Rust Could Be the Secret to Next-Gen Computing News Highlights: Rust Could Be the Secret to Next-Gen Computing. Current silicon-based computer technology is very energy inefficient. Information and communication technology (ICT) is expected to use more than 20% of global electricity production1 by 2030. Finding ways to decarbonise the technology is thus a clear goal for energy savings. Professor Paolo Radaelli from the Department of Physics in Oxford, in collaboration with Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron, has led research into alternatives to silicon, which would increase efficiency. His group’s surprising findings are published today in Nature – “Antiferromagnetic half skyrmions and bimerons at room temperature.” Cosmic eddies in rust, some of the antiferromagnetic textures they have found, can emerge at room temperature as excellent candidates for low-energy antiferromagnetic spintronics.