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

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.

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