Bangalore: Finally, the future of chip technology is here. Researchers at IBM has developed a carbon nanotube based technology to make chips that are more powerful, yet smaller and low power consuming than the presently available ones.

The scientists at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center in New York have made the invention by successfully placing and testing over 10,000 nanotube transistors on a single chip through standard semiconductor process. Carbon nanotubes are essentially, single atomic sheets of carbon rolled into tubes.

This breakthrough technology will allow the chip manufacturers to pack more transistors- the building blocks of technology- into smaller powerful chips, which could power our each and every digital device. The chip technology has, according to many, already reached its limits of physical size in nanoscales. And it is expected to slow down performance gains in the near future. But the scientists at IBM believe that carbon nanotube technology is the next thing going to power the idea of “lower power, lower cost and higher speed” chips of the future.  

IBM has earlier developed carbon nanotube transistors that works similar to silicon transistors, but with a five to ten times performance improvement. Scientists are still finding various ways to incorporate this into everything from chips to energy storages. Hence, it is going to take a while before the technology gets commercialized and reach our hands. 

Related: 7 Reasons Why Intel, The Chip Giant Is Headed For A Disaster