As our current silicon-based transistors reach the smallest-possible sizes, scientists and engineers are forced look into using different technologies to continue to push computing power forward. In order to increase the speed of computers using silicon-based transistors, we need to shorten the gate lengths of those transistors to as short as possible, so that the frequency and physical speed of the signal running through the transistor can be sped up to as fast as possible.

As we approach gate lengths of around 16nm (half of the latest 32nm chip design), we run into physical limitations which prevent us from shortening them further. To solve this problem, scientists are looking at something called graphene. Graphene is a cheaply-produced sheet of carbon atoms that is only one atom thick. While the technology to fabricate these sheets has been around since 2004, and carbon nanotubes (created from sheets of graphene) have been used for many purposes already, we’ve never been able to use these sheets as transistors.

In recent years, however, scientists have been coming closer and closer to proving graphene to be a viable technology to use in computer chips; in 2007, a team of UK scientists unveiled the first graphene transistor. It was a transistor, but its capabilities at the time didn’t compare to those of their silicon counterparts.

Since then, more similar attempts have been made, but while these transistors were faster than the first, they still weren’t as cheap or effective as silicon ones. Just a few days ago, however, the playing field was shaken by none other than IBM.

Big Blue announced yesterday that they’ve finally run into the breakthrough they were looking for. They’ve fabricated a real graphene transistor capable of pushing though signals up to 100 GHz. This is a staggering 60 GHz faster than the cutoff we experienced with silicon transistors! Such a frequency is absolutely incredible – even amongst the most powerful of computers today, this type of technology is unheard-of.

A 100GHz CPU sounds mighty fine, but not compared with what they have in store for future models. The current model that Big Blue demoed yesterday has a gate length of 240nm – much higher than the current 32nm chips. Using similar processes and techniques that were used to achieve these tiny sizes in silicon transistors, IBM will next aim to bring their graphene transistors down to that size. Once they achieve that, the frequency cut-off of their graphene chips will skyrocket to nearly
1 THz (yes, that’s right – 1,000 GHz, or 1,000,000 MHz)!

This is probably one of the most exciting things I’ve heard in a long time – compared with this news, recent stories like the iPad seem almost trivial. As we neared the potential breaking point of Moore’s Law and the disappointment of millions of computer users, IBM saved the day. Incredible!

(Above photo courtesy of EE|Times)