current and emerging electronic and computer technologies

8/7/2019 Current and Emerging Electronic And Computer Technologies

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Current and Emerging Electronic And Computer Technologies 1

Electronics

Com utersCurrent and Emerging Technologies for

Manufacturing

Smaller, Lighter, Faster, Cheaper, and Less Power Consumptionhas been the trend in electronics and computers.

The ENIAC computer, builtin 1946, weighed 30 tons,covered 1,800 square feetof floor space, andconsumed 160 kilowatts ofpower. It cost $500,000.

The Intel 4004Microprocessor chip, builtin 1971, just 25 yearslater, was the size of athumb nail. It weighedless than a once, andconsumed less than amiliwatt of power. It hadthe same capabilities asthe ENIAC and cost $4.

Dr. Isaac Chuang, research staff memberat IBM's Almaden Research Center (SanJose, Calif.), holds a quantum computer --a glass tube containing specially designedmolecules that can solve some of the mostdifficult mathematical problems.exponentially faster than a conventionalcomputer.

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The First

Current and Emerging Electronic And Computer Technologies

PART 1 : ELE CTR ONIC SA Brief History of the Progression of Electronics TechnologyA Brief History of the Progression of Electronics Technology

Nikola Tesler Invents the Alternating Current Generator & Electric Motor

(1888) Nikola Tesla was one of the great pioneers of the use ofalternating current electricity. Alternating current electricity changes instrength cyclically over time and is the type of electricity that powercompanies supply to homes today. Tesla invented the alternating currentinduction generator, a device that changes mechanical energy intoalternating current electricity, and the Tesla coil, a transformer that

changes the frequency of alternating current.He went to the United States in 1884 and worked for American inventor Thomas

Edison for a year before setting up his own workshop. For much of his time in the UnitedStates, Tesla worked with American industrialist George Westinghouse, who bought and

successfully developed Tesla's patents, leading to the introduction of alternating current forpower transmission.Tesla built his first working induction motor in 1883. He found that he could raise

little interest in his inventions in Europe. He set off for New York City, where he set up hisown laboratory and workshop in 1887 to develop his motor in a practical way. Onlymonths later he applied for and was granted a complicated set of patents covering thegeneration, transmission, and use of alternating current electricity. Because alternatingcurrent can be transmitted over much greater distances than direct current, it providesthe power for most of our present-day machines. At about the same time he lectured tothe American Institute of Electrical Engineers on his alternating current system. Afterlearning about the talk, George Westinghouse quickly bought Tesla's patents.

Westinghouse backed Tesla's ideas and, as a demonstration, employed his system

for lighting at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Months laterWestinghouse won the contract to generate electricity at Niagara Falls, New York. He used

Tesla's system to supply electricity to local industries and deliver alternating current to thetown of Buffalo, New York, (22 mi) distant. Soon after, Teslers alternating current wassupplied throughout the country. His alternating current motors were used to powermachinery in all industries.

The Invention of the Vacuum Tube

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(1905) Sir John Ambrose Fleming made the first diode tube, the Fleming valve. Thedevice had three leads, two for the heater/cathode and the other for the plate.

(1907) Lee De Forest added a grid electrode to Flemings valve and created a triode,later improved and called the Audion.

(1921) Albert W. Hull, an American engineer, invented a vacuum tube oscillator called ita magnetron. The magnetron was the first device that could efficiently produce

microwaves. Radar, which was developed gradually during the 1920's and 1930's,provided the first widespread use of microwaves.The introduction of Vacuum tubes at the beginning of the 20 th century was the

starting point of the rapid growth of modern electronics. With vacuum tubes manipulationof signals because possible, which could not be done with the early telegraph andtelephone circuit or with early transmitters using high voltage sparks to create radiowaves. For example, with vacuum tubes weak radio and audio signals could be amplified,and audio signals, such as music or voice, could be

superimposed on radio waves. The development of a large variety of tubes designed forspecialized functions made possible the swift progress of radio communication technologybefore World War II.

The vacuum tube era reached its peak with the completion of the first generalpurpose electronic digital computer in 1945. This huge machine, called ENIAC (ElectronicNumerical Integrator and Computer) was built by the two engineers at the University ofPennsylvania, J. Presper Eckert, Jr., andJohn W. Mauchly. The computer containedabout 18,000 vacuum tubes and occupied about 1,800 square feet of floor space. ENIACworked 1000 times faster than the fastest non electronic computers then in use.

The Solid-State Transformation

Three American physicists-John Bardeen, Walter H.Brattain, andWilliam Shockley-invented the transistor in 1947. The transistor hasnow almost completely replaced the vacuum tube and most of its

applications. Incorporating an arrangement of semiconductormaterials and of electrical contacts, the transistor provides the samefunctions as the vacuum to but at a reduced cost, weight, size, andpower consumption and with higher reliability. Transistorsrevolutionized the electronics industry, dramatically reducing the size

of computers and other equipment. Transistors were used as amplifiers in hearing aids andpocket-sized radios and the early 1950's. By the 1960's, semiconductor diodes andtransistors had replaced vacuum tubes in many types of equipment.

Integrated Circuits

Integrated circuits developed from transistor technology

as scientists sought ways to build more transistors into acircuit. The first integrated circuits were patented in1959 by two Americans-Jack Kilby, an engineer, andRobert Noyce, a physicist-who worked independently.Integrated circuits had caused a great revolution inelectronics in the 1960's as transistors had caused in1950's. The circuits were first used in military equipmentand space craft and helped make possible the firsthuman space flights of the 1960's. They were soon being

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Robert Noyce

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used in household electronic products, such as sewing machines, microwave ovens, andtelevision sets.

Most integrated circuits are small pieces, or chips, of silicon, perhaps (0.08 to0.15 sq in) long, in which transistors are fabricated. Photolithography enables the designerto create tens of thousands of transistors on a single chip byproper placement of the many n-type and p-type regions.

These are interconnected with very small conducting paths duringfabrication to produce complex special-purpose circuits.Such integrated circuits are called monolithic because they arefabricated on a single crystal of silicon. Chips require much lessspace and power and are cheaper to manufacture than anequivalent circuit built by employing individual transistors.Integrated circuits (ICs) make the microcomputer possible;without them, individual circuits and their components would take up far too much spacefor a compact computer design. The typical IC consists of elements such as resistors,capacitors, and transistors packed on a single piece of silicon. In smaller, more densely-packed ICs, circuit elements may be only a few atoms in size, which makes it possible tocreate sophisticated computers the size of notebooks. A typical computer circuit boardfeatures many integrated circuits connected together.

Microprocessors

In the late 1960s, many scientists haddiscussed the possibility of a computer on achip, but nearly everyone felt thatintegrated circuit technology was not readyto support such a chip. In 1971, an Intelteam developed such an architecture with

just over 2,300 transistors in an area of only3 by 4 millimeters. It was called the 4004microprocessor. With its 4-bit CPU,command register, decoder, decodingcontrol, control monitoring of machinecommands and interim register, the 4004

was a great invention. It was used to build the first hand-heldcalculator. Suddenly, scientists and engineers could carry the computational power of acomputer with them to job sites, classrooms, and laboratories. The microprocessor wasdeveloped by Robert Noyce, Ted Hoff, FedericoFaggin and Stan Mazor. Newmanufacturing processes had to be invented in the manufacturing of these chips. A pieceof dust or dirt too small to be seen by the human eye could prevent their successfulmanufacture. And thus, the clean room was born.

