Intel researching "carbon nanotubes" for chip design

While Moore's Law has held up pretty well over the last 40 years, it may not be able to stay true forever. It turns out that as the components inside semiconductors get smaller and smaller, electrical resistance goes up, thereby reducing performance; experts say that eventually there will be a breaking point for "copper interconnects," reaching the point where Moore's Law falls apart. Scientists have been well aware of this roadblock, and have invested heavily in everything from quantum computing to optical processors. Intel is also working on a solution for this electrical engineering problem by attempting to determine whether these semiconductor interconnects can be replaced by carbon nanotubes. The ubiquitously researched microscopic tubes can conduct electricity far better than metals, due to their "ballistic conductivity," a property where no electrons are dispersed or blocked. But, the problem with carbon nanotubes, as CNET reports, is that they're really tough to mass produce; once created, some act as great semiconductors, while others don't. So now, Intel has to figure out how to get carbon nanotubes to act more uniformly, or to separate the bad ones from the good. Thankfully, consumers won't have to worry about this problem for about another decade, which is why Intel has brainiacs working on a solution as we speak.

[Via Slashdot]

[JD @ Nov 13th 2006 8:37AM]

Just think, when this becomes mainstream, we will finally have the "TUBES" of the internet inplace.

[Jeffrey @ Nov 13th 2006 9:07AM]

There's a lot of interest in Carbon nanotube for the following:
1) Processors (CPU, Graphic, and other)
2) Memory (main, cache etc)
3) Mass Storage (hard drive replacement)

Carbon nano-tubes if successfull (lot of encouraging research) would enable a computer more powerful than today's to be shrunk down to a 1" square size (minus heatsink, case, connectors, and DVD drive of course)

It is hoped that the RAM in your computer will be replaced by non-volatile RAM. This will save considerable energy which also results in a much cooler computer. The lower resistance in carbon nano-tubes means not only a further increase in processing speeds at lower transistor sizes but also a reduction in heat at the same size. This combination could pave the lower for computers idling (aside from the screen) below 10 Watts! (It is not impossible that carbon nano-tube research may enhance OLED technology but that's not an emphasis. In theory, an OLED laptop screen should be able to require less than 1 Watt. Yep, I crunched the physics numbers myself based on the energy content of the photonic screen output and the future projected efficiency of the Organic LED's that make up the screen pixels.

Oh, and if a sub 10 Watt laptop doesn't get you excited about battery power, consider that there is hope (very preliminary) that carbon nano-tube research may also pave the way to a battery composed of millions of carbon nano-tube capacitors that charges quickly, is efficient and most importantly DOES NOT DEGRADE due to a lack of chemical interaction like normal batteries. Exciting stuff, huh? (Oh just plug my brain right into the NET know and get it over with.. )

[Jason @ Nov 13th 2006 9:13AM]

Any effort hat improves the cheap mass production of uniform nanotubes means an effort to develop the basic materials to build slew of imagined products, including the space elevator.

[Jeffrey @ Nov 13th 2006 9:19AM]

Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube

Make Wikipedia your default search tool in the upper right of your browser. It's awesome!

[Jeffrey @ Nov 13th 2006 9:25AM]

One more thing..
A little off topic, however the bad news is that carbon nano-tube technology is likely going to enable scientists to create insect-sized robots. The lightweight transistors and strong, light bodies and wings will make this possible.

For instance, a "bee" could be programmed with facial recognition software and destroy its human target with a lethal injection of swarms of "locusts" could destroy an entire army in minutes. It's scary, it's real and it's almost here. Many countries including North Korea and India (and Terrorist factions) are investigating low-cost robotic armies very, very seriously.

[zoara @ Nov 13th 2006 10:57AM]

I, for one, welcome our bee-like carbon-nanotube overlords.

[TK101 @ Nov 13th 2006 11:51AM]

Oh, Jeffrey! You crazy kid, you!

I hear that Kim Jong Il is looking to build armies of ninja turtles, as well.

TK

[Craig B. @ Nov 13th 2006 1:06PM]

While the possibility of robot armies is a truly frightening one, it's the same for any other new technology. Tech is really the only thing that ever changes, so I feel confident that good or bad, new tech makes the world a better place.

[IrishGandalf @ Nov 13th 2006 4:01PM]

I for one ....

[IrishGandalf @ Nov 13th 2006 4:02PM]

damit!

[Tim @ Nov 13th 2006 5:20PM]

For everyone's reading enjoyment:

From Technology Review (10/30/06)
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17672&z=303&p=1&ch=nanotech

This is about a recent breakthrough involving the ability to sort conducting vs non-conducting nanotubes. This may be future sooner than later.