First 2D, non-silicon computer developed
31 comments
·June 12, 2025sitkack
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/08/16-bit-risc-v-proces...
Modern microprocessor built from complementary carbon nanotube transistors https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1493-8
justinclift
Wonder if these materials are the kind of thing the "make your own integrated circuits" people would be able to use?
muglug
> at frequencies up to 25 kilohertz
How high could this technique go?
magicalhippo
From the abstract[1]:
This enabled circuit operation below 3 V with an operating frequency of up to 25 kHz, which was constrained by parasitic capacitances
I would guess process improvements would help a lot towards lowering those parasitics. So I wouldn't take this initial attempt as a guide for ultimate speed.
Since this is 2D materials, a capacitor is a dielectric sandwiched by two conductors and capacitance scales linearly with area, I would assume just scaling things down would help immensely with parasitic capacitance. Changing materials or process could also change the dielectric constant which also affects the capacitance linearly.
Paper is sadly not open access, so I can't check if they mention this or have done some theoretical peak calculations or something. Would indeed be interesting to know.
numpad0
> molybdenum disulfide for n-type transistors and tungsten diselenide for p-type transistors
NegativeK
Yes? But it’s been in research for a decade or two, based on a quick search.
It’s confusing to me because moly d is a very common lubricant, even for home uses.
avmich
Isn't it a good lubricant because it's easily split into 2D layers?
m-watson
Something that is nice with MoS2 and the others are transition metal dichalcogenides and have some beneficial physical properties like a natural electronic bandgap, unlike silicon.
RayfromBoston
I wonder how this compares in speed and capabilities to photonic computers
ConradKilroy
I was wondering that too!
Valgrim
Molybdenum and tungsten both have melting point much higher than silicon, Maybe these circuits could be a good candidate for Venus rovers?
kxndnddn
I don't see how that would be relevant since the melting temperature of Silicon is already _significantly_ higher than temperatures on Venus can reach outside of reentry
znpy
Isn’t tungsten much much more expensive than silicon and harder to work with?
IsTom
Does its price really matter for amounts used in chips?
znpy
i mean, can you imagine how many chips are built?
nowadays there's at least a chip in most physical objects...
IsTom
And the part that is substrate, not the packaging is tiny and thin. It's much less than a gram of material in CPUs and even less in smaller chips. That's not going to be a significant part of final price. Also remember that silicon currently used is not some regular sand, but grown monocrystals that are a bit pricier.
null
Razengan
A small step towards Sophons
lowwave
Well with all the sabre-rattling by Kratsios on space time control, Sophons is not that far fetched.
yodon
WTF is up with that illustration at the top of the article?
DavidSJ
Some attempt to visually represent molybdenum disulfide and tungsten diselenide with the keys of a QWERTY keyboard.
mjmas
Which if it was done properly would have WSe2 and MoS2 rather than seemingly random keys
close04
It shows just the symbols of the elements (W, Se, Mo) and the number 2, not the compounds. The "W", "S", "M", and "2" characters are in the correct place on a QWERTY keyboard, and they appended the necessary additional characters to complete the symbols as needed, even if the "e" in Se and "o" in Mo aren't in the correct spot on the layout.
bobmcnamara
If the frame is made of atoms what are the keys and display made out of? Quarks?
a3w
Yupp, I stopped reading and closed the browser tab when I saw that. Then reconsidered, to find the original source.
TacticalCoder
AI but it's kinda cool. Computers books in the old days used to have crazy representations of computers and all kinds of stuff. I don't mind this one.
I had never considered this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer