Technology
What Reaching the Size Limit of the Transistor Means for the Future
The advances in computing and communications wouldn’t have been possible without the transistor. This small semiconductor device invented at Bell Labs in 1947, has allowed the proliferation of integrated circuits, the core element in any hardware component. The latest semiconductor shortage is a clear reflection of the important place it has in current technologies. Over the years, transistors have been getting smaller and smaller with the advances in lithography technology which is allowing higher yield in the production process. The miniaturization has been happening at a steady pace for the last few years. However, the transistor size has been slowly reaching the physical limit which corresponds to the size of a Silicon atom. To this end, what does reaching the size limit of the transistor mean for the future?
Moore’s Law and Hardware Evolution
The fast evolution in transistor technology has paved the way to a ferocious development of hardware systems. The first computers which relied on vacuum tubes, the predecessor of transistors, filled a whole room with minimum storage and processing capabilities compared to today’s standard. With the increasing miniaturization, and the ability to squeeze more transistors into a tiny area, smaller chip footprints are now capable of achieving what a computer filling a whole building could not even get close to back in the days. The result has in particular been the advent of portable computing and communication devices such as laptops and smartphones. On the other end, large data centers with servers having huge storage capacity and notable processing power have been designed for intensive data crunching applications.
The drive in the semiconductor industry has been guided in the last decades by Moore’s law. Established by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore, the law predicts a doubling in the number of transistors every two years. The development in transistor technology has been able to keep up with Moore’s law so far. As of 2022, IBM has announced that it has successfully developed a two-nanometer technology. This is only 10 times the size of a Silicon atom which stands at 0.2 nanometers. This would also allow 50 billion transistors to be crammed in a fingernail-sized chip. In comparison, commercial state-of-the-art chips such as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, to be used in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, utilizes a 4-nanometer process technology.
The End of Moore’s Law?
Predicting the end of Moore’s law is a speculation, as the law is a prediction itself. The development of production technology is the only thing that can determine the evolution in the number of transistors. Several research articles have tried to study the validity of the law in the current era. However, all they were able to prove is that Moore’s law is witnessing a slowdown, rather than being completely dead. As companies are capable of refining their production process and creating new techniques to stack transistors in a given area, Moore’s law shall be able to survive for another period of time.
Overcoming the Transistor Size Limit in the Future
The future of computing and communications system relies a lot on the available hardware. With the increasing complexity of artificial intelligence algorithms and the emergence of applications requiring considerable processing and communication capabilities such as extended reality, the current chips be rendered obsolete a few years after they are released. If transistor miniaturization and arrangement reach their limit, alternative solutions can be developed, if they aren’t yet so.
Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes: When Transistor Size no Longer Matters?
Graphene and carbon nanotube transistors are the latest technologies investigated to replace silicone-based transistors. Graphene is a monolayer of carbon atoms that form a hexagonal structure. It was discovered in 2004 by a group of physicists, a discovery that earned them the Nobel Price in 2010. Graphene has all the properties required for future electronics in terms of its thinness, strength, flexibility, and good electricity conduction properties. Researchers are still studying how to develop commercial graphene transistors. Scientists have gone as far as investigating origami (Paper folding in Japanese) structures to create a transistor-like device without adding any other material.
Carbon nanotube-based transistors is another class of transistors that rely on graphene. This time, sheets of graphene are rolled out to form the nanotubes. While Moore did not specify the type of transistor built that will ensure the trend he predicted, these new transistor designs based on newly developed material can extend the lifetime of the fabled trend that ushered the development of the hardware industry.
Quantum Computing and Rose’s Law
Quantum computing is seen as the future of computing devices that will cause a giant leap in computational and processing power, communications, and many other sectors that rely on digital data. The complete ecosystem that relies on the classical ‘0,1’ binary data will be recentered around the new unit in quantum computing, the quantum bit (qubit). Analogously to Moore’s law, Rose’s law predicts a doubling of qubits every two years. IBM is targeting a 1121 qubit computer in 2023 which is called the Condor. Based on the properties of quantum computing, each qubit can possibly take the value of two bits. In a sense, IBM’s Condor roughly 1000 qubits is equivalent to 10300 bits which requires 10284 years to simulate in a classical binary computer. These numbers illustrate the power quantum computer should bring when commercially available. Still some time to reach that point, but at least our current systems would still be useful by then.
