1. Solutions to Moore’s law and more
Nanotech in Computing
Solutions to Moore’s law and more

2. Processors are getting hotter and hotter, and in a few years, if we keep using the same techniques we’ve been using, they’ll get so hot that they’ll literally melt.
As we keep shrinking the components inside processors, we can’t keep up because we’re getting to a point where electricity won’t even travel through the silicon anymore.

3. Die Sizes 90 nm 130 nm 180 nm Processors are getting hotter and hotter
As we keep shrinking the components inside processors, we can’t keep up because we’re hitting some fundamental limits. The wavelength of the light used in the etching process is getting too small to be feasible.
Also, you can say Intel is already using nanotech because their newer processors such as Prescott are already made with a 90 nanometer degree of precision.

4. The Future
However, all the chip companies need to keep shrinking die sizes in order to keep costs low and performance high.
Intel Research Division has a Strategic Research Project for Carbon Nanotubes that consists of 10 engineers currently working on designing a processor made out of carbon nanotubes. For now, they want to use nanotubes to conduct heat away from the processor more efficiently that traditional heatsinks can.
But they’re also looking towards using carbon nanotubes instead of silicon for processors. They expect that in 2011, they’ll start using combinations of silicon and nanotech on a chip, such as silicon for processing and nanotech for cache.
However, this shows that Intel is serious about nanotech because they only start developing stuff themselves when they think it’s gonna happen soon. For all other research, they use universities.

5. 18 nm
Infineon , single wall carbon nanotube transistor. The width of the transistor is just 18 nanometers, compared with 90 nanometers in traditional processors today.
Extremely efficient because carry electrical current virtually without friction on their surface by “bouncing” the electrons down.
10 days ago, NIST demonstrated a working silicon nanowire transistor that simplified the design even more. There aren’t any details on it yet though.
A French team last year created a nano transistor that reached a speed of a terahertz, which is 1000 gigahertz, which would be really good for gaming.

6. Putting Nanotech into Production
PowerPC for Power Mac G5 – 90 nm
Cell for PS3 – 65 nm
HP and IBM are looking towards how to start making full chips based on nanotechnology, which consist of millions of transistors, and not just one or two proof of concept transistors.
Even back in 2001, IBM already had a process for making tons of nanotube transistors. They would produce a whole batch of them on a wafer by vapor deposition, and then destroy all the bad ones by telling all the good nanotubes to switch off, and then sending a destructive current through the entire set, instead of building good ones one by one like in research laboratories.

7. Cross-Bar Latch Transistor
HP takes the approach of using parallel nanowires crossed by other nanowires, creating a grid of switches. And since transistors can be formed with multiple switches, a very large grid can product a working processor. Also, the process is extremely small and efficient because the latches are only a few nanometers apart.
HP is trying to increase yields by making extra sets so it doesn’t matter when multiple switches fail; others will take over. They say the technology is about 6 to 10 years away from full production.
Cross-Bar Latch Transistor

8. We should start seeing processors with nanotechnology in 2010 to 2015, but silicon will continue to be used for a few decades either in conjuntion with or supporting nanotech.

9. Bibliography Science Magazine
Enhanced: Toward Nanocomputers Science, Vol 294, Issue 5545, , 9 November 2001
InfoTrac
Infineon reports on smallest transistor. R & D, Dec 2004 v46 i12 p13(1)
French team demonstrates terahertz transistor. IEEE Spectrum, May 2004 v41 i5 p16(1)
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