The Pioneer 10 spacecraft used the 4004 microprocessor. It was launched onMarch 2, 1972 and was the first spacecraft and microprocessor to enter the Asteroid Belt.

The Impact of the Electronics Industry

As sales of electronic products in United States grew from some $200 million in 1927to over $266 billion in 1990, the electronics industry transformed factories, offices, andhomes, emerging as a key economic sector that rivaled the chemical, steel, and autoindustries in size. In the 1960's, the U.S. consumer electronics industry went into decline as

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A clean room at Intel looks

more like a hospital operating

room than a manufacturing

facility. In fact, it is kept in

sterile conditions 10,000 times

higher than operating room

standards.


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manufacturers were unable to compete with the quality and pricing of foreign products,especially the electronics goods produced by Japanese companies such as Sony and Hitachi.But in 1980's, however, U.S. manufacturers became the world leaders in semiconductordevelopment and assembly. And the 1990's semiconductors were essential components ofpersonal computers and most other electronic items (including cellular telephones,televisions, medical equipment, and "Smart appliances). While U.S. companies are still amajor presence in the semiconductor industry (representing about 40 percent of worldsales. in 1998), the consumer items themselves are mostly made overseas. Worldwideelectronics sales were nearly $700 billion 1997.

New and Emerging Technologies in ElectronicsNew and Emerging Technologies in Electronics

Molecular Electronics

The semiconductor industry has seen a remarkable miniaturization trend, driven bymany scientific and technological innovations. But if this trend is to continue, and provideever faster and cheaper computers, the size of microelectronic circuit components will soonneed to reach the scale of atoms or moleculesa goal that will require conceptually newdevice structures. The field of molecular electronics seeks to use individual molecules to

perform functions in electronic circuitry now performed by semiconductor devices.Individual molecules are hundreds of times smaller than the smallest features conceivablyattainable by semiconductor technology. Electronic devices constructed from molecules willbe hundreds of times smaller than their semiconductor-based counterparts. Moreover,individual molecules are easily made exactly the same by the billions and trillions. Thedramatic reductions in size, and the sheer enormity of numbers in manufacture, are theprinciple benefits promised by the field of molecular electronics.

Presently, our manufacturers manipulate millions and billions of atoms at a timeusing conventional technologies. They manipulate these atoms by pounding, chipping andother large scale mechanical deformation. They cook up pure silicon and then etch patternson its surface. All these

techniques depend on large scale manipulation of atoms. Manipulating atoms today is liketrying to build houses out of Lego blocks using boxing gloves. You can push the Lego blockstogether, but it's extremely difficult to make them snap together. In the future, molecularnanotechnology will allow us to take off the gloves and manipulate atoms directly. This willallow very complete control over the placement of individual atoms.

Often, nanotechnology is referred to as "bottom-up" manufacturing. It aims to startwith the smallest possible building materials, atoms, and use them to create a desiredproduct. Working with individual atoms allows the atom-by-atom design of structures. Inmost chemical reactions, unwanted byproducts are an inevitable consequence of the lack ofcontrol over the bonding reactions. With nanotechnology, unwanted byproducts can beessentially eliminated.

Nanotechnology should allow us to get essentially every atom in the right place,make almost any structure consistent with the laws of physics and chemistry that we canspecify in atomic detail, and have manufacturing costs not greatly exceeding the cost of therequired raw materials and energy.

Before nanotechnology can become anything other than a very impressive computersimulation, nanotechnologists must invent an assembler, a few-atoms-large nanomachinethat will custom-build matter.

Engineers at Cornell and Stanford, as well as at Zyvex (the self-described "firstmolecular nanotechnology development company") are working to create such assemblersright now. But the obstacles are daunting. Unlike building with traditional materials that staywhere you put them, atoms and molecules are volatile and will rearrange themselves

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constantly to maintain stability. How far are we from having an assembler? Estimates vary.From 5 to 10 years, according to Zyvex, or from 8 to 15 years, according to the researchcommunity. After that, it could be decades before we'll be able to manufacture finishedconsumer goods.

Molecular Devices in Use Today

The semiconductor switch, because it can be manufactured at very small scales, hasbecome the fundamental device in all of modern electronics. The Pentium microchip, forexample, contains 3.6 million such switching devices, which together perform theenormously complex functions available in the Pentium processor

California Molecular Electronics' (CALMEC) ChiropticeneTM Switch is a devicethat goes beyond the semiconductor switch in size reduction and cost. This switch is asingle molecule that exhibits classical switching properties. Being only a molecule in size, itis hundreds of times smaller than even the smallest semiconductor switch.

Chiropticene molecules are switchable between two distinct states which are spatialmirror images of each other. These mirror images are electronically and optically distinctenabling sharp and stable switching properties. Mirror imagery is a property familiar toeveryone because the human hands are mirror images of each other (i.e., the left hand

seen in a mirror, looks just like the right hand seen straight on without a mirror).

Despite the fact that the two hands are alike, they are alsodistinct. A glove that fits the right hand doesn't fit the left, andvice versa. Being distinct but equal, the hands form a naturalbinary pair just as do a (1) and a (0). By using left- and right-handed signals, we can create a binary 'digital' code. Mirrorimage properties are also called "handedness" properties becauseof this relationship between the left and right hands. In

chemistry, such properties are called "chiral" (pronounced ky-ral) properties after the Greek work Cheir, "hand". TheChiropticenes get their name from a combination of the word

chiral, because they exhibit handedness, and the word optic,because they are optically switchable and optically readable.

Left Handed Form Right Handed Form

IBM Scientists Develop Carbon Nanotube Transistor Technology

IBM scientists have developed a breakthrough transistor technology that couldenable production of a new class of smaller, faster and lower power computer chips thancurrently possible with silicon.

The researchers built the world's first array of transistors out of carbon nanotubes --

tiny cylinders of carbon atoms that measure as small as 10 atoms across and are 500 timessmaller than today's silicon-based transistors. The breakthrough is a new batch process forforming large numbers of nanotube transistors.

Until now, nanotubes had to be positioned one at a time or by random chance, whichwhile fine for scientific experiments is slow and tedious for mass production.

The achievement is an important step in finding new materials and processes forimproving computer chips after silicon-based chips cannot be made any smaller -- aproblem chip makers are expected to face in about 10-20 years.

"This is a major step forward in our pursuit to build molecular-scale electronicdevices," said Phaedon Avouris, lead researcher and manager of IBM's Nanoscale Science

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Research Department. "Our studies prove that carbon nanotubes can compete with siliconin terms of performance, and since they may allow transistors to be made much smaller,they are promising candidates for a future nanoelectronic technology. This new processgives us a practical way of making nanotube transistors, which is essential for future massproduction."

Using Carbon Nanotubes as Transistors in Chips

Depending on their size and shape, the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes canbe metallic or semiconducting. The problem scientists had faced in using carbon nanotubesas transistors was that all synthetic methods of production yield a mixture of metallic andsemiconducting nanotubes which stick together'' to form ropes or bundles.

This compromises their usefulness because only semiconducting nanotubes can beused as transistors; and when they are stuck together, the metallic nanotubes overpowerthe semiconducting nanotubes.

Beyond manipulating them individually, a slow and tedious process, there has beenno practical way to separate the metallic and semiconducting nanotubes -- a roadblock inusing carbon nanotubes to build transistors. The IBM team overcame this problem with"constructive destruction", a technique that allows the scientists to produce only

semiconducting carbon nanotubes where desired and with the electrical properties requiredto build computer chips.

