Microprocessors

Computing

2nm Quantum Transistors Are The World’s Smallest

8:20AM June 1, 2011 | Adrian Covert

A team of scientists at Chungbuk National University in South Korea have created a transistor that’s only 2nm in size, which happens to be the smallest in the world. By comparison, the current generation of Intel processors use 32nm transistors. More »

Science

The World’s Smallest Laser

10:40AM March 24, 2010 | Kyle VanHemert

Just in time for its 50th birthday party, the world’s smallest laser has arrived. It’s 30 millionths of a metre long, it could revolutionise microprocessors as we know them, and it emits an impossibly adorable “pew pew”. More »

AMD Athlon II X4 620: Four Cores For $US99

3:20PM September 16, 2009 | Danny Allen

AMD’s new Athlon II X4 chips are like a Phenom II minus the L3 cache. And they’re super-cheap: $US99 (2.6GHz-620), and $US122 (2.8GHz-630). Also looks like they hold their own against the $US150 Core 2 Quad 8200: [Maximum PC] More »

Science

Nanowires Making Gadgets Smaller And Faster

9:20AM September 2, 2009 | Joanna Stern

Computers have been getting shrinking for years, yet they cram the same amount of power if not more. Essentially that is Moore’s Law, or the theory that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits doubles a year. More »