Gallium Arsenide Semiconductors on the Horizon

Masem writes: "According to this Chicago Tribune article, Motorola has developed a cheaper solution for putting gallium arsenide on top of silicon in order to allow for better chip designs with speeds nearly 40 times what silicon only chips would allow. While it was well known that gallium arsenide addition was favorable, it was also very expensive; Motorola's new process (covered by 200+ patents) should keep the chip prices low when these new designs are released in 2 years." The AP says they've applied for 270 patents.

Kudoes, but

[4of12]

Am I the only one that finds it just a little bit of stretch to talk about about fantastic technology that helps to make GaAs cheaper for real life applications on the one hand -- and then mention 200+ patents on the other hand?

I know, I know, that the hope of financial gain provides the dollars for this kind of research, but let's be real: it won't be that cheap.

Re:Kudoes, but

[Anonymous Coward]

Patents are not that evil. It's the way they are used that is.

As long as all they want is recognition for what they have accomplished and to recoup their (presumably large) investment in developing the technology by licensing it under acceptable terms, I have no objection.

Patents are evil when they are used to prevent competition, and software patents are almost always about this. Hardware patents are more often used for licensing. AMD is using copper wiring in the Athlons, although there is an IBM patent covering it. But meanwhile IBM goes forward and is going SOI now and low K dielectric next. Yes, this gives the patent holder some advantage, but only in the short term, which is still fair.

Wrong Answer

[MatthewLovelace]

GaAs chips running up to 40x faster than straight silicon? What good is a CPU that can run at 30-40GHz to a computer that still uses slow IDE hard drives?

Perhaps the computer makers should push for faster, cheaper disk/memory tech instead of ever-faster CPUs.

Cheap SCSI, anyone?

Re:Sorry Folks.

[macinslak]

Do you work for Intel? Had the 'silicon industry' been this averse to changing equipment to accomodate new materials how do you explain the quick proliferation of copper and SOI chips? Every fab takes a risk of screwing their production up with each process shrink, but they have to to stay competitive.