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The 2006-2007 Annual Report

Radical Ballistic Computing

Martin Margala, Yonathan Shapir, Paul Ampadu, and Marc Feldman

Martin Margala, Yonathan Shapir, Paul Ampadu, and Marc Feldman are working on a "ballistic transistor" that may someday compute by bouncing electrons around like billiard balls.

University computer designers are going ballistic—with the Ballistic Deflection Transistor.

"Everyone has been trying to make better transistors by modifying current designs, but what we really need is the next paradigm," says Quentin Diduck, a graduate student who thought up the radical new design.

Instead of running electrons through a transistor as if they were a current of water, the ballistic design bounces individual electrons off deflectors as if playing atomic billiards.

"We're not just designing a new transistor, but a new archetype as well," Marc Feldman, professor of electrical and computer engineering, says.

The National Science Foundation is so impressed with the idea that it just granted the team $1.1 million to develop a prototype.


Last modified: Friday, 06-Mar-2009 12:50:49 EST