The possibility of Carbon based computing.

Researchers create a Carbon based transistor that may eventually replace Silicon.

It's obvious that our current Silicon semiconductors work, otherwise you wouldn't have your computer to read this news story right now. But there is a limitation to the size of Silicon transistors. Currently, a number of manufacturers are moving from their 85 nanometer process down to a 65 nanometer process. The current record is 45 nanometers in the lab, with the physical limitation for Silicon transistors being around the 30 nanometer range. At that range aspects of voltage leakage and production accuracy issues come into play. So don't expect 25 nanometer chips anytime soon.

But back to the announcement.

Researchers from Britain's University of Manchester have created prototype transistors from Graphene, a form of Carbon that is just a single atom thick. Though they did first create this Graphene material two years ago, there were some initial difficulties with replicating the switching action of traditional Silicon transistors in this new Graphene material. But science does prevail and they have developed the first (hopefully of many) Graphene transistors that will switch like their Silicon counterparts.

The real benefit of Graphene is that unlike Silicon, Graphene will remain perfectly stable in strips that are only a few nanometers wide, like at 12 nanometers or less. We could never hit a stable 12 nanometers with Silicon, even if we really, really tried. But with Graphene the prospect for further miniaturization is realized. I for one would like an Octa-Core processor. So it may be that future electronic circuits may be carved from sheets of Graphene rather than Silicon.

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/6559-the-possibility-of-carbon-based-computing/