New Technique: "CONSTRUCTIVE DESTRUCTION"

The basic premise of "constructive destruction" is that in order to construct a dense-array ofsemiconducting nanotubes, the metallic nanotubes must be destroyed. This isaccomplished with an electric shockwave that destroys the metallic nanotubes, leaving onlythe semiconducting nanotubes needed to build transistors.Here is how it works:

The scientists deposit ropes of "stuck together" metallic and semiconductingnanotubes on a silicon-oxide wafer.

A lithographic mask is projected onto the wafer to form electrodes (metal pads) overthe nanotubes. These electrodes act as a switch to turn the semiconductingnanotubes on and off.

Using the silicon wafer itself as an electrode, the scientists "switch-off" thesemiconducting nanotubes, which essentially block any current from travelingthrough them.

The metal nanotubes are left unprotected and an appropriate voltage is applied tothe wafer, destroying only the metallic nanotubes, since the semiconductingnanotubes are now insulated.

The result is a dense array of unharmed, working semiconducting nanotubetransistors that can be used to build logic circuits like those found in computer chips.

Moore's Law says that the number of transistors that can be packed on a chip doubles every18 months, but many scientists expect that within 10-20 years, silicon will reach its physicallimits, halting the ability

to pack more transistors on a chip. Transistors are a key building block of electronic systems-- they act as bridges that carry data from one place to another inside computer chips.

The more transistors on a chip, the faster the processing speed. This advance by IBMscientists could have a profound impact on the future of chip performance.

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Nanowires

Two University of Texas at Austin chemical engineers have made a scientificbreakthrough in the production of far smaller silicon wires, using revolutionary methods thatcould lead to development of other new materials with exciting new properties. Silicon wiresof this extremely small size will be needed in the construction of the computers of thefuture and for optoelectronic devices, such as lasers, sensors, computer screens and otherflat panel displays.

Dr. Brian Korgel, 31, and Dr. Keith Johnston, 44, professors in the department ofchemical engineering have produced silicon "nanowires" using tiny particles of goldsuspended under pressure in a compressed fluid at a high temperature. Korgel and Johnstonare members of the multi-disciplinary Texas Materials Institute that conducts research inmetals, semiconductors, ceramics, polymers and composites. Their research in the world ofnanotechnology has been published recently in the journal Science.

"They have no idea how they are going to be making the next generation of devices10 years from now. That's what we're working on," Korgel said.

There are one million nanometers in a millimeter. Today's designers are working towardproduction of computer components that are 100 nanometers long. "We have madecomponents that are four nanometers long, so we are 25 times smaller," Korgel said.

The researchers produce their nanowires by heating silicon atoms connected to organicmolecules until the silicon atoms come loose and form free silicon atoms. This is done in thepresence of small clusters of gold atoms referred to as nanocrystals or quantum dots. Thequantum dots in this research consist of 100 to 200 atoms of gold. "The gold quantum dotsare the seeds that start the growth of silicon nanowires," Johnston explained.

The silicon atoms don't remain free for long, either congregating together or dissolvingwithin the gold quantum dots. "Fortunately for us, the silicon prefers to dissolve into thegold nanocrystals," said Korgel.

When the silicon dissolves inside the gold particles and the silicon concentrationinside the gold becomes great enough, the gold ejects the silicon in the form of a wire.Molecules called "capping ligands" can be attached chemically to the gold quantum dotsduring their formation to keep them uniform in size. Ability to produce a uniform size is a

crucial factor when the goal is mass production of components."Ligands extend like hairs on the outside of the particles to keep the particles fromsticking together," Johnston said. "We're starting with uniform gold particles that producesilicon wires with basically the same size."

The researchers' new method of making nanowires is revolutionary in its use ofsupercritical fluids -- fluids that are put under high pressure and high temperatures, in thiscase 5000 pounds per square inch and 500 degrees Celsius. "We have used supercriticalfluids tocontrol chemical reactions for the last 15 years, but never for the nanoscalematerials," Johnston said.

Korgel added: "At that temperature we would expect the molecules to form a gas, butthe pressure squeezes the molecules back into a fluid. Although this fluid is not a liquid inthe sense that we think of liquids, it is, in fact, a supercritical fluid. These supercritical fluids

have a variety of very interesting properties in their own right, and we are starting toexploit this unique medium to make new materials that cannot be made any other way."The properties, or behavior, of the nanowires are affected by quantum rules that only

apply in the nanoworld. Learning to manipulate materials in this microscopic world couldopen the door to discoveries of what are, in effect, entirely new materials."When we make things as small as this, it affects the material properties so that silicon nolonger really behaves like silicon," Korgel said. For example, silicon normally does not emitlight. But in the

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nanoworld, silicon can emit light. It can be used in the construction of extremely highresolution light emitting devices that can, for example, be used as computer monitors and

TV screens.

"Instead of mining the Earth for a material with the appropriate material properties,we can just tune the size of the quantum wire or quantum dot to engineer materials withthe desired properties," Korgel said.

In the future, Johnston said that nanowires may be used as connectors for quantumdots. "As nanoparticles (quantum dots) are used as optoelectronic devices, nanowires willbe a natural way to connect them," Johnston said. "As quantum dot technology advances,nanowires will be very useful."

Korgel says that the researchers now are testing what happens when prototypedevices are created out of such small materials, by putting electrodes at both ends of thenanowires to "plug" them in and make little circuits.

"We are now trying to make a field effect transistor, a type of electronic device, usingthese nanowires as a conduit for electrons," Korgel said. "It hasn't been done before, so wewant to see if it will work. We're trying to take these new materials and actually makeprototype devices."

The Nanotube Battery

NEC has used carbon nanotube technology to build a fuel cell with 10 times theenergy density of today's most advanced batteries, which could be used for poweringmobile phones and portable computers.

Working with the Japan Science and Technology Corporation and the Institute ofResearch and Innovation, NEC has used one type of nanotube, a 'carbon nanohorn', toconstruct the electrodes in the fuel cell.

NEC has been working on the technology since the discovery of the tube-likestructures by one of its research fellows, Sumio Iijima, in 1991. He extended the work tothe nanohorns three years ago.

The main characteristic of the carbon nanohorns is that when they group together anaggregate (a secondary particle) of about 100nm is created. This creases an electrode witha very large surface area where gas and liquid can permeate, increasing the efficiency ofthe polymer electrolyte fuel cell developed at NEC. The nanohorn structure also means thatsmaller particles platinum can be used as a catalyst, again giving greater efficiency andincreasing the reliability of the cell.

The solid type polymer cell, based around a fluoride polymer film as an electrolyte,operates at room temperatures unlike other fuel cells and is also lightweight, with anenergy-conversion efficiency of 50%; more than double that of today's batteries.

How Nanotechnology Will Influence ManufacturingHow Nanotechnology Will Influence Manufacturing

Opportunities for Industry in the Application of Nanotechnology

Infrastructure RequirementsA wide range of production capabilities, training and facilities are required as part of

the creation of an infrastructure that will nurture nanotechnology and provide the basis forindustrial development. For example, mathematics, computer modeling and simulationskills will be essential as well as an understanding of tools and standards. Frontier researchrequires advanced instrumentation to be available across the board; from the level ofindividual laboratories to national facilities. There is also a need for research on state-of-the-art instruments and their deployment.

