Pushing the PC to the Speed of Light

Computer components are shrinking, but the chips they sit on keep getting larger, creating information delays from one circuit to another. So electrical and computer engineer Kenneth O is creating a miniature wireless network to transmit data right across the chip. O and his graduate students at the University of Florida in Gainesville designed a microwave transmitter and a receiver, each about a tenth of an inch long. As a test, the researchers sent a synchronizing message called a clock signal. The device sent and received the signal across the chip and also between two chips almost an inch apart on a silicon wafer. Such near-instantaneous synchronization should allow engineers to make computer chips faster and more powerful. But O has even grander plans. "The really incredible possibility is building disposable, extremely small, extremely low-cost single-chip radios," O says. "You could put many of these guys together, and they could do things that an individual one cannot do." Combined with microphones, they could allow surveillance of a large area; combined with motion sensors, they could monitor a building for signs of strain or damage.