There is nothing quite like the need for speed – you see it in exotic supercars, and so too, are there land and air speed records to be broken. Well, wanting to go as fast as humanly possible – or within the realm of physics, is nothing new either in the world of computing, which is why we have seen the number of cores added to chipsets over the years in addition to a constant increase in clock speed, too. Well, existing silicone chips might just end up as dinosaurs – as researchers have successfully come up with the very first sheet of single-atom thick silicene that will see action in transistors.
Graphene, which happens to have the thickness of just one atom, but being made from carbon, is the main focus of researchers’ attention. Computer engineer Deji Akinwande at the University of Texas is the one behind the very first silicene-based transistors. Theoretically speaking, silicene happens to be more suitable for the tech-manufacturing world as opposed to graphene due to computer chips being made from silicon already. Not only that, making adjustments to the silicene process would also be a whole lot easier compared to converting to carbon-based chipmaking.
It would still be years before silicene sees action in our computers, as the process is costly and difficult where mass production is concerned.
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