, it also forces researchers to find solutions from fresh perspectives," [Hailin] added.
"Peking's major innovation comes from the two-dimensional nature of their transistors, facilitated by using an element other than silicon," writes Tom's Hardware: BiâOâSe, or bismuth oxyselenide, is a semiconductor material studied for its use in sub-1nm process nodes for years, largely thanks to its ability to be a 2D semiconductor. Two-dimensional semiconductors, like 2D BiâOâSe, are more flexible and sturdy at a small scale than silicon, which runs into reduced carrier mobility at even the 10nm node. Such breakthroughs into stacked 2D transistors and the move from silicon to bismuth are exciting for the future of semiconductors and are necessary for the Chinese industry to compete on the leading edge of semiconductors.
ZME Science adds this note of skepticism. "Turning laboratory breakthroughs into commercial chips typically takes years — sometimes decades..."
Thanks to Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.
lol (Score:1)
Hey EditorDavid, remember your site doesn't support unicode.
> sent from my PDP-11
Not even close (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
On what do you base that claim? TFA doesn't even give any figures for speed, so how have you compared it to other transistors?
I'm reminded of the scepticism that other Chinese technological advances were met with. LLMs and automotive battery technology being two recent ones. The derision soon turns to claims it was stolen (with that damn time machine of theirs), and finally import bans because somehow that will fix our lack of investment in R&D.
Re: (Score:2)
TFA doesn't even give any figures for speed
TFA (the original one) doesn't give anything more than newspaper propaganda. Maybe it is the fastest, maybe it isn't, maybe it exist, maybe it doesn't.
Not enough information for a meaningful discussion, so let's dump all known cliches on the topic of "China".
If headline asks a question then the answer is... (Score:2)
If headline asks a question then the answer is most likely no, or so Betteridge's law of headlines tells us. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
In this case the answer could be yes because we've known of all kinds of different semiconductors for ages, we just stuck to silicon for so long because it's been proven the cheapest. Part of what keeps it so cheap is that silicon has taken such a large chunk of the semiconductor market that it takes some powerful motivations to do different, such as a need for extre
Re: If headline asks a question then the answer is (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
How many more years am I going to have to keep reading comments on this site from people attempting to appear smart by constantly wielding this law of news headlines?
You will likely see comments about Betteridge's law until news outlets learn to have some journalistic integrity.
I don't know if this is a common lesson in American high schools but I can recall a lesson on how to write a news article. The headline is to summarize as best as possible who, what, when, and where, then the news article is to expand on those details. What we have now are headlines that fail to give the important details because if they gave all the important details in the headline then peopl
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know how to end the click bait headlines but it might help if Slashdot refused to highlight news articles with click bait headlines.
In this case it seems that the questioning clickbaity headline is actually something that the Slashdot editor himself came up with, because I can't find it replicated in any of the articles.
Re: (Score:2)
Forever. No old joke has stopped being funny on slashdot, no age discrimination here.
Re: (Score:2)
The first question is how many times did they have to try to successfully make a second transistor? The second question is, what is the density of the transistors they can make? The third question is, how easy is it to automate the process they're using? Depending on the answers to these questions, then even if we ignore cost of materials their transistor could be 100 times faster and ten times more efficient and still be completely useless.
Strange coincidence... (Score:2)
I think Elon Musk has a kid with that name.
Re: (Score:2)
And it's a post-transition one, too.
Re: (Score:2)
Anastasi In Tech (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Microchip Breakthrough: World’s First Silicon-Free Processor [youtube.com]
SCMP? (Score:1)
MOST IMPOTANT OF ALL (Score:1)
> "And most important of all, there's no trace of silicon involved,"
Why is this mort impotrtant?
Do we have a new geenratoni of 40% more efficient transistors or are we just talking smack?
Looks like smack talk to me. Most important of all" blahblahblah.
Slashdot weekend. it's a thing. ANYTHING. Gets published.