Computers Could Become 'Millions of Times' Faster

According to the latest research by scientists, it may be possible to create computers in the future that are millions of times faster than today's computers. But how is this possible? Based on a new article published in the journal Nature, scientists have succeeded in directing infrared laser pulses onto a honeycomb structure made of tungsten. This method could lead to processors that are millions of times faster than current processors. The results of this research may take a long time to commercialize, but it could significantly transform human life in the next fifty years. With new processors, human-made equipment will undergo remarkable changes. Processors that operate using this method could perform 10 to the power of 15 operations per second: in simpler terms, one million billion operations per second. All current computers operate based on a binary number system. In this numerical system, each number is represented by two digits, 0 and 1. A number in binary is represented by a series of 0s and 1s in sequence. In computers, binary numbers are displayed using two different voltage levels; this is because implementing this system with electronic equipment is much simpler than other numerical systems. For example, to implement this system, a voltage of -5 may be considered as 'zero' and a voltage of +5 as 'one' (bipolar mode) or a voltage of zero as 'zero' and a voltage of +5 as 'one' (binary mode). Today's computers, using silicon components, can perform about one or several billion operations per second; however, increasing speed further based on current computer operations is very difficult. According to Moore's Law, the number of transistors in integrated circuits will double every year. With current methods, the processing power of computers will remain stable in the near future and will not see significant increases. Transistors have already become exceedingly small, and continuing to miniaturize them has become much more difficult than in the past. However, laser processors could change everything. These processors work by altering the behavior of electrons. If we consider an electron like a runner on a circular track, the runner is running on this track with a fixed radius, but when energy is transferred to this runner, they start running around the track with a larger radius. The honeycomb networks of these new processors, made of tungsten and selenium, have two pathways for electrons to enter. Laser radiation is performed at two specific angles, and from each angle, electrons enter one of the two designated paths. One of these paths is considered zero, and the other is one. With this method, laser computers can operate based on the binary number system, with the difference that the speed of zeroes and ones is much greater than current methods. Scientists say that such a method could even work at room temperature, whereas it was previously believed that quantum processing required significantly lower temperatures. With the advancement of artificial intelligence and machine learning, manufacturers need processors that work much faster than today. AI and machine learning produce thousands of times more data, and processing this data also requires faster processors, and perhaps the new method could solve the problem of AI development in the future.