Future Electronics on NPR's Science Friday

Most computers today rely on silicon chips to crunch their numbers -- but what will the computers of tomorrow use? Researchers are hard at work looking for advances in physics and materials science that will allow the use of other materials that can perform at levels far beyond those possible with silicon chips. Some of the possibilities include tiny transistors based on carbon nanotubes, molecules that can self-assemble into complex surfaces, and devices using organic semiconductors. Visit NPR.org's Science Friday web site and learn more about the future of computing science.

Quantum Science Research: The QSR group at HP Labs is exploring the limits of the physically possible by focusing on the fabrication of nanometer-scale structures and the measurement and understanding of their properties. QSR's research into molecular-scale electronics is inspired by the realization that the fundamental limits to the power efficiency of computation, as described by Richard Feynman and others, lie as much as a factor of one billion beyond the presently known capabilities of silicon integrated circuits. QSR researchers span a broad range of academic disciplines, including computer architecture, theoretical solid state physics, electrical engineering, materials science, and physical chemistry.