The Big Test Follow the creation of a CPU from testing to validation. Tap A new high-end chip from Intel is coming this winter. Discovered seven years ago by Sumio Iijima, a specialist in electron microscopy, carbon nanotubes are related to the spherical molecules known as fullerenes. Named in honor of Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, fullerenes earned Nobel prizes for their discoverers. But today, many scientists believe that nanotubes show far greater promise for commercial applications.
Nanotubes are similar to fullerenes, but they're cylindrical.
They're light and flexible as well. But most interesting from a computer designer's standpoint are nanotubes' electrical and heat conducting capabilities. And perhaps most telling of all, they are better heat conductors than any other known material. Taken together, these properties suggest that carbon nanotubes may make it possible to shrink current computer designs down to the molecular level, without falling prey to the problems that prevent existing materials from functioning at such small size. Metal wires cease to be effective electrical conductors at these tiny dimensions, and the heat silicon produces precludes its use, but carbon nanotubes may soon make it possible to create electronic circuits on a molecular scale.