Most electronics are made in the form of integrated circuits, which are tiny chips that contain transistors and other components etched onto silicon wafers.

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His group is trying to make nano-electrical components, and has built transistors based on tubes made of boron nitride.

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Instead of being fixed, a string of bits specifies the chip's design by telling it what linkages to forge between its various components (in this case, groups of transistors known as logic cells).

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