Using molybdenum disulfide as a semiconductor instead of silicon.
Imagine a chip so thin that it measures less than a nanometer thick, now imagine that chip running over 5900 transistors capable of executing complex instructions like a real processor, it seems impossible, know that Chinese scientists have just transformed that into reality with the Wuji the most complex two-dimensional microprocessor ever created.
Based on 2D materials this technology may be the key to the future of computing especially now that traditional silicon semiconductors are reaching the limit of their physical capabilities, I am talking about a new technological paradigm and China has proclaimed itself a leader in this race.
The Wuji (infinity) was developed by Rayvay Technologies and represents a global milestone, it is built with molybdenum di-sulfide, a two-dimensional material with a thickness of only one atom that presents exceptional electronic properties, this structure allows a compactness never before achieved in traditional chips with 59,900 individual transistors and a library of 25 types of logic cells.
The most advanced microchip today.
The Wuji is the first 2D chip capable of running a full 32-bit implementation of the RISC-V instruction set an open source architecture that is gaining momentum worldwide especially in China, despite all its complexity the chip operates simply in some aspects, for example, to do a sum of two 32-bit numbers it processes one bit at a time requiring 32 clock cycles to complete the operation, it may seem slow but what is important here is the proof of concept, it is possible to build a functional microprocessor with materials that do not rely on silicon and that are ultra thin.
The research was published in the journal Nature reinforcing the scientific legitimacy of the breakthrough, to reach this level the researchers had to optimize both the fabrication process and the circuit design, overcoming the main challenges of integrating 2D materials at wafer scale, although the main focus is hardware the Wuji is already born ready for the future of high performance computing, it can support vector instructions with ultra-wide vector slot, meaning it can be used to run ia language models like Deepseek that operate with large volumes of parallel data.
This type of capability positions the chip as a possible component for neural networks, machine learning and ia systems that require massive parallelism, it is a simple chip in structure but with a brutal potential for intelligent applications, the use of RISC-V in addition to technical is strategic as it is an open architecture China can develop and manufacture chips without depending on foreign companies a direct response to trade tensions and technological sanctions that limit access to advanced semiconductors.
That architectural freedom coupled with the advancement of 2D materials can lead to the production of smaller, faster and more energy-efficient processors, making portable devices, weables, autonomous sensors and embedded systems smarter and more efficient.
Wuji's creation marks the beginning of a new phase in the evolution of processors - a technology that goes beyond silicon by exploring the potential of atomically thin materials to build smaller, lighter and more powerful circuits.
