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To: Grand Poobah who wrote (11056)	3/21/1998 6:54:00 PM
From: shane forbes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25814

GP: The limits of my knowledge come from an article, an old article, on DVD in BYTE. Tried looking for it but no luck. Tried web site - no luck initially. Try dvdinsider.com for tons of DVD information. I'll browse a bit and see if anything pops up. Shane.

To: Grand Poobah who wrote (11056)	3/21/1998 7:12:00 PM
From: shane forbes	Respond to of 25814

or check: unik.no for even more links. I was not able to find anything highly technical though there is a lot of stuff there and you might find what you need. You could also try posting to the newsgroup alt.video.dvd - they should have tons of answers. I went there some time ago - no idea if things are good or bad or upto the level you need. Shane.

To: Grand Poobah who wrote (11056)	3/21/1998 8:37:00 PM
From: E. Graphs	Respond to of 25814

G.P. There were some threads started, although it seems that they never really took off. exchange2000.com Also, NMBS has interesting posts if you go back into it as well. exchange2000.com E

To: Grand Poobah who wrote (11056)	3/23/1998 12:42:00 AM
From: shane forbes	Respond to of 25814

//ot GP: Here's the answer to Gordon Moore. If you can't beat 'em join 'em - taking advantage of quantum effects to develop one major kick-butt transistor: ---- Transistor May Outperform Electronics By REBECCA ROLWING .c The Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Scientists are fine-tuning a new transistor that cranks out computations about 10 times faster than existing computer technology. The transistor, under development by federal scientists at Sandia National Laboratories, could benefit everything from computers and cell phones to satellites and sensors that pick up minute concentrations of toxic materials. ''If you can integrate this with conventional silicon processing, it would mean cheaper, faster, smaller, better,'' said Paul R. Berger, a University of Delaware associate professor who has reviewed the federal team's work. Transistors allow microchips to perform logical functions. Millions of transistors are hooked together with wires on the surface of a single microchip. The Sandia transistors are about the size of a traditional transistor - a square about one-fifteenth the width of a human hair - but only half as many are needed. ''It has a chance to revolutionize electronics,'' said Jerry Simmons, leader of the Albuquerque-based, five-person team that spent about four years and $1 million developing the transistor. In a common silicon transistor, a gate opens, sending electrons flowing down a duct. In the Sandia transistors, electrons ''tunnel'' from one semiconductor layer through an extremely thin barrier to another semiconductor layer. The rapid process allows electrons to avoid impurities along the path that slow traditional transistors. The Sandia transistor is expected to perform 1 trillion computations per second, although its speed hasn't yet been tested. In a few years, another federal laboratory in northern New Mexico expects to have the world's fastest supercomputer, capable of performing 3 trillion to 5 trillion calculations a second - using traditional transistors. That supercomputer already is projected to be about 30 times faster than the fastest supercomputer previously in use at Los Alamos National Laboratory - and about 100 million times faster than the typical home or office computer. If the Sandia transistor lives up to its promise, it could eventually allow supercomputers to operate 10 times faster than those with traditional transistors, Simmons said. Scientists have worked with ''tunneling'' transistors since the late 1980s but have not been able to consistently mass-produce them. Sandia fixed the problem by stacking the semiconductors vertically instead of horizontally. ''It does what some others have done in a much simpler, elegant way that makes it a lot more practical to implement,'' Berger said. The new transistors, which apply quantum physics, are still five to 10 years from commercial use, partly because microchips must be redesigned to take advantage of them. Scientists for two U.S. companies, Raytheon Co. and Motorola Corp., and a half-dozen Japanese companies also are competing to develop transistors using quantum principles. ''I think we'll see chips made that include quantum effect. Whether this transistor will be the winner remains to be seen,'' says Alan Seabaugh, a scientist at Raytheon Co. The success of the new-generation transistors depends on how well they will work when linked together in multiples and how reliable they will be when mass-produced, Seabaugh said. The Sandia device ''could be very important for compact logic and memory elements,'' said Venky Narayanamurti, dean of engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The Sandia scientists still have work to do. The device now works best at minus-321 degrees Fahrenheit. That cold temperature is necessary to eliminate unwanted excess energy. But Simmons expects Sandia transistors to work at room temperature by next year. And since computer chips should be redesigned before they could take full advantage of the new transistors, that new design could allow for a smaller chip that needs even less power, Simmons said. ---- Shane.