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Spintronics May Lead to Quantum Microchips

Posted by michael on from the where-she-stops-nobody-knows dept.

Rashan writes "A Scientific American article which waxes poetic about the possibility of microchips which use the "spin" of an electron to perform their functions." An excellent explanation of a complex subject.

1 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. One immediate advantage: No more booting? by MagnaMark · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Spintronics could mean the end of booting your computer. From the article:

    More sophisticated storage technologies based on spintronics are already at an advanced stage: in the next few years, MRAM (magnetic random-access memory), a new type of computer memory, will go on the market. MRAMs would retain their state even when the power was turned off, but unlike present forms of nonvolatile memory, they would have switching rates and rewritability challenging those of conventional RAM.

    Think about what this means! You will be able to turn off your MRAM computer and when you turn it back on, you won't have to boot it. The computer (its memory) would be in the state in which you left it. Think of how nice that'll be!

    Of course, when Windows crashed everyday, you'd still have to boot it.