KAIST researchers build new kind of computing chip using everyday transistors

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have built a computer capable of solving complex logistical problems using the same humble components found in a common smartphone. The team, led by professors Choi Yang-Kyu and Kim Sang-hyeon, said Wednesday that they have developed an oscillatory Ising machine. The specialist device is designed to solve combinatorial optimization problems — the logistical nightmares of the modern world, such as calculating the most efficient routes for thousands of delivery trucks or balancing trillion-dollar global financial portfolios. For a conventional computer, these tasks are a mathematical quagmire because as the number of variables grows, the time required to solve them increases — potentially stretching into thousands of years in some cases. KAIST's hardware uses electronic oscillators — components that pulse with a rhythmic signal — that are designed to "talk" to one another. Like a field of metronomes eventually ticking in unison, these oscillators synchronize into a state of harmony, allowing the machine

Go to News Site