A press release from RMIT, Research mimics brain cells to boost memory power, details a new nano-material discovered that has the potential to lead to a new scale of computing architecture and possibly artificial intelligence.

At 10000 times small than a human hair the new material is may not supersede the current silicon based computer chips. Given that the best silicon technology can manage is about 9 million per square millimetre, or one transistor per 111 pm (1.1 X 10^-10m) vs the nano-material managing 1.7 nm (1.7×10^-8). However, this is just the first steps with this new material and when silicon was first used in this way only a circuits could be fitted per millimetre. So this technology has potential.

Of more interest is the fact that the material mimics brains cells that form the basis of neuro-networks, and could lead the the development of credible artificial intelligence (See Nano-scale thin film structure mimics brain cells) by creating a copy of the human brain structure.