Forum Home
PC World Chat
Thread ID: 122677	2012-01-06 13:13:00	Tiny wires to usher new computer era?	Iantech (16386)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1252602	2012-01-06 13:13:00	I found this quite interesting, so just thought I would share it :) timesofindia.indiatimes.com Scientists said that they have designed tiny wires, 10,000 times thinner than a human hair but with the same electrical capacity as copper, in a major step toward building smaller, more potent computers. The advance, described in the US journal Science, shows for the first time that wires one atom tall and four atoms wide can carry a charge as well as conventional wires. That could lead to even tinier electronic devices in the future as well as new steps toward quantum computing, an industry still in its infancy which would create powerful computers that could sift through massive amounts of data faster than current digital computers which use binary code. "Driven by the semiconductor industry, computer chip components continuously shrink in size allowing ever smaller and more powerful computers," said researcher Michelle Simmons of the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia. "We are on the threshold of making transistors out of individual atoms. But to build a practical quantum computer we have recognized that the interconnecting wiring and circuitry also needs to shrink to the atomic scale." Scientists were able to forge atom-sized wires in silicon using a technique called scanning tunneling microscopy, whereby they placed chains of phosphorus atoms within a silicon crystal. "This technique not only allows us to image individual atoms but also to manipulate them and place them in position," said researcher Bent Weber, the lead author of the study. The nano-wires they built this way ranged from 1.5 to 11 nanometers thick. But even though the circuits were smaller, scientists observed no increased difficulty in coaxing an electric charge through them -- what has previously been considered a major obstacle to quantum computing.	Iantech (16386)
1252603	2012-01-06 13:26:00	10,000 times smaller with the same capacity as copper? How much copper and what sort of "capacity"	The Error Guy (14052)
1252604	2012-01-06 21:08:00	10,000 times smaller with the same capacity as copper? How much copper and what sort of "capacity" The "capacity" being high conductivity... How much copper? IIRC, conductivity drops at 1 micron. What this mean, is that they can have a <2 * 10^-8 Ohms at 1.5nm... This is something.	Cato (6936)
1252605	2012-01-06 22:19:00	That would make for a nifty VERY fast blowing fuse with minimal residues. Beetle could have a field day :D	R2x1 (4628)
1252606	2012-01-07 00:09:00	10,000 times smaller with the same capacity as copper? How much copper and what sort of "capacity" Lets try 230v on them :D	pine-o-cleen (2955)
1252607	2012-01-07 00:54:00	Cool!	The Error Guy (14052)
1252608	2012-01-07 02:05:00	that is cool!	Gobe1 (6290)
1252609	2012-01-07 03:01:00	Sounds like the in 10 years syndrome.	Cicero (40)
1