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Transistor Density
The transistor count is the number of transistors in an electronic device (typically on a single substrate or silicon die). It is the most common measure of integrated circuit complexity (although the majority of transistors in modern microprocessors are contained in cache memories, which consist mostly of the same memory cell circuits replicated many times). The rate at which MOS transistor counts have increased generally follows Moore's law, which observes that transistor count doubles approximately every two years. However, being directly proportional to the area of a die, transistor count does not represent how advanced the corresponding manufacturing technology is. A better indication of this is transistor density which is the ratio of a semiconductor's transistor count to its die area. Records , the highest transistor count in flash memory is Micron's 2terabyte ( 3D-stacked) 16-die, 232-layer V-NAND flash memory chip, with 5.3trillion floating-gate MOSFETs ( 3bits p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transistor
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminal (electronics), terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or Electric current, current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more in miniature form are found embedded in integrated circuits. Because transistors are the key active components in practically all modern electronics, many people consider them one of the 20th century's greatest inventions. Physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld proposed the concept of a field-effect transisto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC or Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is one of the world's most valuable semiconductor companies, the world's largest Foundry model#Dedicated foundry, dedicated independent ("Pure play, pure-play") Foundry (electronics), semiconductor foundry, and Taiwan's largest company, with headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Although the government of Taiwan is the largest individual shareholder, the majority of TSMC is owned by foreign investors. In 2023, the company was ranked 44th in the Forbes Global 2000, ''Forbes'' Global 2000. Taiwan's exports of integrated circuits amounted to $184 billion in 2022, nearly 25 percent of Taiwan's GDP. TSMC constitutes about 30 percent of the Taiwan Stock Exchange's main index. TSMC was founded in 1987 by Morris Chang as the world's first dedicated semiconductor foun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graphics Processing Unit
A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal computers, workstations, and game consoles. GPUs were later found to be useful for non-graphic calculations involving embarrassingly parallel problems due to their parallel structure. The ability of GPUs to rapidly perform vast numbers of calculations has led to their adoption in diverse fields including artificial intelligence (AI) where they excel at handling data-intensive and computationally demanding tasks. Other non-graphical uses include the training of neural networks and cryptocurrency mining. History 1970s Arcade system boards have used specialized graphics circuits since the 1970s. In early video game hardware, RAM for frame buffers was expensive, so video chips composited data together as the display was being scann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Wafer-scale Integration
Wafer-scale integration (WSI) is a system of building very-large integrated circuit (commonly called a "chip") networks from an entire wafer (electronics), silicon wafer to produce a single "super-chip". Combining large size and reduced packaging, WSI was expected to lead to dramatically reduced costs for some systems, notably massively parallel supercomputers but is now being employed for deep learning. The name is taken from the term very-large-scale integration, the state of the art when WSI was being developed. Overview In the normal integrated circuit manufacturing process, a single large cylindrical crystal (Boule (crystal), boule) of silicon is produced and then cut into disks known as wafers. The wafers are then cleaned and polished in preparation for the fabrication process. A photographic process is used to pattern the surface where material ought to be deposited on top of the wafer and where not to. The desired material is deposited and the photographic mask is removed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flash Memory
Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR gate, NOR and NAND gate, NAND logic gates. Both use the same cell design, consisting of floating-gate MOSFETs. They differ at the circuit level, depending on whether the state of the bit line or word lines is pulled high or low; in NAND flash, the relationship between the bit line and the word lines resembles a NAND gate; in NOR flash, it resembles a NOR gate. Flash memory, a type of floating-gate memory, was invented by Fujio Masuoka at Toshiba in 1980 and is based on EEPROM technology. Toshiba began marketing flash memory in 1987. EPROMs had to be erased completely before they could be rewritten. NAND flash memory, however, may be erased, written, and read in blocks (or pages), which generally are much smaller than the entire devi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Three-dimensional Integrated Circuit
A three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) is a MOSFET, MOS (metal-oxide semiconductor) integrated circuit (IC) manufactured by stacking as many as 16 or more ICs and interconnecting them vertically using, for instance, through-silicon vias (TSVs) or Cu-Cu connections, so that they behave as a single device to achieve performance improvements at reduced power and smaller footprint than conventional two dimensional processes. The 3D IC is one of several 3D integration schemes that exploit the z-direction to achieve electrical performance benefits in microelectronics and nanoelectronics. 3D integrated circuits can be classified by their level of interconnect hierarchy at the global (Integrated circuit packaging, package), intermediate (bond pad) and local (transistor) level. In general, 3D integration is a broad term that includes such technologies as 3D wafer-level packaging (3DWLP); 2.5D and 3D interposer-based integration; 3D stacked ICs (3D-SICs); 3D heterogeneous integr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Semiconductor Manufacturing Process
Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices, typically integrated circuits (ICs) such as microprocessors, microcontrollers, and memories (such as RAM and flash memory). It is a multiple-step photolithographic and physico-chemical process (with steps such as thermal oxidation, thin-film deposition, ion-implantation, etching) during which electronic circuits are gradually created on a wafer, typically made of pure single-crystal semiconducting material. Silicon is almost always used, but various compound semiconductors are used for specialized applications. This article focuses on the manufacture of integrated circuits, however steps such as etching and photolithography can be used to manufacture other devices such as LCD and OLED displays. The fabrication process is performed in highly specialized semiconductor fabrication plants, also called foundries or "fabs", with the central part being the "clean room". In more advanced semico ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
3 Nm Process
In semiconductor manufacturing, the 3 nm process is the next die shrink after the 5 nm MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor) technology node. South Korean chipmaker Samsung started shipping its 3 nm gate all around (GAA) process, named 3GAA, in mid-2022. On 29 December 2022, Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC announced that volume production using its 3 nm semiconductor node (N3) was underway with good yields. An enhanced 3 nm chip process called "N3E" may have started production in 2023. American manufacturer Intel planned to start 3 nm production in 2023. Samsung's 3 nm process is based on GAAFET (gate-all-around field-effect transistor) technology, a type of multi-gate MOSFET technology, while TSMC's 3 nm process still uses FinFET (fin field-effect transistor) technology, despite TSMC developing GAAFET transistors. Specifically, Samsung plans to use its own variant of GAAFET called MBCFET (multi-bridge channel fie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Apple M3
Apple M3 is a series of ARM architecture family, ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series, as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) for its Mac (computer), Mac desktop computer, desktops and laptop, notebooks and the iPad Air tablet computer, tablets. Released in late 2023, it is the third generation of ARM architecture intended for Apple's Mac computers after Mac transition to Apple silicon, switching from Intel Core to Apple silicon, succeeding the Apple M2. Release Apple announced the M3 on October 30, 2023, at its Halloween-themed ''Scary Fast'' online event, along with models of the iMac and the MacBook Pro using the M3. Design The M3 series is Apple's first 3 nm process, 3 nm design for desktops and notebooks. It is manufactured by TSMC. CPU * M3: 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores * M3 Pro: 11- or 12-core CPU with 5 or 6 performance cores and 6 efficiency co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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ARM Architecture Family
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of RISC instruction set architectures (ISAs) for computer processors. Arm Holdings develops the ISAs and licenses them to other companies, who build the physical devices that use the instruction set. It also designs and licenses cores that implement these ISAs. Due to their low costs, low power consumption, and low heat generation, ARM processors are useful for light, portable, battery-powered devices, including smartphones, laptops, and tablet computers, as well as embedded systems. However, ARM processors are also used for desktops and servers, including Fugaku, the world's fastest supercomputer from 2020 to 2022. With over 230 billion ARM chips produced, , ARM is the most widely used family of instruction set architectures. There have been several generations of the ARM design. The original ARM1 used a 32-bit internal structure but h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apple Inc
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Company by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, the company was incorporated by Jobs and Wozniak as Apple Computer, Inc. the following year. It was renamed Apple Inc. in 2007 as the company had expanded its focus from computers to consumer electronics. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue, with billion in the 2024 fiscal year. The company was founded to produce and market Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Its second computer, the Apple II, became a best seller as one of the first mass-produced microcomputers. Apple introduced the Lisa in 1983 and the Macintosh in 1984, as some of the first computers to use a graphical user interface and a mouse. By 1985, internal company problems led to Jobs leavin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Blackwell (microarchitecture)
Blackwell is a graphics processing unit (GPU) microarchitecture developed by Nvidia as the successor to the Hopper (microarchitecture), Hopper and Ada Lovelace (microarchitecture), Ada Lovelace microarchitectures. Named after statistician and mathematician David Blackwell, the name of the Blackwell architecture was leaked in 2022 with the B40 and B100 accelerators being confirmed in October 2023 with an official Nvidia roadmap shown during an investors presentation. It was officially announced at Nvidia's GTC 2024 keynote on March 18, 2024. History In March 2022, Nvidia announced the Hopper (microarchitecture), Hopper datacenter architecture for AI accelerators. Demand for Hopper products was high throughout 2023's AI hype. The lead time from order to delivery of H100-based servers was between 36 and 52 weeks due to shortages and high demand. Nvidia reportedly sold 500,000 Hopper-based H100 accelerators in Q3 2023 alone. Nvidia's AI dominance with Hopper products led to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |