[117243] in Cypherpunks
IP: Chemically assembled electronic nanocomputers
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Sun Aug 29 16:59:36 1999
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Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 08:37:25 -0400
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From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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From: "Dan S" <ds1999@crosswinds.net>
To: "isml" <isml@onelist.com>
Subject: IP: Chemically assembled electronic nanocomputers
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 21:42:55 -0400
Sender: owner-ignition-point@precision-d.com
Reply-To: "Dan S" <ds1999@crosswinds.net>
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/stories/990826/2776103.html
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Micro switch can shrink computers
Carl T. Hall
San Francisco Chronicle
In what could be a big step toward making computers faster and smaller than
ever, layers of individual molecules have been forged into tiny computer
switches, scientists announced.
Researchers plan to assemble these switches and other diminutive components
into futuristic devices called "chemically assembled electronic
nanocomputers," or CAENs -- machines that would be billions of times more
powerful than today's personal computers.
The idea is to use chemistry and clever software to overcome the inherent
limits of current computer-building methods.
Experts say that while many strategies are being tried, none has proved
successful so far.
The latest results, reported last week in the journal Science, are "a step
in the right direction," said Ray Muriella, director of microtechnology at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "It's another route to further
miniaturization of logic, which is something people have been fretting about
for at least 10 years."
The new switches are the handiwork of computer scientists and chemists at
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Palo Alto, Calif., and at the University of
California at Los Angeles.
Their goal is to get the first CAEN components up and running within two
years.
Reporting their latest experimental results, scientists showed how a
synthetic "electronically active" molecule called rotaxane could function as
a binary switch when suspended between electrodes.
Such a switch is a device capable of being in either of two positions, which
gives rise to the rudimentary elements of computer logic. The
Hewlett-Packard and UCLA team showed how it is possible to configure the
switches into what are known as "logic gates" signifying either "and" or
"or."
Plans envision wiring such logic gates into a radically different type of
computer architecture, based on what is called a "defect-tolerant" design
amenable to commercial production.
By designing molecules that function as electronic components, chemists can
cook up submicroscopic computer parts by the beakerful. It would then be a
fairly simple matter to spread the parts in a thin film onto wafers of
silicon.
The result would be a sort of mess by design, the framework for what the
experts call "electronically configurable" logic.
The idea is to use software and scanning techniques to analyze each chip
after it has been coated with the molecular components and tiny wires.
The software searches out the functional switches and wires, bypassing the
defective ones, until a complete circuit is created.
It works only when there are plenty of alternative pathways and redundant
switches to start out.
Experts liken it to the natural process in which the brain makes complex
neurological circuits from a seemingly haphazard patchwork, tapping some
nerve cells while ignoring others as the need arises.
"We came up with a way to make a lattice of wires and switches, then
electronically configure those resources into something that can do a
computational task for you," said UCLA chemist James Heath.
The scheme sidesteps the manufacturing problems posed by super-small printed
circuitry using conventional methods.
Although bacteria-sized computers are still a long way off, the new methods
may be capable of building computer microcircuits much more compact than is
now possible, and for much lower manufacturing costs, because the software
takes care of fixing the defects after the chips are built.
Before the new assembly scheme could get past square one, however, the
computer scientists first had to show that a workable switch could be
produced in a chemistry lab.
"This was the part of the project that had the greatest risk and made us the
most nervous," said Philip Kuekes, a computer architect at Hewlett-Packard.
The researchers are conducting experiments in an effort to make the wires
smaller.
Those used in the new switch are conventional metal wires, many times
thicker than the smallest carbon-based "nanotube" wires now available.
--
Dan S
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-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
