Towards a million times faster computers?

Like The new atlas illustrates it, “Logic Gates” are the building blocks of modern electronics. By applying a set of rules to the entries they receive, Enable logic functions In terms of everything else; For example, their high concentration within microprocessors gives them enormous speed and computing power.

Admittedly, current logic codes are fast: it only takes a few nanoseconds to complete a task before moving on to the next one. But what if you could make them a million times faster?

This thing sounds like a science fiction fantasy, and it’s still a matter of laboratory wonder, not commercial use. But it is possible by scientists University of RochesterIn the United States.

To do this, and explained In an article published in NatureThey made junctions with a cable Graphene Connected to two gold electrodes. Graben was then subjected to two synchronized pulsating rays, which “excited” its electrons and directed them towards one of the electrodes, generating electricity.

Light speed

The adjustment of the pulses of the lasers made it possible to create two types Charging carriers Is different, thus making their installation a high-speed logic gate, which is the first functional source for what the theory calls it. “Lightwave Electronics”Light wave electronics.

The result? The logic gate currently designed has been reduced to a few nanoseconds At the femtosecond levelOr a fraction of a millionth of a second.

In theory, by imagining processors with many of these revolutionary circuits, a computer could perform its basic calculations millions of times faster than today’s machines.

“It may take a long time to apply this technique to a computer processor, but we now know that light-wave electronics are possible in practice.”Tobias Poolaki, the head of the team responsible for the invention, said.