Watch: The End of Moore’s Law? Or a New Beginning?

Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits would continue to double every year into the foreseeable future.

That was in 1965, and computer engineers are predicting that the future is almost here.

The prediction that Moore’s Law will soon reach its end with current silicon-based materials has led scientists to look for newer materials to try to extend Moore’s Law.

Researchers at Berkeley may have found that new material.

They have found useful new information-handling potential in samples of tin (II) sulfide (SnS) that show promise in packing more computer power into microchips.

Tin (II) sulfide can absorb different kinds of polarized light and then selectively reemit light of different colors at different polarizations.

This is known as “Valleytronics,” where a material’s crystalline structure allows the information of 1s and 0s to be stored in separate energy valleys of electrons.

These new materials may make computers continue to pack more and more computing power into ever-smaller spaces for the foreseeable future.