IBM builds circuit with carbon monoxide molecules

HOME/ SITEMAP
SUBJECT INDEXES

	App Development

	Broadband

	Business Intell.

	Business News

	Business Strategies

	Careers & Mgmt

	Collab. Software

	Content Mgmt

	CRM

	Database

	E-Business

	End-User Apps

	End-User Hardware

	Enterprise Apps

	Ethics

	Government

	Licensing

	Middleware

	Mobile Computing

	Networking

	Online Community

	Operating Systems

	Processors

	Security

	Servers

	Storage

	Telecomm.

	Web Services

	Web Technologies

	Wireless

	XSPs

NEWS

CTO ZONE

TEST CENTER

FEATURES

COMMUNITY

OPINIONS

INTERVIEWS

FORUMS

RESEARCH

EVENTS

WEBCASTS

ADVERTISE

ABOUT InfoWorld

Reprints

ABOUT US
	About InfoWorld

	Services

	Advertise

	Contact us

	Reprint

	Employment

WHITE PAPERS

	Learn to secure your PCs from new and unknown hacker attacks.


	Free IDC White Paper - Discover Secure File Sharing for the Enterpriseattacks.




	IBM builds circuit with carbon monoxide molecules By Caroline Humer October 25, 2002 4:04 pm PT
	NEW YORK (REUTERS) - International Business Machines Corp. scientists have built the tiniest computer circuit yet using individual molecules, a move they say advances their push toward smaller, faster electronics. IBM researchers at its Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, have built and operated a computer circuit in which individual molecules of carbon monoxide move like toppling dominoes across a flat copper surface. One circuit is so small that 190 billion could fit on a standard pencil-top eraser, IBM said. IBM has been working on molecular computing for years as it tries to find an alternative to silicon-based semiconductors in modern computers. Silicon has performed well over the past few decades, fulfilling a tenet from Intel Corp . founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip would double every 18 months. But scientists expect its physical properties to limit further advancements in the next 10 to 15 years. IBM said the new "molecule cascade" technique enabled it to make logic elements 260,000 times smaller than those used in silicon-based semiconductor chips. IBM is still years from translating the nanotechnology and quantum computing work it has done in research labs into a setting where such transistors could be manufactured and then used in products like cell phones and personal computers. "The exciting thing is not so much that we're not there yet. The exciting thing is where we've come from," said IBM fellow Don Eigler. "We've come from, in about 12 or 13 years, from discovering that we had an instrument that was just barely capable of imaging atoms and then moving atoms to function logical circuitry," he said. They are also smaller than the circuits that IBM has made in the laboratory out of carbon nanotubes, which are extremely strong because of the nature of the carbon bond, and which IBM considers to be a possible alternative to silicon. The molecule cascade circuits were made by creating a pattern of carbon monoxide molecules on a copper surface. IBM moved one molecule to start a one-directional cascade of molecules, similar to the way dominoes interact. IBM is publishing details of the advancement in Science Magazine. Copyright (c) 2000 Reuters Limited. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Reuters Limited. For additional information on other Reuters Services please visit the Reuters public web site - http://www.reuters.com.

IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer to run Linux

IBM working on advanced data integration, grid computing

IBM plans 64-bit PowerPC 970 processor

SUBSCRIBE TO:

// News // Article


	<A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.ifw.news/news;abr=!ie;pkey=processorsorcomponents;skey=enduserhardware;paud=cto;saud=cio;pos=imu;sz=336x280;tile=11;ord=295607241202?"><IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.ifw.news/news;abr=!ie;pkey=processorsorcomponents;skey=enduserhardware;paud=cto;saud=cio;pos=imu;sz=336x280;tile=11;ord=295607241202?" BORDER="0" HEIGHT="280" WIDTH="336"></A>

	ADVERTISEMENT
	SPONSORED LINKS Free trial: HP server management software! Learn how to receive a Cisco router valued at $3,500. Research and Compare IT Products FREE with Product Finder Free trial: HP server management software! "More news and information from AMD"

	<A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.ifw.news/news;abr=!ie;pkey=processorsorcomponents;skey=enduserhardware;paud=cto;saud=cio;pos=bot;sz=468x60;tile=4;ord=295607241202?"><IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.ifw.news/news;abr=!ie;pkey=processorsorcomponents;skey=enduserhardware;paud=cto;saud=cio;pos=bot;sz=468x60;tile=4;ord=295607241202?" BORDER="0" HEIGHT="60" WIDTH="468"></A>

ABOUT INFOWORLD | SITE MAP | EMPLOYMENT | PRIVACY | CONTACT US