Dear Commons Community,

Quantum computing came a step closer as Australian and American physicists  built a working transistor from a single phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon crystal.   The New York Times reported that:

“The group of physicists, based at the University of New South Wales and Purdue University, said they had laid the groundwork for a futuristic quantum computer that might one day function in a nanoscale world and would be orders of magnitude smaller and quicker than today’s silicon-based machines.”

Imagine computers operating at the atom level.  The speed and capacity of such computing would be many magnitudes greater than what we have today and the cost would be significantly cheaper.  Such devices would be able “to solve problems beyond the reach of today’s machines”.

Tony

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/science/physicists-create-a-working-transistor-from-a-single-atom.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23