Will nanoprocessors help circumvent Moore's law?
Harvard University has created a nanoprocessor
Tape.<url> based on materials from Harvard University (Researchers at Harvard and MITRE produce world's first programmable nanoprocessor) and MITRE Corporation (MITRE-Harvard Team's Ultra-tiny Nanocomputer May Point the Way to Further Miniaturization in Industry).
Engineers and scientists from Harvard University and MITRE Corporation have designed and created the world's first programmable nanoprocessor. According to Harvard University, an article on the creation of a nanocomputer and its functioning has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Yao et al., Nanowire nanocomputer as a finite-state machine). The researchers called the designed processor a "nanoelectronic machine with a finite number of states" or nanoFSM.
A feature of the project is the "tile" architecture in which the final version of the processor is assembled from small nanoblocks with their own electrical circuits. In practice, such an architecture will allow assembling larger computing systems from nanoblocks, expanding the capabilities of computers. The nanoprocessor can be programmed to perform a sequence of simple arithmetic or logical actions.
"Tiles" of the nanoprocessor. Photo: Harvard University
According to the MITRE Corporation, the resulting nanoprocessor is smaller in size than a human nerve cell (3-130 micrometers). It consists of hundreds of tiny transistors, each of which is ten thousand times thinner than a human hair. Transistors are non-volatile, consume very little energy and are able to "remember" their state after a power outage.
According to the developers, in the future, new nanoprocessors can be used to control various miniature systems, including various medical instruments or robots comparable in size to insects. In addition, research in the field of nanoprocessors can help overcome the limitations of Moore's law.
Dependence of the number of transistors on a microprocessor chip on time.
Note that the vertical axis has a logarithmic scale,
that is, the curve corresponds to the exponential law –
the number of transistors doubles approximately every 2 years
(diagram from Wikipedia) – VM.
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