[tt] [silk] more computronium news

[Eugen Leitl]

----- Forwarded message from Udhay Shankar N <udhay at pobox.com> -----

From: Udhay Shankar N <udhay at pobox.com>
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:21:44 +0530
To: silklist at lists.hserus.net
Subject: [silk] more computronium news
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Reply-To: silklist at lists.hserus.net

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/31/IBM-stores-data-on-an-atom_1.html

IBM stores data on an atom

As researchers look for ways to replace silicon in order to shrink 
chips, IBM has been able to perform functions like switching and data 
storage on atoms and molecules

By Ben Ames, IDG News Service
August 31, 2007

IBM has demonstrated how to perform certain computer functions on 
single atoms and molecules, a discovery that could someday lead to 
processors the size of a speck of dust, the company said Thursday.

Researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center in California developed 
a technique for measuring magnetic anisotropy, a property of the 
magnetic field that gives it the ability to maintain a particular 
direction. Being able to measure magnetic anisotropy at the atomic 
level is a crucial step toward the magnet representing the ones or 
the zeroes used to store data in binary computer language.

In a second report, researchers at IBM's lab in Zurich, Switzerland, 
said they had used an individual molecule as an electric switch that 
could potentially replace the transistors used in modern chips. The 
company published both research reports in Friday's edition of the 
journal Science.

The new technologies are at least 10 years from being used for 
components in commercial products, but the discoveries will allow 
scientists to take a large step forward in their quest to replace 
silicon, said IBM spokesman Matthew McMahon.

To build faster, smaller chips, IBM and other chip vendors like Intel 
and AMD have shrunk the dimensions of chip features from 90 
nanometers to 65nm in the current generation of chips and plan to 
continue to 45nm and 32nm in coming years. The problem is that wires 
built from silicon tend to leak more electricity at each step on that 
scale and will eventually reach a limit where they are no longer useful.

"Across all our areas of nanotechnology research, we're trying to 
determine the new kinds of materials we can use in computing when 
silicon reaches its fundamental limits. The ultimate goal is 
molecular-level computers, but the interim products will probably be 
hybrids with current technology, using things like carbon nanotubes," 
McMahon said.

IBM defines nanotechnology as work done at a scale of 100nm or 
smaller. At that scale, scientists must use a tool called the STM 
(scanning tunneling microscope) to photograph and manipulate 
individual atoms as they did in their latest research. Their next 
challenge is to find a way to make these laboratory demonstrations 
work at room temperature, he said.

Having measured the magnetic anisotropy of a single atom, "their next 
step is finding atoms that can do it at stable temperatures that are 
suitable for storage devices. If they can find that, it's still a 
decade out from commercialization," he said.

The Zurich researchers also developed a technique for using a 
molecule containing two hydrogen atoms as a switch, either on its own 
or with an adjacent molecule. They are now looking to apply the 
method to many other molecules, enabling the system to work as a 
collection of logic gates, the building blocks of microprocessors.

Even if the teams reach those goals, they must find a way to 
manufacture the systems on a large scale, instead of moving single 
atoms with the STM. One possibility is to use the process of 
self-assembly, where atoms under certain conditions will naturally 
form the desired shapes. In May, IBM said it had used that approach 
to insulate the wires on a chip by creating trillions of tiny, 
vacuum-filled holes around each one.

-- 
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))


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