At the forefront of computing technology for decades, silicon-based chips’ reign may soon end, as today’s chip designers are looking for other materials that offer more options and more amazing abilities than the silicon we all know and love.
This new trend has spurred the guys at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop what could be the foundation for multi-role computer chips.
In a recent study, ORNL scientists looked at single crystal complex oxide materials at the very smallest levels. They discovered that that contained in just one piece of this material were multiple tiny regions that each responded to magnetic and electrical stimuli differently.
This is due to a feature called phase separation, and it means the individual regions within one piece of material can be controlled in multiple ways, similar to multi-component electrical circuits.
Within a single piece of material, there are coexisting pockets of different magnetic and/or electronic behaviors, said Zac Ward, the study’s corresponding author, in a statement.
The fact that it is possible to also move these elements around offers the intriguing opportunity of creating re-writable circuitry in the material.
This development means that designers can move away from the one-chip-fits-all approach. Instead of using chips that can perform only one function, we can create chips that are multi-functional.
It also paves the way for smaller chips since the material holds many circuit components at the nano-scale level.
This is but one of the new developments from ORNL that could revolutionize the chip industry. They are also working on a method to write tiny patterns on metallic ink, a miniature version of the printed circuit boards and chips we have today.
Futurism.com / ABC Flash Point News 2023.
The Chinese have invented the world,s fastest computer chip Quantum computer designed -one million times more powerful than Google,s Sycamore computer –check out the ShenWei processor also home designed and built because of sanctions from the USA on its Intel and others chips . That is from the USA tech.website= Defense One . It is no innovation that a CPU chip can perform many functions just look at a modern automobiles CPU chip –no what they are really saying is that it is re-writable– how is that achieved ??- by the same method your computer is updated -downloaded programming –now… Read more »