Researchers Boast First Programmable Nanoprocessor

schliz writes "Harvard University researchers have assembled nanowires into tiny 'logic tiles' that can perform adder, subtractor, multiplexer, demultiplexer and clocked D-latch functions. While the 960-square-micrometre chips are not currently as dense as 32nm CMOS technology, the researchers say future versions could be up to 100 times more efficient than current electronics, and could yield low-power, application-specific 'nanocontrollers' for use in tiny embedded systems and biomedical devices."

Comments

GaAs?

[uigrad_2000]

From TFA:

The tiles each contained 496 programmable transistors built from ten-nanometre-thick germanium wires, and were touted as a "world first" in complexity and function.

There are a lot of semiconductor types made with Germanium. GaAs is usually the most common. It is already an established method of making small transistors, although no one has managed to bring the costs down to the same as silicon.

You would think that an article that talks about some new technology would actually state what they were building upon, and what they changed to improve the process.

Re:GaAs?

[mangu]

From TFA:

The tiles each contained 496 programmable transistors built from ten-nanometre-thick germanium wires, and were touted as a "world first" in complexity and function.

You would think that an article that talks about some new technology would actually state what they were building upon, and what they changed to improve the process.

It's right there, in the sentence you quoted: "ten-nanometer-thick germanium wires"

What's new is the ten-nanometer wires, not using germanium.

Re:GaAs?

[ALeavitt]

Except for the fact that GaAs is gallium arsenide.

Return to discrete components?

[dazedNconfuzed]

So...is this a return to the days of building computers from discrete components (separate basic electronic components wired together), just smaller?

Who's going to build the first nano-PDP8?

Re:Return to discrete components?

[enslaved_robot_boy]

This is cooler than that.

This a two dimensional array of transistors that can be turned on or off individually.

It's like the screen on your monitor except that each pixel is a variable transistor. So you can imagine that one "image" in the two dimensional array would be perfect for compiling code or something and another image would be best for graphics rendering. Essentially the promise of this design is that you could change your hardware as fast as you refresh your TV screen.

Re:Good for cellphones

[by (1706743)]

Having a cellphone in your watch that lasts all week without charging will be very handy.

Actually, I think it would be very wristy.

I'll be here all week!

Re:oblig

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

'Oblig' is short for 'obligatus', which is latin for "this joke will never be funny."

Transistors + Memristors + Bottom-Up

[enslaved_robot_boy]

This work is significant for two reasons

1) because it uses self assembled nano-wires as the semiconducting element of the transistor. This is an example of bottom-up processing.
2) because it uses a three layer gate oxide which can be altered by applying a high voltage, turning transistors on and off.

Bottom-up processing is extremely cool because it offers the future promise of being able to make electronics using the fundamental chemical properties of materials. The idea is that under the right conditions you can grow electronics without using super expensive top-down processing like deep-UV interference lithography.

The programmable nature of the transistor, which comes from the long lasting and reversible electrochemical changes that 6-9V applied between the gate and source generates (kinda like a memristor), means that if you make a square array of transistors and then you can address each transistor in the array individually, turning it on or off. This allows you to change the chip "hardware" on the fly. Which could be cool for programmers i guess....

Basically this is amazing work.