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Graphene Transistors 10x Faster Than Silicon
Asadullah Ahmad writes "IBM has created transistors made from carbon atoms, which operate at 100 gigahertz, while using a manufacturing process that is compatible with current semiconductor fabrication. With silicon close to its physical limits, graphene seems like a viable replacement until quantum computing gets to desktop. Quoting: 'Researchers have previously made graphene transistors using laborious mechanical methods, for example by flaking off sheets of graphene from graphite; the fastest transistors made this way have reached speeds of up to 26 gigahertz. Transistors made using similar methods have not equaled these speeds.'" The other day we discussed what sounds like similar research by a group of scientists at Tohoku University; that team did not produce transistors, however.
With all the stories of highly-experimental new, novel types of transistors - the majority of which are expensive-research only with no chance of commercialization any time soon, it's refreshing to see something that actually takes production feasibility into account.
But there is a limit, no mistake about it. Look at modems. They went through this same limit/new limit methodology for years before they were replaced outright. I think this definitely puts silicon in it's death throws, but I expect some last minute breakthroughs that will push it a bit farther than previously though possible. This is a good thing, in that it forces us to optimize current technologies in ways that we didn't previously consider (like compression did for modems) that in turn was applied to all sorts of communication technologies, and arguably to other technologies outside of communications.
I just see this as a necessary step before pushing off into the next big thing.
Again, that's very easy to say in retrospect. I believe this is an almost identical situation: we have a very complex set of interactions from which we derive one number: "transistor switch speed". We believe we understand those relations well enough that we can derive a fastest speed any possible silicon design can give.
This speed is far more similar to the "maximum" modem speed than it is to the melting point of some substance.
Before Ungerboeck's work, information theory seemed very clear about the fastest possible rate at which data could be reliably sent on the frequencies that would "stay on the wire" without bandwidth bleedover. Ungerboeck just demonstrated that there were artificial assumptions underlying the information coding theory on which that speed was based.
You're looking at documentation after-the-fact on modem speeds, which rightly enough talks about revolutions in theory. From the point of view of people before the revolution in the theory, you talk about physical limits. All limits we calculate are by definition theoretical limits, though.
To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke: When a scientist or engineer states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.