Agency DARPA has developed the fastest processor in the world

Agency DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) is responsible for the development of new technologies for the US Armed Forces. This time, the agency's engineers set a kind of record, creating the fastest processor in the world, capable of performing a trillion operations per clock cycle.

If owners of powerful Mac Pro with the frequency of a six-core processor at 3.9 GHz used to consider themselves especially advanced users, now they will have to admit the fact that their CPU is not so productive. After all, the integrated solid-state circuit, developed in DARPA, is more than 250 times faster.

The processor was named Terahertz Monolitic Integrated Circuit (TMIS), and it was developed by its Northrop Grumman company, which is part of the DARPA agency. This processor was developed within the framework of the program, the purpose of which was the creation of electronics, capable of operating at a clock frequency equal to or exceeding 1 THz.

The previous record of processor performance was 850 GHz and was installed in 2012 by the same people. The palm of the championship is still in the hands of DARPA engineers, as they managed to bypass the existing record at an impressive 150 GHz.

"Existing electronics using solid-state technologies are not able to access the submillimeter ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum due to the insufficient performance of transistors. Previously, to solve the problem of overcoming the barrier in 1 THz, engineers tried to use frequency transformations to somehow improve the speed of the circuit, but this approach led to a limitation of the output power of the electronic device, and also negatively affected the signal-to-noise ratio. The frequency conversion also greatly increases the requirements for the size of the device, its weight and energy consumption, "reads Press release DARPA.

It is here that the TMI processor comes to the forefront. The chip, developed in the DARPA walls, demonstrates the difference between the input and output signals of just 6 decibels, operating at a clock frequency of 1 THz. This is an excellent indicator that will allow using this technology in real computing conditions very soon.

"This breakthrough in research can lead us to revolutionary technologies such as high-resolution visual security systems, improved radar technologies for vehicles equipped with autopilot, communication networks that transmit data at huge speeds, and spectrometers that will detect the presence of potentially explosive substances or chemical compounds with much greater accuracy, "said research leader Dev Palmer.

Of course, the first to reap the fruits of these developments will be the US military. And only then, maybe, technology will enter into our life with you. In the meantime, it remains only to be glad that science does not stand still.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/technology/agentstvo-darpa-razrabotalo-samyj-bystryj-processor-v-mire.html.