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Researchers Spin Out Smaller Electronics Than Ever

Posted by Zonk on from the can-i-borrow-your-illustrated-primer dept.

schliz writes "Scientists have found a more efficient way to harness the spin of an electron to store and process information. The new technology, dubbed 'spintronics', has potentials in the development of nanoscale devices that are much more energy efficient than current charge-based electronic devices. Researchers expect the new technology to be incorporated in computing circuitry within the next decade."

3 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Fundamentals... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Quoting from http://www.mdronline.com/watch/watch_Issue.asp?Vol name=Issue+%23022007&on=1
    Freescale wins an MPR Analysts' Choice Award for MRAM (magnetic random-access memory). Freescale's MR2A16A is the first commercially available memory chip based on spintronics technology. (See MPR 2/20/07-04, "MPR Innovation Award: MRAM.")

      I'd say a few people, if http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/hardwa re/story/0,10801,83987,00.html is considered sane.

    It's not a new technology, but from the article, they seem to have made some improvements. Maybe you should try reading it?

  2. Thermal Relaxation by bh_doc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What is completely ignored in TFA is the effect of thermal relaxation. After a while the effect of heat "leaks" into the spin causing it to revert back to a random (mixed) state. To avoid the effect altogether would require 0 K temperature, i.e. it's impossible.

    There are possibly ways to mitigate the effect, though. I'd like to know what the company pushing this memory tech has come up with to this end (and whether or not it actually works). Anyone know?

  3. Re:Fundamentals... by TeknoHog · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Electron spin" is a misnomer. The electron is not really spinning. This is just a name for the particular quantum mechanical property that causes the electron to deflect one way or another when travelling through a magnetic field.

    Well, that particular quantum-mechanical property is called 'spin' by pretty much all physicists, so I wouldn't call it a misnomer. It was originally thought to be actual rotation, since its behaviour mimics that of a charged rotating sphere in some ways. Now we know it isn't really spinning, but the name 'spin' has stuck since we don't have any better name for it.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.