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ISSCC: Organic Processor Demonstrated

By - Source: Heise | B 29 comments

Compared to Intel's and AMD's processing monsters, this 8-bit is nothing spectacular as far as pure performance is concerned. However, the organic chip includes three programmable registers and can run basic operations such as additions, subtractions, counters and shifters. There is a separate "instruction foil", which holds the hardcoded program the chip runs.

According to heise.de, the processor has 3381 organic transistors, which surpasses Intel's 4-bit 4004 processor, which as released in 1971 and considered to be the first complete CPU on a single chip. The 4004 had about 2300 transistors. Its successor, the 8-bit 8008 had about 3500 transistors. Imec said that its processor runs at 6 MHz (The 4004 ran at 0.74 MHz) at 10 Volts. It consumes about  92 μW.

There was no information when such a processor could become commercially available.

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  • 0 Hide
    wiyosaya , February 25, 2011 7:43 PM
    Someday, things like this will be on the market. Now, though, they are novelty items.
  • -1 Hide
    nebun , February 25, 2011 8:00 PM
    are we going backwards?
  • 4 Hide
    pocketdrummer , February 25, 2011 8:04 PM
    10 volts for the processor!?
    I'm only running 1.16-1.2v on my i7-920...

    PS, the THW login system SUCKS!!!!!!! please fix it so it can save the bloody password.
  • Display all 29 comments.
  • 1 Hide
    zachary k , February 25, 2011 8:18 PM
    so will I be able to power my laptop but give it nom noms?
  • -2 Hide
    belardo , February 25, 2011 8:36 PM
    Greghome: Forget that... you'll be replacing your brain for one of these puppies.

    Have to do this:

    Will it run Crysis?
  • 4 Hide
    dogofwars , February 25, 2011 8:39 PM
    greghomeMaybe in the future my CPU will look more like my own brain


    Imagine the socket!? :)  LOL
  • 1 Hide
    jaysbob , February 25, 2011 8:48 PM
    self replicating electronics?
  • 3 Hide
    starralazn , February 25, 2011 8:51 PM
    pocketdrummer10 volts for the processor!?I'm only running 1.16-1.2v on my i7-920...PS, the THW login system SUCKS!!!!!!! please fix it so it can save the bloody password.

    You do understand that there is only 9.2 micro amps of current in the system right? There's at least an amp of current in your i7.. So you're using at least 10^5 more energy
  • 4 Hide
    rbarone69 , February 25, 2011 8:54 PM
    Do you guys realize this takes 92 microwatts?!?!?!

    0.000092 watts to run this processor

    Ya, that's why this is important...
  • 1 Hide
    Marco925 , February 25, 2011 8:56 PM
    NeBuNare we going backwards?

    Usually with alot of products, we have to start at square one to get back to today's levels. it's an organic processor and it hasn't been perfected, that's why phones have the capacity of computers 10-20 years ago
  • 0 Hide
    rubix_1011 , February 25, 2011 9:49 PM
    Quote:
    phones have the capacity of computers 10-20 years ago


    Are you sure? Many new smartphones are running single core 1+ghz chips right now...some even dual core.

    Do a Google search when AMD and Intel were racing to 1ghz in the desktop market CPU space....10-11 years ago or so.

  • 1 Hide
    alextheblue , February 25, 2011 9:50 PM
    rbarone69Do you guys realize this takes 92 microwatts?!?!?!0.000092 watts to run this processorYa, that's why this is important...
    starralaznYou do understand that there is only 9.2 micro amps of current in the system right? There's at least an amp of current in your i7.. So you're using at least 10^5 more energy

    WHAT? You mean you have to look at volts AND amps? /sarcasm
  • 1 Hide
    kimyeang88 , February 25, 2011 10:12 PM
    pocketdrummer10 volts for the processor!?I'm only running 1.16-1.2v on my i7-920...PS, the THW login system SUCKS!!!!!!! please fix it so it can save the bloody password.


