Computer chips

Surprising turns in magnetic thin films could lead to better data storageMIT researchers discover efficient control of magnetism in chiral ferromagnets.

Researchers demonstrate record-setting p-type transistorNew design for a basic component of all computer chips boasts the highest ‘carrier mobility’ yet measured.

Tiny compound semiconductor transistor could challenge silicon’s dominanceMIT researchers develop the smallest indium gallium arsenide transistor ever built.

Simulating tomorrow’s chipsA new system makes hardware models of multicore chips more efficient, easier to design and more reliable.

Chips as mini InternetsThe data-routing techniques that undergird the Internet could increase the efficiency of multicore chips while lowering their power requirements.

Testing unbuilt chipsA new software-simulation system promises much more accurate evaluation of promising — but potentially fault-ridden — multicore-chip designs.

Microchips’ optical futureTo keep energy consumption under control, future chips may need to move data using light instead of electricity — and the technical expertise to build them may reside in the United States.

Research update: Sharpening the linesNew advance could lead to even smaller features in the constant quest for more compact, faster microchips.

Important step toward computing with lightResearch at MIT produces long-sought component to allow complete optical circuits on silicon chips.

Mimicking the brain, in siliconNew computer chip models how neurons communicate with each other at synapses.

Building chips from collapsing nanopillarsBy turning a common problem in chip manufacture into an advantage, MIT researchers produce structures only 30 atoms wide.

The future of chip manufacturingMIT researchers show how to make e-beam lithography, commonly used to prototype computer chips, more practical as a mass-production technique.

Toward faster transistorsMIT physicists discover a new physical phenomenon that could eventually lead to the first increases in computers’ clock speed since 2002.