IBM Nanotechnology Transistor Faster than Silicon

Dustin Destree writes: "This article on MSNBC talks about how IBM has developed a new transistor based on nanotube technology that at its first stages outperforms even the fastest silicon transistor. Interesting read that gives ideas about where the computer industry is heading in the next few years."

Comments

Nanotech Owns

[mattyohe]

Since the article is about nanotechnology does it mean that it has to be a small read as well? Dont look for anything concerning this issue for the next 5 years.

Re:Reality check.

[gimpboy]

this is exactly what i was thinking. to the best of my knowlege, there is no way to mass produce nanotubes. the possibilities associated with nanotech are quite apparent. the organization which develops the methods to manufacture nanostructures on a large scale stands to make a boatload. i really wish the resources would focus on this problem and not the applications to be had after the manufacturing challenge is met.

Another article with a little more information...

[Dammital]

... can be found here.

It's too bad

[PhysicsGenius]

that our society has devolved to the point where science is conducted through the issuing of press-releases written by marketdroids. There are only about 10 accurate words in this entire article and I'm including "a", "an" and "the" in that count.

First of all, nano is e-9, not e-12 like says. Second, the tubes don't carry electric charge on the interiors like a straw. It is carried on the surface--the interior is a vacuum. And fourth, the tubes are nano in length as well, which kind of makes making a ribbon cable moot.

Re:It's too bad

[ottffssent]

Number three *is* poorly worded; I'll try to restate it better.

Third, nanotubes aren't 10x as strong as steel. Steel is 10x as strong as steel - it just takes 10x as much of it. Nanotubes might be 10x as strong as an equivalent weight of steel, or an equivalent volume thereof, but that's not what the article says. Or maybe they meant an equivalent number of atoms, though if all you have is 1 atom, it's not steel...

Why, oh why can't people write?

Nanologic ***Circuits** Have Already Been Built...

[cybrpnk2]

Not to take anything away from IBM, but not only have individual nanotube transistors already been done, but they're already being used to produce inttegrated circuits of logic gates in Europe at Delft University of Technology. A paper about their nanotube logic circuitry is here...

Re:Reality check.

[caesar-auf-nihil]

Actually, carbon nanotubes can be mass produced - depending on what your scale of "mass production" is. If you only need 1 carbon nanotube per transistor, you can get a HUGE amount of nanotubes from 1 kg of material.
Compaies like this one (www.cnanotech.com), [Run by Richard Smalley, who co-discovered Fullerenes] are working to mass production (sub kiloton) of carbon nanotubes. Maybe not single-wall nanotubes, buth they're getting there.

IBM articles...

[edgrale]

can be found here and the full press release here

Re:Fastest Transistor

[jscribner]

For those looking for this story, it is posted on the IBM Research website. There are also news stories on the NY Times and C|Net.

CNET article

[scubacuda]

CNET version of the same article.