Skip to Content
Uncategorized

Putting a New Spin on Computing

Physicists often like to remind people that our simple-minded picture of electrons is woefully naive. Electrons aren’t so much tiny little particles whizzing around an atomic nucleus as they are a kind of fuzzy wave function–a probabilistic distributions of electric…
April 27, 2004

Physicists often like to remind people that our simple-minded picture of electrons is woefully naive. Electrons aren’t so much tiny little particles whizzing around an atomic nucleus as they are a kind of fuzzy wave function–a probabilistic distributions of electric charge, forming an amorphous cloud. Funny thing, though: physics also tells us that electrons have spin–which is kind of hard to imagine about a probability cloud. But the experimental observations and the math all work out that way, and so there we are. Which brings us to today’s announcement that IBM and Stanford are teaming up to push what could become the next big thing in computing: spintronics. Electrons can spin in one of two ways, conventionally known as “up” and “down,” which indicates the direction of the magnetic field it produce. The phenomenon lends itself to binary systems, i.e. computing; manipulating the electrons’ spin (and hence magnetic field) could offer a new way to store and process informaion.

Spintronics technology is actually already in widespread use; the extraordinary expansion during the 1990s of computer hard drive capacity stems from the development of an IBM-discovered phenomenon called the giant magnetoresistive effect. And spintronic technology is at the heart of magnetic RAM (MRAM) technology which holds the promise of instant-on computing.

IBM is providing seed money for the venture, called The IBM-Stanford Spintronic Science and Applications Center (SpinAps). Stanford scientists will pull their share of the research load, and the two organizations will split the intellectual property. The IBM website talks about future developments such as reconfigurable logic devices, room-temperature superconductors, and quantum computers but says that commercial devices coming from the collaboration are at least five years out.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

DeepMind’s cofounder: Generative AI is just a phase. What’s next is interactive AI.

“This is a profound moment in the history of technology,” says Mustafa Suleyman.

What to know about this autumn’s covid vaccines

New variants will pose a challenge, but early signs suggest the shots will still boost antibody responses.

Human-plus-AI solutions mitigate security threats

With the right human oversight, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can help keep business and customer data secure

Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation

From million-dollar slide shows to Steve Jobs’s introduction of the iPhone, a bit of show business never hurt plain old business.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.