CHAPTER 2 Inside the Computer
Nanotechnology
The federal government is embracing the concept of nanotechnology. The plan is to accelerate research in this area, which involves the design and fabrication ultramicroscopic devices. The science and engineering community is pointing to nanotechnology as an area of research that has the potential to yield tremendous commercial results. For example, consider the possibility of reducing the contents of the Library of Congress into a device the size of a sugar cube. Nanotechnology could produce extremely light materials 10 times as strong as steel. The potential exists to produce microprocessors that are millions of times faster than state-of-the-art chips. This is done by conceptualizing building materials from the ground up, that is, from atoms and molecules. In a nutshell, nanotechnology is defined as the ability to manipulate and move matter.
Breakthrough in Processor Technology?
IBM Microelectronics researchers now claim to have a technology with the potential to put many billions of transistors on a single chip. Today's state-of-the-art chips feature approximately 30 million transistors. This technology would allow the manufacture of much smaller components, possibly atomic sized. The technology will enable the presentation of an image with 10 million pixels in a 0.25 mm by 0.25 mm field. Compare this to the 200,000 pixels presented on large screen TVs. The effort is a joint effort between IBM Microelectronics and Nikon.