What is a Nanocomputer?
A nanocomputer is a type of computer that is commonly employed in the field of nanotechnology. Essentially, a nanocomputer is a microscopic computer device. While the concept of the nanocomputer has been around for several decades, the perception of the technology continues to evolve as it becomes possible to store and utilize data and functions on systems that are increasingly compact in design. In years past, the concept of a nanocomputer was thought of in terms of being a small computer that would accomplish all the tasks associated with the large electronic brains of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Over time, as technology made it possible for smaller mainframes to surpass the capabilities of those earlier electronic brains, the idea of the nanocomputer as a device that was not only small but possibly even microscopic in nature began to emerge. Today, the general idea of a nanocomputer would involve the insertion of the small device within the body to help support natural organ functions, t
Currently, the feature sizes in state-ofthe-art VLSI fabrication are on the order of half a micron, i.e. 500 nanometers. In fifteen years, using nothing more than a curve-fitting, trend-line prediction, this number will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 nanometers; would it be appropriate to refer to such a chip as a nanocomputer? For the purposes of this article, no. We want to talkabout much more specific notions of future computing technology. First, we’re expecting the thing to be built with atomic precision. Thisdoesnotmean that there will be some robot arm that places one atom, then another, and so forth, until the whole computer is done. It means that the “design” of the computer specifies where each atom is to be. We expect the working parts (whether electrical or mechanical) to be essentially single molecules. We can reasonably expect the switches, gates, or other embodiment of the logical elements to be on the order of a nanometer in size. (They may have to be further ap
