Boffins from IBM have emerged from their smoke filled labs with a graphene transistor which can manage 100 GHz when the wind is behind it and it is going downhill.

This is the fastest transistor ever made and could mean that silicon might be put out to pasture as the number one semiconductor. The best silicon transistors ever have done is 40 GHz, and many boffins realised that it will become difficult to squeeze more speed out of the material without coming up with some new breakthrough.

Big Blue seems to think that graphene will get around the problem. Not only is it much faster, but IBM can use the same silicon fabrication techniques in order to make it. It is still early days yet and it will be some time before it trickles its way down to personal computing.

It might be that when you have grandchildren you might have to explain the lyrics in the song “I don't like Mondays” when they don't know what is meant by the phrase “The silicon chip inside her head is switched to overload.” Of course you will already have had to explain Ultravox's “We must behold the things we see” to them so it should not be difficult. (You expect your grandchildren to share your lousy taste in music? sub.ed.)