Monday, December 10, 2012

MIT researchers may have found a replacement for silicon processors with new transistor

MIT transistor

Researchers from MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories claim to have created the smallest transistor ever to be made out of a material other than silicon. The transistor is made of indium gallium arsenide, a material already used in fiber-optic and radar technologies, and is just 22 nanometers thick — the size of about nine strands of human DNA. Because this is the same type of transistor typically used in microprocessors, it could mean more densely packed — and consequently higher performance — chips.


Researchers hope to have found an alternative to silicon, the speed and effectiveness of which dwindles on extremely small scales, threatening the forward progress predicted by Moore's Law. Co-developer and MIT professor...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/10/3752398/MIT-transistor-silicon-replacement

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