For almost half of the centry the semiconductor industry has repeatedly found ways to make transistors smaller and smaller, making it possible to place more transistors on a single chip for increased computing power and/or capacity. Currently the smallest of modern transistors are no more than a handful of molecules across and it is widely believed that scaling of silicon process technologies is limited.

Although silicon is going to be used for about a decade, alternative methods of building transistors have been developed for a while now. Researchers are experimenting with a variety of new materials beyond silicon, including organic molecules and carbon nanotubes.

The New York Times news-paper reports that the transition to new nanotechnology techniques could occur around 2015, when chipmakers have their abilities to shrink the silicon exhausted.

?The transition to a post-silicon era is forecast in a report called the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, to be issued Saturday. The report, which is produced cooperatively by semiconductor industry associations from Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the United States, is used by the semiconductor industry as a planning tool to determine how best to spend research and development money for new technology,?says an article at The New York Times.

?In between 2003 and 2005 there has been a tipping point. All of the buzz is about nanotechnology,?said Philip J. Kuekes, a physics researcher in the quantum structures research initiative department at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Palo Alto, Calif.

• New York Times: Chip Industry Sets a Plan for Life After Silicon.