Handheld supercomputers may soon be possible

Supercomputers small enough to fit in the palm of the hand could soon be possible.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, the United Kingdom, teamed up with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, and the University of Rome, Italy, to examine the behavior of wires 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. The team then devised a tool to help combat problems that can arise from wiring microchips much smaller than the ones we are familiar with today.

This breakthrough in nanotechnology could pave the way for the development of much smaller microchips using thinner wires, which, of course, is a requisite for building a tiny supercomputer.

Those behind the project have said they hope that the new-found knowledge would eventually lead to medical advances as well hand-held personal computers and mobile phones as powerful as laptops.

To create a powerful computer the size of a mobile phone, it is necessary to develop much smaller microchips that use thinner wires.

With the help of computers, the researchers found that wires on a nanoscale – measured in millionths of a millimetre – behave quite differently from bigger wires.

The team also developed software which allows them to predict when problems might arise with the wires and how to avoid them. This software could help computer engineers ensure that wiring remains effective even in a supercomputer the size of a palm.

Dr Michael Zaiser, of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering and Electronics, explained that when researchers tried to bend the tiny wires into rings, they took on “very weird shapes.” “Basically,” he added, “we just tried to look at what would happen if we deformed a wire that is very, very small. What we found is when we made these wires smaller and smaller they started to behave in a very funny way.”

According to Dr Zaiser, holding a supercomputer in the palm of your hand will one day be possible. The study has been published in the journal Science.