HP: We have the next transistor

“Crossbar latch” the key to 1000x more powerful computers

Now this is pretty spiffy. Hewlett-Packard has a new technology that could replace the transistor:

‘We are reinventing the computer at the molecular scale,’ said Stan Williams, one of the authors of the paper, in a statement. ‘The crossbar latch provides a key element needed for building a computer using nanometer-sized devices that are relatively inexpensive and easy to build.’

Phil Kuekes, another one of the paper’s authors, said in a statement that transistors would continue to be used for years to come with conventional silicon circuits.

But, he added: ‘This could someday replace transistors in computers, just as transistors replaced vacuum tubes and vacuum tubes replaced electromagnetic relays before them.’

No word as to precisely when this technology will make it’s way into the market. Five years?