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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."
I thought the ipods already had this technology!
Let me be the first to coin the term "picotechnology". I don't know anything about it except that it will be sub-molecular electronics.
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
1) James Clerk Maxwell ;-)
2) Max Plank
3) Gordon Moore
4) All of the above
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
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.
Oh.... I get it, you're from the lo-tech enclave set up by our Voryonite Overlords - that small patch of land back on planet Earth where people have been kept oblivious of the arrival of our Lords and left to develop on their own, the aim being to convince even the last sceptic that the arrival of our Lords has been a Good Thing (tm).
How cute, so you've got internet now. Do you also access it through neuralites or are you still using external equipment? I'm sorry, I'm a little out of touch - I haven't watched the OldWay Feed since I was very little... anyway, must run, a Triunian Starhopper has just docked, I need to fix some of their computer systems. A starport, even a remote one like Venus V, is a great place to be when you're a nerd
See ya! And do drop by once you develop space flights, I'll get you really good deals on antimatter!
THANK YOU for your submission of a new
[x] nanostructure
[ ] laser
[x] transistor
using
[x] large molecules
[ ] DNA strands
[ ] silicon
This is a bad idea, because
[ ] a 3-D structure is difficult to heat-sink
[x] scientists likely never will produce a transistor this way
[x] silicon has unique properties that cannot be matched
[ ] this is a case of outright fraud
The problem however is not to make circuits
[ ] out of lasers
[ ] 3-D
[x] from anything but silicon
[ ] self ordered
But the problem is to make them
[x] reliably
[x] at low cost
[x] faster
Further this article was published in
[ ] Science
[ ] New Scientist
[x] NYT
[ ] Science News
which is primarily a publicity-seeking instrument, and not a great peer-reviewed journal of physics.
I can say this because I have a
[ ] BS
[ ] MS
[x] PhD
in
[x] Physics
[ ] Electrical Engineering