Silicon offsetting - the new green saviour?
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IT's positive environmental impact IT, on the face of it, is not very sustainable. New products are introduced in rapid development cycles that encourage wasteful frequent upgrade and replacement.â¦
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New Japanese research into silicon carbide growth could revolutionise the electronics industry. A team of scientists has developed a method of making near-perfect silicon carbide crystals.
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The firm is planning new ways to shrink transistors and increase chip speed. Could "spintronics" replace silicon-based technology?
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Green ITÂ is something of a chameleon that appeals to different users on different levels. From a 10,000-foot perspective, it's hard to knock the benefits of energy efficiency, recycling and vendors working side by side with users to promote the green agenda. However, many users are finding it difficult to adopt a technology that is not characterized by a wide selection of physical products that they can buy and implement in their IT infrastructures today.
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Chip maker likely is making way for new products.
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IBM and Advanced Micro Devices have come up with a new way of straining silicon in a move that will allow them to make chips with better performance.
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It's a question of keeping up standards. That famous slab in Paris has lost 50 micrograms, so Australian scientists are creating a perfect sphere out of Silicon 28. They even know how many atoms it'll contain.
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In an advance that could lead to lighter spacecraft and smarter cars, researchers have developed a new technique for producing a high-quality semiconductor that's much more resistant to extreme conditions than the silicon found in most of today's electronics.    Devices built with the rugged material would not require cooling and other protections that add size, weight and cost to traditional silicon electronics in power systems, jet engines, rockets, wireless transmitters and other equipment exposed to harsh environments...
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New nonsilicon transistors could be integrated into existing chip-making processes.
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IBM announced Tuesday that it has created a process allowing its manufacturing facilities to repurpose otherwise scrap semiconductor wafers.Since the silicon wafers need to be nearly flawless in order to be used in computers, mobile phones, video games, and other consumer electronics, the imperfect ones are normally erased with acidic chemicals and discarded. IBM had been sandblasting its castoffs&#160;to remove proprietary material. Some of the pieces, called &quot;monitors,&quot; are reused for test purposes.The new process cleans the silicon pieces with water and an abrasive pad, leaving them in better condition for reuse. The entire process to clean an 8-inch wafer is about one minute. Eric White, the inventor of the process, said that IBM can now get five or six monitor wafers out of one that would have been crushed and discarded. The cleaned wafers can also be sold to the solar-cell industry, which has a high demand for the silicon material to use in solar panels. White said that shortage would need to be &quot;extreme&quot; to use the wafers in consumer electronics and that IBM does not plan to do so.The IBM site in Burlington, Vt., has been using the process and reported an annual savings in 2006 of more than $500,000. Expansion of the new technique has begun at IBM&#39;s site in East Fishkill, N.Y., and 2007 savings estimates are more than $1.5 million. The Vermont and New York plants are IBM&#39;s only semiconductor manufacturing sites.Chris Voce, an analyst with Forrester Resarch, does not anticipate savings for the end-user, but added, &quot;When a semiconductor company can improve its process and drive efficiency into their manufacturing process, that&#39;s always great for their margins, but it&#39;s even better when there are broader benefits for the environment.&quot; Annually, IBM estimates that the semiconductor industry discards as many as 3 million wafers worldwide.IBM plans to patent the new process and provide details for the semiconductor manufacturing industry.
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Researchers at IBM and Advanced Micro Devices have improved a chip-making technology called strained silicon, boosting semiconductor performance at a time when such
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Foundry partner gears up for second-generation 90nm Efficeons
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Shining a light on the solar industry.
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Solar-wafer maker allays investor concerns of rising costs.
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A new form of carbon being pioneered by Walter de Heer could lead to speedy, compact computer processors.
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Offsetting, the practice of achieving carbon neutrality, is gaining popularity among companies wishing to make a show of their green credentials.
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As newspaper readers, you are probably becoming familiar with the term "offsets." Environmentalists, loath to add noxious carbon gases into the atmosphere, offset their fossil fuel consumption by investing in renewable energy sources.