Researchers at the French National Scientific Research Centre’s (CNRS) Centre for Material Elaboration & Structural Studies have designed a simple logic gate with 30 atoms that perform the same task as 14 transistors.

They are focusing on two architectures: one that mimics the classical design of a logic gate but in atomic form, including nodes, loops, meshes etc.; and another, more complex process that relies on changes to the molecule’s conformation to carry out the logic gate inputs and quantum mechanics to perform the computation.

The logic gates are interconnected using scanning-tunnelling microscopes and atomic-force microscopes.