Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 6


Carbon nanotube transistors outperform silicon University of Wisconsin-Madison materials engineers created carbon nanotube transistors that outperform silicon transistors, improving the current 1.9 times. The new transistors are particularly promising for wireless communications technologies that require a lot of current flowing across a relatively small area. "This achievement has been a... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 30


Scalable data center chip Princeton University researchers designed a new scalable chip specifically for data centers and massive computing systems. The team believes the chip, called Piton, can substantially increase processing speed while slashing energy needs. The chip architecture is scalable; designs can be built that go from a dozen cores to several thousand. Also, the architecture ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 23


Connecting implanted devices University of Washington researchers developed a new method for communication between devices such as brain implants, contact lenses, credit cards and smaller wearable electronics with other devices such as smartphones and watches. Using only reflections, an interscatter system requires no specialized equipment, relying solely on mobile devices to generate Wi-... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 16


Dissolving batteries Researchers at Iowa State University developed a self-destructing lithium-ion battery capable of delivering 2.5 volts and dissolving or dissipating in 30 minutes when dropped in water. The battery can power a desktop calculator for about 15 minutes. Making such devices possible is the goal of a relatively new field of study called "transient electronics." These transi... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 9


Phase-change memory Researchers at Stanford are working on phase-change memory technology, which could deliver the best of volatile and non-volatile memory. Phase-change materials can exist in two different atomic structures, each of which has a different electronic state. A crystalline, or ordered, atomic structure, permits the flow of electrons, while an amorphous, or disordered, struct... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 2


From sun to hydrocarbon fuel Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have engineered a solar cell that cheaply and efficiently converts atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into usable hydrocarbon fuel, using only sunlight for energy. Unlike conventional solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity that must be stored in heavy batteries, the new device converts atmosph... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 26


Flexible MRAM Researchers from the National University of Singapore, Yonsei University, Ghent University and Singapore's Institute of Materials Research and Engineering embedded a magnetic memory chip on a plastic material, flexible enough to be bent into a tube. The new device operates on magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), which uses a magnesium oxide (MgO)-based magnetic tunn... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 19


Atomic storage In the search for ever-smaller storage, a team of scientists at Delft University in the Netherlands built a 1 kilobyte memory where each bit is represented by the position of one single chlorine atom. "In theory, this storage density would allow all books ever created by humans to be written on a single post stamp," said lead scientist Sander Otte. They reached a storage de... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 12


Thin transistors Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed a way to chemically assemble transistors and circuits that are only a few atoms thick. The team controlled the synthesis of a transistor in which narrow channels were etched onto conducting graphene, with molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) seeded in the blank channels. Both of these m... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 5


More storage with electromagnetic switch Scientists at Hokkaido University designed a device that employs both magnetic and electronic signals, potentially doubling the storage capacity of conventional memory devices. In addition to the binary 0/1 method of storing information, this would add an A/B store for the information as well. To do this would require finding a material that can switc... » read more

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