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- 2014-10-17 Toshiba launches application processors supporting wireless communication of high quality video
Toshiba Corporation today announced the launch of the "TZ5000 series" of application processors supporting wireless communication of high quality video, as the latest addition to its ApP Lite. Sample shipments will start in May, with mass production scheduled to start in September, 2014.
Increasingly, delivery of video and audio over the internet (OTT: Over The Top) requires set top boxes and similar equipment to receive the service and distribute contents to PCs and smartphones via wireless LAN. The "TZ5000 series" application processors integrate a baseband function compliant with IEEE802.11ac, the standard for high speed wireless LAN, and also incorporate 32Gbit NAND flash memory in a single package. This secures a broad bandwidth connection, which is often limited when each component is individually mounted on a PCB, and also reduces mounting area, contributing to downsizing of equipment.
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- 2014-10-17 Freescale introduces amazingly small ARM MCU
- Freescale Semiconductor is introducing one of the smallest ARM based Microcontroller Units (MCUs) ever, a chip that is roughly the size of a dimple on a golf ball—the Kinetis KL03. Because of its extremely small size, the company is positioning the MCU as an important step towards the development of the concept known as "The Internet of Things."
ARM processors are a group of reduced instruction set processors based on the RISC architecture. As they have evolved, they have come to be used primarily as processors for embedded applications—they do one kind of thing really well, rather than a lot of things reasonably well. One such sub-group of ARM processors are known as Microcontroller Units—very small processors that are intended for a single type of application, such as monitoring an electrical signal, blood pressure or the amount of light in a room. - See Details
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- 2014-10-17 Low power, high performance RF transceiver for wireless smart energy management and remote industrial monitoring
A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics (IME) and Cubic Micro today announce that they have developed and demonstrated a 400 MHz radio frequency (RF) transceiver with the highest power efficiency and leading performance reported to deliver high quality signals over industry's widest coverage in wireless sensor network applications. The transceiver is integrated with a highly configurable baseband, which allows users to customize transceiver performance for specific applications ranging from wireless smart energy management and security control in homes and buildings to long-range remote industrial monitoring.
To achieve low power consumption in RF transceiver, performance is typically sacrificed, resulting in degradations of sensitivity, channel selectivity and interference immunity during the wireless signal communication process.
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- 2014-10-16 New NFC solution for identity cards enables fast and convenient benefits for citizens
At this year's CeBIT show, NXP Semiconductors N.V. and AGETO will be presenting an important new NFC technology solution for national ID cards, allowing German citizens to benefit from the advantages of the country's new personal identity cards. Using NXP's SmartMX technology, which is embedded in the cards and the AGETO eID client, citizens can now use their cards wirelessly with NFC-capable mobile devices to prove their own identity and gain quick access to services that government authorities offer. The solution will be presented at the NXP booth (Hall 7, Stand A58) by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The demonstration at CeBIT will also highlight how parents can easily and securely register their children at day-care centres using their mobile device. Using an NFC-enabled smartphone, parents can now effortlessly obtain a place at a day-care centre for their child. All a parent has to do is read in the details stored on an ID card using a mobile device, register online with the local authorities, wait for confirmation sent directly to the smartphone and then show this message displayed to the day-care staff. As well as saving time, the process is much safer in terms of preventing identity theft and attempted fraud and, for the communal day-care centres, helps ensure that parents have not registered for more than one place.
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- 2014-10-16 Samsung mass producing advanced 4Gb DDR3, using 20 nanometer process technology
Samsung Electronics today announced that it is mass producing the most advanced DDR3 memory, based on a new 20 nanometer process technology, for use in a wide range of computing applications.
Samsung has pushed the envelope of DRAM scaling, while utilizing currently available immersion ArF lithography, in its roll-out of the industry's most advanced 20-nanometer (nm) 4-gigabit (Gb) DDR3 DRAM.
With DRAM memory, where each cell consists of a capacitor and a transistor linked to one another, scaling is more difficult than with NAND Flash memory in which a cell only needs a transistor. To continue scaling for more advanced DRAM, Samsung refined its design and manufacturing technologies and came up with a modified double patterning and atomic layer deposition.
