In 2014, Intel celebrated the launch of the first processor that produced nearly 6,000 times smaller transistors than a single hairline, yet this was far too long to be feasible. make transistors at the molecular level.
On June 17, 2016, a team of researchers at Peking University could show that the dream was as close to reality as we thought, and as the race for small hardware develops, we can also imagine what This will mean for us users, and the challenges that manufacturers will face to make this technology a reality.
Hardware large size
Whenever we think of a molecule, we think of something very small, several to be seen only by a special group. The problem is that, unlike atoms, molecules do not always have a microscopic size. When someone talks about a transistor made of a single molecule, the first thing we have to ask ourselves is: what kind of molecules are we talking about?
And that the molecular chain can be huge. Polymers such as DNA inside every cell in our body can measure between 1.5 and 3 meters when fully stretched, and are still a molecule. Usually we use terms like water molecules as a point of magnitude, and these are approximate 0.275 nanometers thick. Existing material, either DNA or H2O molecules can properly incorporate the appropriate size representation of the PC processor transistors.
Going back to the Peking University research we mentioned earlier, we know that they have been able to make transistors using graphene electrodes (a arrangement of carbon-atom molecules) and the methylene groups between them. Not to mention how big these transistors are, but if we look at how small a group of graphene and methylene are, we can get an idea of how its size can be close to that water molecule.
Size is not everything when it comes to transistors
Although the most important idea in this technology is to be able to fit multiple transistors in the smallest possible space, reducing the size of these transistors is not the only thing that can be done to achieve this. In addition to making a high-quality transistor with a much higher life expectancy (at least a year) than their predecessor (a few hours), researchers in Beijing have also made another breakthrough.
If the transistors are currently capable of interacting with moving electrons, what they have found is that these transistors are molecules that can interact with each other moving pictures in turn. Photons travel much faster than electromagnetic waves (100 times faster, directly), which means we can extract more transistors in smaller spaces and give each of them the same speed that Gordon Moore himself was able to get. to dream.
So we're talking that we will not only treat smaller transistors as a water molecule, but they will also be able to communicate 100 times faster than today. If we could translate this into a desktop processor as we know it so far, that would mean that we would have a CPU of the same size but at a much lower cost and up to 100 times better performance.
So why don't we have cellular hardware?
The problem that researchers have encountered with this technology is the same thing that happens whenever we interact with atomic or molecular elements: unstable. For example, electromagnetic fields have a strong tendency to cause the formation of metal atoms and other behaviors to change slightly. Such a change can be interpreted as a symbol (it and the zeros of the binary system for example), but these microscopic "characters" are also it can cause transistors to malfunction.
In the meantime, they managed to create a transistor (which is not a modified thing, remember) that can be turned on and off about a hundred times before "dying," and lasting for about a year. Or this is a very good achievement compared to what we have right now, as you would think it is not a utility, especially when transistors turn on and off millions of times.
The first real challenge before us, then, to isolate the microelectric environment as it may be work more than ten times, at least.
But even if they were finally able to build an efficient and long-lasting transistor, we would still be faced the second challenge: very productive. For the foreseeable future, ICs are a gold standard for internal hardware communication, and making this system work with near-cell systems is impossible.
In other words, the third challenge it will be to synchronize the rest of the Hardware so that it can work in conjunction with a processor with molecular transistors.
The future of this technology
The effort to make molecular hardware is very enticing and promises some improvements that can bring it to humanity (and we're talking more than just a desktop PC processor).
If manufacturers are able to overcome such obstacles as requiring cryogenic temperatures to read data, bridge the communication gap between molecules and current electromagnetic circuits, and somehow make their lifespan more efficient, we may be in a position of real change. that technology he will change the world as we know it.
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