At the forefront of computing technology for decades, silicon-based chips’ reign may soon end, as today’s chip designers are looking for other materials that offer more options and more amazing abilities than the silicon we all know and love.

This new trend has spurred the guys at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop what could be the foundation for multi-role computer chips.

In a recent study, ORNL scientists looked at single crystal complex oxide materials at the very smallest levels. They discovered that that contained in just one piece of this material were multiple tiny regions that each responded to magnetic and electrical stimuli differently.

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