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- 2014-10-16 NXP launches new angular sensor compliant with SENT standard
- NXP Semiconductors today announced the release of the KMA215, a programmable angle sensor with digital output, which is compliant with the most recent Single Edge Nibble Transmission (SAE J2716 JAN2010 SENT) standard. The KMA215 is also prepared for the future, already supporting 12bit High-Speed transmission with doubled frame rate, which is under consideration for future SENT releases. Suitable for all automotive applications where a mechanical angle needs to be measured, the KMA215 offers superior ElectroMagnetic Compatibility (EMC) performance and significantly reduces system costs by eliminating the need for external components. It is particularly valuable for all power train applications where high accuracy and robustness is essential.
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- 2014-10-16 Taiwan Semiconductor lifts Q1 guidance on upbeat outlook
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's leading contract microchip maker, on Wednesday raised its first-quarter guidance buoyed by robust demand for sophisticated chips used in smartphones and tablets.
TSMC said revenue, gross profit margin and operating profit margin in the three months to March are all expected to exceed the upper end of the previous guidance issued in January.
First-quarter revenue is expected to be Tw$147 billion ($4.85 billion), compared with the previous guidance range of Tw$136 billion-Tw$138 billion.
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- 2014-10-16 Heated ion implantation technology realizes low resistance of an ultra-thin fin
Japanese researchers at AIST led by Meishoku Masahara have developed a low-resistance source/drain formation technology that can be applied in the finFETs of 14-nm generation and beyond.
The greatest issue for the finFETs of 14-nm generation and beyond was low-resistance source/drain formation on the ultra-thin (10 nm or less) silicon fin. Lower resistance is usually obtained by ion implantation of impurities, but on the fin part, crystal defects that occur during the implantation end up increasing the resistance. Since these crystal defects are difficult to resolve, the result has been that lower resistance is difficult to realize. The heated ion implantation technology developed in the present research is capable of implanting impurity ions in the ultra-thin fin part without causing crystal defects to occur, achieving lower resistance. It has also significantly increased finFET reliability. The developed technology is contributing to the resolution of the issue of low-resistance source/drain formation in the finFETs of 14-nm generation and beyond.
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- 2014-10-16 Widest band amplifier ever at 235 GHz opens door to ultrafast broadband
(Phys.org) —An exciting collaboration between University College London, UCL, and Chalmers University of Technology has led to a world breakthrough in wide band amplifier circuit design.
An exciting research collaboration between UCL and Chalmers has resulted in the design and testing of the widest band amplifier ever reported. The work was led by Professor Herbert Zirath, Head of the Microwave Electronics Laboratory at the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers and Professor Izzat Darwazeh, Head of the Communications and Information Systems Group in UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
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- 2014-10-16 Panasonic announces 'PSiP' power supply module with 50% smaller footprint
Panasonic Corporation today announced that it will start shipping its new "PSiP" (Power Supply in Package) DC-DC regulator power supply modules with integrated inductor later this month. These new products are optimized for use in power supply units for communication infrastructure equipment and industrial devices. The PSiP series modules will help facilitate designing power supply for products that require downsizing, such as small cell base stations.
Recent years have seen increasing focus on the ''Internet of Things'' (IoT), whereby electronic devices are connected and communicate each other via the Internet. With the advent of the IoT era bringing an increase in the volume of information and the number of users of connected devices, there is growing demand for communication infrastructure devices such as high-density servers and compact, lightweight small-cell base stationsthat can be installed anywhere to boost accessibility. To make such devices compact and lightweight, power supply modules used in them need to be made smaller.
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- 2014-10-16 New technique makes LEDs brighter, more resilient
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new processing technique that makes light emitting diodes (LEDs) brighter and more resilient by coating the semiconductor material gallium nitride (GaN) with a layer of phosphorus-derived acid.
"By coating polar GaN with a self-assembling layer of phosphonic groups, we were able to increase luminescence without increasing energy input," says Stewart Wilkins, a Ph.D. student at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the work. "The phosphonic groups also improve stability, making the GaN less likely to degrade in solution.
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- 2014-10-16 Tiny transistors for extreme environs: Engineers shrink plasma devices to resist radiation
University of Utah electrical engineers fabricated the smallest plasma transistors that can withstand high temperatures and ionizing radiation found in a nuclear reactor. Such transistors someday might enable smartphones that take and collect medical X-rays on a battlefield, and devices to measure air quality in real time.
"These plasma-based electronics can be used to control and guide robots to conduct tasks inside the nuclear reactor," says Massood Tabib-Azar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. "Microplasma transistors in a circuit can also control nuclear reactors if something goes wrong, and also could work in the event of nuclear attack."
