A few weeks ago, I was talking here about the Quantum Science Research labs at Hewlett-Packard and one of their achievements: the highest density of electronically switchable memory to date, capable of storing 6.4 gigabits of data in one square centimeter.
Details are available at "Molecular Memories -- With the Help of Rotaxanes."
John G. Spooner recently spoke with Stanley Williams, director of the HP lab, about molecular grid technology. They went beyond memories: they were talking processors. Here are some excerpts of their conversation (or more appropriately, their Q&A session).
Q: How will your invention surpass silicon?
A: We believe that we will have a solution that will be at least near ready at the time when silicon needs help. Our view is that the first devices will not be only molecular electronics -- they will combine both (molecular and silicon) components together in the same circuit. The silicon-integrated circuit would be a substrate, and we'd print our circuits on top of the silicon.
Q: What would the function of the silicon be?
A: Silicon would essentially provide the electrical power and the input-output for the contacts for the molecular memory. So silicon becomes the equivalent of today's printed circuit boards. As time goes on, molecular electronics would take up more of the duties.
What follows still puzzles me: how can you -- practically, not theoretically -- do a billion things simultaneously?
Q: How will this compete with prevailing microprocessors of the time?
A: The architecture we have uses a relatively low clock speed, but a very large amount of parallelism. We might have a kilohertz clock -- but if we're doing a billion things per second, we're actually doing a teraoperation (one trillion operations) per second. It's an entirely different way of doing computing. Instead of having a single processor screaming away, our approach is to have many operations going on in parallel to save on battery power.
And now, let's go back to rotaxanes.
Q: What will these circuits be made of?
A: We've been looking at a wide range of materials. The one we've discussed openly has been a molecule called a "rotaxane." That's a fairly exotic molecule made by the research group of Prof. J. Fraser Stoddart in UCLA's (University of California at Los Angeles) chemistry department. We have been playing with quite a few rotaxane molecules. We're still very much early in the learning curve on these. They contain carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen and sulfur. They're made of the same stuff we are -- the same elements that make up the proteins in your body -- but they are arranged differently.
And now, are you ready for a prediction?
Q: How long until you bring this to market?
A: We think we can get there in a few years. If everything goes absolutely perfectly, we could have something ready in five years. But that's the absolute fastest time anything could come out. I think the more likely time frame is seven years, and my gut-level feeling is it's almost a dead certainty in 10 years.
Rendez-vous in 2012...
Source:John G. Spooner, CNET News.com, October 23, 2002
6:13:42 PM Permalink
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