Future computers built with molecular devices
Future computers built with molecular devices
Feb 2, 2005: HP is considering confining the transistor to the dustbin after claiming to have discovered a way to build computers using molecules, which it believes will result in the machines being thousands of times more powerful than those that exist today.
Three member of HP Labs' Quantum Science Research group, have published a paper about the advantages of nanoscale electronic devices that could replace silicon technology, which is expected to reach its physical limits in about 10 years time.
Stan Williams, an HP Senior Fellow and QSR director, and one of the authors of the paper said: "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."
He claims that thousands of these small devices can fit across the diameter of a human hair. The latch is made up of a single wire acting as a signal line, crossed by two control lines with an electrically switchable molecular-scale junction where they intersect.
By applying a sequence of voltage impulses to control lines and using switches oriented in opposite polarities, the latch can perform the NOT operation, which, along with AND and OR, is one of three basic operations that make up the primary logic of a circuit are essential for general computing.
Phil Kuekes, senior computer architect at QSR, and another one of the paper's authors, talked about the fate of transistors. "Transistors will continue to be used for years to come with conventional silicon circuits, but this could someday replace transistors in computers, just as transistors replaced vacuum tubes and vacuum tubes replaced electromagnetic relays before them."
But the authors realise that there are still some future challenges to get over before this dream becomes a reality. One of the biggest challenges involves making a large number of these extremely small, molecular components to make very complex circuits at a lower cost.
However, the authors are also optimistic about this too and believe that all difficulties will be overcome eventually.
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