US scientists at the University of Rochester are working on a new kind of transistor that could be massively more powerful than today's designs.
Known as the "ballistic deflection transistor" (BDT), the device uses individual electrons that are fired through a polarised gate towards a wedge-shaped block. The electric field applied across the gate pulls each electron towards one side or the other of the channel, such that it bounces off the wedge and flies either left or right. Left means the electron is recorded as a 0, and right would record it as a 1.
You can see a diagram of the mechanism here.
The university has been awarded $1.1m (£580,000) by America's National Science Federation to fund further work on the BDT.Today's commercial transistors typically involve the flow of large numbers of electrons within silicon and their statistically significant changes when electric charges are applied. Because the ballistic method only involves a single electron, each transistor should take up much less space and be much faster to operate.
The Rochester team have suggested that a processor made up of BDTs could operate at terahertz speeds, around a thousand times faster than today's desktop computers, according to Physorg.com.
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in
Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below
By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Membership FAQ
the future of mobile will be location and context aware. This means, you will have apps that will suggest you depending where you are right...
13 minutes ago by sameerhere on Symbian^3 will do resistive multitouch, says Nokia hello i would like to have some form of a answer to this question as it concerns the goverment i want to know why if your on state benefits as a...
29 minutes ago by kenye2009 on ITN to launch ITV online news service love the LHC info. Keep up the good work. May God bless all in volved.
7 hours ago by georgiox on LHC to run for longest continuous period You are quite right. HDS has not been marketing their products well. USPV is miles ahead in terms of ease of use and technology on enterprise...
11 hours ago by sgardia on Will the SUN set on Hitachi Data Systems OEM relationship?
Fedora is the same way as well. The yum update system uses "presto" which shrinks the amount of data needed for download. It's a great system....
22 hours ago by apexwm on Can you believe it - 2765 kB will be freed?
Updated ID cards considered for 2012: [zdnet.co.uk] The government is considering introducing a new generation of ID... http://dlvr.it/KpBZ
23 hours ago on Twitter by cybfor Google, Viacom trade blows in YouTube copyright spat: [zdnet.co.uk] Google and the US media giant Viacom have issued... http://dlvr.it/Knht
24 hours ago on Twitter by cybfor Be sure to include an audio option - eg. a beep tone - to intensify and reiterate the action. This will greatly benefit some consumers and give...
1 day ago by CIMITL Data disposal is really important to get right. There are standards set by UK and US federal governments to ensure that data is kept secure. If...
1 day ago by DataSecurityUK Online Fiber Optic Certification Join a talented group of professionals, who are dedicated to Fiber Optic Networking technology. The online course...
1 day ago by chaycon1 on BT launches 40Mbps fibre-based broadband Online Fiber Optic Certification Join a talented group of professionals, who are dedicated to Fiber Optic Networking technology. The online course...
1 day ago by chaycon1 on Google to build gigabit broadband to the home
Hi Dava, I'm glad to hear from you, and glad that you see things from the other side. I think that is the most important point of the whole...
1 day ago by J.A. Watson on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest
please please please please please please kill that spam bot.
1 day ago by dava4444 on ZDNet UK: faster, smarter, still IT all the way it didn't post the link it's 'Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta-1 First Look' on youtube :) Dava
1 day ago by dava4444 on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest Hi James I disagree, Ubuntu needs a GUI update and this one IMO is quite good. your pics show a low res. here's a high res. on YouTube* The...
1 day ago by dava4444 on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest Hi any news on the comment bot? knocking me back from my own blog is a bit cheeky lol *Mulder to Scully* "I think it has an agenda.." I know, I...
1 day ago by dava4444 on ZDNet UK: faster, smarter, still IT all the way if you look at the Brentwood exchange on samknows it servers 21,000 residential propertiesm, Lowestoft serves 31,000! Come on BT sort yourselves...
1 day ago by benny boy on BT fibre broadband coming to 69 more towns
[programming] H.264 - a sting in the tail http://reddit.com/bfu4q [zdnet.co.uk]
1 day ago on Twitter by pbredditFor multi-store outlets, including retail, banking, grocery, gas, hospitality, convenience stores and others, reducing (or avoiding) the cost of in-store system support and maintenance while maintaining compliance with PCI and other requirements has become a strategic challenge.
Speaker: Dr. Chenxi Wang, Principal Analyst, Security and Risk Management, Forrester Research, Inc. As Enterprises are increasingly connected to the Internet and as hard organizational boundaries are fast disappearing, security professionals are facing fresh challenges in Enterprise computing.
This tutorial is for new MindManager users and teaches you how to get started, by creating maps, reading maps and organizing your information.
Talkback
So if these things are mounted sideways, does this mean you'd need to take gravity into account. Tip your laptop to the left it runs fine. Tip it to the right and windows crashes. No wait - that's what we have now...
18 Aug 06 11:39 Reply