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Keith,
I didn't send it to YOU , I sent it to the LIST with OT clearly=20
displayed in the header.
The delete key is located on the near right side of most computer=20
keyboards. Use it.
Greg
At 08:58 AM 9/22/2003, you wrote:
>Do you have that choice? I didn't have that choice when you sent it to me.
>Keith
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Greg Newell" <gnewell@ameritech.net>
>To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 4:14 AM
>Subject: OT Fwd: NYTimes.com Article: New Sun Microsystems Chip May Unseat
>the Circuit Board
>
>
>perhaps of some mild, general interest. If not ... I DON'T WANT TO HEAR
>ABOUT IT.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >New Sun Microsystems Chip May Unseat the Circuit Board
> >
> >September 22, 2003
> > By JOHN MARKOFF
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 19 - Written off lately by the
> >computer industry as a has-been, Sun Microsystems may still
> >have a few tricks up its engineers' shirt sleeves.
> >
> >On Tuesday, Sun researchers plan to report that they have
> >discovered a way to transmit data inside a computer much
> >more quickly than current techniques allow. By placing the
> >edge of one chip directly in contact with its neighbor, it
> >may be possible to move data 60 to 100 times as fast as the
> >present top speeds.
> >
> >For the computer industry, the advance - if it can be
> >repeated on the assembly line - would be truly
> >revolutionary. It would make obsolete the traditional
> >circuit board constructed of tiny bits of soldered wires
> >between chips, familiar to hobbyists who hand-soldered
> >connections when assembling Heathkit electronic projects.
> >
> >"It could represent the end of the printed circuit board,"
> >said Jim Mitchell, director of Sun Laboratories here. "It
> >makes things way, way faster."
> >
> >Sun, an icon of Silicon Valley, has been losing market
> >share and laying off thousands of workers as corporate
> >computing customers turn increasingly to Microsoft and
> >Intel for their software and hardware. Sun is in desperate
> >need of a technical advance that can differentiate it from
> >the others.
> >
> >The new technology is being developed as part of a
> >military-financed supercomputer effort. But Sun executives
> >said they were seeking ways to find commercial uses quickly
> >for a future generation of computer systems.
> >
> >Sun has not decided whether to license the technology to
> >other manufacturers or reserve it exclusively for Sun's own
> >systems, Dr. Mitchell said. Analysts, though, say they
> >believe that the company is moving toward a more liberal
> >technology licensing policy.
> >
> >"This is a big thought project," said Vernon Turner, vice
> >president for global enterprise servers at the
> >International Data Corporation, a market research firm. "It
> >will give them some leadership if they can pull it off."
> >
> >The recent resignation of Sun's co-founder, William Joy, a
> >leading software designer and developer of the Java
> >programming language, has been seen as evidence that the
> >company is struggling to remain innovative. Still, Sun has
> >maintained its research spending despite corporate
> >cutbacks.
> >
> >The new breakthrough is based on an insight by Ivan E.
> >Sutherland, a Sun vice president and research fellow who is
> >a pioneer of modern computing. Dr. Sutherland, 65, was a
> >co-founder of Evans & Sutherland, an early maker of
> >high-performance computers. He is also the inventor of
> >interactive computer graphics.
> >
> >In a paper to be presented at the Custom Integrated
> >Circuits Conference on Tuesday in San Jose, Calif., Dr.
> >Sutherland, Robert J. Drost and Robert D. Hopkins plan to
> >report that they were able to send data at a speed of 21.6
> >billion bits a second between chips in a scaled-down
> >version of the new technology. By comparison, an Intel
> >Pentium 4 processor, the fastest desktop chip, can transmit
> >about 50 billion bits a second. But when the technology is
> >used in complete products, the researchers say, they expect
> >to reach speeds in excess of a trillion bits a second,
> >which would be about 100 times the limits of today's
> >technology.
> >
> >Currently, computer data is moved in and out of an
> >integrated circuit through tiny wires soldered to the
> >surface at special pads that ring the edge of each chip.
> >While the pads are small, they are vastly larger than the
> >transistors and wires that make up the chip's circuitry.
> >
> >A typical gold or aluminum wire might be 25 microns in
> >width and soldered to a pad that is 100 microns wide, about
> >the width of a human hair. Compared with the internal
> >circuitry, this passageway requires relatively large
> >amounts of power. Also, the size of the pads and wires
> >necessarily limits the number there are to ferry
> >information in and out of the circuit.
> >
> >The new Sun chip has tiny transmitters that are only a few
> >microns in width. In addition to having many more
> >connecting points, the chip should consume far less power.
> >The chip's additional channels increase the processing
> >speed, like adding lanes to a highway; being able to
> >eliminate the pads is another benefit of the chip's design,
> >like getting rid of a series of tollbooths.
> >
> >Chip-to-chip bottlenecks have long been a vexing challenge
> >for computer designers, who have explored many ways of
> >increasing the overall speed of systems that are composed
> >of hundreds of chips.
