Wow, where is he getting this stuff from?
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/3cot8d/discussionibm_unveils_worlds_first_7nm_chip/
All of the following reference Poet:
Silicon is dead. This says they had to mix in some germanium to make it work. There are just too few atoms in a fin <7nm wide to function.
Hoping the POET team has huge success commercializing their 40nm InGaA process this year and can sell out their work to one of the big boys. Intel could easily refit their retired 32nm foundries into InGaA and put out chips within a couple years.
I'm just imagining a 2500K running at something ridiculous like 275 GHz
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They (Poet) stressed an indium dope over Gallium Arsenide substrate to create quantum wells that facilitate ridiculously high electron mobilities. They believe they can achieve over 10x the mobility of ultra-high end silicon. They are already selling switches for the mobile market that outperform the theoretical max of silicon (higher switching Hz, at a much much lower power) and far outstrip what was commercially available before them.
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[–]Shandlar 4 points 7 hours ago
But they are already selling products, with their 40nm process ramping to volume production to start shipping in November. They must have solved the problem to at least some degree.
None of their products for sale are CMOS transistor chips though. Theoretically its a highly suitable technology for it, however.
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[–]Shandlar 8 points 8 hours ago
The tech is definitely usable for CPUs though. I'm hoping their 40nm process goes swimmingly and one of the big boys will buy up the company and get a team working on a process. After 7nm, there is literally no where to go with silicon. We need to get started on something new if we expect any significant increases in CPU performance after 2020.
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[–]Shandlar 1 point 6 hours ago
