May 25
A company called D-Wave Systems plans to demonstrate the world’s first quantum computer next week, according to EE Times. Nicknamed Orion, the system will be based on a “supercooled, superconducting niobium chip housing an array of 16 qubits [quantum bits].” Unlike quantum encryption or communication systems, Orion will be an actual quantum computer. It will reportedly be able to perform nondeterministic polynomial-complete problems in just a few cycles, compared to thousands of cycles for conventional computers.
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May 25
Latest news on atomic layer sampling involving known companies such as AMD and Carl Zeiss:
Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Qimonda AG and Carl Zeiss SMT are cooperating to bring future chip generations faster to volume production by improving characterization and metrology.
The trio plans to jointly develop next-gen techniques to analyze and characterize semiconductor structures and materials. Within the joint “Nanoanalysis” project for chip development, AMD and Qimonda will have preferred access to the recently founded Carl Zeiss Innovation Center in Dresden, Germany, which is equipped with particle beam systems.
Atom layer process control
The analysis instruments provided by the Carl Zeiss Innovation Center enable materials researchers to depict, analyze and process samples down to the atomic layer, including three-dimensional semiconductor structure, the Carl Zeiss SMT spokesperson said. AMDs participation at the project aims at developing process-related techniques that help to speed volume production ramp-up. “We are faced with the challenge to drive chip structures smaller and yield higher,” explained Udo Nothelfer, Vice President AMD Fab36. “Process control at the atom layer is very important to us.”
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May 20
Molecular memory breakthrough using nanowires
Jan. 25, 2007 — A team of UCLA and California Institute of Technology chemists reported in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal Nature the successful demonstration of a large-scale, “ultra-dense” memory device that stores information using reconfigurable molecular switches. This research represents an important step toward the creation of molecular computers that are much smaller and could be more powerful than today’s silicon-based computers.
The 160-kilobit memory device uses interlocked molecules manufactured in the UCLA laboratory of J. Fraser Stoddart, director of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), who holds UCLA’s Fred Kavli Chair in Nanosystems Sciences.
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