HP: We have the next transistor

Claims 'crossbar latch' is the next step that will result in computers thousands of times faster.
February 1, 2005: 6:13 AM EST


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday that its researchers have proven that a technology they invented could eventually replace the transistor, a fundamental building block of computers.

In a paper published in Tuesday's Journal of Applied Physics, HP said three members of its Quantum Science Research group propose and demonstrate a "crossbar latch," which provides the signal restoration and inversion required for general computing without the need for transistors.

HP (up $0.25 to $19.59, Research) said in a statement that the technology could result in computers that are thousands of times more powerful than those that exist today.

"We are reinventing the computer at the molecular scale," said Stan Williams, one of the authors of the paper, in a statement. "The crossbar latch provides a key element needed for building a computer using nanometer-sized devices that are relatively inexpensive and easy to build."

Phil Kuekes, another one of the paper's authors, said in a statement that transistors would continue to be used for years to come with conventional silicon circuits.

But, he added: "This could someday replace transistors in computers, just as transistors replaced vacuum tubes and vacuum tubes replaced electromagnetic relays before them."