

The construction of the transistor allows for the germanium wire to alter the function of the transistor as to whether electrons or holes are the majority charge carrier. Simply put, applying a voltage across the germanium wire will result in a current to flow, but going beyond a specific voltage threshold causes the resistance to increase, which decreases the current flow.

The use of germanium is critical to the transistor as germanium possess a unique electrical characteristic called negative differential resistance. The new transistor takes advantage of a germanium nanowire laid across the channel and lies below the transistor gate. Recently, researchers from TU Wien Vienna have developed a new programmable transistor whose properties can be altered in real-time to produce different functions. Researchers develop a configurable transistor This then presents a challenge with heat dissipation multiple transistor layers could be too difficult to cool effectively, thus imposing another design limitation. However, this does not solve the power consumption problem meaning that each additional layer would add more computational power at the cost of significantly increased energy consumption. Of course, there are solutions around this, including the use of 3D chips that stack layers of semiconductors on top of each other. Eventually, making transistors smaller will either be impossible, impractical, or uneconomical and when this happens, computing devices will no longer see performance increases come from transistor increase. However, physical limitations mean that transistors can only be made to be so small, and the latest transistor technology is quickly reaching this limit. This is why the reduction of transistors is crucial for creating powerful computers and miniaturising mobile devices while simultaneously reducing their power consumption. The doubling of transistors increases the maximum bit width of circuitry, increases the number of memory units, creates more complex hardware, and reduces the energy consumption of each transistor. What challenges do current processors face, what does the new technology do, and how could it change the future of computing? What challenge does computing face?Įver since the development of the first single-die CPU (the Intel 4004), computing technology has improved exponentially thanks to the ability to double the number of transistors on a chip every two years (called Moore’s Law). Recently, researchers have been able to develop a transistor whose function can be programmed in real-time.
