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A biological approach to growing electronics.

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  • 21-11-2003 7:37pm
    #1
    ecksor
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 10,501 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994406

    These self-replicating transistors will devour us all!

    Well, ok, the article doesn't specifically mention replication but it seems like a natural progression. The other example of computers controlling self-replication that comes to mind (malware such as viruses or worms but especially worms) has quite a few examples in its history of calculational errors resulting in a population growth far more rapid than the original designer intended ...


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    #2
    Sarky
    Closed Accounts Posts: 31,967 ✭✭✭✭Sarky


    Originally posted by ecksor
    http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994406

    These self-replicating transistors will devour us all!

    I propose we all start brushing up on Kung fu so we won't be caught with our pants down.


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    #3
    cerebus
    Registered Users Posts: 447 ✭✭cerebus


    The IEEE had an article on the same sort of stuff this month in Spectrum - you should be able to access a copy here. It gives a bit more detail, and has some illustrations.

    Very interesting stuff. The current ITRS roadmap projects 22nm process feature sizes by 2016 (note that this corresponds to a physical transistor gate length of 9nm). I would be reasonably confident that the industry will get to that point using incremental improvements to current semiconductor fabrication technology. These biological approaches seem to allow feature sizes down to <10nm, so it could be a revolutionary (rather than evolutionary) way to build semiconductors.


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