HP Proposes to Replace Transistors With Its New Technology
HP Tuesday announced its researchers have proven that a technology they invented could replace the transistor – the fundamental building block of computers for the last half century – leading to a new way to construct computers in the future.
Source: X-Bit LabsIn a paper published in Tuesday’s Journal of Applied Physics, three members of HP Labs’ Quantum Science Research (QSR) group propose and demonstrate a “crossbar latch,” which provides the signal restoration and inversion required for general computing without the need for transistors. The technology could result in computers that are thousands of times more powerful than those that exist today.
“We are re-inventing the computer at the molecular scale. The crossbar latch provides a key element needed for building a computer using nanometer-sized devices that are relatively inexpensive and easy to build,” said Stan Williams, HP Senior Fellow and QSR director, and one of the authors of the paper.
QSR works on nanoscale electronic devices that will first supplement, and someday perhaps replace, silicon technology, which is expected to reach its physical limits in about a decade. In addition to exploring the fundamental scientific principles of computing at the molecular level, QSR is also looking at architectural issues and determining how such tiny devices - thousands of which could fit across the diameter of a human hair - could be fabricated economically and in mass quantities.
0