Low power microelectronics: retrospect and prospect

Overview of nanoelectronic devices

“…These include the fundamental limitations of thermodynamics and quantum mechanics [4], [5], [8], [79], [109], [133], as well as the practical limitations arising from the cost and difficulty of fabrication [9], [43], [80], [171]. However, as explained in this overview, progress is being made in harnessing the principles of quantum mechanics to design and to build solid-state and molecular devices that can function well on smaller and smaller scales, even after aggressive miniaturization of solid-state FET's has ceased to be feasible and cost-effective.…”

“…This has produced today's commercial, massproduced integrated circuits, such as Intel's Pentium chip, which contains over 3.2 million transistors with a minimum feature size of approximately 350 nm [144]. However, as MOSFET's reach minimum feature sizes of 100 nm and less, this rapid, cost-effective scaling of dense circuitry may not persist [7], [8].…”

Humanistic computing: "WearComp" as a new framework and application for intelligent signal processing

“…Due to advances in low-power microelectronics [17] we are entering a pivotal era in which it will become possible for us to be inextricably intertwined with computational technology that will become part of our everyday lives in a much more immediate and intimate way than in the past.…”

“…These coordinate transformations admit a group representation (17) giving the law of composition defined by matrix multiplication.…”

System Synthesis for Optically-Connected, Multiprocessors On-Chip

“…Various studies have predicted that the energy consumed by data communication will ultimately limit the processing speed in electronic processors [8], [10]. Light signals do not suffer from effects such as electromagnetic interference and capacitive effects, which limit electrical interconnects.…”