X-Message-Number: 12788
From: "Stephen Bogner, P.Eng." <>
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 16:41:09 -0700
Subject: Nanocomputer Switches for Logic Operations have Already been

Synthesized and Tested.

In the November 17 Upside Magazine feature "Lab Watch", in an article named
"Working in Nanospace",  Robert Buderi reports on the work the Stan Williams
has been doing in the Feynman Lab at HP Laboratories.  Here are a few
excerpts:
...

"Former UCLA chemistry professor Williams joined HP in 1995 to confront some
fundamental problems in making integrated circuits. One was that the cost of
building fabrication plants -- on track to hit $50 billion by around 2010 --
was becoming increasingly prohibitive. Another was that the increasing
number of transistors being squeezed onto chips would eventually make
components too small to follow classical Newtonian physics."

"Williams and visiting UCLA scientist James Heath were pondering this
dilemma when they learned of Teramac, a unique HP Labs computer recently
constructed out of imperfect (read cheap) parts. The idea had been to use so
many parts that there were enough good ones for it to function. Indeed,
despite having some 220,000 defective components, Teramac performed most
calculations at a terabit per second, roughly 100 times faster than
conventional workstations."

"... this same defect-tolerant architecture might hold the key to a
successful nanocomputer. It wouldn't matter if chemically synthesized
components contained many defects, so long as they created enough good ones
to get the job done."

"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency quickly challenged all comers
to build either a 16-bit memory or two coupled logic gates -- both essential
computing components -- no larger than 100 nanometers on a side. ...The
DARPA competition spurred the group into high gear. It made the
serendipitous discovery that a combination of erbium and silicon would cause
the wires needed to carry current through a nanocomputer to form by
themselves. Heath's UCLA team later synthesized and tested the switches
needed to perform logic operations, a critical proof of concept. The work
led to six patent applications Williams believes could form the basis of a
breakthrough technology. But even if HP's approach doesn't win, Williams
says one thing is certain: "We haven't even begun the age of computation
yet.""
...

For those interested, the full article can be found at:

http://www.upside.com/texis/mvm/opinion/story?id=380cee450

Regards,

Steve.

Stephen Bogner, P.Eng.

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