Researchers at HP last week demonstrated a technology that would replace the transistors in computer processors.

A paper published in the Journal of Applied Physics describes a crossbar latch technology, in which molecules three-billionths of a meter thick could store data. The crossbar latch is a switch consisting of molecules, arranged in a single layer, which can change between two states - representing ones and zeros. HP patented the design in 2003.

Transistors are susceptible to quantum mechanics as the circuitry for computers shrinks. As more circuitry needs to be packed onto smaller devices, a massive technology advance is needed.

HP’s transistor-less technology consists of several titanium or platinum wires joined together by modules of a fatty acid.

A variety of organizations are looking at nanotechnology, the science of building technologies on a microscopic level. Among them are IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Yale University and Mitre.

One of the paper’s authors, Phil Kuekes, says that someday this crossbar latch will replace transistors just as transistors replaced the much heftier vacuum tubes in earlier computers. This technology could lead to computers that are much more powerful.

While still seven years away, HP is working on an economical method to manufacture the switches.

To give some perspective to the magnitude of this technology, the crossbar latch would be only 2 to 3 nanometers in size. A hair could contain thousands of them across its diameter. The smallest component on chips today measures 90 nanometers, 30 to 45 times as large.