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Key issues are:

The production of or access to specialist materials.

The adoption of advanced manufacturing processes.

Access to specialist tools needed for manufacturing, test, assembly and inspection.

The installation of ultra-clean manufacturing facilities.

The provision of adequate training facilities for the development of skilled manpower.

It is worth noting that business opportunities will exist at all stages of development of

the new technology, including the provision of the basic requirements.

Materials for the Nano Industrial RevolutionMaterials science and technology is fundamental to the majority of the applications of

nanotechnology. 'Raw' materials such as semiconductors, oxides and specialist organic andinorganic chemicals, will need to meet new specifications and parameters. For example:

Nanoparticles: Controlled production of particles in the 1 - 100 nm size range is crucial,

and handling of these fine particles will be a key issue.

Quantum structures: Material purity is of the highest importance here, and research intoproduction methodology is required.

Multilayer thin films: These require clean deposition equipment and environment(impurities and defects will ruin the properties of the films) with fast turn-around and highthroughput... Also, very high purity materials will be needed for sputtering and evaporationsources.

Nanomechanical devices: The physical integrity of the material used to produce thedevices will be of key importance, given the strains and stresses to which it will be subject.

Nanoprobe materials: These are the materials required for the manufacture of tips forscanning probe microscopes, the basic tools of nanotechnology. These need to bechemically inert, physically stable materials capable of being fashioned reproducibly intoatomic sharp tips.

Biosensors and transducers: The capability of synthesizing ultra high purity specialistorganic chemicals having a range of terminating groups for these applications is required,as well as ways of bonding these molecules reproducibly to the surfaces of semiconductorsand oxide materials

Advanced manufacturing processes:

Manufacturing processes at the nanoscale can involve accretion or removal ofmaterial, or changes to the shape or form of material already present. Each of theseprocesses provides new challenges and opportunities, as follows:

Accretion of powders: New generations of processing equipment will be needed to dealwith nanopowders in the manufacture of nanocrystalline materials.

Quantum structures and devices: The problem of producing devices with criticaldimensions below 100nm, using 'top-down' techniques, is one that the electronics industryis currently wrestling with. Currently, commercial lithography is based on optical methods,

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but the wavelengths of visible and near ultraviolet light are too long to be usable on thenanometer scale. A range of alternatives is available, but parallel rather than serial writingtechniques are needed for scale-up to commercial manufacturing levels.

Deposition: Recent breakthroughs are making deposition on selected areas possible, inhigh transmission mode. Until now, this has been achieved only through focused ion beamsources operated in droplet mode - an approach which is restrictive in terms of the range ofmaterials that can be handled.

Cutting, milling: Only focused ion beam (FIB) techniques provide a means for selectivecutting or removal of material with sub-100nm accuracy. Although these techniques werelargely pioneered in

Europe - and the UK in particular - the present suppliers of such equipment are almostexclusively American or Japanese companies.

Machine Tools and Instrumentation for Manufacture, Assembly, Test andInspection:

As structures become ever smaller, the necessity for on-line quality assurance test systemsfor certification duties becomes more important and demanding. In the future, thenanometer scale will be the precision standard for material analysis, control purposes andalso for material treatment. Already nano-analytical methods are used routinely for testingin the manufacture of magnetic storage disks, electronic multilayer systems, and industrialpolishing processes.

Key areas of instrumentation and characterization include:

Scanning probe techniques: observation + operation.

Some aspects of electron microscopy.

Some aspects of surface analysis.

Field emission + field ion microscopy + atomic probe analysis.

Nanomanipulators using principles of mechanical / optical / electric / magnetic / piezo

techniques.

Test, calibration and measurement: Standards, benchmarks, procedures.

Nanotools, nanomotors, nanomachines.

Nanoprobes: production, characterization, multiprobes.

Equipment to characterize magnetic / optical / electrical / mechanical properties of

nanostructures with high spatial resolution.

Microfluidics.

Focused ion beam technology.

Computer software for data analysis and representation, simulation, modelingAn essential stage in the development of a large scale nanotechnology industry is thecreation of machine tools for the production of nanodevices, and test, measurementand inspection techniques to aid manufacturers and provide quality control of nanoproducts. It is also an area where knowledge has been, and continues to betransferred from research institutions to industry. It is the first nano area to becomeeconomically active, including the creation on numerous small and medium-sizedcompanies.

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Machine tools for nanotechnology are already being developed in Japan, the USA and(to a limited extent) in the UK. Not only is it already an economically viable aspect ofnanotechnology, but its strategic significance is very high. These machines will have tounderpin all future production of nanodevices, and it is very important that the UK shouldplay a key role in their development.

Ultra-clean manufacturing facilitiesSome aspects of nanoscale manufacturing may require clean room technology - either fullscale facilities or 'table top' scale; but this will depend on the particular process or industry.

TrainingAcademic institutions and funding bodies are beginning to recognize the need for courses innanotechnology; and new modular and full-time Masters courses are in the process of beingdeveloped by more than one institution and needs to be given to the contents ofundergraduate science courses, in the light of fundamental knowledge required fornanoscale science; as well as the current philosophy of single-discipline research projectsfor PhD students in this multidisciplinary era. However, there is no truly multidisciplinarycenter for nanotechnology R&D.

In summary, industry needs suitable production methods for low cost manufacture of

a whole range of materials such as nanomaterials, nanoporous systems, corrosioninhibitors, polymers, molecular sieves, ceramics, light absorbers and emitters, magneticnanomaterials, pigments, colloids and so on. For end products, like catalysts or adhesivelayers, a competitive market position can only be maintained if

the analytical equipment necessary for material characterization on an atomic or molecularlevel is available. Also essential to the equation are people who are trained to understandthe new production methods, tools, analytical and testing techniques.

Finally, as materials at the nanometer scale may have unpredictable effects on livingmatter, the possible toxic and other hazardous properties of various nanomaterials needcareful and sensitive investigation.

PART 2: COMPUTER S

A Brief History of the Progression of Computer TechnologyA Brief History of the Progression of Computer Technology

The First Electronic Computer: The ENIAC

In 1946,John Mauchly andJohn Presper Eckertdeveloped the ENIAC I (Electrical Numerical Integratorand Calculator). The U.S. military sponsored theirresearch; they needed a calculating device for writingartillery-firing tables (the settings used for differentweapons under varied conditions for target accuracy).

The Ballistics Research Laboratory heard about JohnMauchly's research at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School

of Electrical Engineering. Mauchly had previously created several calculating machines,some with small electric motors inside. In 1942 he had begun designing a bettercalculating machine based on the work ofJohn Atanasoff, which would use vacuum tubesto speed up calculations.

On May 31, 1943, the military commission on the new computer began; Mauchly wasthe chief consultant and Eckert was the chief engineer. Eckert was a graduate student

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studying at the Moore School when he met John Mauchly in 1943. It took the team aboutone year to design the ENIAC and 18 months and 500,000 tax dollars to build it. By thattime, the war was over. The ENIAC was still put to work by the military doing calculations forthe design of a hydrogen bomb, weather prediction, cosmic-ray studies, thermal ignition,random-number studies and wind-tunnel design.

The ENIAC contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, along with 70,000 resistors, 10,000capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6,000 manual switches and 5 million soldered joints. It covered1800 square feet of floor space, weighed 30 tons, consumed 160 kilowatts of electricalpower, and, when turned on, caused the city of Philadelphia to experience brownouts.

