Just this month Hewlett Packard announced that its researchers have proven that a technology they invented could replace the transistor - the fundamental building block of computers for the last half century - leading to a new way to construct computers in the future.

This new way invented by HP Labs' Quantum Science Research is called the crossbar latch, which is capable of providing signal restoration and inversion required for general computing without the need for transistors. They state that it could result in computers becoming thousands of times faster than today!

"We are re-inventing the computer at the molecular scale," said Stan Williams, HP Senior Fellow and QSR director, and one of the authors of a paper published on 1st Feb, 2005 in Journal of Applied Physics. "The crossbar latch provides a key element needed for building a computer using nanometer-sized devices that are relatively inexpensive and easy to build."

It looks like we are now finally starting to see the implications of a new Nano-Age of technology.


For more information on the crossbar-latch technology vread the announcement off of HP's site:
Who Needs Transistors? HP Scientists Create New Computing Breakthrough at Molecular Scale