Nanoscale Magnetic Processors

Gorgeous Si writes "Researchers in the University of Durham Nanoscale Magnetics Group are working on magnetic microchips. These new chips "could be 40,000x better than conventional chips while using 1,000,000 times less energy." I assume this actually means 40,000 times denser than conventional methods allow. Also worth lookig at for the pretty pictures. "

40,000 times denser?

[Lebannen]

Not sure it does mean 40,000x denser, as the few bits of information I could find on that site talk about a 100nm wire, or 0.1 micron process. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't current chips use 0.13 micron processes, going down to 0.09 or 90nm soon? And if so, I can't see it being 40k times denser.

On the other hand, I'm very impressed by the fact you can have wires to carry magnetic domain walls. Hate to think how sensitive it would be to outside interference such as speakers, but hey... that's what shielding is for...

Re:40,000 times denser?

[dmatos]

Well, not exactly. You see, transistor lengths are now on the order of 0.1um. However, they also mention that the wires are 0.1um thick. Note that the wires on any silicon process often have to be wider than the polysilicon gates, so there is a size improvement here.

However, with no information other than the pics on the website...

They have two wires coming together in a junction, which they claim performs a logic operation (probably an OR, but I'm just guessing). In a CMOS process, this would take no less than four transistors, and here it takes a wire junction. This looks like it could be the biggest space saver of the technology.

Re:40,000 times denser?

[Alsee]

Hate to think how sensitive it would be to outside interference such as speakers, but hey... that's what shielding is for...

If they start to penetrate the shielding just try rotating the shield harmonics. As a last resort you can reroute power from life support.

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Need to work on thier spelling...

[Eagle7]

Sure, they can put the entire Encyclopedia Britanica on the head of a pin, but you won't understand a damned thing [dur.ac.uk].

Suppassing? Magnetical? Sphepes? WTF are they talking about?

Not to nitpick, but...

[blues5150]

don't you think people this smart would be able to etch/spell "surpassing" correctly? I guess they don't have a spell-checker for this nano-technology sutff yet.

Re:Not to nitpick, but...

[uradu]

It seems their rendering of the letter R is weak, since SPHERES also contains a P instead of an R, and in both of those instances that P seems to have a small imperfection where the diagonal line of the R would join the arc.

Any info on speed?

[Omkar]

The uses of this technology will probably depend on seek time. Could 40000x better possibly refer to speed as well as density?

ARRRRRGGGH!

[CounterZer0]

Insidious, highly annoying page transistions! Nooooooo!

Units

[Catskul]

What are the Units on Better? Or is it one of those unitless measures like radians ?

1,000,000 times less energy sounds great, but...

[Peter Trepan]

...where will I find a .00011 volt outlet?

Re:1,000,000 times less energy sounds great, but..

[Varkoth]

Oh, my house only has those. Never needed any more energy, ya know. them 0.0011 outlets can handle ANYTHING. except my toaster. My toaster is one energy sucker. Low efficiency also. It takes about five minutes to lightly brown a single slice. I think i should operate on a 0.0015 volt outlet for that one.

Re:1,000,000 times less energy sounds great, but..

[CanadaDave]

Just in case you didn't know...

You can get 1,000,000 times less energy consumpmtion by lower current or voltage, since power = V*I.

I wasn't sure if you were being funny AND didn't know that...

Re:1,000,000 times less energy sounds great, but..

[jellyfius]

You take a 9V battery and stick a load of resistors across it! :p