The research, a joint undertaking by scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center and the California Institute of Technology, was to be published on Sunday in the journal Nature Nanotechology.
IBM research manager Spike Narayan told Reuters:
"This is the first demonstration of using biological molecules to help with processing in the semiconductor industry. Basically, this is telling us that biological structures like DNA actually offer some very reproducible, repetitive kinds of patterns that we can actually leverage in semiconductor processes."
The DNA "origami" as the researchers called it, could allow developers to create microchip frameworks far smaller than currently. Not only that, manufacturers could replace their tooluing systems with polymers, DNA solutions, and heating implements, which would result in a significant savings.
All this is still 10 years out, according to researchers. That means we have at least a decade before the first generation Terminators, right?
