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<\/p>\nHow cutting-edge computer chips are speeding up the AI revolution<\/p>\n
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This process, called EUV lithography<\/a>, is not new. But the record-setting model has extra-powerful optics that can make smaller transistors. Cramming ever-more and tinier transistors into a chip of a given area enables progress in computing. Chips with more transistors could also help artificial-intelligence data centres to run more computations without using more electricity<\/a>.<\/p>\n The unprecedented system was described at the SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning conference in San Jose, California, in February1<\/a><\/sup>. The advances were presented by a representative of the system\u2019s manufacturer, ASML, which is headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands.<\/p>\n The company has sent about ten of these EUV devices, which cost about US$400 million, to its customers, including chipmakers Intel and SK hynix. These companies will use the machines to create their next generation of chips, says Maarten Voncken, head of research metrology at ASML. Thanks to the AI boom, says Voncken, \u201cthe demands we see are monumental in the number of chips that are needed and the scaling that is needed\u201d.<\/p>\n The high-performance computer chips used in mobile phones and the data centres powering the AI boom have features crafted with nearly atomic-scale precision. A guiding principle of the chip industry called Moore\u2019s Law<\/a> dictates that the number of transistors on a chip should double roughly every two years. It\u2019s not a law of nature, but it has held true thanks to the tremendous efforts of engineers and physicists. But it\u2019s getting harder to keep up with Moore\u2019s law, even as AI creates a demand for ever-faster chips. <\/p>\n Improvements in lithography systems can help. The shorter the wavelength of light, the smaller the features that can be etched onto a wafer. The properties of the light-handling systems are also important. Systems with higher values of a unitless property called numerical aperture can emit light over a broader range of angles. This results in better image contrast<\/a> and therefore higher resolution, meaning chipmakers can use these systesm to pack higher densities of transistors onto chips.<\/p>\n The lithography tools used in the 1990s and into the 2000s used deep ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 193 nm, the shortest wavelength that can be directed using the types of lens found in eyeglasses and binoculars.<\/p>\nPushing Moore\u2019s law<\/h2>\n
From lunatic fringe to data centres<\/h2>\n
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