Nanotechnology To Replace Conventional CMOS

neutron_p writes "There is a lot of hype around nanotechnology these days, but some things are going to work in a near future anyway. IMEC announced a program aimed at seeking alternatives to the current CMOS manufacturing technologies using nanotechnologies. IMEC will investigate the use of semiconducting wires, carbon nanotubes and spintronics or electron spin." (IMEC describes itself as "Europe's leading independent research center" in the fields of microelectronics and nanotechnology.)

Comments

Electron spin versus magnetic charge

[Anonymous Coward]

We've heard this all before ... in hard drives! Back in 1999, manufacturers started using electron spin rather than magnetic charge to store data. From the article ... "Magnetoelectronics manipulates electrons in semiconductors via electron spin, rather than charge." Most hard drives today are GMR (giant magnetoresistance), or technology derived from GMR.

So it's not too wild to think that they'll be able to do it in RAM and such as well.

Nanotech in colleges

[BlindSpy]

Purdue University is making a huge effort to be one of the leading Nanotechnology schools: http://discoverypark.e-enterprise.purdue.edu/wps/p ortal

You dont know what you are talking about...

[imsabbel]

GMR discs still store the data magnetically.
The MR and GMR effect only replaces the normal inductance coils in the read-head. While older heads registred a voltage spike because of the magnetic flux change in the coil while the data-layer moved below the head, the new heads have a multilayer material that has a spin-sensitive resistance, so the local magnetic field created by the data on the disc spin-polarizes the electrons IN THE HEAD (nothing on the disc) and thus created a vast difference in head resistance depending on the magnetic field.

So the only difference is in how to get the MAGNETICALLY stored data back... Nothing changed in the storage per se.