New IBM Transistor Could Revolutionize Computers
Friday April 27 01:25 PM EDT
dailynews.yahoo.com
By Tim McDonald, www.NewsFactor.com
IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) announced two new developments Friday,
one of which involves a leap in computer chip technology that company
researchers say could make today's computers look slow and primitive
by comparison.
IBM scientists said they have built the first
array of transistors out of a material called carbon nanotubes -- elongated
molecules about 50,000 times thinner than the diameter of a human hair.
Current technology enables chip-makers to print circuits on silicon down to
0.1 micron, about 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.
Scientists first formed individual transistors out of the material three years
ago, but IBM researchers say this is the first time the process has been
repeated with accuracy and precision, meaning that mass production of the
incredibly small transistors may be feasible.
The company also announced that it is embarking on a multi-year, multibillion-dollar effort to build
computers and networking systems that can monitor and repair themselves with no human intervention.
'Bad Tubes' Blown Up
The ultra-fine threads, known as carbon nanotubes, form randomly out of hexagonal arrays of carbon
atoms. The material has been known to scientists since the early 1990s, but has proven difficult to
work with since metallic nanotubes, which cannot be used as conductors, clump together with the
semiconducting nanotubes.
IBM researchers came up with a method to separate the two by placing both on silicon and insulating
only the semiconducting tubes. At that point, a specific voltage is passed through and the metal
nanotubes are "blown up," leaving only the desirable material.
"Basically, it leaves us with a working transistor," IBM's Matt McMahon told NewsFactor Network.
"It's a very simple and fast technique."
Scientists hope that with their conducting and insulating qualities, carbon nanotubes might one day
become the basic wire and switching material used in ultra-tiny computer components.
The IBM scientists successfully built tiny electronic switches out of nanotube wires about the size of 10
atoms, or 1.4 nanometers. The same component in a transistor built today measures about 500
nanometers.
Race to Replace Silicon
Replacing silicon is the goal in the burgeoning field known as molecular electronics, because even
though scientists are continually advancing the amazing physical properties of silicon, the basic building
block of the computer processor, it is generally believed that silicon's limits will be reached in the next
few years.
Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC - news) researchers recently said that with ultraviolet light lithography,
silicon's capabilities can be pushed to at least 2005 and beyond -- but the race is on to find other
advanced materials with the capacity to pack more power into ever-smaller devices that require less
energy to run.
"Autonomous Computing"
IBM and others have been working on what scientists refer to as "autonomous computing" for some
time, but IBM said it will pour even more of its resources into building machines that will adjust to
changing workloads, recognize faults and fix themselves without the touch of a human.
The increased focus, IBM said, grew out of the needs of its e-commerce customers, who complained
that the gap is continuously growing between the speed of technology advances and the available
number of workers to manage increasingly sophisticated IT systems.
"The Internet requires computers to survive much more unpredictable environments than in the past,"
said IBM hardware strategist Irving Wladawsky-Berger.
Most companies use firewalls for security now, but what IBM has in mind, along with a host of other
companies doing related research, is something similar to the human immune system, capable of
recognizing foreign anomalies and sending agents to destroy them. |
