A natively flexible 32-bit Arm microprocessor #MMPMID34290427
Biggs J; Myers J; Kufel J; Ozer E; Craske S; Sou A; Ramsdale C; Williamson K; Price R; White S
Nature 2021[Jul]; 595 (7868): 532-536 PMID34290427show ga
Nearly 50 years ago, Intel created the world's first commercially produced microprocessor-the 4004 (ref. (1)), a modest 4-bit CPU (central processing unit) with 2,300 transistors fabricated using 10 mum process technology in silicon and capable only of simple arithmetic calculations. Since this ground-breaking achievement, there has been continuous technological development with increasing sophistication to the stage where state-of-the-art silicon 64-bit microprocessors now have 30 billion transistors (for example, the AWS Graviton2 (ref. (2)) microprocessor, fabricated using 7 nm process technology). The microprocessor is now so embedded within our culture that it has become a meta-invention-that is, it is a tool that allows other inventions to be realized, most recently enabling the big data analysis needed for a COVID-19 vaccine to be developed in record time. Here we report a 32-bit Arm (a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture) microprocessor developed with metal-oxide thin-film transistor technology on a flexible substrate (which we call the PlasticARM). Separate from the mainstream semiconductor industry, flexible electronics operate within a domain that seamlessly integrates with everyday objects through a combination of ultrathin form factor, conformability, extreme low cost and potential for mass-scale production. PlasticARM pioneers the embedding of billions of low-cost, ultrathin microprocessors into everyday objects.
Nature 2021 ; 595 (7868): 532-536
