4GHz cpu or 1THz cpu? take your pick

[tastegw]

The clock frequencies of today's PC processors are starting to close in on 4GHz (again) and with extreme cooling they can be pushed to beyond 6GHz, which is enough to make some loose their breath. This isn't much though when you consider the research presented at MIT. Scientists at the renowned American university has designed a microchip that can process data at unsurpassed speeds. They claim that its new chipset will be able to operate at unimaginable 500-1000GHz, in other words at Terahertz levels.

The substance used is carbon and it is the very key to the high frequencies. The researchers managed to build a circuit using the graphene, made from a single layer of carbon. The circuit consisting of only one lonely transistor will be used for frequency multiplication and by creating a pure signal with no need for filtration it will be able to achieve these frequencies without problems.

In physics today, graphene is, arguably, the most exciting topic," Palacios says. It is the strongest material ever discovered, and also has a number of unsurpassed electrical properties, such as "mobility" -- the ease with which electrons can start moving in the material, key to use in electronics -- which is 100 times that of silicon, the standard material of computer chips."

read more here

they say a chip like this could be made within the next 2 years, lets hope that they are right.

because this could also be used in gpu's perhaps, and that would make one darn good system.

1THz cpu + gpu @ 1THz! 3Dmark 06/Vantage scores in hundred thousands? or millions?
fps would be off the charts hehe.

i hope this works out, screw 8-12 core chips, get with the program intel and amd! get on the graphene bandwagon and start pumping out crazy high speed single/dual/quad cores.

 

[carnageX]

Wow, very impressive.

 

[zedman3d]

This is incredible, there would be no reason for server racks/farms and power consumption would plummit.

 

[Apokalipse]

IBM got 500GHz a wile ago using Silicon-Germanium transistors, co-developed with AMD.
Those transistors are being used in the Phenom II.

Of course, the bigger challenge is not getting one transistor to clock that high. It's getting hundreds of millions of them to clock high while being in sync with the others.

 

[yzmxer608]

That sounds amazing. Just think of what you could do with all of that power. If it was used in gpus too, games would be incredible!