Graphene one step closer to spanking Silicon

[Sporkman]

Graphene Transistors that Work at Blistering Speeds

IBM shows graphene transistors could one day replace silicon.

By Katherine Bourzac
Friday, February 05, 2010

IBM has created graphene transistors that leave silicon ones in the dust. The prototype devices, made from atom-thick sheets of carbon, operate at 100 gigahertz--meaning they can switch on and off 100 billion times each second, about 10 times as fast as the speediest silicon transistors....

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/24482/?a=f

[thatguruguy]

The key to increasing speed to date has been making smaller and smaller transistors. Right now, I think that the silicon wafers used in CPUs are 5 atoms wide. If we get graphene transistor which are one atom wide, where do we go from there?

At some point, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle kicks in, and we just can't get any smaller.

[Cuddles McKitten]

At some point, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle kicks in, and we just can't get any smaller.

That's when you have to use a completely different mechanism, like going from a horse and buggy to a car. Probably quantum computing will be this advance.

[BuffaloX]

Maybe smaller atoms. :p

[MadCow108]

The key to increasing speed to date has been making smaller and smaller transistors. Right now, I think that the silicon wafers used in CPUs are 5 atoms wide. If we get graphene transistor which are one atom wide, where do we go from there?

At some point, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle kicks in, and we just can't get any smaller.

it already kicks in since quite a while.
thats why chips don't get any faster anymore.
Performance growth nowadays comes mainly from adding multiple chips to a core or architecture advances and not from making the chips them self faster.

as to graphene, the article seems a bit overoptimistic.
even if it is already past the fundamental research stage (which I doubt) it will still take decades to actually develop and implement a mass production system. Silicon wafer size changes already only happen every decade or so and costs the GDP of Czechoslovakia in summation.

[Psumi]

Great, in 4 years when I buy or look for a new computer... I'll be out of luck especially when these things come out. :(

Thank you IBM.