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- 2014-10-16 Epson introduces new differential output crystal oscillator
Seiko Epson Corporation, the world leader in quartz crystal technology, today introduces availability of the SG7050EBN, a next-generation differential-output crystal oscillator that achieves extremely low phase jitter.
Available over a frequency range of 100 MHz to 175 MHz, the SG7050EBN achieves 65 fs phase jitter. This performance is suitable for 10-, 40-, and 100-Gigabit Ethernet interconnect used in datacenters and central offices. The SG7050EBN will be used in wired networking equipment, both carrier and enterprise, such as high-end routers and switches.
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- 2014-10-15 Chipmaker Marvell told to pay $1.5 bn in patent case
Semiconductor firm Marvell Technology Group has been ordered to pay $1.54 billion for patent violations in a case brought by Carnegie Mellon University.
In a decision late Monday, US District Judge Nora Barry Fischer increased the award, which was set at $1.17 billion by a jury in December 2012.
The company said Tuesday it would appeal the decision.
Marvell, which is registered in Bermuda and operates from northern California, was accused of having violated CMU patents on technology that increases the accuracy of reading data from high-speed magnetic disks.
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- 2014-10-15 Small, light health patch with enhanced accuracy
Holst Centre and IMEC have unveiled a prototype flexible health patch weighing just 10g – half the weight of current products. The patch uses real-time electrocardiogram (ECG), tissue-contact impedance and accelerometer information to accurately monitor physical activity. Thanks to advanced system in package (SiP) technology from ShinkoElectric Industries, the electronics module measures less than two by two centimeters. The high accuracy algorithms, low power consumption, and small size and weight make it ideal for consumer applications.
A growing public interest in healthy living is driving the emergence of activity monitors, with a number of devices already available that count the steps you take or the calories you burn. Heart rate is a key input in determining activity levels; hence monitors that can be worn comfortably on the chest offer the greatest accuracy. This increases the demand for small, lightweight monitors that can flex and move with your body.
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- 2014-10-15 New design for mobile phone masts could cut carbon emissions
A breakthrough in the design of signal amplifiers for mobile phone masts could deliver a massive 200MW cut in the load on UK power stations, reducing CO2 emissions by around 0.5 million tonnes a year.
Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Universities of Bristol and Cardiff have designed an amplifier that works at 50 per cent efficiency compared with the 30 per cent now typically achieved.
Currently, a 40W transmitter in a phone mast'sbase station* requires just over 130W of power to amplify signals and send them wirelessly to people's mobiles. The new design, however, enables the transmitter to work effectively while using just 80W of power.
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- 2014-10-15 ASML sees lull in orders from computer chip makers
ASML Holding NV, the largest supplier of equipment to computer chip makers such as Intel and Samsung, says it sees only incremental sales gains in the coming two quarters.
The Veldhoven, Netherlands-based company, a bellwether for the semiconductor industry, Wednesday reported first quarter earnings of 249 million euros ($344 million), down 49 percent from 481 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2013. Sales fell 24 percent to 1.40 billion euros for the same period.
New orders declined to 1.07 billion euros from 1.45 billion euros. Without specifying which companies or products, ASML said chipmakers are "encountering timing uncertainties in next-generation device designs."
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- 2014-10-15 X-ray detector on plastic delivers medical imaging performance
Researchers from Holst Centre and imec have demonstrated the first ever X-ray detector produced on a plastic substrate that is capable of medical-grade performance. The proof-of-concept device delivers high-resolution, dynamic images at 25 frames per second (fps) and 200 pixels per inch (ppi) with high contrast using medical-level X-ray doses.
Digital X-ray systems offer a number of benefits over older, analog systems. Images are available faster, are easier to share and can be achieved using less radiation. However, today's digital X-ray sensors are still produced on large glass substrates, making them heavy, difficult to transport and prone to breakages.
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- 2014-10-15 Toshiba starts mass production of world's first 15nm NAND flash memories
Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has developed the world's first 15-nanometer (nm) process technology, which will apply to 2-bit-per-cell 128-gigabit (16 gigabytes) NAND flash memories. Mass production with the new technology will start at the end of April at Fab 5 Yokkaichi Operations, Toshiba's NAND flash fabrication facility (fab), replacing second generation 19 nm process technology, Toshiba's previous flagship process. The second stage of Fab 5 is currently under construction, and the new technology will also be deployed there.
Toshiba has achieved the world's smallest class chip size with the 15nm process plus improved peripheral circuitry technology. The new chips achieve the same write speed as chips formed with second generation 19 nm process technology, but boost the data transfer rate to 533 megabits a second, 1.3 times faster, by employing a high speed interface.
