IBM Builds Tiny Transistor That Beats Silicon
Reuters | at | by Mike
International Business Machines Corp., the world's largest computer maker, said on Monday it has built a transistor that outperforms today's top silicon-based semiconductors and may be the key to smaller, faster computers. Armonk, New York-based IBM said it used a carbon nanotube -- a tiny cylindrical structure made up of carbon atoms that is about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair -- to make a transistor similar to today's silicon-based electronic switches, or transistors. The carbon nanotube transistor outperformed the fastest silicon transistor, IBM said, giving the company's research division confidence that commercial microchips could one day be made out of carbon nanotube transistors.