Nanomagnetic chips to replace Si?
Engineers at the Technische Universität München believe that future computer chips could be based on 3D arrangements of nanometre scale magnets, instead of transistors.
Using a 3D stack of nanomagnets, the researchers have implemented a majority logic gate, which could serve as a programmable switch in a digital circuit.
In gates made from field coupled nanomagnets, the reversal of polarity represents a switch between logic 1 and logic 0. In the 3D majority gate developed by the researchers, the state is determined by three input magnets, one of which sits 60nm beneath the other two, and is read by an output magnet.
Nanomagnetic circuits are said to have extremely low power consumption, to operate at room temperature, resist radiation and be packed densely.
