Graphene is one of those allotropes with a potential to create the next generation of electronics in sci-fi movies and scientists may have found a new application for it: CPU and GPU chips.
The current CPU chips are made of silicon, but it comes with a number of limitations. So, researchers were trying to find a way around to scale performance without reducing power efficiency.
Graphene could potentially offer 10 times the performance of silicon while maintaining low power consumption.
The only downside? It is really expensive to make.
Although silicon is popular today due to its high yields and bearable production costs, graphene could fare better. It is way stronger than silicon: reportedly 200 times stronger than steel despite its lightweight nature.
A square meter of graphene weighs less than a milligram. It is also a million times thinner than human hair!
It’s also highly conducive, both in terms of thermals and electricity, and could replace copper in these futuristic chips.
In fact, several companies are already talking about using graphene as a replacement for the silicon-based chips we know today. The China Graphene Copper Innovation was created during the China International Graphene Innovation Conference, and it seems that for the first time in years, something might come of these graphene-related plans.
While we might be nearing the limits of what silicon-based chips can do, at least they’re widely available and much cheaper to make.
Graphene-based chips are much more complex to produce, so it’s hard to say if, and when, they will enter mass production on a scale that could make an impact. But once they do, they might pave the way for sweeping change.
