3D magnetic logic gates!:

Lower energy required but they don't say how fast these puppies switch:

http://phys.org/news/2014-08-3d-magnetic-logic-gate.html

Originally posted by sonhouse
Lower energy required but they don't say how fast these puppies switch:

http://phys.org/news/2014-08-3d-magnetic-logic-gate.html

I have already read that link and I am a bit confused by what they are claiming their circuit can actually do. They say they can make logic gates such NAND which would appear to imply that their circuits could be made into computer microprocessors possibly for ordinary PCs. But they say:

"NML has several potential advantages compared to transistors. One is that there is no need for electrical wiring or interconnects because the computation is performed entirely by magnetic interactions between neighboring magnets...."

which would imply to me that there would be no wires within this circuitry to send signals from point A to point B where A and B are not adjacent because there is components and distance in between -surely the ability to send signals from point A to point B where A and B are not adjacent because there is components and distance in between them is generally one of the necessary minimum requirements for a microprocessor to function?
Perhaps what they imply here is that these magnetic components can be made into wires (so it does have wires of a sort ) because you can have a long row of them where the signal you want to go from point A to point B and the signal is passed magnetically from one magnetic component to the adjacent one and then to its adjacent one and so on like pass-the-parcel?
I can only assume that is what they mean else I don't make a whole lot of sense of what they are saying here.

Originally posted by humy
I have already read that link and I am a bit confused by what they are claiming their circuit can actually do. They say they can make logic gates such NAND which would appear to imply that their circuits could be made into computer microprocessors possibly for ordinary PCs. But they say:

"NML has several potential advantages compared to transistors. One is t ...[text shortened]... sume that is what they mean else I don't make a whole lot of sense of what they are saying here.

I gather the gates talk to each other through magnetic fields not electric current. Could be wrong but that's how Is see it.