We are reminded pretty much every day of the fact that silicon based transistors are starting to reach its limits. Transistors have been shrinking constantly and within a not too distant future we will reach the ultimate limit for how small you can actually make them.
Already today power consumption and leakage is something all chip manufacturerers have to try to overcome.
Almost the first thing you think of when hearing about these problems are Intel and their processor core Prescott, which is renowned as the market most power consuming chip.
Therefor it’s not surprise Intel is working hard on finding a replacement for today’s silicon based transistors and together with the euopean company Qinetiq they seem to have made quite some progress.
There cooperation has namely resulted in a transistor that is several times more efficient that today’s silicon based version.
“The companies said that the experimental transistors could run on one-tenth the power of current transistors and provide the same performance–or provide three times the performance using the same energy consumption.”
The new transistor looks like a very interesting alternative and the question is really only when we will see Intel’s new invention.
The fact that it’s going to within the near future seems like fairly obvious.
Source: ZDNet