Summary
The accelerated progress in the hardware industry has been fueled by a refined transistor production technology that pushes the physical boundaries through an aggressive miniaturization process. As this is achieved, a much larger number of transistors would be used which will boost the performance considerably. As we are nearing the size of the atom, the future of the current transistor technology as we know it is in doubt and the long-lasting Moore’s law could finally become obsolete. However, newer transistor design that rely on innovative material, and the emerging quantum computers have appeared to assume the continuity and potentially revive Moore’s law with a faster rate than once predicted by the man himself.
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What is biometric identification? It is the process through which unique biological characteristics are used in biometric identification to recognize and validate a person. These characteristics can be found in facial traits, eye structures, DNA, fingerprint patterns, and even handwriting. All this data that can be gathered on an individual inevitably brings up the ethical issues in biometrics that need to be addressed.
Facial recognition and fingerprint scans were previously the domain of security, and they were utilized for identification and law enforcement. However, increasingly more business and civil applications are using biometrics authentication. Due to this increased use, it is crucial to address the moral and ethical issues in biometrics when used in the creation of new application and technology.
Applied biometrics and corporate ethics have received little empirical study despite the widespread use of biometric technologies. As a result, there is plenty of room for future study to help us better comprehend the moral consequences of adopting this technology.
This article examines the ethical concerns associated with the use of biometric technology on the use of biometrics for non-security applications as well as the moral ramifications for business.
Ethical Issues in Biometrics and Privacy
Biometric data takes privacy concerns to a whole new level that typical data gathering only touches on. Digital identities can be forged, and anonymity on the web can be maintained to a degree if you know how. Also, digital data can be deleted – if we forget that Meta (Facebook) has been revealed to store deleted data, which is an ethical concern in itself.
The problem with biometric data is that it is unforgeable, unconcealable, and permanent, You can’t change your eye structure, your fingerprint, or your facial features. Big tech companies already have your face, fingerprints, and your voice recorded and stored via current biometric authentication systems – mainly used for unlocking your phone. That data will be there forever, and there is little that people can do about it besides avoid it In the first place.
While many companies still give users the option of using a good old fashion passcode to unlock their phones, as technology as a whole tends to do, the biometric alternative is slowly gaining more traction, and will one day become the norm, as it is hard to argue its convenience and security. You can’t accidentally leave your eyeball at home or forget your fingerprint. But in the same sense, you can’t change it. If your childish curiosity while browsing the web put a black spot on your record, there’s no changing that.
Therein lies the question of who if anyone should have access to such data. Today’s tech giants have all our data in their hands, that won’t change with the spread of biometric verification methods. Indeed, it will only increase targeting capabilities.
While the collection of biometric data on its own does not necessarily mean it will be shared, monetized, or abused in any way, it never the less requires clear and strict guidelines and regulations to be implemented around it. There are too many things that can be abused by the wrong party when the ethical issues in biometrics are not taken seriously, and if such limitations are not applied stringently.
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The Reno line of smartphones has always had a fantastic camera and an attractive design. The Reno 8 and 8 Pro include a 120Hz AMOLED display, the newest Dimensity chipsets, 80W fast charging, a 32-megapixel front camera, and triple 50-megapixel back cameras, among other notable features that make the Oppo Reno 8 and Reno 8 Pro high-quality yet affordable option for anyone.
Here we compare the two latest Oppo phone series iterations and see what to expect from the flagship Oppo smartphone, and how the Oppo Reno 8 and the Oppo Reno Pro stack up against each other.
Oppo Reno 8 Specifications
The Oppo Reno 8 has a smaller 6.43-inch full-HD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 1,080 by 2,400 pixels, a 90Hz refresh rate, and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. It also runs Android 12 with ColorOS 12.1 on top. Additionally, the display has an 800 nits maximum brightness and a 20:09 aspect ratio. An octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 1300 SoC, up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM, and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage are all found within the Oppo smartphone.
The Reno 8 has a triple back camera configuration for pictures and movies, with a 50-megapixel main sensor and an f/1.8 lens as its focal point. Additionally, there is a 2-megapixel macro camera with a 112-degree field of view and an 8-megapixel sensor coupled with an f/2.2 ultra-wide angle lens.
The Reno 8 offers 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.3, GPS/A-GPS, NFC, and a USB Type-C connector as connection options. An accelerometer, light, gyroscope, magnetometer, and a proximity sensor are among the sensors on board. For biometric verification, the phone also has a fingerprint sensor hidden behind the display. A 4,500mAh battery inside the Oppo Reno 8 supports 80W Super Flash Charge quick charging. The phone weighs 179 grams and has dimensions of 160 x 73.4 x 7.67mm.
