

Graphene magnetologic gates could replace silicon transistor logic - ukdm
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/98801-spin-based-graphene-magnetologic-gates-could-replace-silicon-transistor-logic

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jpdoctor
Replacing "silicon transistor logic" is no longer about physics and material
science, it is about economy of scale.

And silicon is going to be pretty damn hard to beat for many decades to come.
Just ask the GaAs guys.

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mkeblx
I've seen variants of this article a number of times. Is it really many
decades from here already getting below 20nm feature sizes with Si?

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hugh3
The ongoing miniaturization of silicon technology has to end _fairly_ soon, as
the atomic scale is approaching rapidly. The 11nm node is scheduled for 2015.
The silicon-silicon bond length is 0.235 nm. There's no longer plenty of room
at the bottom.

The question is whether, when silicon runs out, something else can take over,
or whether we just put our hands up and say "OK, that's it, that's about as
fast as our computers are ever gonna get".

There's the possibility that alternative technologies will exist but that
they'll be much more expensive. So consumer electronics will be based on
silicon, and outrageously expensive supercomputers will use graphene or
diamond or any one of a number of currently speculative technologies. So far,
though, none of 'em is even close to being able to compete with silicon for
_any_ price.

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Tuna-Fish
> So consumer electronics will be based on silicon, and outrageously expensive
> supercomputers will use graphene or diamond or any one of a number of
> currently speculative technologies.

Outrageously expensive supercomputers are massively parallel. For massively
parallel loads, the fastest chips are the cheapest chips. If the new stuff
cannot break into consumer space, there is no market for it above consumer
space.

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Cushman
Presuming there will never be a market for a very fast, very small computer is
making a lot of assumptions about, for example, space travel.