In one second, the ENIAC (one thousand times faster than any other calculatingmachine to date) could perform 5,000 additions, 357 multiplications or 38 divisions. The useof vacuum tubes instead of switches and relays created the increase in speed, but it wasnot a quick machine to re-program. Programming changes would take the techniciansweeks, and the machine always required long hours of maintenance. As a side note,research on the ENIAC led to many improvements in the vacuum tube.

In 1948, Dr. John Von Neumann made several modifications to the ENIAC. TheENIAC had performed arithmetic and transfer operations concurrently, which causedprogramming difficulties. Von Neumann suggested that switches control code selection sopluggable cable connections could remain fixed. He added a converter code to enable serial

operation.In 1946, Eckert and Mauchly started the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. In1949, their company launched the BINAC (BINary Automatic) computer that used magnetictape to store data.

The UNIVAC

The first UNIVAC computer was delivered to the Census Bureau in June 1951. Unlikethe ENIAC, the UNIVAC processed each digit serially. But its much higher design speedpermitted it to add two ten-digit numbers at a rate of almost 100,000 additions per second.Internally, the UNIVAC operated at a

clock frequency of 2.25 MHz, which was no mean feat for vacuum tube circuits. The UNIVACalso employed mercury delay-line memories. Delay lines did not allow the computer toaccess immediately any item data held in its memory, but given the reliability problems ofthe alternative Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) technology, this was a good technical choice.Finally, the UNIVAC had placed strong emphasis on its input/output capabilities, beingdesigned specifically for data processing applications such as that of the Census Bureau. Inthis connection, EMCC had developed a digital magnetic tape recording unit that coulddeliver data to the UNIVAC at a rate of 40,000 binary digits (bits) per second. For a briefperiod, Univac had captured a majority of the market for digital electronic computersystems.

The Solid-State Computer

By 1948, the invention of the transistorgreatly changed the computer'sdevelopment. The transistor replaced thelarge, cumbersome vacuum tube intelevisions, radios and computers. As aresult, the size of electronic machinery has

been shrinking ever since. The transistor was at work in the computer by 1956. Coupledwith early advances in magnetic-core memory, transistors led to second generationcomputers that were smaller, faster, more reliable and more energy-efficient than their

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predecessors. The first large-scale machines to take advantage of this transistor technologywere early supercomputers, Stretch by IBM and LARC by Sperry-Rand.

The StretchIBM introduces the Stretch computing system, the most powerful computer of its day, whichpioneered such advanced systems concepts as lookahead, pipelining, the transistor and thebyte. The company also introduces the solid-state 7000 series computers, replacing the 700series of vacuum-tube machines.

Throughout the early 1960's, there were a number of commercially successful secondgeneration computers used in business, universities, and government from companies suchas Burroughs, Control Data, Honeywell, IBM, Sperry-Rand, and others. These secondgeneration computers were also of solid state design, and contained transistors in place ofvacuum tubes. They also contained all the components we associate with the modern daycomputer: printers, tape storage, disk storage, memory, operating systems, and storedprograms. One important example was the IBM 1401, which was universally acceptedthroughout industry, and is considered by many to be the Model T of the computer industry.By 1965, most large business routinely processed financial information using secondgeneration computers.

The IBM 1401The IBM 1401 data processing system was the first computer systemto reach 10,000 units in sales. The system included the IBM 1403printer, the industry's first commercial "chain" printer. The 1403 printer-- four times faster than any competitor -- launched the era of high-speed and high volume printing, and was not surpassed for printquality until the advent of laser printing technology in the 1970s.

Third and Fourth Generation Computers

Though transistors were clearly an improvement over the vacuum tube, they still

generated a great deal of heat, which damaged the computer's sensitive internal parts. Thequartz rock eliminated this problem. Jack Kilby, an engineer with Texas Instruments,developed the integrated circuit (IC) in 1958. The IC combined three electronic componentsonto a small silicon disc, which was made from quartz. Scientists later managed to fit evenmore components on a single chip, called a semiconductor. As a result, computers becameever smaller as more components were squeezed onto the chip. Another third-generationdevelopment included the use of an operating system that allowed machines to run

many different programs at once with a central program that monitored and coordinatedthe computer's memory.

After the integrated circuits, the only place to go was down - in size, that is. Largescale integration could fit hundreds of components onto one chip. By the 1980's, very large

scale integration squeezed hundreds of thousands of components onto a chip. Ultra-largescale integration increased that number into the millions. The ability to fit so much onto anarea about half the size of a U.S. dime helped diminish the size and price of computers. Italso increased their power, efficiency and reliability. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971,took the integrated circuit one step further by locating all the components of a computer(central processing unit, memory, and input and output controls) on a minuscule chip.Whereas previously the integrated circuit had had to be manufactured to fit a specialpurpose, now one microprocessor could be manufactured and then programmed to meetany number of demands. Soon everyday household items such as microwave ovens,television sets and automobiles with electronic fuel injection incorporated microprocessors.

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Such condensed power allowed everyday people to harness a computer's power.They were no longer developed exclusively for large business or government contracts. Bythe mid-1970's, computer manufacturers sought to bring computers to general consumers.

The Personal Computer

In 1972, Intel brought out its 8008 chip, capable of processing 8-bits of data, enoughto convey numbers and letters of the alphabet. In that same year, Xerox began working ona personal computer at their Palo Alto Research Center. For the next several years, a teamof Xerox scientists worked on the "Alto," a small computer that would have become the firstPC if only the development team had been able to convince someone of its usefulness.

Likewise, in 1972 Digital Equipment Corporation, a minicomputer manufacturingcompany headed by Kenneth Olsen, had a group of product engineers developing the DECDatacenter. This PC incorporated not only the computer hardware but the desk as well. TheDEC Datacenter could have put tremendous computing capability in the home or at work,but management saw no value to the product and halted its development.

In the end, none of the giant companies whose names had been synonymous withcomputers would introduce the PC to the world. There seemed to be no future in aninexpensive product that would replace the million dollar mainframes that they were selling

as fast as they could make them.In 1975, Rubik's Cube was put on store shelves and proved tomany that the human brain was incapable of complex problem solving.But a ray of hope also appeared; the first PC was introduced. MicroInstrumentation and Telemetry Systems, Inc. sold a kit for the MITS Altair8800 that enabled computer hobbyists to assemble their owncomputers. It had no monitor, no keyboard, no printer, and couldn'tstore data, but the demand for it, like Rubik's Cube, was overwhelming.

The Altair proved that a PC was both possible and popular, but only with those peoplewho would spend hours in their basements with soldering irons and wire strippers. TheAltair, which looked like a control panel for a sprinkler system, didn't last, but it helpedlaunch one of the largest companies in the computer world and gave a couple of young

software programmers a start. In 1974, Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a version of BASICfor the Altair and started a company called Microsoft Corporation.In 1976, another computer kit was sold to hobbyists - the Apple I. Stephen

Wozniaksold his Volkswagen and Steve Jobs sold his programmable calculator to getenough money to start Apple. In 1977, they introduced the Apple II, a pre-assembled PCwith a color monitor, sound, and graphics. It was popular, but everyone knew that a seriouscomputer didn't need any of this. The kits were just a hobby and theApple II was seen as a toy. Even the Apple name wasn't a serious,corporate sounding name like IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, orControl Data. Apple introduced the floppy disk drive in 1978, allowingApple II users to store data on something other than thecumbersome and unreliable tape cassettes that had been used up to

that point. But despite the popularity of PCs,

non-computer people still saw little reason to buy an expensive calculator when there wereother ways to do the same things. In 1979, that all changed.

