Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
Charles Babbage has been both a hero and anti-hero of mine for almost three decades now, ever since I researched and wrote a paper about him in high school. I immediately saw both his best and worst traits in my own behavior, and on the worst side it led to me referring to myself as "pulling a Babbage" whenever I let those traits get the better of me. I now have a string of unfinished projects to my name that certainly eclipses what Babbage did.