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Brain-Inspired Computer Made From Duroquinone
hasu notes that scientists at the National Institute for Materials Science at Tsukuba in Japan have created a device, consisting of 17 duroquinone molecules on a gold surface, that can in theory encode 4.3 billion outcomes. The "device" does not constitute a practical computer, since it requires both a scanning tunneling microscope and operation near absolute zero. A single duroquinone is surrounded by sixteen others, and weak chemical bonds allow a pulse to the central molecule to shift all seventeen molecules in a variety of ways. Each duroquinone has four different "settings," so a single pulse can have 4^16 possible outcomes. As a demonstration the researchers docked 8 other nano-devices to their 17-molecule computer. It is unclear how well they have characterized the inputs that result in 4.3 billion different outputs. They are working on a 3D design that would have 1,024 duroquinone molecules surrounding a central one.
will it run Linux?
Well, Absolute Zero is a temperature that has been extrapolated from the ideal gas law. It is the temperature at which all kinetic energy in the molecules of a substance reaches 0. For more information on Absolute Zero, and teperature scales based on it take a look at this wikipedia page and please do not expect the rest of us to do you thinking for you in the future.
That which is done from love exists beyond good and evil
Doesn't sound like impressive computing. But hey, anyone doing research is at least doing something with their time.
God spoke to me.
Could someone tell me what they mean by "operation near absolute zero."?
It means bring your coat...
It will only work when run in a super cold freezer or, possibly, in Canada.
Really cold : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_zero
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Nanotechnology? That's so early 2000's, we're onto picotechnology now!
Seriously, though, this is incredibly small! The molecular computation machiniery necessary to direct our nanomachines are going to be far more interesting, challenging, and incredible than the nanomachines themselves.
Demented But Determined.
This is a bit more graphical than TFA: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/10/748041.aspx
.. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
I thought the state of the art way to make brains involved copulaton.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
It's EXpressive: Mathematical AND artistic.
But, if they use it in bugs, and they abandon their masters, it will give a new meaning to "buggin out". If they emerge from a wig-wearing woman, then we literally have "wiggin out".
But, as for expressionism.... do you want IMpressionism?
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
That's like, 2^32.
:)
Is this really a computer? Or 32 bits worth of really impractical memory?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Yes, that is what "absolute zero" means. "Near absolute zero" means the temperature at which the ambient energy within the molecules is less than what would be required to force the logical gates into a non-random state. The paper will certainly elaborate on their exact methodology, but I will hazard an uneducated guess. It probably means operating in a partial vacuum or inert atmosphere and the plate was probably immersed or plumbed in Liquid Helium (boiling point 3.2-4.2 Kelvin depending on the isotope.
In the grand scheme of nanotechnology, this is a fairly remarkable step up from IBM's "Wright Brothers'" moment when they spelled their name with an STEM. It is a functioning computer at >100nm. Cool.
-Ellie
I heard on the first test it rolled a 20.
Clearly, but every funny man needs a straight man. :D
The world's first stored-program computer only stored 32 words, where one word was 40 bits in length, making this 1/40th of the capacity of Alan Turing's "Baby" (aka Manchester Mk. 1) computer. Seriously, though, this is impressive in the sense that they got the thing to work at all. Storing and recovering data from a device this small is non-trivial, especially if they've got the read to be non-destructive. At this scale, the impact of carrying out the observation is non-trivial. If they need to cool to near absolute zero, it's obviously delicate enough that they need to damp down everything to keep the system working. But precisely because almost anything can be kept constant at that temperature, I'd consider this "cheating" a little. You could probably store and recover data on almost any sufficiently uniform structure if nothing is moving.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Depending on the nature of the weak chemical bond and how the 16 molecules respond the slight charge, you might actually see different states for different charges which leads to input output relationship. It sounds like when you rotate one of the molecules, the others change appropriately. It's possible then that you could structure the molecules in such a way that you could form logic gates where you'd set two of them and a chain would produce a series of logical operators, however it also seems to function in base four, so it would have to be a fuzzy logic. And with that I've reached my thinking quota for today.
Oh honey look... How cute... an angry slashdotter!