EDINBURGH Supercomputers the size of matchboxes could be available within a decade after researchers discovered how microscopic wires behave.

Nanoscale wires 1,000 times thinner than human hairs are needed if microchips are to be made much smaller, but researchers found that they behave differently from other wires. Michael Zaiser, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering and Electronics, explained that when it was attempted to bend the tiny wires into rings, they took on “very weird shapes”.

The odd behaviour of the wires presents a problem when trying to wire tiny microchips. Engineers at the university teamed up with colleagues in Germany and Italy and devised a computer program that predicts how the wires will behave in different situations. It should help to ensure that wiring remains effective even in a supercomputer the size of a matchbox.

The findings by researchers from Edinburgh, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and the University of Rome, have been published in the journal Science.

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