What is Molecular Computing?
Molecular computing is a generic term for any computational scheme which uses individual atoms or molecules as a means of solving computational problems. Molecular computing is most frequently associated with DNA computing, because that has made the most progress, but it can also refer to quantum computing or molecular logic gates. All forms of molecular computing are currently in their infancy, but in the long run are likely to replace traditional silicon computers, which suffer barriers to higher levels of performance. A single kilogram of carbon contains 5 x 1025 atoms. Imagine if we could use only 100 atoms to store a single bit or perform a computational operation. Using massive parallelism, a molecular computing weighing just a kilogram could process more than 1027 operations per second, more than a billion times faster than today’s best supercomputer, which operates at about 1017 operations per second. With so much greater computational power, we could achieve feats of calculati
Molecular computing Molecular computing is a generic term for any computational scheme which uses individual atoms or molecules as a means of solving computational problems. Molecular computing is most frequently associated with DNA computing, because that has made the most progress, but it can also refer to quantum computing or molecular logic gates. All forms of molecular computing are currently in their infancy, but in the long run are likely to replace traditional silicon computers, which suffer barriers to higher levels of performance.
The Idea – Shrink electronic components down to the size of single molecules! Why the Heck? – Electronic components have been shrinking at an astounding rate. This is due in part to advances in lithography, allowing us to shrink gates, allowing electric pulses to travel faster between gates (as they can be closer together). However, we are reaching limits in not only our ability to make things smaller, but as you shrink components, you must use fewer and fewer electrons in your pulse bursts. If you use two few electrons in those burst, the devices become unreliable. So Who Says We Can Make `Em Smaller? – Molecular electronicists are a new breed of cross discipline engineer (biology, chemistry, and electrical engineering), who have taken note of the fact that in nature many components of biology use electic impulses on a molecular level, so it MUST be possible.
