U-M researchers work to develop computers of 2025

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - Researchers affiliated with a new $28 million research center led by the University of Michigan will work to design the computers of 2025.

The Center for Future Architectures Research is opening Thursday. While the center is headquartered at Michigan, it includes researchers from top universities across the U.S.

C-FAR's goal is to harness the power and boost the reliability of the smallest transistors that'll emerge over the next decade. Transistors are the building blocks of modern electronics. More than a billion of them compose each integrated circuit in mobile phones and personal computers.

U-M electrical engineering and computer sciences professor Todd Austin is the center's director. He says transistors still can be made smaller, "but not without challenges that threaten the progress of the computing industry."