Replacing silicon with nanotech, huh? Sounds cool, but just how far away is something like this? Well, this much has made clear so far from the folks at HP anyway. While it is looking like a viable possibility, there is still much work to be done first.

Today HP revealed its strategy for the future of computing, replacing silicon processors with nanotechnology, in a series of papers presented in Applied Physics.

Stan Williams, HP Senior Fellow and director, Quantum Science Research (QSR), HP Labs said “We believe we have a practical, comprehensive strategy for moving computing beyond silicon to the world of molecular-scale electronics.”

The collection of papers that outline HP’s plan were published in a special nanotechnology edition of Applied Physics, a European scientific journal.

Williams calls it “a three-pronged approach: fundamental scientific research into the quantum effects that dominate the nanometer scale, a new architecture that can tolerate defects in molecular-sized circuit components and cost-effective methods of fabrication.”

HP believes moving to nanotechnology is essential to getting around the approaching problems in silicon production that will slow, or even halt the pace of processor development defined by Moore’s Law, which says the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles every 18 months.

The strategy centers on HP’s crossbar architecture, announced in February.

Also known as the crossbar latch, the design consists of a pair of parallel wires crossed by a second set of wires. Together they create a switch that can deliver the functions currently assigned to transistors on silicon processors. Each latch is incredibly tiny, only a few microns wide. HP maintains that the crossbar latch design is “well-suited to tolerate the inevitable defects that are bound to occur in the fabrication process at such tiny dimensions” because it doesn’t require the same level of precision as silicon circuits.