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- 2014-10-15 Device could boost image quality for phones, computers and TVs
(Phys.org) —A device created by UCLA researchers could lead to a significant leap in the quality of images on smartphones, computer displays, TVs and inkjet printers.
The new material, and a new manufacturing process developed at UCLA, are used to produce semiconductors that are essential toliquid crystal displays and organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, displays.
Led by Yang Yang, the Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas Jr. Professor of Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, the team created a high-performance device that can be produced without requiring a clean room or the expensive equipment now commonly in use.
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- 2014-10-15 Researchers achieve breakthrough defect reductions in EUV mask blanks
SEMATECH announced today that researchers have reached a significant milestone in reducing tool-generated defects from the multi-layer deposition of mask blanks used for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, pushing the technology another significant step toward readiness for high-volume manufacturing (HVM).
Following a four-year effort to improve deposition tool hardware, process parameters and substrate cleaning techniques, technologists at SEMATECH have, for the first time, deposited EUV multilayers with zero defects per mask at 100 nm sensitivity (SiO2equivalent). Eliminating these large "killer" defects is essential for the use of EUV in early product development. These results were achieved on a 40 bi-layer Si/Mo film stack and measured over the entire mask blank quality area of 132×132 mm2.
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- 2014-10-15 Research promises to lead to increased functionality for advanced mobile devices
University of California, Berkeley researchers sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corporation, are pursuing a novel approach to 3D device integration that promises to lead to advanced mobile devices and wearable electronics featuring increased functionality in more low-profile packages.
The research focuses on integrating extra layers of transistors on a vertically integrated 3D monolithic chip using printing of semiconductor "inks" as compared to the current method of chip-stacking through 3D interconnect solutions.
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- 2014-10-15 Higher dose sensitivity progress in novel photoresist platforms
SEMATECH announced today that researchers have reported progress which could significantly improve resist sensitivity by incorporating metal oxide nanoparticles for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, bringing the technology another step toward enabling the development of high performance resists required to enable EUV for high-volume manufacturing (HVM).
SEMATECH engineers, in association with scientists from Cornell University, have demonstrated significantly higher dose sensitivity by incorporating metal oxidenanoparticles, with a resolution dose that is less than one fifth of that normally used with EUV scanner throughput calculations. These significant advances are critical in moving forward the infrastructure that will prepare EUV lithography for HVM at 20 nm half-pitch.
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- 2014-10-14 Toshiba, SanDisk to mass produce high-power '3D' memory
- Japan's Toshiba is teaming up with US chip giant SanDisk to produce a "3D" memory chip they hope will allow users to save up to 50 hours of ultra-high definition video.
In a deal worth a reported 500 billion yen ($4.84 billion) the companies will build a factory to make flash memory consisting of several layers of semiconductors stacked together to give as much as a terabyte—1,000 gigabytes—of storage.
That is around 16 times bigger than the largest 64-gigabyte Toshiba memory currently available in smart phones and tablet devices.
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- 2014-10-14 Three-year battery life for wireless human interface devices with new ultra-low-power 2.4-GHz wirelessUSB NX transceiver Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-05-three-year-battery-life-wireless-human.html#jCp
- Cypress Semiconductor Corp. today introduced its fourth-generation 2.4-GHz WirelessUSB radio-on-a-chip. The new WirelessUSB NX transceiver delivers Cypress's hallmark robust performance along with ultra-low power consumption, aided by a fast 2 Mbps data rate to limit time spent transmitting and receiving. The solution enables three years of battery life for wireless mice, keyboards, trackpads, remote controls and other Human Interface Devices (HIDs). Cypress is the only supplier to offer a complete HID solution, supporting advanced features and streamlined designs with WirelessUSB NX, low-power microcontrollers and best-in-class capacitive touch sensing technology.
