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Source: vnunet.com
Domino effect creates smallest chip
IBM claims molecular computing breakthrough IBM has announced the latest development in the battle to create the smallest chip. Scientists at the company's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California have built and operated a computer circuit in which individual molecules of carbon monoxide move like toppling dominoes across a flat copper surface.According to online publication Science Magazine, each circuit is so small that it would be possible to fit 190 billion of them on a standard pencil-top eraser. Big Blue has been working on molecular computing in a bid to find an alternative to silicon-based semiconductors.The company claimed that the new 'molecule cascade' technique could be used to make logic elements 260,000 times smaller.However, IBM said that it was still years from translating the nanotechnology and quantum computing work into products for mobile phones and personal computers.The new circuits are also smaller than those made from carbon nanotubes, which are extremely strong because of the nature of the carbon bond, and which IBM considers to be a possible alternative to silicon.IBM explained that the chips were built by creating a pattern of carbon monoxide molecules on a copper surface. One molecule was moved to start a one-directional cascade, similar to the way in which dominoes interact. The circuits do not reset themselves.Copyright © 2001 VNU Business Publications Limited [All rights reserved]
