Here’s a new sign that the average computer may be getting smaller — and more powerful:
Hewlett-Packard Co. researchers will introduce groundbreaking nanotechnology
today that could replace traditional transistors on computer chips with tiny,
molecular structures — a development that could make smaller, more powerful
machines possible.The work is part of the $213 billion semiconductor industry’s mad dash to
find new ways of miniaturizing computer chips and overcoming the physical
limitations on how small transistors can be shrunk.The industry is constantly trying to build smaller devices with more
computing power. The current boom in miniature music players and cell phones
with multiple capabilities are examples of smaller chips making handheld devices
more useful and marketable. The promise of even-smaller chips holds similar
business opportunities for Silicon Valley and beyond.Stanley Williams, director of HP Labs’ Quantum Science Research in Palo Alto,
said Monday he believed the traditional way of making chips by squeezing more
transistors on a piece of silicon will hit an insurmountable wall by 2011 or
2012."We know that the (current semiconductor technology) will come to an end, "
he said. "What this provides is an opportunity for the functionality of the
electronics to get much better after (chips) run into that roadblock."Even if the breakthrough is adopted by the chip industry, experts don’t
expect it to be market-ready for at least another seven years.HP, the venerable Silicon Valley giant, is not alone in its quest to build a
smaller mousetrap, so to speak. Other high-tech behemoths, such as Intel Corp.
and IBM, also are looking at ways to build chips using new materials and
manufacturing processes.
What this means is: a)your computer will not be outmoded immediately (although by the time you buy a new computer it is basically outmoded already), b)the computer as we know it — particularly the big desktop computer — will within decades be as outmoded to computers as a crank-powered Victrola is to a CD player.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.