The Nanomechanical Computer

eldavojohn writes "The BBC is reporting on a newly proposed type of nanomechanical computer that mimics J. H. Müller & Charles Babbage's work on mechanical computational devices — just on a much smaller scale. The paper is published today in the New Journal of Physics and cites three reasons to build a computer with nanomechanical transistors over bipolar-junction or field-effect transistors: '(i) mechanical elements are more robust to electromagnetic shocks than current dynamic random access memory based purely on complimentary metal oxide semiconductor technology, (ii) the power dissipated can be orders of magnitude below CMOS, and (iii) the operating temperature of such an NMC can be an order of magnitude above that of conventional CMOS.'"

Comments

Also See the works of Neil Stephenson...

[RyanFenton]

Specifically, The Diamond Age, where such specifically mechanical nanomachines, along with artificial diamond, define the era the book takes place in. I'd say it's a charming if hyper-technical story if you haven't read it - though, things get rather unsafe for some young children in terms of strong sexuality for one prominent subplot.

Anyway, the machines aren't self-replicating, but they are fabricated in microwave-style (and larger) boxes that take an elemental 'feed' of organic compounds and data. The book has some great philosophical and social content, and breaks most of the annoying characteristics of the previous 'cyberpunk'-style writing.

Ryan Fenton

Re:You don't need our permission

[eggnoglatte]

Going from theory to practice is the science... Actually, that would be the engineering. As in "there is no rocket science, there is physics, and then there is rocket engineering". Meanwhile, publishing the initial idea for other people (like, uh, an actual engineer) to built on is very valuable.

Oh, and your premise is wrong: building a MEMS chip of a non-trivial size pretty quickly runs in the hundreds of thousands of $, even with educational discounts. So pretty much you have to get the design ready, then ask for funding to build the thing, which is what they are presumably doing.