transistors

Memristors could take over from Transistors, increase # and power of chips

Transistors may make way for a new type of switch for computer chips. Called a memristor (short for memory resistor), they are simpler than transistors and can store information even without an electric current.

memristorAt the speed at which technology normally moves, it’s a bit surprising that this device first conceived of in 1971 by Leon Chua at UC Berkeley, has only seen the light in the past 2 years.

HP is leading the memristor charge and have announced significant progress. In particular, they have come up with ways to stack layers of switches upon each other, hugely increasing the density of chip components.

As for size, current transistors have sizes of 30 to 40nm (nanometers), while HP has been toying with 3nm memristors. That’s a 10x improvement in size, and that’s not even including the stacking advantage.

via NYTimes

Transistors the size of 10 atoms

10 Atoms! Think about it. Nano sized.

Scientists at the University of Manchester have made this amazing breakthrough using graphene, a material that is essentially a single layer of carbon atoms. Although transistor size has been decreasing on a regular basis ever since their invention, in recent times, that speed has slowed down due to the breakdown in electrical properties at the nanoscale level.

We may not see graphene-based chips for another 15 or 20 years, but it is one possibility to replace silicon as it reaches its limits.

Scroll to Top