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IBM to Support Nanotechnology Center

Computer giant IBM will join forces with the state of New York and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to create a $100 million supercomputing center dedicated to advancing nanotechnology. The main concern for the researches in the new center will be reducing the time and expenses associated with building materials, devices and systems at the nanoscale.

Nanotechnology is an emerging field in which engineers are trying to mold individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips and other devices that are thousands of times smaller than current technologies permit. Successful nanotechnology implementations could bust open the shrinking window of Moore`s Law, which holds that the number of transistors per a given area doubles roughly every 18 months.

Chip manufacturers have sustained Moore`s Law by shrinking the devices on semiconductor chips. Current circuit components measure about 65 nanometers in width, or 65 billionths of a meter. However, experts say this needs to shrink to 45 nm by 2009, 35 nm by 2012 and 22 nm by 2015. Such products are a ways off from being implemented, which is why IBM, New York state and Rensselaer are splitting the $100 million three ways to create CCNI.