Awesome new material gives processor potential.
Current processors work by manipulating the movement of electrons, shuffling them around through transistors and gates to allow complex calculations to be worked on and powering a significant chunk of our modern world.
It stands to reason then that if a material were discovered that allows significantly increased control over those same electrons, then the computing scene would change also to allow different uses for the new stuff.
This new stuff is called Bismuth Telluride, a semiconductor similar to silicon in some properties but is much improved in a very important one - it can withstand significantly higher temperatures without leading to electron migration.
The reason the electrons are so well behaved in BT is thanks to their quantum spin aligning with the direction of the electrons themselves, a phenomenon referred to as the Hall effect.
What this might mean in the future for our beloved processors is a higher heat tolerance, as well as the ability to squeeze the manufacturing process down without the same problems that silicon currently offers.
Both TFOT and ScienceDaily have indepth articles about this material, something that hopefully will bring improvements for everyone!
Issue: 111 | April, 2010