IBM has created graphene transistors that leave silicon ones in the dust. The prototype devices, made from atom-thick sheets of carbon, operate at 100 gigahertz–meaning they can switch on and off 100 billion times each second, about 10 times as fast as the speediest silicon transistors.

The transistors were created using processes that are compatible with existing semiconductor manufacturing, and experts say they could be scaled up to produce transistors for high-performance imaging, radar, and communications devices within the next few years, and for zippy computer processors in a decade or so.

Growing transistors on a wafer not only leads to better performance, it’s also more commercially feasible, says Phaedon Avouris, leader of the nanoscale science and technology group at the IBM Watson Research Center in Ossining, NY where the work was carried out.

[Technology Review]

Wow, at 100Ghz, you are doing everything at super-duper speed. That has great implications for video games and number crunching ability but I don’t know how long batteries can last when the computer is performing at this level.

With the introduction of graphene transistor, Silicon Valley may need a name change soon. More importantly, we can expect a new age of quantum computing to change the digital world as we know it.