Carbon nanotubes lie at the heart of this concept. These are molecule-size objects composed entirely of carbon in a cylindrical structure which gives them unique properties. Some of these properties are steel like strength and conduction of electricity both as a metal and a semiconductor.

An interesting way in which carbon nanotubes are being used is in the development of a high density, nonvolatile random access memory chip that could replace dynamic RAM, flash memory and even hard drives. Nantero, a nanotechnology company has built, using nanotubes a chip called NRAM (for nanotubebased/nonvolatile RAM) that is faster than DRAM, as portable as flash memory, and able to provide permanent storage because the wafer uses nonvolatile storage as its basis. The technology has the potential to enable instant-on computers that boot and reboot without delays and eliminate the need for internal disk drives on computers.