China's '2D' chip could soon be used to make silicon-free chips

Researchers in China say they have created a new silicon-free transistor that could significantly boost performance while reducing energy consumption.

- ALAN BRADLEY

The team says this development represents a new direction for transistor research. The scientists said that the new transistor could be integrated into chips that could one day perform up to 40 per cent faster than the best existing silicon processors made by US companies like Intel, according to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Despite that dramatic increase in power, the researchers claim that such chips would also draw ten per cent less power. “If chip innovations based on existing materials are considered a ‘shortcut’, then our development of 2D material-based transistors is akin to ‘changing lanes,” Hailin Peng, professor of physical chemistry at Peking University in China, said.