Growing Tungsten Atoms in Vacuum May Help to Reduce Electricity Use

A technique for growing tungsten atoms in a vacuum introduced by Applied Materials Inc. makes more efficient connections between parts of the chip to save the electricity use. According to Applied Materials, the increasing use of artificial intelligence is going to extract a heavy price in power unless the chip industry steps up and heads that off.

According to Applied Materials, the world's largest chip equipment manufacturer, data centers are on course to consume 15% of the world's electricity by 2025. Those giant warehouses of computers currently suck in about 2%, the company said.

Gary Dickerson, Chief Executive Officer of Applied Materials, said in a pre-recorded remote keynote speech at the industry's Semicon West conference: "Artificial intelligence has the potential to change everything. But AI has an Achilles' heel that - unless addressed - will prevent it from reaching its true potential. That Achilles heel is power consumption. Training neural networks are incredibly energy-intensive when done with the technology that's available today.”

A flood of new devices is getting internet connections, generating more data, and increasingly need more computing power to understand this new information with artificial intelligence. Dixon believes that most chip makers using manufacturer-applied machinery have made their electronic components more energy-efficient, but not enough.

He said that the entire industry needs to come up with new custom designs tailored for AI processing and new ways of connecting those chips. The width of the microcircuit that enables the chip to function is measured in units of one billionth of a meter. But to move and store data quickly, they require a lot of power. An Intel Corp. Xeon processor may draw more than 200 watts, as much as an old-fashioned portable tube TV. Put thousands of those processors in close proximity and couplet hem with all of the other components needed to make a server and the electricity drain adds up.

Applied Materials' CEO promised to reduce the company's electricity use and to innovate on the basis of manufacturing and materials to help his customers make more efficient components. An example he gave involved a technique for growing tungsten atoms in a vacuum to make more efficient connections between parts of the chip.

The technology of growing tungsten atoms in a vacuum could reduce electricity use. Dickerson promised to apply it to 100% renewable energy and reduce its carbon footprint by 50% in the next 10 years. He said even relatively simple changes in practice can help. Flying an engineer from the U.S. to Asia and back generates about 2 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

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