ad info




CNN.com
 MAIN PAGE
 WORLD
 ASIANOW
 U.S.
 LOCAL
 POLITICS
 WEATHER
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 TECHNOLOGY
   computing
   personal technology
   space
 NATURE
 ENTERTAINMENT
 BOOKS
 TRAVEL
 FOOD
 HEALTH
 STYLE
 IN-DEPTH

 custom news
 Headline News brief
 daily almanac
 CNN networks
 CNN programs
 on-air transcripts
 news quiz

  CNN WEB SITES:
CNN Websites
 TIME INC. SITES:
 MORE SERVICES:
 video on demand
 video archive
 audio on demand
 news email services
 free email accounts
 desktop headlines
 pointcast
 pagenet

 DISCUSSION:
 message boards
 chat
 feedback

 SITE GUIDES:
 help
 contents
 search

 FASTER ACCESS:
 europe
 japan

 WEB SERVICES:
COMPUTING

From...
PC World

Moving toward molecular chips

July 20, 1999
Web posted at: 11:44 a.m. EDT (1544 GMT)

by James Niccolai molecule chips

(IDG) -- The line between science and science fiction grew fuzzier last week when a team of researchers said they have taken a big step toward building a super small, super fast computer based on molecular, rather than silicon, chips.

Researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles and Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories have found a way to fashion a "logic gate"--a basic building block of all computers--from a certain type of molecule. By attaching a few wires and switches, a group of the molecules can be knitted together to perform like a silicon chip, but on a molecular scale.

"We can potentially get the computational power of 100 workstations on the size of a grain of sand. We'll do it in steps; I'm hopeful that we can do it in about a decade," James Heath, the UCLA chemistry professor in change of the research team, said in a statement. The work is described in the latest issue of the journal Science.
MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE
IDG.net   IDG.net home page
  PC World home page
  FileWorld find free software fast
  Make your PC work harder with these tips
 Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net
 *   IDG.net's desktop PC page
  IDG.net's portable PC page
  IDG.net's Windows software page
  IDG.net's personal news page
  Year 2000 World
  Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you
  Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletter for computer geniuses (& newbies)
  Search IDG.net in 12 languages
 News Radio
 * Fusion audio primers
 * Computerworld Minute
   

The development could prove vital in helping to sustain the rapid pace of development that the computer industry has enjoyed in recent decades, the researchers said. Silicon chip technologies are expected to reach certain theoretical limits in the next 10 to 15 years, while chip plants are becoming prohibitively expensive to build.

Smaller Than Bacteria

Molecular computers could be built smaller and more cheaply than silicon allows, and would suck up much less power to operate, making them far more portable. The researchers say they hope to build entire memory chips that are a hundred nanometers wide--smaller than a single bacterium.

"You can potentially do approximately 100 billion times better than a current Pentium in terms of the energy required to do a calculation," Heath said.

The researchers have dreamed up all sorts of possible applications for their molecular processors: supercomputers the size of wristwatches, computers that can be woven into clothing, biomedical instruments that can be injected into the human body to help diagnose diseases.

The team acknowledges that many hurdles stand between it and the first true molecular computer. Unlike the relatively exact science of silicon engineering, anything built using chemistry "inevitably has defects," Heath said. The team believes it can identify these defects and use wires and switches to route around them.

Prototypes of molecular-based computers may be only a few years away, and a hybrid computer combining molecular electronics with some silicon technology could follow in a decade, Heath said.

"Years ago, when I first told people I was trying to make a computer chemically, I wasn't taken very seriously. Although the idea is getting a little more respect now, we still have a long way to go," Heath said.


RELATED STORIES:
AMD's K7: Better than Intel's best processor?
July 8, 1999
Intel to delay launch of Coppermine chip
June 21, 1999
'Soft x-rays' key to smaller, faster computer chips
April 30, 1999

RELATED IDG.net STORIES:
Intel shines spotlight on mobile chips
(InfoWorld)
Network chips unveiled at N+I could transform industry
(InfoWorld)
Law enforcement dons wearable computer system
(Civic.com)
Tiny Rio offers a look at the miniature future of computing devices
(InfoWorld)
Year 2000 World
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

RELATED SITES:
UCLA
Hewlett-Packard Labs
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
 LATEST HEADLINES:
SEARCH CNN.com
Enter keyword(s)   go    help

Back to the top   © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.