UCLA Chemists Progress Toward Molecular Computers

Concepvelo writes "It is very refeshing to see Professor Stoddart (my organic chem professor last quarter) and Pat Collier making progress toward molecular computers. Stoddart's team has created molecules that can be switched hundreds of times, where before they could only be switched once. They are saying that the creation of Molecular RAM is one step closer because all of this can be done at room temp. The article is here."

Comments

Hasn't this been done

[iElucidate]

I was sure that Eric et. al. of the Foresight Institute had already designed and built molecular switches. In addition, the recent experimentation on buckyballs may herald the way toward better switching and gears.

I have this theory that with nano, EE/CS will become in less demand, and mechanical engineers will be forced to reexamine rod logic if they want the good jobs. However, we're really moving at a snail's pace here, and haven't had any real developments in a while. nano-saxaphones for Pres. Clinton! ;-)

hmmm...

[Chemical Serenity]

I wonder how long it'll be 'til we start buying memory by the Mol instead of the Meg.

(Yes, I'll take a couple of those 6.0225x10^23 SIMMs, please...)

--
rickf@transpect.SPAM-B-GONE.net (remove the SPAM-B-GONE bit)

But it's one of the parts that needs the most work

[devphil]

I agree with you, I just want to expand on something:

...memory is only part of a computer. Yes, an important part, but only a part.

And it's the part that can benefit the most from this kind of thing. Not for size, but for speed. The speed of memory access is often the controlling factor in how fast a program runs. It doesn't matter if you just bought a 6000 terahertz CPU; if your memory is slow, your processor only waits more.

Currently CPUs are on the order of ten times as fast as the processor, and the gap is increasing. We need faster memory more than we need faster anything else. (Well, maybe faster pizza delivery.)