All posts tagged: Computer Chips

New chip design could boost efficiency of power management in data centers

New chip design could boost efficiency of power management in data centers

Published by Jenni Sidey

In an effort to meet the rising energy demands of data centers, engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new chip design that could improve how graphics processing units (GPUs) convert and manage power. The technology demonstrates a more efficient way to perform a critical task in electronics: converting high voltages into lower levels required by computing hardware. In lab tests, a prototype chip performed the type of voltage conversion used in modern data centers with high efficiency. The advance, published in Nature Communications, could lead to the development of smaller, more energy-efficient systems for advanced computing. A chip designed to convert high voltages into lower levels in electronics — a process known as DC-DC step-down conversion — more efficiently using a piezoelectric resonator. (CREDIT: David Baillot/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering) The chip design offers a new approach to improving the performance of a circuit component known as a DC-DC step-down converter, which is found in nearly all electronics. The step-down converter acts as a protective bridge between power sources …

Future AI chips could be built on glass

Future AI chips could be built on glass

Published by skeptic

“As AI workloads surge and package sizes expand, the industry is confronting very real mechanical constraints that impact the trajectory of high-performance computing,” says Deepak Kulkarni, a senior fellow at the chip design company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). “One of the most fundamental is warpage.” That’s where glass comes in. It can handle the added heat better than existing substrates, and it will let engineers keep shrinking chip packages—which will make them faster and more energy efficient. It “unlocks the ability to keep scaling package footprints without hitting a mechanical wall,” says Kulkarni.  Momentum is building behind the shift. Absolics has finished building a factory in the US that is dedicated to producing glass substrates for advanced chips and expects to begin commercial manufacturing this year. The US semiconductor manufacturer Intel is working toward incorporating glass in its next-generation chip packages, and its research has spurred other companies in the chip packaging supply chain to invest in it as well. South Korean and Chinese companies are among the early adopters. “Historically, this is not the …

Device smaller than a grain of dust looks to supercharge quantum computers

Device smaller than a grain of dust looks to supercharge quantum computers

Published by Jenni Sidey

A device smaller than a grain of dust may help unlock the kind of quantum computers people have only dreamed about. Built on a standard microchip and almost 100 times thinner than a human hair, this new component gives scientists precise control over laser light using a fraction of the power older tools need. The work comes from a team led by Jake Freedman, an incoming PhD student in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, professor Matt Eichenfield, the Karl Gustafson Endowed Chair in Quantum Engineering, and collaborators at Sandia National Laboratories, including co-senior author Nils Otterstrom. Together, they designed an optical phase modulator that is not just tiny, but practical to manufacture at scale. Instead of building a delicate, custom device in a specialized lab, they used the same industrial process that makes chips for laptops, phones, cars and even home appliances. That choice turns an advanced research idea into something that could one day be produced by the millions. Design of the CMOS-fabricated, resonantly enhanced acousto-optic modulator. (CREDIT: Nature Communications) Why …