Lab advances

February 6, 2001 —

IBM breakthrough rubs out LCD problems

Scientists at IBM have found a new way to align crystal molecules inside flat-panel LCDs, providing higher screen quality as well as large savings for manufacturers--May 3, 2001

IBM sees carbon nanotube breakthrough

IBM researchers reported they have made a breakthrough in transistor technology by building what they claim is the first array of transistors made out of carbon nanotubes.--Apr 27, 2001

Intel applying chip experience to micromachines

Intel spelled out plans to apply its microelectronic expertise to the world of miniature machines at a briefing for investors and financial analysts in New York.--Apr 25, 2001

Next-gen memory: Packing 1,000 GB into 1 cubic centimeter

The market debut of a cube that could hold the contents of the Library of Congress may be in view, a group of engineers and scientists from Kyoto University and Central Glass Co.--Apr 25, 2001

Funds for nanotechnology, IT research boosted in Bush budget

The Bush administration is planning a major increase in funding for nanotechnology research in next year's budget, but overall spending by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a major source of funding for basic research, will see little increase. --Apr 9, 2001

Rambus claims world's fastest bus

Rambus engineers claim they have developed the world's fastest bus technology. They demonstrated the company's memory bandwidth technology during the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco. Some see the announcement as an attempt by Rambus to head-off competitive double-data-rate memory transfer technologies that may lead to less expensive high-performance workstations. --Feb 9

Future chips: Headed
for heat problems

Processors may easily reach speeds from 10 GHz to 30 GHz in the next ten years,
but there is one very large problem: Using today's technology, that kind of
speed will make them way too hot to handle. Literally. --Feb 6

I-mode chief
urges chip makers to think mobile

The head of NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s popular I-mode service called on semiconductor
engineers to develop new types of chips to allow the development of more advanced
wireless Internet services. --Feb 5

NEC readies superfast
I/O chip

NEC Corp. researchers will introduce a prototype of a high-speed interface chip
that promises to increase data transmission speeds in parallel computing systems.
The chip is capable of transferring data between interface LSI chips at up to
80G bps (bits per second).--Feb 5

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