Sun Labs - Computerworld 1st Annual Horizon Awards - Proximity Communication

September, 13, 2005 - For a technology that "makes basic improvements in hardware or software architecture that enhance processing or communication for a wide variety of applications," Proximity Communication has been awarded one of Computerworld's eight 2005 Horizon Awards. Computerworld established their Horizon Awards this year to recognize highly innovative technologies being developed by research labs and private companies. Technologies were nominated online by industry "scouts' and evaluated by a judges panel of IT executives. Computerworld selected eight award winners and 20 honorable mentions from the nominated technologies.

Award Description:

Sun Microsystems Laboratories: Proximity Communication created by Ivan Sutherland, research fellow and vice president

Key developers: Robert Drost, principal research scientist, and his team:

Front row:Justin Schauer, Tarik Ono, Ajanta Chakraborty, Gilda Garreton, Ann Coulthard;
Row 2: Alex Chow, Jeff Rulifson, Tom O'Neill, Jo Ebergen, Jonathan Gainsley, Jon Lexau; Row 3: David Hopkins, Steven Rubin, Ivan Sutherland, Ian Jones; Back row: Russell Kao, Robert Drost, Ron Ho, Bill Coates Not in picture: Robert Bosnyak, Wes Clark, Jack Cunningham, Scott Fairbanks, Bruce Guenin, Frankie Liu

This experimental technology can enable processor chips to communicate 60 times faster and with 30 times less energy than is possible using conventional means. Proximity refers to the positioning of two chips, each with transmitter and receiver circuits, extremely close to each other. Data is sent from one to the other across the gap by capacitive coupling, which is coupling between charged particles that are at rest. In proximity I/O, the long communication paths on printed circuit boards with soldered connections and wires are replaced by the tiny, simple interchip gaps. That greatly reduces what is often a bottleneck in multiprocessor computers -- inter-CPU latency.

In addition, each of the winning technologies is featured in Computerworld this week, both in print and on-line. For the Proximity Communication feature, please click here.