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From: mbutts@mentor.com (Mike Butts)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: GaAs considered dead , indium phosphide, rod logic?
Message-ID: <1989Dec4.175854.456@mentor.com>
Date: 4 Dec 89 17:58:54 GMT
References: <7269@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Organization: engr
Lines: 46

From article <7269@hubcap.clemson.edu>, by dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu (david williams):
> In article <1376@argus.UUCP>, ken@argus.UUCP (Kenneth Ng) writes:
>> In article <1Tcfjq#9jMTbv=eric@snark.uu.net>, eric@snark.uu.net (Eric S. Raymond) writes:
>> : If you're the gambling type, bet your bux on ballistic-transistor technology
>> : or indium phosphide or even nanotechnology rod logic. But forget GaAs. It is
>> 
>> Hm, indium phosphide I once heard that mentioned by Cray (yes that
>> Cray), but I never heard of nanotechnology rod logic.  Is it real
>> or is it a joke of some kind?  Does anyone know of anyone working
>> with indium phosphide at least?
> 
>    As much as any nanotechnology is "real", nanotech rod logic is real.
> Look at it this way:  Rather than having various electrical signals, the
> nanotech stuff works mechanically, since they are so small that electrical
> stuff just overwhelms it.  Suppose our logic worked by having little bitty
> rods that get shuttled back and forth: for example, an and gate would have 
> a rod that would be pushed to the on state when both input rods were pushing 
> on it.  An OR gate would be really simple:
> 
>               input 1   --- |
>                             | -----  output
>               input 2   --- | 
> 
> If either input rod gets pushed on, it would push the bridge and thereby
> push the output rod.
>     You can play all sorts of mind games building this sort of logic.
> Considering how *small* this stuff is, it should be able to react really
> fast.  Building it would be tough, though.
> 
>        Dave Williams     dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu    (signature macro on 
>                                                        other computer)

Nanotechnology is a *hypothetical* technology of building molecular-scale
machines by assembling individual atoms at the atomic level.  It is predicted
by Eric Drexler of MIT in his book "Engines of Creation" to be the ultimate
outgrowth of such technologies as DNA construction and scanning tunneling
microscopy.  Large nanocomputers the size of biological cells would operate
mechanically at GigaHertz speeds.  Many other quite revolutionary
applications, and their social consequences, are envisioned, with quantitative
basis and including references to other literature.  Also check newsgroup
sci.nanotech.
-- 
Michael Butts, Research Engineer       KC7IT           503-626-1302
Mentor Graphics Corp., 8500 SW Creekside Place, Beaverton, OR 97005
!{sequent,tessi,apollo}!mntgfx!mbutts         mbutts@pdx.MENTOR.COM
Opinions are my own, not necessarily those of Mentor Graphics Corp.