IBM makes 300 times faster transistor!

Imagine a personal computer 100 times faster than the currently available computer or 250 times faster than a mobile phone chip! IBM has built a transistor, which is capable of these speeds - a development that could pave the way for ultra-fast computers and wireless networks according to the computer giant which made the announcement on Monday.

Bernie Meyerson, head of semiconductor research for IBM, stated that what they have been doing in the last several years is pushing the absolute limits of silicon technology. What they have done in demonstrating this is that they are nowhere near having tapped the limits of silicon performance, and that is very encouraging.

Meyerson further added that the transistor achieved a speed of 500 GHz, which is 100-plus times speedier than the fastest PC chips sold today, and about 250 times faster than the typical mobile telephone chip. IBM achieved the record speeds by building a transistor one of the basic building blocks of processors found in almost everything you get from silicon laced with the exotic chemical element germanium.

This is a marked improvement as improvements in chip-making has been focused on shrinking the sizes of the chips while IBM has made a quantum leap by building up the transistor which is going to back to the beginnings of the processor building, to achieve this feat. As per the report, the speed was hit only when IBM researchers, working with counterparts from the Georgia Institute of Technology, cooled the transistor to near absolute zero, but Meyerson said the device still ran at 300 GHz at room temperature.

Forecast from IBM says that the advances will show up in real products within a couple years, probably in chips to power super-fast wireless networks capable of transmitting a DVD-quality movie in as little as five seconds. It could eventually speed up wireless networks and develop cheaper mobile phones. Oh yes, the times they are changing!