Big Memory, Itty-Bitty Chips

Intel has formed a collaborative partnership with
Nanosys, a technology company that has patents on “nanostructures,” to develop future memory systems smaller and more powerful than today’s chips.

According to the agreement, announced Monday, Santa Clara, Calif.-based
Intel will help support Nanosys’s experiments in memory systems using
nanotechnology, and the companies will work together exclusively on certain
undisclosed areas for a predetermined period of time.

A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or roughly 75,000 times smaller
than the width of a human hair. At such a miniscule size, materials take on
new electronic, optical, magnetic and interfacial properties. Nanosys is
developing structures such as nanowires, nanorods, nanotetrapods and
nanodots from semiconductor materials. They can be used for such things as
chemical and bio-sensors, large-area electronics, and solar cells.

Intel has explored nanotechnology for some time. In March 2002, it
launched a Computational Nanovision project, to create high-precision
analysis tools. In May 2003, Intel Capital, the chip maker’s strategic
investment group, participated in a second round of financing, which raised
$38 million. In November, Intel demonstrated fully
functional SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) chips using 65-nanometer (nm)
technology, a next generation high-volume semiconductor
manufacturing process. The technology is expected to debut on Intel 300 mm
wafers sometime in 2004.

Some — Intel included — see research and development in nanotechnology as
a way to boost Silicon Valley’s scrofulous economy. Signed into law in
December 2003, the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act
authorized $36 billion over three years for nanotechnology research and
development programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF), the
Department of Energy , the Department of Commerce, NASA, and the
Environmental Protection Agency. The NSF predicts a $1 trillion global
market for nanotechnology by 2114.

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