MEDIA ADVISORY

Reporters are welcome to cover this conference, which is not open to
the public. 

INTERNATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CONFERENCE WILL EXPLORE FUTURE OF
COMPUTING

	The University of Virginia will host more than 200 researchers
from around the world at the 1997 International Semiconductor Device
Research Symposium, Dec. 10-13, at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel.

	The symposium, which takes place every two years, gathers
researchers in a number of different disciplines -- physics,
electrical engineering, materials science, chemical engineering and
computer science -- to share their most promising laboratory findings
in making computers faster and more sophisticated than products that
are currently available.

	The University's School of Engineering and Applied Science is
co-sponsoring ISDRS '97 with several other agencies:  the Virginia
Institute for Microelectronics, the Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers, the Russian Physical Society, the U.S. Army,
JEOL USA Inc. and Northrop Grumman.

	The most interesting talk for non-specialists will probably be
a presentation on silicon germanium, a new material now being
developed that can transmit information faster than silicon, which
forms the basis of most computer chips now in use. That program will
be offered by Bernie Meyerson, a renowned scientist with IBM's T.J.
Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., at 10:15 a.m.,
Thursday, Dec. 11, in the Omni Ballroom.

	Other seminar topics include: "Novel Concepts in Quantum-Well
Terahertz Emitters," "Improvement of the Performance of a Gated
Lateral Silicon Bipolar Device Through the Incorporation of Silicon
Germanium," "Modeling of the Heterostructure Barrier Varactor Diode,"
"New Intrared Photodetectors Based on Delta-Doped Wide-Bandgap
Single-Crystal Semiconductor Superlattices," and "High-Speed Resonant
Cavity Enhanced Schottky Photodiodes."

	For more information, call William Peatman, program chair, at
(804) 979-4103, or contact him by email at wcp4b@virginia.edu.
Information about what's happening at the University of Virginia is
available at U.Va.'s Top News site: http://www.virginia.edu/topnews/.

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                                                           Dec. 1, 1997