Microchips are less than a centimeter thick and are an integral part of everyday life. They are everywhere: in washing machines, toasters, smartphones, cars – even passports now have a microchip built in. All these devices and technologies have one thing in common: they only work with transistors – billions of them.
These transistors are at the heart of information technology. Today, digital devices demand up to 12% of global electricity, and the trend is rising. And even more alarming: forecasts predict that without optimization of energy requirements, more electricity will be needed for computer chips by 2040 than our global energy production can supply.
When looking for a solution, it makes sense to start right there and adjust the energy requirements for the smallest components in order to achieve considerable savings en masse: The single atom transistor we have developed requires only 0.1 percent of the energy of a conventional transistor.
By 2040, MIT predicts that computer chips will require more electricity than our global energy production can supply.
More than 10% of the electricity demand of industrialized countries currently goes to data communication and processing.
If the Internet were a country, it would be the sixth largest energy consumer in the world.
The cryptocurrency Bitcoin requires more electrical energy for its computing power than Ireland.
