engineers at stanford build carbon nanotube computer

engineers at stanford build computer using carbon nanotube technology
image © norbert von der groeben

the miniaturization of electronic devices has been the principal driving force behind the semiconductor industry, and has brought about major improvements in computational power and energy efficiency. although advances with silicon-based electronics continue to be made, alternative technologies are being explored. digital circuits based on transistors fabricated from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have the potential to outperform silicon by improving the energy efficiency by more than an order of magnitude. in moving towards this new era high-speed processors, a team of engineers at stanford university have built the world’s first basic computer using the carbon nanotube technology.

‘people have been talking about a new era of carbon nanotube electronics moving beyond silicon,’ said mitra, an electrical engineer and computer scientist, and the chambers faculty scholar of engineering. ‘but there have been few demonstrations of complete digital systems using this exciting technology. here is the proof.’ in the future, these new generation of low-cost electronic devices will run faster, while using less energy, than traditional silicon chips. the CNT computer runs an operating system that is capable of multitasking such as perform counting and integer-sorting simultaneously.

image © norbert von der groeben