When VisiCalc was introduced for the Apple II, non-computer people suddenly saw areason to buy a computer. VisiCalc, a spreadsheet program created by Dan Bricklin andBob Frankston, allowed people to change one number in a budget and watch the effect ithad on the entire budget. It was something new and valuable that could only be done with acomputer. For thousands of people, the toy, the computer few could find a use for, had beentransformed into a device that could actually do something worthwhile.

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Even with all of the success the early PC manufacturers had in the late 1970s andearly 1980s, the advances in microprocessor speeds, and the creation of software, the PCwas still not seen as a serious

business tool. Unknown to everyone in the computer industry; however, a huge oak treewas about to drop an acorn that would fall close to the tree and change everything.

IBM Enters the Personal Computer Market

In July of1980, IBM representatives met for the first time withMicrosoft's Bill Gates to talk about writing an operating system for IBM'snew hush-hush "personal" computer. Gates gave IBM a few ideas onwhat would make a great home computer, among them to have Basicwritten into the ROM chip. Microsoft had already produced severalversions of Basic for different computer systems beginning with theAltair, so Gates was more than happy to write a version for IBM.

As for an operating system for the new computers, since Microsofthad never written an operating system before, Gates had suggestedthat IBM investigate an OS called CP/M (Control Program for

Microcomputers), written by Gary Kildall of Digital Research. Kindall had his Ph.D. incomputers and had written the most successful operating system of the time, selling over600,000 copies of CP/M; his OS set the standard at that time.

IBM tried to contact Kildall for a meeting, executives met with Mrs. Kildall whorefused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. IBM soon returned to Bill Gates and gaveMicrosoft the contract to write the new operating system, one that would eventually wipeKildall's CP/M out of common use. The "Microsoft Disk Operating System" or MS-DOS wasbased on Q-OS, the "Quick and Dirty Operating System" written by Tim Paterson of SeattleComputer Products. Q-OS was based on Gary Kildall's CP/M; Paterson had bought a CP/Mmanual and used it as the basis to write his operating system in six weeks, Q-DOS wasdifferent enough from CP/M to be considered legal. Microsoft bought the rights to Q-DOS for$50,000, keeping the IBM deal a secret from Seattle Computer Products. Gates then talked

IBM into letting Microsoft retain the rights to market MS-DOS separate from the IBM PCproject. IBM felt that profits would be made mainly from the sale of the PC itself, and notfrom the program that ran it. Gates proceeded to make a fortune from the licensing of MS-DOS.

IBM had been observing the growing personal computer market for some time. Theyhad already made one dismal attempt to crack the market with their IBM 5100. At onepoint, IBM considered buying the fledgling game company Atari to commandeer Atari'searly line of personal computers. However, IBM decided to stick with making their ownpersonal computer line and developed a brand new operating system to go with it. Thesecret plans were referred to as "Project Chess". The code name for the new computer was"Acorn". Twelve engineers, led by William C. Lowe, assembled in Boca Raton, Florida, todesign and build the "Acorn". On August 12, 1981, IBM released their new computer, re-

named the IBM PC. The "PC" stood for "personal computer" making IBM responsible forpopularizing the term "PC".The first IBM PC ran on a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor. The PC came equipped

with 16 kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256k. The PC came with one or two 160k floppydisk drives and an optional color monitor. The price tag started at $1,565, which would benearly $4,000 today. What really made the IBM PC different from previous IBM computerswas that it was the first one built from off the shelf parts (called open architecture) andmarketed by outside distributors (Sears & Roebucks and Computerland). The Intel chip waschosen because IBM had already obtained the rights to manufacture

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the Intel chips. IBM had used the Intel 8086 for use in its Displaywriter Intelligent Typewriterin exchange for giving Intel the rights to IBM's bubble memory technology.

The IBM Compatible or Clone

The PC marketplace changed radically after the introduction of the IBM PC in Augustof 1981. As the IBM PC was built from commercially available off-the-shelf parts - a conceptsimilar to the original Altair microcomputer, companies began trying to clone it. Thiscreated a generation of MS-DOS computers which called themselves compatible, but whichweren't 100% compatible. This created numerous headaches for unsuspecting end users.Some systems offered the capability to run both CP/M and MS-DOS. The first company tosuccessfully build a 100% compatible IBM PC clone was Compaq

computer, who introduced their first system as what they called a portable. Its size andweight made it a luggable computer. Then other companies followed with true IBMcompatibles, mostly built overseas in Taiwan. Most of the CP/M computers quicklydisappeared, as did the not true compatibles, leaving their owners in a category which isnow well known and feared in the PC world - orphaned computer owners.

Just as IBM appeared to conquer the marketplace by 1983, Apple Computer

introduced the Macintosh, whose graphical user interface and mouse presented a totallynew approach to personal computing. Microsoft had to walk a careful narrow line, sayingnice things about the Mac because they worked closely with Apple, while not offending IBM.At the same time Bill Gates had plans for his own graphical user interface, which he calledWindows. Gates was convinced that a graphical user interface based operating system wasthe future.

IBM also had plans for its own new operating system, trying to break its reliance onMicrosoft by developing their own character-based but windowing operating system theycalled TopView. This went absolutely nowhere. The heralded new Intel 80286 processor alsowasn't fast enough to run Microsoft's Windows at acceptable speed, and had a design flawrelated to multitasking which caused Industry Analysis to refer to it as "brain dead".Microsoft and IBM continued to argue over operating systems, with Microsoft trying to

convince IBM to go with Windows. IBM however opted to develop their own GUI operatingsystem which they named OS/2, and enlisted Microsoft's help in writing it. This createdyears of doublespeak by the two companies as to where each product was going to fit intothe marketplace. Meanwhile the millions of IBM PC and compatible users got along fine withplain old DOS, and Apple's Macintosh with a GUI-that worked continued to gain marketacceptance.

In 1986, Compaq computer beat IBM to the punch and introduced the world's first80386-based PC, using an Intel processor which finally had the power and design to run aGUI-based operating system. By this time, IBM's PC sales were taken over by clone PC sales.In fact, the word clone was a misnomer, as these copy-cat computers actually offered betterperformance and features, and more bang for the buck.

The relationship between IBM and Microsoft finally exploded and evaporated, with

IBM taking over the job of trying to write OS/2, and with Microsoftgoing full speed ahead with a market plan for Windows to dominatethe world. The power of the 386 processor made this happen, andWindows 3.0 actually worked - to a degree. It was released in May,1990, and was a complete overhaul of the Windows environment.With the capability to address memory beyond 640K and a muchmore powerful user interface, independent software vendors starteddeveloping Windows applications with vigor. The powerful newapplications helped Microsoft sell more than 10 million copies of

Windows, making it the best-selling graphical user interface in the history of computing.

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New and Emerging Computer TechnologyNew and Emerging Computer Technology

The Quantum Computer

What is it, and how does it work? A quantum particle, such as an electron or atomicnucleus, can exist in two states at the same time -- say, with its spin in the up and downstates. This constitutes a quantum bit, or qubit. When the spin is up, the atom can be readas a 1, and the spin down can be read as a 0. This corresponds with the digital 1s and 0sthat make up the language of traditional computers. The spin of an atom up or down is thesame as turning a transistor on and off, both represent data in terms of 1s and 0s.

