/ News
IBM plows $3 billion into 7nm chip research and ‘post-silicon’ computer technology
IBM has announced that it’s plowing $3 billion into two R&D programs that will hopefully make it the authority on 7-nanometer-and-beyond chip technologies. One R&D project will look at pushing conventional silicon chips as far as they will go (around 7nm), and the other will be tasked with finding new materials and techniques that can take us even further (quantum computing, carbon nanotubes, graphene, III-V). IBM also took the opportunity to remind everyone that it’s already the biggest player in 7nm-and-beyond technology, with over 500 applicable patents (more than double the nearest competitor). While most major chip makers (Intel, TSMC, GloFo, IBM) seem confident that they can take standard silicon CMOS chips down to 10nm, they are a little bit nervous about the prospect of 7nm and beyond. At around 7nm, the current building blocks of silicon transistors just won’t behave in the same way; when the gate is just a few atoms across, classical physics goes out the door and quantum physics (which behaves rather differently) takes over. While different transistor designs (such as 3D) allow us to take silicon a little further, the laws of physics will eventually catch up.
To reach 7nm and beyond, IBM Research is taking a pincer approach. First, it will take serious effort to actually get silicon down to 7nm — and more importantly, to develop processes that can make 14nm, 10nm, and 7nm chips economically. As we covered last month, making silicon transistors smaller isn’t inherently all that difficult — but doing it without breaking the bank on expensive equipment is. IBM wants to develop new tools and techniques that will help silicon scale down to 7nm, and potentially beyond.
The second approach is potentially more exciting, at least as far as ExtremeTech is concerned. Rather than pushing silicon indefinitely, this second research project will look at other materials and techniques that might more easily take us to 7nm and beyond. Materials such as III-V semiconductors (notably gallium arsenide, GaAs) have around 10 times the electron mobility of silicon, allowing for smaller transistors with much higher performance and lower power consumption. Likewise, IBM is looking into graphene and carbon nanotubes, both of which have incredibly high electron mobility and can (theoretically) be fashioned into very small structures. IBM has already created a carbon nanotube transistor with a 10nm channel that showed no sign of performance degradation due to its diminutive size (CNTs are just single layers of carbon/graphene rolled up into a tube, and are thus very, very small).
But beyond better materials and the ever-shrinking transistor, IBM is also looking into different methods of computation entirely, such as neuromorphic computing (brain-like chips), quantum computing, and silicon photonics/optoelectronics (optical tech built into electronic chips). These methods won’t necessarily provide more gigahertz or consume less power, but they could offer wildly more capable computers that can process much more data than a conventional computer in the same amount of time. Finally, it’s important to note that IBM is already working on all of these technologies, and in many cases has been for years. The announcement of an additional $3 billion in expenditure is exciting, but it’s pennies in the grand scheme of computing R&D. IBM already spends roughly $6 billion per year on R&D, and companies like Intel, Samsung, HP, Microsoft, and Google are all around that mark. I would be surprised if IBM wasn’t already spending billions per year on the materials and techniques outlined in this story. Ultimately, this announcement feels like an exercise in marketing to reassure both customers and stock holders that IBM still very much wants to be a leader in bleeding-edge computing.
Source: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/186048-ibm-plows-3-billion-into-7nm-chip-research-and-post-silicon-technologies
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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