silicon
36 ResultsDictionary
silicon
(Si) The base material used in chips. Pronounced "sil-i-kin," not "sil-i-cone," the latter used to make sealants (see silicone), silicon is the most abundant element in nature next to oxygen....
Dictionary
Definition: silicon
(Si) The base material used in chips. Pronounced "sil-i-kin," not "sil-i-cone," the latter used to make sealants (see silicone), silicon is the most abundant element in nature next to oxygen. It is found in a natural state in rocks and sand, and its atomic structure makes it an ideal semiconductor material. For chip making, silicon is mined from white quartz rocks and put through a chemical process at high temperatures to purify it. Pure silicon is not electrically conductive. In order to make it conductive, it is chemically combined with other materials such as boron and phosphorus (see doping). See silicon germanium and black silicon.
A Silicon Moon
This stylized image symbolizes that chips are made from the same material found in sand. The \"moon\" is a finished wafer containing memory chips. (Image courtesy of Texas Instruments, Inc.)
Drawing the Silicon Ingot
An ingot is being drawn from a furnace containing molten silicon. High-speed saws slice the ingots into wafers about the thickness of a dime, which are then ground and polished mirror smooth. (Image courtesy of Texas Instruments, Inc.)
THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY
All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.
© 1981-2010 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved.
Sponsored White Papers, Webcasts & Resources
-
Simplified Management in the Real World with VMware vCenter Operations
With so much of your network becoming virtual, it can be difficult to visualize and manage things. Check out this webcast to learn more about simplified management in a virtualized world.
-
AMD's 'Trinity' challenge to Intel's Ivy Bridge: Will it convince OEMs?
Lower power consumption means less heat generated and longer battery life for mobile devices. Both of these are important to OEMs wanting to build thin and light devices.
-
Build your own "Ivy Bridge" desktop PC
An Ivy Bridge PC for under $600, built around Intel's next-generation processor.
-
Build your own "Ivy Bridge" desktop PC
Intel's Ivy Bridge CPUs are now on sale so it's time to look at putting together a system based around this new and exciting silicon.
-
Breakthrough could make smartphones and laptops 1,000 times faster
Researchers at University of Pittsburgh have generated a frequency comb (a slice of spectrum) with more than 100 terahertz bandwidth, eclipsing today's devices that operate in the gigahertz...
-
Silicon meets pathology via IBM probe
IBM researchers have developed a silicon microfluidic probe designed to better evaluate biopsy samples used to evaluate diseases like cancer.
-
-
Graphene won't replace silicon in CPUs, says IBM
In an about-face move, IBM has revealed that graphene can't fully replace silicon inside CPUs reports Bit-tech, a UK-based hardware enthusiast site. The reason? A graphene transistor can't...
-
Qualcomm buys Atheros for $3.1 billion, moving into 'silicon beyond cellular'
In a move to round out its wireless and networking product portfolio, Qualcomm acquired Atheros for $3.1 billion, or $45 a share. For Qualcomm, the acquisition highlights a strategy to move beyond...
-
Broadcom shows silicon for generation-after-next Ethernet
Just what can you do with 100 Tbps of bandwidth in your datacenter?
-
Graphene research wins Nobel Prize
Two University of Manchester, England scientists have been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on graphene, widely seen as having the potential to replace silicon in electronics.
-
Green moves to the datacenter network silicon level
Low-level energy savings across your corporate networks becomes a hardware possibility with the newly ratified IEEE standard.
-
Material found in pencils may hold key to faster computer chips
Move over silicon because graphene, the sheet-like form of carbon found in graphite pencils, may hold the key to smaller and faster electronics. In a paper published in the journal Advanced...
-
The cost of creating solar cells
At the Always On Venture Summit in Half Moon Bay, Calif., a panel of solar energy executives debates whether or not silicon prices will fall as the industry matures. While they all think margins...
-
Optical fibers with a silicon core?
According to the Optical Society of America, U.S. researchers have been able to create a practical optical fiber with a silicon core. As they were able to use the same commercial methods that are...
-
Towards low-cost LED lighting
You all know that incandescent bulbs are pretty inefficient, converting only 10% of electricity into light -- and 90% into heat. Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, could soon replace incandescent and...
-
Testing new transistors in space
Northwestern University researchers have developed new transistors which are currently tested on the International Space Station (ISS) to see how they react to cosmic radiation. These transistors,...
-
Silicon Alley Insider's startup index: Click bait? Nah. It's tip bait
Lists have never done much for me--especially financial lists. It's financial porn: Forbes' most wealthy people; the Fortune 500; 10 mutual funds you must have now and a few hundred other lists....
-
Promise of more efficient solar cells
Canadian researchers have found a way to make solar cells more efficient, perhaps twice as efficient as current tech used to convert sunlight into electricity. The work was done at Canada's...
-
ATI acquisition might be key to AMD's future success
Without a doubt, 2007 was a bad year for AMD. A price war with Intel. The acquisition of ATi. Chip delays. Chip bugs. Any one of these would have been bad, but all of these combined meant...
-
A tenfold improvement in battery life?
Stanford researchers say silicon nanowires could help extend the life of a lithium ion battery for laptops from 4 hours to 40 hours.
-
Inside Intel's Penryn Processor
On Monday Intel announced the first mobile quad-core processor called Penryn. The new silicon is the cousin to the Penryn desktop processor, the Core 2 Extreme QX9650, announced on 12 November...
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Vendor Showcase
Facebook Activity