Qubits differ from traditional digital computer bits, however, because an atom ornucleus can be in a state of "superposition," representing simultaneously both 0 and 1 andeverything in between. Moreover, without interference from the external environment, thespins can be "entangled" in such a way that effectively wires together a quantumcomputer's qubits. Two entangled atoms act in concert with each other -- when one is in theup position, the other is guaranteed to be in the down position.

The combination of superposition and entanglement permit a quantum computer tohave enormous power, allowing it to perform calculations in a massively parallel, non-linearmanner,

exponentially faster than a conventional computer. For certain types of calculations -- suchas complex algorithms for cryptography or searching -- a quantum computer can performbillions of calculations in a single step. So, instead of solving the problem by adding all thenumbers in order, a quantum computer would add all the numbers at the same time.

To input and read the data in a quantum computer, a team of scientists uses anuclear magnetic resonance machine, which uses a giant magnet and is similar to themedical devices commonly used to image human soft tissues. A tiny test-tube filled with thespecial molecule is placed inside the machine and the scientists use radio-frequency pulsesas software to alter atomic spins in the particular way that enables the nuclei to performcalculations.

IBM-Led Team Unveils Most-Advanced Quantum Computer

At a technical conference in August 2000 at Stanford University, IBM-Almadenresearcher Isaac Chuang described his team's experiments that demonstrated the world'smost advanced quantum computer and the tremendous potential such devices have to

solve problems that conventional computers cannot handle.Dr. Isaac Chuang, research staff member at IBM's Almaden Research Center (SanJose, Calif.), holds a quantum computer -- a glass tube containing speciallydesigned molecules that can solve some of the most difficultmathematical problems exponentially faster than a conventionalcomputer.

"Quantum computing begins where Moore's Law ends -- about the year2020, when circuit features are predicted to be the size of atoms andmolecules," says Isaac L. Chuang, who led the team of scientists from IBMResearch, Stanford University and the University of Calgary. "Indeed, thebasic elements of quantum computers are atoms and molecules."

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Quantum computers get their power by taking advantage of certain quantum physicsproperties of atoms or nuclei that allow them to work together as quantum bits, or "qubits,"to be the computer's processor and memory. By interacting with each other while beingisolated from the external environment, theorists have predicted -- and this new resultconfirms -- that qubits could perform certain calculations exponentially faster thanconventional computers.

The new quantum computer contains five qubits -- five fluorine atoms within amolecule specially designed so the fluorine nuclei's "spins" can interact with each other asqubits, be programmed by radiofrequency pulses and be detected by nuclear magneticresonance instruments similar to those commonly used in hospitals and chemistry labs.

Using the molecule, Chuang's team solved in one step a mathematical problem forwhich conventional computers require repeated cycles. The problem is called "order-finding" -- finding the period of a particular function -- which is typical of many basicmathematical problems that underlie important applications such as cryptography.

While the potential for quantum computing is huge and recent progress isencouraging, the challenges remain daunting. IBM's five-qubit quantum computer is aresearch instrument. Commercial quantum computers are still many years away, since theymust have at least several dozen qubits before difficult real-world problems can be solved.

"This result gives us a great deal of confidence in understanding how quantumcomputing can evolve into a future technology," Chuang says. "It reinforces the growingrealization that quantum computers may someday be able to live up to their potential ofsolving in remarkably short times problems that are so complex that the most powerfulsupercomputers can't calculate the answers even if they worked on them for millions ofyears."

Chuang says the first applications are likely to be as a co-processor for specificfunctions, such as database lookup and finding the solution to a difficult mathematicalproblem. Accelerating word processing or Web surfing would not be well-suited to aquantum computer's capabilities.

Chuang presented his team's latest result today at Stanford University at the HotChips 2000 conference, which is organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics

Engineers' (IEEE) Computer Society. His co-authors are Gregory Breyta and Costantino S.Yannoni of IBM-Almaden, Stanford

University graduate students Lieven M.K .Vandersypen and Matthias Steffen, and theoreticalcomputer scientist Richard Cleve of the University of Calgary. The team has also submitteda technical report of their experiment to the scientific journal, Physical Review Letters.

History of Quantum Computing

When quantum computers were first proposed in the 1970s and 1980s (by theorists such asthe late Richard Feynmann of California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.; PaulBenioff of Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois; David Deutsch of Oxford U. in England.,

and Charles Bennett of IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.), manyscientists doubted that they could ever be made practical. But in 1994, Peter Shor of AT&TResearch described a specific quantum algorithm for factoring large numbers exponentiallyfaster than conventional computers -- fast enough to break the security of many public-keycryptosystems. Shor's algorithm opened the doors to much more effort aimed at realizingthe quantum computers' potential. Significant progress has been made by numerousresearch groups around the world.

Chuang is currently among the world's leading quantum computing experimentalists.He also led the teams that demonstrated the world's first 2-qubit quantum computer (in1998 at University of California Berkeley) and 3-qubit quantum computer (1999 at IBM-

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Almaden). The order-finding result announced today is the most complex algorithm yet tobe demonstrated by a quantum computer.

Optical Computers

In most modern computers, electrons travel between transistor switches on metalwires or traces to gather process and store information. The optical computers of the futurewill instead use photons traveling on optical fibers or thin films to perform these functions.But entirely optical computer systems are still far into the future. Right now scientists arefocusing on developing hybrids by combining electronics with photonics. Electro-optic

hybrids were first made possible around 1978, when researchersrealized that photons could respond to electrons through certainmedia such as lithium niobate (LiNbO3). To make the thin polymerfilms for electro-optic applications, NASA scientists dissolve amonomer (the building block of a polymer) in an organic solvent.

This solution is then put into a growth cell with a quartz window. Anultraviolet lamp shining through this window creates a chemical

reaction, causing a thin polymer film to deposit on the quartz.

An ultraviolet lamp causes the entire quartz surface to become coated, but shining alaser through the quartz can cause the polymer to deposit in specific patterns. Because alaser is a thin beam of focused light, it can be used to draw exact lines. A laser beam'sfocus can be as small as a micron-sized spot (1 micron is 1-millionth of a meter, or 1/25,000of an inch), so scientists can deposit the organic materials on the quartz in verysophisticated patterns. By painting with light, scientists can create optical circuits that mayone day replace the electronics currently used in computers.

In the optical computer of the future electronic circuits and wires will be replaced bya few optical fibers and films, making the systems more efficient with no interference, morecost effective, lighter and more compact.

The thin films allow us to transmit information using light. And because we're workingwith light, we're working with the speed of light without generating as much heat as

electrons. We can move information faster than electronic circuits, and without the need toremove damaging heat.Multiple frequencies of light can travel through optical components without

interference, allowing photonic devices to process multiple streams of data simultaneously.And the optical components permit a much higher data rate for any one of these streamsthan electrical conductors. Complex programs that take 100 to 1,000 hours to process onmodern electronic computers could eventually take an hour or less on photonic computers.

The speed of computers becomes a pressing problem as electronic circuits reachtheir maximum limit in network communications. The growth of the Internet demands fasterspeeds and larger

bandwidths than electronic circuits can provide. Electronic switching limits network speeds

to about 50 gigabits per second (1 gigabit (GB) is 1 billion bits).Terabit speeds are already needed to accommodate the 10 to 15 percent per monthgrowth rate of the Internet, and the increasing demand for bandwidth-intensive data suchas digital video (1 TB is 1 trillion bits). All optical switching using optical materials canrelieve the escalating problem of bandwidth limitations imposed by electronics.

