IBM Grows Chips Like Snowflakes Using Natural Processes
May 7, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan
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One of the dreams of the nanotechnology revolution is to harness natural forces and processes to create self-manufacturing products. (This is also, as it turns out, one of the nightmares that people have about nanotechnology.) Last week, IBM said that it has figured out a way to create a chip made from vacuum-insulated nanowires, and had manufactured the chip using processes nicked from Nature. The process that IBM has created for the Airgap Microprocessor emulates the same self-assembling processes that are used to create seashells, the enamel layer on our teeth, and snowflakes, according to Big Blue. As is typical |