Max Shulaker, a graduate student on the Stanford University team that developed the first carbon nanotube computer, discusses the capabilities of the device. For the first time, researchers have built a computer whose central processor is based entirely on carbon nanotubes, a form of carbon with remarkable material and electronic properties. The computer is slow and simple, but its creators, a group of Stanford University engineers, say it shows that carbon nanotube electronics are a viable potential replacement for silicon when it reaches its limits in ever-smaller electronic circuits.
The carbon nanotube processor is comparable in capabilities to the Intel 4004, that companies first microprocessor, which was released in 1971, says Subhasish Mitra, an electrical engineer at Stanford and one of the projects co-leaders. The computer, described today in the journal Nature, runs a simple software instruction set called MIPS. It can switch between multiple tasks counting and sorting numbers and keep track of them, and it can fetch data from and send it back to external memory. The nanotube processor is made up of 178 transistors, each of which contains carbon nanotubes that are about 10 to 200 nanometer long. The Stanford group says it has made six versions of carbon nanotube computers, including one that can be connected to external hardware numerical keypad that can be used to input numbers for addition.
We are well aware that silicon is running out of steam, and within 10 years it is coming to its end, says Zhirnov. If carbon nanotubes are going to become practical, it has to happen quickly.
The carbon nanotube processor is comparable in capabilities to the Intel 4004, that companies first microprocessor, which was released in 1971, says Subhasish Mitra, an electrical engineer at Stanford and one of the projects co-leaders. The computer, described today in the journal Nature, runs a simple software instruction set called MIPS. It can switch between multiple tasks counting and sorting numbers and keep track of them, and it can fetch data from and send it back to external memory. The nanotube processor is made up of 178 transistors, each of which contains carbon nanotubes that are about 10 to 200 nanometer long. The Stanford group says it has made six versions of carbon nanotube computers, including one that can be connected to external hardware numerical keypad that can be used to input numbers for addition.
We are well aware that silicon is running out of steam, and within 10 years it is coming to its end, says Zhirnov. If carbon nanotubes are going to become practical, it has to happen quickly.
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