> >
> >Other potential technologies have included optical lasers
> >and even the idea of quantum entanglement of electrons,
> >which holds out the possibility of moving huge amounts of
> >data instantaneously.
> >
> >Transmitting data between chips by placing a transmitter
> >next to a receiver, along the lines of the Sun design,
> >employs an effect known as "capacitive coupling" to send
> >electrical pulses at high speed. The idea came to Dr.
> >Sutherland when he was visiting Steve Jacobsen, a robotics
> >expert based in Utah, who has developed a technique for
> >ultraprecise mechanical alignment.
> >
> >This technique might be applied to connect large arrays of
> >ultrasmall transmitters and receivers, Dr. Sutherland
> >decided.
> >
> >While the concept has yet to be validated fully, Sun
> >researchers have already received an important vote of
> >confidence from the Defense Advanced Research Projects
> >Agency of the Pentagon.
> >
> >In July, Sun was a surprise winner of a $49.7 million award
> >from the agency to work on supercomputer designs. Cray and
> >I.B.M. also won contracts, but Sun was chosen over two
> >competitors, Silicon Graphics and Hewlett-Packard.
> >
> >The choice of Sun surprised many supercomputing researchers
> >because both Silicon Graphics and Hewlett-Packard have
> >larger supercomputer businesses.
> >
> >"This is one of those things that could have great
> >potential if they can work out the details," said William
> >J. Dally, a professor of electrical engineering and
> >computer science at Stanford University and a consultant
> >for Cray on its supercomputer project financed by the
> >Pentagon agency.
> >
> >The Sun technique could pack hundreds of chips in
> >face-to-face checkerboard fashion far more densely than is
> >possible today. The technique holds out the hope of
> >attaining what had been one of Silicon Valley's far-off
> >dreams: a computer packaging technique known as wafer-scale
> >integration.
> >
> >Today, chips are manufactured in wafers that contain
> >hundreds of identical circuits. The individual chips are
> >cut apart and each chip is wired into a separate package.
> >The chips are then laid out on printed circuit boards and
> >connected to other packages by wires that are thousands of
> >times thicker than the chip circuits.
> >
> >For decades, computer designers have tried to figure out
> >how to make computer systems out of single large wafers.
> >But designers have stumbled over the fact that it is
> >virtually impossible to create large wafers that are free
> >of defects.
> >
> >Now the Sun researchers may have surmounted the hurdle with
> >a simple mechanical solution - having a bunch of small
> >chips work together with the computing properties of a
> >single wafer.
> >
> >"This is a very novel idea that could give you a way to
> >make a very compact computer," said David Patterson, a
> >computer scientist at the University of California at
> >Berkeley who is a Sun consultant. "From the very beginning
> >people have been making circuits on wafers and then
> >chopping them up and then wiring them back together again."
> >
> >
> >As a graduate student in the 1970's, Dr. Patterson worked
> >on a Pentagon-financed wafer-scale integration research
> >project at Hughes Aircraft. Even though it was not
> >cost-effective, he said, it was one of the few successful
> >efforts to build such a computer.
> >
> >Since then, the industry has tried unsuccessfully to
> >commercialize wafer-scale circuits aimed at avoiding
> >chip-to-chip communication bottlenecks.
> >
> >All of them have failed and several have collapsed in
> >spectacular fashion. Gene M. Amdahl, the designer of
> >I.B.M.'s 360 mainframe computer, founded Trilogy Systems in
> >1980 to build an advanced mainframe computer based on
> >wafer-scale technology. He was able to raise $279 million
> >from computer partners, venture capitalists and a public
> >offering, before going under.
> >
> >Dr. Sutherland acknowledged that Sun has more to do before
> >it could determine if its proximity communication
> >technology was viable. One issue is potential interference
> >between the tiny transmitters and receivers. A second issue
> >is cooling. As chips are moved closer together the
> >challenges in removing heat increase sharply.
> >
> >At the same time, Sun's computer designers said they were
> >optimistic about the technology and were eager to consider
> >ways of using it in future Sun computers.
> >
> >"It's pretty exciting in what it has enabled," said Marc
> >Tremblay, a Sun microprocessor designer. "As you cross
> >boundaries between chips, that's where the pipe has been
> >narrow."
> >
> >He said that faster chip-to-chip speeds might also lead to
> >a rethinking of the internal layout of computers in ways
> >that would enhance performance even more.
> >
> >Dr. Sutherland said that he was uncertain where the new
> >technology might be applied first commercially, but that
> >there was already great interest from the company's
> >computer division.
> >
> >"The news we hear from product-land is, `We want this
> >yesterday,' " he said.
> >
>=
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/22/technology/22SUN.html?ex=3D1065228809&ei=
=3D1&
>en=3D98818ea3d19c143c
> >
> >
> >---------------------------------
> >
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> >
> >Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
>
>Greg Newell
>Greg's piano Fort=E9
>mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net
>
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-
>----
>
>
> > _______________________________________________
> > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> >
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
Greg Newell
Greg's piano Fort=E9
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net=20
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