austino27
Science
How Your Laptop Will Just Keep Getting Faster
By Paul Adams Posted on 9.25.2008 13 CommentsSince the invention of the transistor, silicon semiconductors have been king. But now silicon-based transistors are nearing the limit of their potential. Excess heat and manufacturing hurdles are impeding the development of ever-faster and -smaller processors. Advances in materials and chip design to resist extreme heat and move huge amounts of data, quickly, will be crucial. Experts are exploring three technologies to overcome these challenges: spintronics, graphene and memristors.
138 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
.jpg)
February 2012: The Future of Fun
Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?
Popular on Popsci
Most Viewed
- Archive Gallery: Board Games Weren't Always Fun
- The PopSci Flash Arcade
- The Goods: February 2012's Hottest Gadgets
- Gallery: The Best Way to Unbuild a Dam
- How to Pump Half a Million Gallons of Fuel From a Listing Cruise Liner
- Frozen Fruit Flies Come Back to Life
- Today's NASA Budget: 'Irrational' Cuts to Planetary Science Mean Mars Missions Get the Axe
- A Tribute to the Fifty: A Nine-Story Forging Press That Can Benchpress a Battleship
- Free To a Good Home: One Space Telescope, Still In Orbit
- The All-Electric BMW Active E
Most Emailed
- How to Pump Half a Million Gallons of Fuel From a Listing Cruise Liner
- Frozen Fruit Flies Come Back to Life
- Today's NASA Budget: 'Irrational' Cuts to Planetary Science Mean Mars Missions Get the Axe
- A Tribute to the Fifty: A Nine-Story Forging Press That Can Benchpress a Battleship
- Free To a Good Home: One Space Telescope, Still In Orbit
- The All-Electric BMW Active E
- Video: Robotic Lego Forearm Can Wave Hello and Pour You a Drink
- German Physicist Flies First Manned Electric Multicopter
- The Goods: February 2012's Hottest Gadgets
- The Goods: February 2012's Hottest Gadgets
Most Commented
- Video: A New 'Smart Bullet' Deploys Fins and Guides Itself to a Laser-Designated Target
- Russian Scientists Drilling into "Alien" Antarctic Lake Vostok Fall Silent
- Mitt Romney: The Uncanny Candidate?
- 10-Year-Old Accidentally Creates New Molecule in Science Class
- Should Scientists Be Held Legally Responsible for Their Results?
- Translucent Blue Spheres Rain Down in the UK, Mystifying Meteorologists
- Hilarious "Theory of Everything" Paper Provokes Kerfuffle
- FYI: Do Animals Dream?
- New Climate Change Culprit: Chilean Man Stealing Glaciers to Put In Cocktails
- Video: President Obama Test-Fires a Marshmallow Cannon at the White House Science Fair
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
