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Tag: transistor

  • Transistor Launches May 20 For PS4, PC

    Transistor, the new game from the folks who brought us the wonderful Bastion, is one of the most anticipated games of 2014. PS4 and PC players alike have been looking forward to the title for over a year and now they only have to wait one more month.

    Supergiant Games announced today that Transistor will launch on May 20 for both the PS4 and PC. The title features the same top down style found in Bastion, but this new title is wrapped up in a neon-filled sci-fi aesthetic that looks absolutely gorgeous. If you’ve missed out on everything Transistor up to this point, here’s a synopsis:

    If you’re not familiar with the game, Transistor is a sci-fi themed action RPG that invites you to wield an extraordinary weapon of unknown origin as you fight through a stunning futuristic city. Gameplay seamlessly integrates thoughtful strategic planning with fast-paced action and rich atmospheric storytelling. During the course of the adventure, you’ll piece together the Transistor’s mysteries as you pursue its former owners.

    If you want to check out Transistor ahead of its release, Supergiant Games says it will be on display at PAX East this weekend at booth #892. The playable build on show will be running on the PS4, but you can expect the PC version to look just as good if not better.

    Transistor will retail for $19.99 on both PS4 and PC when it launches in May. There’s no word yet if it will be available at a discount for PS Plus members, but chances are probably slim. There’s also no word yet on if PS4 players will be able to pre-order it, but Supergiant Games says they’ll be looking into it.

    Image via PlayStation Blog

  • Transistor the Size of a Single Atom Made

    The race to build a quantum computer just got a huge boost. A team in Australia has constructed a transistor that is the size of a single atom. And, they say it is “perfect”.

    The tiny electronic device, described today in a paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, uses as its active component an individual phosphorus atom patterned between atomic-scale electrodes and electrostatic control gates.

    This unprecedented atomic accuracy may yield the elementary building block for a future quantum computer with unparalleled computational efficiency.

    Until now, single-atom transistors have been realized only by chance, where researchers either have had to search through many devices or tune multi-atom devices to isolate one that works.

    “But this device is perfect”, says Professor Michelle Simmons, group leader and director of the ARC Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication at UNSW. “This is the first time anyone has shown control of a single atom in a substrate with this level of precise accuracy.”

    The microscopic device even has tiny visible markers etched onto its surface so researchers can connect metal contacts and apply a voltage, says research fellow and lead author Dr Martin Fuechsle from UNSW.

    “Our group has proved that it is really possible to position one phosphorus atom in a silicon environment – exactly as we need it – with near-atomic precision, and at the same time register gates,” he says.

    The UNSW team used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to see and manipulate atoms at the surface of the crystal inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber. Using a lithographic process, they patterned phosphorus atoms into functional devices on the crystal then covered them with a non-reactive layer of hydrogen.

    Hydrogen atoms were removed selectively in precisely defined regions with the super-fine metal tip of the STM. A controlled chemical reaction then incorporated phosphorus atoms into the silicon surface.

    Finally, the structure was encapsulated with a silicon layer and the device contacted electrically using an intricate system of alignment markers on the silicon chip to align metallic connects. The electronic properties of the device were in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions for a single phosphorus atom transistor.

    It is predicted that transistors will reach the single-atom level by about 2020 to keep pace with Moore’s Law, which describes an ongoing trend in computer hardware that sees the number of chip components double every 18 months.

    This major advance has developed the technology to make this possible well ahead of schedule and gives valuable insights to manufacturers into how devices will behave once they reach the atomic limit, says Professor Simmons.