Computer chip advance is reported

Article Abstract:

IBM researchers Phaedon Avouris and Whan Lyo have published a report in the journal Science, claiming to show how it is possible to manipulate individual silicon atoms or clusters of silicon atoms so that a considerable increase in the number of transistors on computer chips might someday be possible. Today's chips consist of components that are 500 times as thick as the atomic scale. IBM researchers, in 1990, accomplished an astonishing advance by showing that it was possible to place xenon atoms on a metal surface, spelling out the name of their company in letters one atom wide. These researches are part of what is called nanoelectronics, which involves the manipulation of atom-sized components. According to Avouris and Lyo, many obstacles have to be hurdled before their discovery will have a commercial application.

Research, Semiconductor devices, Usage, Electronic components, Reports, International Business Machines Corp., IBM, Integrated circuit fabrication, Industrial research, Nanotechnology, Semiconductors, Scanning tunneling microscopy, Science (Periodical), Research and Development, Semiconductor Device, Scientific Research, Miniaturization

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Computer chip starts angry debate

Article Abstract:

The battle is heating up between manufacturers of reduced-instruction-set computers (RISC) and complex-instruction-set computers (CISC) chips. Though RISC chips are more common in minicomputers and workstations, microcomputers are dominated by CISC. RISC is touted as twice as fast as conventional chips and can be brought to market faster, but they are hampered from full market share by the wide availability of software that runs on CISC. If RISC technology becomes more widespread, workstations will offer better performance at prices comparable to microcomputers. Japanese companies, already heavily invested in RISC, could move to fill the software gap. The success of RISC also rests with the popularity of the Unix operating system, since most RISC chips run Unix.

Semiconductor chips, RISC, RISC processors, Reduced-instruction-set computers, complex-instruction-set computers, CISC processors

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A.T.&T. making comeback in chips

Article Abstract:

AT and T is beginning to experience success in its bid to become a world-class semiconductor maker, with outside customers consuming 50 percent of AT and T's chip output in 1990 as compared with 25 percent in 1987. AT and T has focused on producing chips for computer peripherals such as disk-drive controllers and specialized controllers that control graphics and sound. Chip making, which accounts for only about $1 billion of the company's $31.1 billion in revenues, provides more for AT and T than profit-making potential; the ability to produce and improve semiconductors is vital to survival. AT and T's Microelectronics division employs 17,300 worldwide as of Jun 1990, down from 20,800 in Dec 1988.

Management, T, International competition (Economics), American Telephone and Telegraph Co., Market Analysis, Japanese Competition

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