In recent years the semiconductor industry has grown, in some ways, stale. Aside from their soaring transistor budgets and higher levels of integration, today's microprocessors implement a computing model that's not all that much different from the mainframes of the 1960s.
But silicon can be used to do far more than simply increase the length and breadth of a uniprocessor pipeline. MEMS techniques may provide new forms of interaction between mechanical systems and the real world, and dynamically reconfigurable logic may be the best way to solve problems not suitable for conventional methods.
As PC users break the tethers to their desktops, and as systems evolve to become consumer appliances and communications tools, new technologies and new computing models may be the key to sustaining the growth of the semiconductor industry. In this presentation, respected industry analyst Nick Tredennick will comment on various bleeding-edge technologies and what impact they may have on microchip designs of the future.
About the speaker:
Dr. Nick Tredennick has more than thirty years experience in computer and microprocessor design, having worked both sides of the fence between corporate research labs and garage entrepreneurship. As a Senior Design Engineer at Motorola he developed the logic and microcode for the original Motorola 68000 microprocessor; as a member of the Research Staff at IBM's Watson Research Center he did the same for the Micro/370.
Nick has founded several Silicon Valley startups, including NexGen (now part of AMD), and is an investor or member of the technical advisory board of numerous others. He has taught at the University of Texas at Austin and U.C. Berkeley, is a Fellow of the IEEE, and represents the IEEE on the Engineering Accreditation Commission, overseeing university accreditation for all engineering programs.
Nick serves on the editorial advisory boards for IEEE Spectrum and Microprocessor Report, and is a member of the Army Science Board, a U.S. federal advisory committee. He has published more than fifty technical works, including a textbook on microprocessor design (Microprocessor Logic Design), and holds nine patents.
But among his friends Nick is perhaps best known for his skewed view of
the industry and as the first analyst to predict accurately what would
be the true long-term impact of RISC processors on computing.
He recently became the Editor of Dynamic Silicon, a monthly newsletter
produced by Gilder Publishing.
Contact information:
Nick Tredennick
TechNerds International
408-395-6552/vox
408-395-2025/fax
http://dynamic-silicon.com
bozo@computer.org