Oppo Reno 8 Pro Specifications
A 6.7-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,412) AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection is included with the Oppo Reno 8 Pro. Running on top of Android 12 is ColorOS 12.1. Additionally, the display supports HDR10+ and is certified by Netflix HD, Amazon HDR, SGS Low Motion Blur, and SGS Low Blue Light. The MediaTek Dimensity 8100-Max SoC, which has eight cores, and up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM power the smartphone. Storage on the Oppo Reno 8 Pro is UFS 3.1 capable of up to 256GB.
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro boasts a triple rear camera arrangement with a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 main sensor and an f/1.8 lens, an 8-megapixel sensor and an ultra-wide lens with an f/2.2 aperture and a 112-degree field of view, and a 2-megapixel macro camera with an f/2.4 aperture. Along with the MariSilicon X NPU, the phone’s camera will offer generally better performance in both bright and dim light. It has a 32-megapixel front-facing camera sensor with an f/2.4 lens for taking selfies and making video calls.
The phone has 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.3, GPS/A-GPS, NFC, and a USB Type-C connector as connectivity options. An accelerometer, a light meter, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and a proximity sensor are among the sensors built into the phone. For biometric authentication, the phone also contains a fingerprint sensor underneath the touchscreen. The smartphone has a 4,500mAh battery that supports rapid charging at 80W Super Flash Charge. The phone weighs 183 grams and has dimensions of 161 x 74.2 x 7.34mm.
Both the Oppo Reno 8 and Reno 8 Pro are prime smartphones that can fit any user’s preferences and can be considered premium smartphones on the cheaper side. If you like photography, you will be satisfied with the level of quality overall, but keep in mind that neither phone is particularly water resistant, so be careful where you take it.
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Many prefer the rumbling ‘vroom’ of a gasoline car to the soft hum of an electric vehicle, while others would rather just be satisfied in the knowledge that they are lessening their carbon footprint. Let’s look at the cold hard facts however, and compare electric cars vs gas cars
Electric Cars vs Gas Cars: Components
The amount of moving components is an important distinction between electric and gasoline-powered automobiles. While a gasoline-powered car contains hundreds of moving components, an electric vehicle just has one, the motor. Another significant distinction is that the electric car has fewer moving components. The electric car is more dependable and needs less routine maintenance. The maintenance needed for a gasoline-powered car ranges from routine oil changes, filter replacements, tune-ups, and exhaust system repairs to less frequent component replacements including water and fuel pumps, alternators, and so on.
Electric Cars vs Gas Cars: Maintenance
The expenses associated with maintaining an electric car are reduced since there are less maintenance requirements. The shaft, the only moving component of the electric motor, is extremely dependable and needs little to no maintenance. The controller and charger are electrical devices that require minimal to no maintenance because they have no moving components. Modern sealed lead acid batteries are maintenance free and utilized in electric cars nowadays. However, these batteries have a finite lifespan and will eventually need to be replaced. New batteries are being developed to increase the range of electric cars as well as the battery pack’s lifespan, perhaps eliminating the need to replace the battery pack throughout the course of the vehicle’s lifespan.
Electric Cars vs Gas Cars: Efficiency
In addition to being simpler and less expensive to repair than gasoline-powered vehicles, electric vehicles are also more cost-effective to run. The electric car will drive roughly 43 miles for $1 based on the efficiency of 3 miles/kwhr and the cost of power at 7 cents per kwhr. The gasoline-powered car will go roughly 18 miles based on the average gas mileage of 22 miles per gallon and the price of gasoline at $1.25 per gallon. As a result, an electric car may drive more than twice as far on a dollar’s worth of petrol.
Where Electric Falls Behind
There are still a number of difficulties for the owner of an electric car despite the fact that it will be less expensive to operate and maintain.
The primary issue is the restricted range offered by existing battery technology. The amount of driving distance possible utilizing the current batteries is between 50 and 150 miles. These ranges are being extended by new battery technologies, and prototypes of these batteries have shown ranges of up to 200 miles between recharging. Solar powered charging stations are being implemented in numerous places to decrease range anxiety towards electric vehicles
The lack of qualified service professionals to repair and maintain electric cars is another issue that faces their owners. A two-year associate degree program has been developed to train high school graduates to become proficient electric vehicle technicians, and training programs are being developed and made available to upgrade the conventional automotive technician with the skills needed to maintain an electric vehicle.
Infrastructure to recharge the batteries is also required. The most important component of the infrastructure for recharging already exists: electric power is accessible practically everywhere. To support the electric car, it is still necessary to guarantee that charging stations with the right sorts of service (i.e., maximum voltage and current) are placed in important areas. Plans must also be made.
Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Technology sections to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.
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Ian Terblanche, Global Strategic Sales & Channel Director at Sigfox
