Silicon Valley might be in risk. It might even lose its name a few years from now. Computers built entirely on Carbon Nanotubes are now possible. A group of researchers at Stanford made this possible, and have named this computer Cedric.
“People have been talking about a new era of carbon nanotube electronics moving beyond silicon, But there have been few demonstrations of complete digital systems using this exciting technology. Here is the proof.” said Subhasish Mitra, a professor at Stanford.
These Carbon Nanotube (CNT) computers are super small in size, faster and more efficient than the current silicon chip based computers. But this will be made possible in the longer run. The Cedric is just a basic prototype which shows that the computers can be made of CNT.
Cedric can count only upto 32 right now, but the efficiency and other capabilities can be improved in the months to come.
Technology has been growing up in a really fast pace in the past few decades, and we have come a long way from having computers which are room-sized to computers which we can carry around. Building computers which are of this size would change the way the industry would think about technology, and also prove that Silicon is not the only thing which would make computers work.
The team at Stanford are using a technique of burning CNTs that are not perfect enough using an algorithm which is super complex. The ultimate result is a computer with 178 transistors which is now capable of counting and storing numbers.
Talking about this new feat in technology, the co-author of the research paper, Max Shulaker says:
In human terms, Cedric can count on his hands and sort the alphabet. But he is, in the full sense of the word, a computer,
He also added that there’s no limit to this technology:
There is no limit to the tasks it can perform, given enough memory
So here we are with a good working proof that silicon is not the only material which can be used for computers. Though the current CNT made computer is close to Intel’s 4004 processor which came up early when technology was booming, in 1971, this is a huge step forward. May be, we are just a years away from using CNT made computers.