Last year Lucent Technologies' Bell Laboratory introduced technology with thecapacity to carry the entire world's Internet traffic simultaneously over a single opticalcable. Optical computers will someday eliminate the need for the enormous tangle of wiresused in electronic computers today. Optical computers will be more compact and yet willhave faster speeds, larger bandwidths and more capabilities than modern electroniccomputers.

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Optical components like the thin-films developed by NASA are essential for thedevelopment of these advanced computers. By developing components for electro-optichybrids in the present, NASA scientists are helping to make possible the amazing opticalcomputers that will someday dominate the future.

Nanotechnology: The Coming Revolution in Manufacturing

Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Xerox PARC: Testimony to the U.S.House of Representatives Committee on Science, Subcommittee on BasicResearch, June 22, 1999.

Introduction

For centuries manufacturing methods have gotten more precise, less expensive, andmore flexible. In the next few decades, we will approach the limits of these trends. The limitof precision is the ability to get every atom where we want it. The limit of low cost is set bythe cost of the raw materials and the energy involved in manufacture. The limit of flexibilityis the ability to arrange atoms in all the patterns permitted by physical law.

Most scientists agree we will approach these limits but differ about how best to

proceed, on what nanotechnology will look like, and on how long it will take to develop.Much of this disagreement is caused by the simple fact that, collectively, we have onlyrecently agreed that the goal is feasible and we have not yet sorted out the issues that thiscreates. This process of creating a greater shared understanding both of the goals ofnanotechnology and the routes for achieving those goals is the most important result oftoday's research.

The Goal

Nanotechnology (or molecular nanotechnology to refer more specifically to the goalsdiscussed here) will let us continue the historical trends in manufacturing right up to thefundamental limits imposed by physical law. It will let us make remarkably powerful

molecular computers. It will let us make materials over fifty times lighter than steel oraluminum alloy but with the same strength. We'll be able to make jets, rockets, cars or evenchairs that, by today's standards, would be remarkably light, strong, and inexpensive.Molecular surgical tools, guided by molecular computers and injected into the blood streamcould find and destroy cancer cells or invading bacteria, unclog arteries, or provide oxygenwhen the circulation is impaired.

Nanotechnology will replace our entire manufacturing base with a new, radicallymore precise, radically less expensive, and radically more flexible way of making products.

The aim is not simply to replace today's computer chip making plants, but also to replacethe assembly lines for cars, televisions, telephones, books, surgical tools, missiles,bookcases, airplanes, tractors, and all the rest. The objective is a pervasive change inmanufacturing, a change that will leave virtually no product untouched. Economic progress

and military readiness in the 21st Century will depend fundamentally on maintaining acompetitive position in nanotechnology.

Self Replication and Low Cost

Many researchers think self replication will be the key to unlocking nanotechnologiesfull potential, moving it from a laboratory curiosity able to expensively make a few smallmolecular machines and a handful of valuable products to a robust manufacturingtechnology able to make myriads of products for the whole planet. We know self replicationcan inexpensively make complex products with great precision: cells are programmed byDNA to replicate and make complex systems -- including giant redwoods, wheat, whales,

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birds, pumpkins and more. We should likewise be able to develop artificial programmableself replicating molecular machine systems -- also known as assemblers -- able to make awide range of products from graphite, diamond, and other non-biological materials. The firstgroups to develop assemblers will have a historic window for economic, military, andenvironmental impact.

What Needs to be Done?

Developing nanotechnology will be a major project -- just as developing nuclear weapons orlunar rockets were major projects. We must first focus our efforts on developing two things:the tools with which to build the first molecular machines, and the blueprints of what we areto build. This will require the cooperative efforts of researchers across a wide range ofdisciplines: scanning probe microscopy, supramolecular chemistry, protein engineering, selfassembly, robotics, materials science, computational chemistry, self replicating systems,physics, computer science, and more. This work must focus on fundamentally newapproaches and methods: incremental or evolutionary improvements will not be sufficient.Government funding is both appropriate and essential for several reasons: the benefits willbe pervasive across companies and the economy; few if any companies will have theresources to pursue this alone; and development will take many years to a few decades

(beyond the planning horizon of most private organizations).

References

A Brief History of Computing:http://ox.compsoc.net/~swhite/history.html

A Brief History of Electronics:http://www.tmeg.com/esp/e_hist/ehist5.htm

Carbon Nanohorns Make Efficient Fuel Cells:

http://www.electronicstimes.com/story/OEG20010905S0023

History Of The Microcomputer Revolution: http://exo.com/~wts/mits0029.HTM

How Does a Quantum Computer Work?: http://www.howstuffworks.com/question475.htm

IBM Archives, 1959: http://www.w3c.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/loose.dtd

IBM Archives, 1960: http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1960.html

IBM Scientists Develop Carbon Nanotube Transistor Technology:

http://www.ibm.com/news/2001/04/27.phtml

IBM-Led Team Unveils Most-Advanced Quantum Computer:

http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/20000815_quantum.shtm

Inventors of the Modern Computer: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa121598.htm

Molecular Electronics Technology: http://www.calmec.com/molecula1.htm

Nanotechnology: The Coming Revolution in Manufacturing:

http://www.house.gov/science/merkle_062299.htm

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http://ox.compsoc.net/~swhite/history.htmlhttp://ox.compsoc.net/~swhite/history.htmlhttp://www.tmeg.com/esp/e_hist/ehist5.htmhttp://www.tmeg.com/esp/e_hist/ehist5.htmhttp://www.electronicstimes.com/story/OEG20010905S0023http://exo.com/~wts/mits0029.HTMhttp://www.howstuffworks.com/question475.htmhttp://www.w3c.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/loose.dtdhttp://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1960.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/news/2001/04/27.phtmlhttp://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/20000815_quantum.shtmhttp://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa121598.htmhttp://www.calmec.com/molecula1.htmhttp://www.house.gov/science/merkle_062299.htmhttp://ox.compsoc.net/~swhite/history.htmlhttp://www.tmeg.com/esp/e_hist/ehist5.htmhttp://www.electronicstimes.com/story/OEG20010905S0023http://exo.com/~wts/mits0029.HTMhttp://www.howstuffworks.com/question475.htmhttp://www.w3c.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/loose.dtdhttp://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1960.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/news/2001/04/27.phtmlhttp://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/20000815_quantum.shtmhttp://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa121598.htmhttp://www.calmec.com/molecula1.htmhttp://www.house.gov/science/merkle_062299.htm


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Nikola Tesla: Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000

Opportunities for Industry in the Application of Nanotechnology: http://www.nano.org.uk/section2.htm

Principles of the Chiropticene Switch: http://www.calmec.com/ChiroSwPrin.htm

The ENIAC I: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa060298.htm

The UNIVAC and the Legacy of the ENIAC:

http://www.library.upenn.edu/special/gallery/mauchly/jwm11.html

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http://www.nano.org.uk/section2.htmhttp://www.calmec.com/ChiroSwPrin.htmhttp://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa060298.htmhttp://www.library.upenn.edu/special/gallery/mauchly/jwm11.htmlhttp://www.nano.org.uk/section2.htmhttp://www.calmec.com/ChiroSwPrin.htmhttp://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa060298.htmhttp://www.library.upenn.edu/special/gallery/mauchly/jwm11.html

current and emerging electronic and computer technologies

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