The Intel microprocessor inside most of those PCs: up eight-fold (in logic gates) and five- to tenfold (in speed) since 1989.

FORBES: Rational Exuberance

Of course, they haven't built a living genetic PC just yet, but to speed up its development, the team has contributed all the transcriptor-based logic gates to the public domain.

ENGADGET

Wherever the stock market may journey, U.S. output of silicon logic gates, lines of software code, terabits of Web traffic and base pairs of genes sequenced is going to keep right on growing.

FORBES: Rational Exuberance

In what appears to be an early proof-of-concept for DNA computing, scientists at Columbia University and the University of New Mexico have created a basic computer, called the MAYA-II, which has a molecular array of YES and AND logic gates made up of 100 DNA circuits.

ENGADGET: Meet MAYA-II, the new DNA computer that can play Tic-Tac-Toe

As is his style in product reviews, Gates pressed Allard, challenging the logic of the approach.

FORBES: As iPad Launched, Bill Gates Helped Kill Microsoft's Own Tablet To Save Windows

Gates loves the challenge of racing down a logic tree of decisions and potential outcomes over a range of business scenarios.

FORBES: Digital rules