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Nanotube Computing Breakthrough

technologyreview.com — A method for sorting nanotubes by electronic properties could make widespread nanotube-based electronics a reality.

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  • hotbeefman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9so nanotubes are like next gen wires. I wonder if you make nanoLEDs they could be invisible/seethrough when not in use. Then imagine a body suit covered in a fabric covered with that. Invisibility could be possible if there are nanoCCDs too.
    • mousy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+31The computer is a series of tubes!
    • vp0ng, on 10/12/2007, -10/+5Tubular dude... :P
    • NanoStuff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I just hope they don't begin producing network wiring out of nanotubes. Boy will our faces be red when that happens.
    • lorensingley, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Maybe one day we could have a laptop the size of a ring like Will Ferrel in SNL. "It's Chloe, she sent me an e-mail."
    • Darkness123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If that does happen, I wonder how long before it becomes socially acceptable for 1 to be in a see-thru suit.
    • austindkelly, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1@lorensingley

      LOL, I love that skit!

      " Pack your bags were going to Mylan "
    • CasualNinja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i keep hearing about all these new nanotech breakthroughs but I still don't have my damn flying car!
  • lebe0024, on 10/12/2007, -23/+8THIS JUST IN:
    Scientists announce yet another breakthrough discovery which will not actually result in any new technology, ever.
    • vp0ng, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8FTA: The advance could speed progress toward nanotube computers and has many nearer-term applications, including high-definition displays, devices for nanotoxicity testing, and solar cells.
    • kingcam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Actually Lebe0024, Carbon Nanotubes are the leading candidates to replace the silicon transistors used in today's computers once Moore's Law is no longer in effect; which is to say that we can't make our transistors any smaller. This breakthrough confirms that Nanotubes are feasible to manufacture. So basically this is a considerable development in terms of technological development.
    • teksimian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Just like maybe oh, I don't know, the transistor?

      http://tinyurl.com/ynb4ct
    • tasadar24, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Kingcam, I suggest you check into the law of accelerating returns. Moore's law is little more then a comment spoken in the 60's about the pace of computing growth, but the original law and even the remake do not stand up very well anymore, and don't encompass the full extent of the truth.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Accelerating_Returns
    • revenge7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@Tasadar

      Let's just pretend Kurzweil is right, and in 40 years people will live to 1000.
    • vertinox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@revenge7

      No. In 40 years people will live to be Average age now + 40 years. Unless of course you happen to live to a thousand by 3006 and then travel back in time to 2046 with a time machine and run around saying "Look at me! I'm 1,000 years old!"

      Suffice to say... Barring a time machine or hidden vampires... No one will be 1,000 years old by 2046.
    • TheWedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@kingcam:

      Bah, forget this carbon nanotube stuff. When you grow them, they basically grow like big piles of spaghetti and they're not very feasible for manufacturing purposes. The NEMS (Nano Electromechanical Systems) technology has to catch up such that there can be tiny on chip factories to put these in place. Even then, I doubt carbon nanotubes could ever operate as fast as light, hence photonics is the best candidate for the future of computing. I'm slightly biased though because I'm working on a PhD in photonics, but I still believe in it.
  • CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -8/+5you hear of a nanotech "BREAKTHROUGH" everyday

    wake me when they can inject me with little robots to repair my cells.
    • NanoStuff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7It takes a lot of breakthroughs to create something that's commercially viable.
    • eplawless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Don't do it! It's a trap! They'll lose control of the machines and you'll be destroyed from the inside!
    • lorensingley, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@NanoStuff

      like pet rock?
    • zhuk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Rip? is that you? Winkle?

      Ol' buddy!!!
    • rationalist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"wake me when they can inject me with little robots to repair my cells."

      Wait.
      .
      .
      .
      You don't have those yet?
  • uttles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6OMG nanotubes? How many internets can someone send you through those?
  • tomakun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Perhaps this will help Field Emission Displays come to the consumer market.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_emission_display

    These give you all the advantages of a CRT but they are flat like an LCD. They use quantum tunneling instead of thermionic emission to emit electrons into a vacuum. With a single carbon nanotube emitter for each pixel you don't need any magnetic beam steering.
  • Traedortious, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Nanotubes are the future. They have so many great properties and once the manufacturing process gets better, they'll be very cheap to create. They'll be used for all kinds of things: circuits, power lines, maybe even space tethers.
  • ChileanGoD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So transistors are going to get "perpendicular" now?
  • Almadiel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The theoretical limits of nanotube based computer processing power are rediculously high. And the theoretical heat emissions are rediculously low. This kind of technology will completely transform computing in a way that hasn't been seen since the introduction of the integrated circuit. The near future should be very interesting indeed.
  • cthellis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Are embryos or literal interpretations of the Bible involved? No?

    Then there's hope for this one!
  • argstupidputer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Isnt it amazing that the newest news gets onto the Blogsphere first instead of the news sites?
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