Jock, re IBM system on a chip announcement today, need to hear more about it.
With IBM's technology,
twenty-four million "gates," or circuits -- equal to as much as eight times
the processing and two to four times the memory found on today's typical
PC -- can be packed on a single chip.
In this statement, it's hard to imagine two to four times the memory of today's PCs on a single chip, AND all the processing power they're saying. 2X even "just" 48 megabytes is 768 million bits. Each bit requires its own memory cell. So, how to I get 768 million cells in 24 million gates of space and leave room for processors? The processor part, they say as much as 8X today's is exaggerated, but in the ball park. The Pentium III probably has 5 - 8 million or so gates, so 24 million in IBM's vapor chip might get 4X a Pentium III or so. But then, where's the memory go? I forgot, besides the 768 million cells, the memory needs tons of address registers and decoding, sense amps and other ancillary logic.
One report I heard was that they could go into production in maybe 3 - 5 years. That's a long time. Anyone remember Josephson's Junctions or superconductors? They were always like 3 - 5 years out.
Another report I heard said IBM would target hand held PCs and cell phones. You'd have enough memory to store voicemail messages, lots of them! I'd think so. No mention of desktop PCs. Maybe the technology is much too slow or they'd surely go after the biggest volume product, the desktop. The reason I'm guessing too slow is there's always a speed-power tradeoff. Putting four Pentium IIIs and 96 megabytes or more memory on a chip, and, did you say you want it fast too? I don't care if their copper has negative resistance, that baby would vaporize from the heat. Three to five years down the road, maybe not.
Well, speculating much too far out here. Need more information, like speed mostly. Question about this IBM "breakthrough" went out to Paul Engel tonight, Intel post #74276 tonight. Let's see what Paul comes back with.
Thanks for asking me about it. I hadn't thought about the power/speed part until I started thinking while writing here. Sometimes the give and take here actually works. Whether the idea holds any water remains to be seen.
Tony
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