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Technologies and Designs for Electronic Nanocomputers
July 1996
Michael S. Montemerlo, The MITRE Corporation
J. Christopher Love, The MITRE Corporation
Gregory J. Opiteck, The MITRE Corporation
David Goldhaber-Gordon, The MITRE Corporation
James C. Ellenbogen, The MITRE Corporation
ABSTRACT
This paper reviews research developments aimed at the design of electronic
computers that contain components with dimensions of only a few nanometers.
A nanometer, one billionth of meter, is only about 10 atomic diameters.
Such nanometerscale electronic computers{i.e., electronic "nanocomputers"{that
contain molecular-scale components are likely to be up to 10,000 times
more densely integrated than today's smallest microcomputers. Electronic
technology is one of several alternative technologies (e.g., mechanical,
chemical, quantum) that have been proposed for implementing a nanocomputer.
Electronic technology for nanometer-scale computers has the advantage,
though, that it builds upon nearly a half century of experience and
infrastructure developed for electronic computing. Electronic nanocomputers
could be orders of magnitude faster than current electronic computers,
as well as many times smaller or more densely integrated. Although some
of the operating principles for electronic nanocomputers could be similar
to present-day electronic microcomputers, there is a limit to how far
the designs and fabrication technologies for present-day microcomputers
can be scaled down. This has led some investigators to propose radically
different "wireless" designs, quantum cellular automata, and
nanometer-scale neural networks, all to be constructed from nanoscopic
quantum-effect devices. These devices and designs take advantage
of some of the very effects that have been obstacles to making smaller
conventional transistors and circuits. Still other investigators have
proposed the "self-assembly" of electronic devices with nanometer-scale
components in order to circumvent some of the that have inhibited the
fabrication of sub-micron structures using conventional lithographicdificulties
techniques. This review examines critically a range of such technologies
and designs for electronic nanocomputers. It describes and compares
the operating principles, advantages, disadvantages, and status of the
new technologies and designs that promise to continue the miniaturization
of the electronic computer down to the scale of a few tens of nanometers
and, ultimately, to the molecular scale. This information is presented
in non-mathematical terms intended for a general, technically interested
readership.
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