Magnetic fields could make computers 500 times faster
Magnetic fields created using nanotechnology
could make computers up to 500 times more powerful if new research is
successful.
Magnetic fields created using nanotechnology could make computers up to 500 times more powerful if new research is successful.
The University of Bath, England, is to lead an international £555,000 three-year project to develop a system which could cut out the need for wiring to carry electric currents in silicon chips.
The research project, which involves four universities in the UK and a university and research centre in Belgium and France, will look at ways of producing microwave energy on a small scale by firing electrons into magnetic fields produced in semi-conductors that are only a few atoms wide and are layered with magnets.
The process, called inverse electron spin resonance, uses the magnetic field to deflect electrons and to modify their magnetic direction. This creates oscillations of the electrons which makes them produce microwave energy. This can then be used to broadcast electric signals in free space without the weakening caused by wires.
Project Director, Alain Nogaret, says, “We can only go so far in getting more power from silicon chips by shrinking their components – conventional technology is already reaching the physical limits of materials it uses, such as copper wiring, and its evolution will come to a halt.
“But if this research is successful, it could make computers with wireless semi-conductors a possibility within five or ten years of the end of the project. Then computers could be made anything from 200 to 500 times quicker and still be the same size.
Anything that makes the critter faster — for the same buck — is OK by me. Certainly, it takes time and design to ramp something like this up to production — if and when the research proves out. I imagine there will be a few folks bidding to get in on the ground floor.
Plus -- wandering through Nogaret's home page -- you note the only other photo he posts is one of Pablo Casals. This dude is my kind of scientist.
Posted: Sun - June 25, 2006 at 07:08 AM