As for the high cost of biochips, there are signs that it could be on the way down.

ECONOMIST: An un-killer app

And the combination of cheap silicon chips and cheap biochips could be potent.

ECONOMIST: An un-killer app

If the semiconductor industry is anything to go by, once the price of biochips starts falling, it will keep falling.

ECONOMIST: An un-killer app

This year's top performer for the Invesco fund is Orchid BioScience, which makes biochips--microchips integrated with DNA molecules for use in genomic research.

FORBES: Genes, Drugs And Demographics

And second, gathering the data for the computers to chew on, and performing subsequent diagnoses, will require lots of pricey (and currently non-reusable) biochips.

ECONOMIST: An un-killer app

The problem of finding meaningful patterns among the huge quantities of genetic data that are provided by biochips was recently tackled by a team of researchers led by Todd Golub and Donna Slonim, of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

ECONOMIST: An un-killer app