is the 1000GHz Processors in the near future?

[Shadowmeph]

I read this post on a different forum and had to check it out myself and apparently it is true

MIT Graphene Multiplier May Push CPUs to 1,000 GHz

here is the link
Tech Industry and Job News - InsideTech.com

[chrisk]

Pretty neat. I see these types of articles all the time (ie. "new nano material may make all chips supercomputers", etc). When you read the article closely they all tend to say the technology is either theory, or that any practical application is a good 10 years away or so. However, this quote got my attention:

researchers believe that practical working systems using the graphene technology could be available in one to two years.

If the above is true then thats good news...otherwise it falls into the same category of technology that we may never see, or will not be a huge deal by the time it comes to fruition. However, 500-1000GHZ in 1-2 years would be interesting.

[bojangles]

There's no way they would release that kind of technology that fast. Businesses want to milk their technology until they can't do anything with it anymore. It's just like how water-powered cars haven't been mass produced from Thailand yet (I saw an article about this, and it really worked). If those cars were being produced, the oil industry would plummet. Therefore, I don't think we would see these kinds of multipliers in electronics for years to come. Give it 10+ years, not 2.

[chrisk]

I agree too bojangles. That is another reason why I doubt we will see and quantum leap in performance. If we went from say, a 5GHZ consumer processor, to a 500GHZ one, we would not buy new chips for years while we wait for software to come along that would actually make use of it. Perhaps the scientific community would make use of it and may see it, but planned obsolescence will be an obstacle to this type of leap.

Perhaps if a company like AMD, burning through cash and against a wall financially, were to come up with a cheap way to create a superpowerful consumer CPU will we see this. Not saying its likely, but the only way I really see it happening.

[muse108dc]

all it would take is a third party to start producing chips with those kinds of speeds if one of the current 2 didnt pick it up. The computer industry is different than the oil industry and is a lot more open to change and is a lot more competative. I could easily believe that we could have 1Thz chips in not too long, massive jumps can happen very quickly.

[chrisk]

The said third party would have to get a x86 license though to really get into the consumer market, or risk getting sued big time.

[bojangles]

That, and they would almost create sort of a "monopoly" market since nobody else would have it. They would be sued big time. Also, like chriskwarren said, nobody can really use said processor if it isn't made for x86 or x64 since they need a license to build it. Intel or AMD would say no to licensing for that chip because it would ruin their revenue. That is exactly how the oil industry runs too. They're too greedy for outsiders to ruin their money making business.

[DaleF]

There's a difference between this and water powered cars though. This is actually feasible, water powered cars (at leas the ones I've heard of) have all been crocks. Also, keep in mind that workable system does not mean cheap system and the fact that someting can switch at 1THz, does not mean it's useful. There are much higher speed transistors out there than those in processors these days (and some have been around for decades), but they're just not useful in processors.

[Bucklaz]

Originally Posted by bojangles

That, and they would almost create sort of a "monopoly" market since nobody else would have it. They would be sued big time. Also, like chriskwarren said, nobody can really use said processor if it isn't made for x86 or x64 since they need a license to build it. Intel or AMD would say no to licensing for that chip because it would ruin their revenue. That is exactly how the oil industry runs too. They're too greedy for outsiders to ruin their money making business.

I don't think they would get sued for monopolizing 1000ghz processors, unless they patented that technology and refused to allow others to enter their market. If everyone else ignores or tries to milk the 1000ghz while a third party company champions it, then I doubt they would get charged for anti-competitive practices.

On the other hand, if amd and intel decide to band together and slowly milk and exploit the market rather than take advantage of the new technology, they can't really stop a third party from coming in and creating a "1000ghz" chip. If they did, then I believe the big two would be in some serious trouble, kinda like how samsung and lg and co are in trouble for their price fixing.

In the end, if this technology is feasible, there is no reason for amd NOT to take advtange of it, especially if it'll give amd an advantage over intel. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia tried to make use of it. In the end I think, if this tech is actually possible in a year or two, that the only thing that could stop it would be bickering between the chip makers over who actually owns the patents of said technologies.




ALSO::
I thought there was a limitation to how high the clocks could get (the increase in heat and power consumption gets waay too high after a certain clock). Which is why the tech trend has been going towards parallel computing. If this is actually possible, then Intel's road map featuring chips with dozens of cores will be obsolete.
Holy crap, it never really hit me how much 1000ghz is LOL. I guess Moore's law doesn't take into account technological breakthroughs.

[Realityshift]

The question remains, what user would be able to use a 1thz CPU? no 1 person could ever max that kind of horsepower out, aside from power users like us quadcore CPUs are pretty much a complete waste because their to powerfull for everyday computing. The computer market is already moving to fast for its own good, programming isnt keeping up with current technology and its forcing video game companies to spend to much time and effort trying to optimize engines for new technology instead of concentrating on gameplay/scripts. I doubt this technology is within 2 years and I agree with the fact that AMD and intel would not allow it to enter the market when there is no need for hardware to be so quickly obsoleted.

I bet you close to 90% of PC users NEVER max out their CPUs be it dually or quad.

Also I dont think you understand the agreements that AMD and intel have with eachother and the rules both companies have to follow, there could be huge law suits on AMDs hands if they went forward with something like that as would there be for any 3rd party. The PC industry is very much like the oil industry or any other industry for that matter, saying otherwise is complete blindness. And if you know much about the oil industry youd see that it is very accepting of change just not towards alternative means of power but towards alternative and more efficient ways of extracting/refining crude oil. Every refinery uses a different method, every company uses different technologies and all of them have insane security and privacy safe guarding their work. You should go read Altlas shrugged sometime and you might see exactly how industry takes to large leeps and bounds in technology, it may be fiction but the core thought process is the same one that has dominated industries around the world.