IBM developing 'System on a chip'- to be used in Macs?
Staff Report, email@maccentral.com
February 23, 1999, 7:30 am ET
The wizards at IBM are cooking up yet another processor technology. Alongside the company's on-going production of faster G3s and new generations of PowerPC processors, IBM says it is working on a 'system on a chip' product that contains both logic and memory circuits on a single piece of silicon.
Though the new components will be cheaper and lighter than today's processor/memory combinations, IBM says they will carry as much as eight times the processing and two to four times the memory found on today's typical PC. "Until now, having processing power and data on separate chips was like having the materials you need to do your job in another office," said Bijan Davari, IBM Fellow and vice president of development for the IBM Microelectronics Division. "This forces you to keep going next door to get what you need. By placing logic and memory together on a single chip, we're making sure that the processor has what it needs close at hand, allowing it to operate more efficiently."
The new system on a chip utilizes IBM's copper chip process to create very small circuits. In fact, IBM says circuitry as small as 0.15 micron (less than 1/600th the width of a human hair) is used in the new chip design.
Could this technology, like IBM's PowerPC processors, find a home in the Macintosh line? The prospect of an extremely inexpensive chip that contains all necessary components for proper system function could easily appeal to Apple's renewed consumer efforts, though its unlikely we'll see anything like this anytime soon. However, you may start seeing IBM's chips in microwaves and automobiles sooner than you think. |