End users demand long battery life for wireless HIDs, making a low power consumption radio a must. WirelessUSB NX operates at 900 nA in sleep mode where HIDs spend most of their time, and it offers low active current of 12 mA in transmit mode and 15 mA in receive mode. - See Details
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- 2014-10-14 Applied Materials sets cobalt on path to future chipsApplied Materials sets cobalt on path to future chips
When a global leader in providing equipment, services and software used for manufacturing semiconductors makes an announcement, industry players sit up and listen, as the technologies are going to impact market activity in devices such as smartphones, flat screen TVs and solar panels. Tuesday's announcement from Applied Materials was big. The Santa Clara, California based equipment supplier announced the launch of its Endura Volta CVD Cobalt chip making machine. This is the only tool capable of encapsulating copper interconnects in logic chips beyond the 28nm node by depositing precise, thin cobalt films, said the company. The news is in the word "cobalt." The company sees cobalt as a superior metal encapsulation film. "Applied Materials announced that the Endura Volta CVD Cobalt system represents the first material change in more than 15 years of copper barrier/seed (CuBS) development, "a new materials era" for extending copper interconnect technology. It is not only the first material change but an important change in materials for microchip wiring. Actually, the news is in the word "cobalt" and in the word "wiring."
The reliability and performance of the wiring that connects the billions of transistors in a chip is critical to achieve high yields for device manufacturers. "As wire dimensions shrink to keep pace with Moore's Law, interconnects are more prone to killer voids and electromigration failures," said Dr. Randhir Thakur, executive vice president and general manager of the Silicon Systems Group at Applied Materials.
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- 2014-10-14 Reducing the internal complexities of power converters in small devices
- Electronic devices could be made cheaper, smaller and more efficient by reducing the complexity of their internal method of converting and regulating energy, according to a patent by a University of Alabama engineering professor.
An indispensable part of electronic devices, a power converter transforms incoming electricity to a form useable by the device. Increased sophistication of electronics, especially mobile technology, has required more complexity in power converters, driving up costs and energy used by the electronics.
However, Dr. Jaber Abu Qahouq, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the UA College of Engineering, developed a controller for power converters that does not need to sense the current traveling through the device in order to improve the way power is supplied to the device. This could eliminate existing methods used for the same function, reducing complexity, size, cost and energy.
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- 2014-10-14 Samsung's 14nm FinFET process technology ecosystem for mobile consumer and IT infrastructure
- Stating that not all FinFETs are created equal, Samsung Electronics today announced that the IP and design enablement ecosystem for its foundry's 14nm FinFET process technology is firmly in place as customers begin their early design work. Highlighting this fact, Samsung will be demonstrating a 14nm FinFET system-on-chip (SoC) reference board at the 51st Annual Design Automation Conference in San Francisco, June 2-4, Booth #819.
"To ease customers design risks moving to 14nm FinFET, we need to have all the elements of the design ecosystem optimized well in advance," said Dr. Shawn Han, vice president of foundry marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We are pleased to work with the industry's leading IP and design enablement companies. Our early work at this advanced node will allow our customers to bring their next-generation SoCs to the market quickly while taking full advantage of the benefits of our 14nm FinFET technology."
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- 2014-10-14 NXP's next generation power transistors deliver 5% increase in efficiency
- NXP Semiconductors today announced the launch of its ninth generation (Gen9) LDMOS RF power transistors for wireless/cellular base stations. These ground-breaking devices represent a further step-up in performance for LDMOS transistors, having shown up to 5% more efficiency in Doherty applications. The first Gen9 transistors are designed for Doherty power amplifiers – symmetric and asymmetric – and offer benchmark power densities in existing high-volume packages. The Gen9 technology is also optimized for operation at 3.4-3.8 GHz in anticipation of these frequency bands being released on a global scale next year for use by mobile telecoms providers. NXP will showcase its first Gen9 products at IMS 2014.
With 4G mobile data services now being rolled out globally, the Gen9 product family is specifically focused on compact, efficient and high-performance LTE base stations. Building on the excellent reputation already established by previous LDMOS generations, Gen9 delivers unprecedented efficiencies and excellent linearization capabilities for RF power amplifiers, at an industry-leading cost point.
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- 2014-10-14 Spintronic interconnect modeling for beyond-CMOS computing
- Georgia Institute of Technology researchers collaborating with and sponsored by Intel Corporation through the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) have developed a physics-based modeling platform that advances spintronics interconnect research for beyond-CMOS computing.
Spin-logic aims at reducing power consumption of electronic devices, thereby improving battery life and reducing energy consumption in computing for a whole range of electronic product applications from portable devices to data centers.
"After more than four decades of exponential growth in the performance of electronic integrated circuits, it is now apparent that improving the energy efficiency of computing is a primary challenge," said Ian A. Young, a collaborator and co-author of the research and a Senior Fellow at Intel Corporation. "There is a global search for information processing elements that use computational state variables other than electronic charge, and these devices are being sought to bring in new functionalities and further lower the power dissipation in computers."
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