Carbon Could Replace Silicon in Future Transistors

[Jimmy 2004]

US engineers at Princeton University have managed to develop a new method for producing computer chips using carbon instead of the silicon used in current chips. As silicon is now reaching its limit, researchers have been searching for an alternative material to use for the last few years. Graphene, which is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice, could potentially process information and produce radio transmissions ten times more efficiently than silicon, which makes it an ideal replacement. The problem until now has been that engineers believed that they would need graphene in the same form as silicon to make chips, which would require a single crystal 8" or 12" wide. Graphene crystals have only been made a couple of millimetres wide so far, which is not big enough to produce chips. However, the new technique involves using small crystals of graphene in the active part of the chip, which would not require a big wafer. This could help to fuel future chip development and allow for much faster computers.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[OnBoard]

Hybrid cars try to reduce carbon, but hybrid chips in the future add carbon to the mix Silicon is going out of fashion real soon. Silicon paste is almost obsolete already and carbon is added to heatsink bases. Wonder if Silicon Valley will change it's name to Carbon Valley™ (my name, Microsoft come buy it) or someone builds one.

(seems like there already is one, there goes my moneymaking http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/co/carbonvalley.html)

 

[effmaster]

Hybrid cars try to reduce carbon, but hybrid chips in the future add carbon to the mix Silicon is going out of fashion real soon. Silicon paste is almost obsolete already nad carbon is added to heatsink bases. Wonder if Silicon Valley will change it's name to Carbon Valley™ (my name, Microsoft come buy it) or someone builds one.

(seems like there already is one, there goes my moneymaking http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/co/carbonvalley.html)

lol

Thats funny as hell

Although these companies need to get the ball rolling on new element types for computer chips. It probably really needed to be changed over before 2010 although I don't forsee any transition away from silicon until almost 2015

 

[OnBoard]

lol

Thats funny as hell

Although these companies need to get the ball rolling on new element types for computer chips. It probably really needed to be changed over before 2010 although I don't forsee any transition away from silicon until almost 2015

Yeah, that would be a good idea, but I fear that it will also raise prices. Though if they start making them now, maybe they'd be cheap in 2015 And then we'll also have cheap SSD drives as standard, future is looking promising.