Nanotechnology goes molecular!

[BA Forum Moderator]

There's an interesting tech news from Google. (See article below.)
While we have silicon chips now which are being shrunk to the smallest
as it could get, researchers thought that we can only go smallest if we
go to the molecular level. Now, how would you like a chip like that?

With the 'quantum leap' breakthroughs in technology, who knows what's
next?

Article below was taken from:
http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;1337654463;fp;2;fpid;1

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HP claims molecular computing breakthrough
James Niccolai, IDG News Service

02/02/2005 08:05:12

Researchers at HP have created a molecular-scale device that they say
could one day replace the transistors used in today's computer chips.

In a paper in the Journal of Applied Physics, the three researchers
from HP's Quantum Science Research Group describe how they created a
tiny device that can perform one of the essential logic functions in
computing devices that measure just nanometers across.

The technology could eventually be used to complement and even replace
current transistors, which are expected to hit certain physical limits
in the coming years that will prevent them from being made any smaller.
The researchers said their technology could lead to computers that are
thousands of times more powerful than those that exist today.

The researchers have developed a "crossbar latch" that consists of a
single wire crossed by two other wires with molecular-scale junctions
where the wires intersect. By applying a sequence of electrical
impulses, the latch couldperform the so-called NOT operation, which
along with AND and OR is one of three basic operations that make up the
primary logic of a computer circuit, HP said.

The crossbar latch provided a key element needed for building computers
using nanoscale devices that were relatively cheap and easy to build,
an HP senior fellow and director of the quantum research group, STan
Williams, said.

"We are re-inventing the computer at the molecular scale," he said.

The research group is trying to figure out a way to mass produce the
devices economically.