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Nanotech in Microchips by 2015
dotwhynot writes "Molecular electronics, a realm once considered science fiction, could be heading for our computers and devices sooner than thought.
A new report on the technology roadmap of the chip industry finds a growing confidence in new nanotechnology, and forecasts that the transition to the post-silicon era could happen by 2015.
The development of nanoswitches has already reached a point where it will be possible to manufacture them reliably at low cost. Intels goal over the next decade is to build chips that hold more than one trillion switches."
Everything seems like it's "nanotech this" "nanotech that" these days... It seems like "nano" stuff in microchips should already be here. Marketspeak = the big let down.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
Hooptie
"Heavens, it appears that my weewee has been stricken with rigor mortis!" -- Stewie Griffin
I'll believe it when I see it. These tech predictions rarely seem to happen when people think.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
The transition to new nanotechnology techniques could occur around 2015, when chip makers will have exhausted their ability to shrink the wires and switches
Shrinking the wires can ALREADY be done with carbon nanotubes. Already some of them are being used for heat dissipation in audio chips.
So, IMHO, it'll be more or less like this:
1) Carbon nanotubes will replace copper wires in CPU's, disminishing the required operational voltage and current leakage.
2) "Conventional" technologies used today (like multigate transistors) will be optimized for nanotube wires.
3) The first nanotube transistors will appear a couple of years after 2) is developed.
4) As this technology is improved, one day we'll be able to use spintronic or optical transistors.
Somewhere in the middle of these, 3D-layered chips and massively-parallel computing will be developed. Oh yes, don't forget about the system-in-a-chip.
A (redudant - read my past posts on the subject) glimpse into the future: In 20 or 30 years our computers will be smaller than a Nintendo gamecube. No floppy disks, just flash (or magnetic?) memory cards and solid-state HDs. PCI bus will be cast into oblivion, when the new add-on cards fit in a PS2 memory stick. Small future, indeed.
computers were so big, we'd call them desktops.
Seeing as how short most careers in IT are most of the readers here will have have finished their career in computers by the time this happens.
threadeds blog
...all the techs that are in widespread use and far superior to those that were predicted in Sci-Fi. You know, like the collection you're using right now to read this.
/. is far superior to a space ship with warp drive and a hot andriod woman, but I'm not with ya on that brother ;-)
Right!!!! You might think
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
Do you understand how many dead transistors there are in a modern CPU? We already have [b]huge[b] fault tolerant abilities in microchips.
Do we, really? We have ECC and selectively disabling sections when we know they don't work, but do we have a scheme where one faulty transistor in the core itself will never affect operation? (Compare to how ECC might promise you no data loss desptie a n-bit error within a word.)