    Your processor run 1.2V but it used 100W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!+, this one use only 92 μW. use your math and calculate . Maybe you go back and learn about current. The way you say= Asia has better electricity , don't you? Asia use 220 V, US and Canada use 110 V. V is nothing compare to Watt
  • 2 Hide
    iam2thecrowe , February 25, 2011 10:15 PM
    pocketdrummer10 volts for the processor!?I'm only running 1.16-1.2v on my i7-920...PS, the THW login system SUCKS!!!!!!! please fix it so it can save the bloody password.

    the password thing works fine for me...both ie8 and google chrome and on multiple pc's.....Maybe fix your PC!
  • 0 Hide
    NatureTM , February 25, 2011 11:45 PM
    So what does this mean? Instead of silicon we have some other chemical doing the switching? What are the applications?
  • 0 Hide
    caeden , February 26, 2011 3:17 AM
    OK, so Intel core i7 960 has 731,000,000 transistors and consumes 130W, which comes to .0000001778W/transistor. This new power saving technology has 3381 transistors at .000092W which comes to .00000002721W/transistor.
    Wow... It takes 15% of the power. Very impressive unless I got a 0 wrong in there somewhere. And considering this tech will supposedly get more efficient as they refine it then it will be really amazing.
    This could be great for low productivity devices that need super long battery life, but last I checked organic processing is much slower in reaction time than traditional processing, so I cant imagine it working very fast unless it is massively parallel.
  • -2 Hide
    stuart72 , February 26, 2011 9:40 AM
    caedenOK, so Intel core i7 960 has 731,000,000 transistors and consumes 130W, which comes to .0000001778W/transistor. This new power saving technology has 3381 transistors at .000092W which comes to .00000002721W/transistor.Wow... It takes 15% of the power. Very impressive unless I got a 0 wrong in there somewhere. And considering this tech will supposedly get more efficient as they refine it then it will be really amazing.This could be great for low productivity devices that need super long battery life, but last I checked organic processing is much slower in reaction time than traditional processing, so I cant imagine it working very fast unless it is massively parallel.


    15% ? This thing only runs at 6MHz, your i7 probably runs at 3600 MHz (at a guess) so you missed out on a 600x power factor. This thing is actually around 60x less energy efficient than that i7. Assuming you didn't get a 0 wrong in there....
  • 0 Hide
    pocketdrummer , February 26, 2011 3:13 PM
    kimyeang88Your processor run 1.2V but it used 100W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!+, this one use only 92 μW. use your math and calculate . Maybe you go back and learn about current. The way you say= Asia has better electricity , don't you? Asia use 220 V, US and Canada use 110 V. V is nothing compare to Watt


    I was commenting on the fact that it's about 9 times more voltage than the current processors. 1/4 of that voltage would probably toast an i7. Whether or not it uses more power wasn't the point of my comment.

    iam2thecrowethe password thing works fine for me...both ie8 and google chrome and on multiple pc's.....Maybe fix your PC!


    Tried it on chrome, opera, firefox on PC; Opera, firefox, and safari on mac. Same thing... nothing is wrong with my PC, THW's flashy login system doesn't bode well with the "save password" feature on any platform and browser I've tried it on.
  • 0 Hide
    chickenhoagie , February 26, 2011 4:05 PM
    stuart7215% ? This thing only runs at 6MHz, your i7 probably runs at 3600 MHz (at a guess) so you missed out on a 600x power factor. This thing is actually around 60x less energy efficient than that i7. Assuming you didn't get a 0 wrong in there....

    he was only comparing transistors. he could've done the same calculation for clock speed. Besides that, clock speed doesn't always mean everything.
  • 0 Hide
    NatureTM , February 26, 2011 5:07 PM
    I guess the power efficiency benchmark you guys are looking for would be MIPS or FLOPS per watt, and it looks like we don't have enough information in the article.
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