http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/31/IBM-stores-data-on-an-atom_1.html
IBM stores data on an atom
As researchers look for ways to replace silicon in order to shrink
chips, IBM has been able to perform functions like switching and data
storage on atoms and molecules
By Ben Ames, IDG News Service
August 31, 2007
IBM has demonstrated how to perform certain computer functions on
single atoms and molecules, a discovery that could someday lead to
processors the size of a speck of dust, the company said Thursday.
Researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center in California developed
a technique for measuring magnetic anisotropy, a property of the
magnetic field that gives it the ability to maintain a particular
direction. Being able to measure magnetic anisotropy at the atomic
level is a crucial step toward the magnet representing the ones or
the zeroes used to store data in binary computer language.
In a second report, researchers at IBM's lab in Zurich, Switzerland,
said they had used an individual molecule as an electric switch that
could potentially replace the transistors used in modern chips. The
company published both research reports in Friday's edition of the
journal Science.
The new technologies are at least 10 years from being used for
components in commercial products, but the discoveries will allow
scientists to take a large step forward in their quest to replace
silicon, said IBM spokesman Matthew McMahon.
To build faster, smaller chips, IBM and other chip vendors like Intel
and AMD have shrunk the dimensions of chip features from 90
nanometers to 65nm in the current generation of chips and plan to
continue to 45nm and 32nm in coming years. The problem is that wires
built from silicon tend to leak more electricity at each step on that
scale and will eventually reach a limit where they are no longer useful.
"Across all our areas of nanotechnology research, we're trying to
determine the new kinds of materials we can use in computing when
silicon reaches its fundamental limits. The ultimate goal is
molecular-level computers, but the interim products will probably be
hybrids with current technology, using things like carbon nanotubes,"
McMahon said.
IBM defines nanotechnology as work done at a scale of 100nm or
smaller. At that scale, scientists must use a tool called the STM
(scanning tunneling microscope) to photograph and manipulate
individual atoms as they did in their latest research. Their next
challenge is to find a way to make these laboratory demonstrations
work at room temperature, he said.
Having measured the magnetic anisotropy of a single atom, "their next
step is finding atoms that can do it at stable temperatures that are
suitable for storage devices. If they can find that, it's still a
decade out from commercialization," he said.
The Zurich researchers also developed a technique for using a
molecule containing two hydrogen atoms as a switch, either on its own
or with an adjacent molecule. They are now looking to apply the
method to many other molecules, enabling the system to work as a
collection of logic gates, the building blocks of microprocessors.
Even if the teams reach those goals, they must find a way to
manufacture the systems on a large scale, instead of moving single
atoms with the STM. One possibility is to use the process of
self-assembly, where atoms under certain conditions will naturally
form the desired shapes. In May, IBM said it had used that approach
to insulate the wires on a chip by creating trillions of tiny,
vacuum-filled holes around each one.
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