Researchers created conditions in an electronic device at the "edge of chaos," a transition point between order and disorder that allows for rapid information transmission.

This means the boffins could amplify a signal transmitted across a wire without using a separate amplifier, overcoming any signal loss due to electrical resistance.

According to the popular science magazine Nature, such a transmission line, which mimics the behaviour of superconductors, could make future computer chips simpler and more efficient.

While a computer chip operating at the edge of chaos sounds dangerously close to an early PC running DOS, or even a modern Apple Mac, researchers have theorised that the human brain operates on a similar principle -- particularly without coffee.

A neuron has an axon, a cable-like appendage that transmits electrical signals to nearby neurons. Those electrical signals help your brain perceive your surroundings and control your body.

Axons range from 0.04 inches (1 millimetre) to more than 3 feet (1 meter) in length. Transmitting an electrical signal across a wire of the same length leads to signal loss, caused by the wire's resistance. Computer chip designers resolve that issue by inserting amplifiers between shorter wires to boost the signal.

But axons don’t need separate amplifiers — they’re self-amplifying and can transmit electrical signals without much signal loss. Some researchers think they exist at the edge of chaos, which allows them to amplify small fluctuations in electrical signals without letting them grow out of control.

In the study, boffins replicated self-amplifying behaviour in a non-biological system. They started by establishing edge-of-chaos conditions in lanthanum cobaltite (LaCoO3). When they applied the correct current to the LaCoO3, small fluctuations in the resulting voltage were amplified. The team then tested these conditions on a wire in contact with a sheet of LaCoO3.

They placed two 1 mm (0.04 inch) wires on top of the LaCoO3 and applied the same current to the material, thereby establishing the edge-of-chaos conditions. An oscillating voltage signal was applied to one end of one wire, and the voltage signal at the other end of the wire was measured. The researchers observed a slight amplification in those voltage fluctuations.

Amplifying such a signal requires additional energy, which the scientists found came from the same source used to maintain the edge of chaos—the applied current. In most electronic components, some of the energy from the applied current dissipates as heat. However, at the edge of chaos, a portion of the energy instead amplifies the signal.

Operating at the edge of chaos resembles superconductivity in that the effects of resistance are negligible. The authors said the new method could allow superconductor-like behaviour at normal temperatures and pressures.

Such a solution would avoid thousands of repeaters and buffers and generally improve chips.

Of course, we have no idea if such a future chip could run Chrysalis.