P.M. BRIEFING : Computer Chip Breakthrough Told
Hitachi Ltd. of Japan said today that it has succeeded in confining a subatomic particle that can be used in a new chip device to vastly speed the work of computers.
A Hitachi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the success made it possible for the company to produce ultra-high-speed, optical-electronic functional devices with a computing speed more than 10,000 times that of the chips used in supercomputers now available.
He said the company has decided to use the particle, called a polariton, because it has the features of both electrons and light.
The official said conventional chips using electrons function relatively slowly, and scientists have been studying the possibility of using light to increase the speed. But light has the defect of being uncontrollable, he said. He said the chip device with the polariton is fast and controllable.
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