ZDNet is also running a story about IBM using self-assembling nanocrystals to "draw" circuits on semiconductors. Big Blue has successfully demonstrated a working model by creating a flash memory-like chip by using the nanocrystals. IBM hopes that if the technology can be significantly developed to the point of mass production, the costs & hurdles that all chip manufacturers are running into with lithography may eventually fall by the wayside.

"Self-assembly would essentially turn circuit mapping into a bottom-up task, with molecules creating patterns as a result of their inherent properties. Incorporating very small structures such as nanocrystals into chips could also become far more feasible."