When constructing computer circuits, most folks start with silicon and metal, but not the researchers at Stanford.
As computer circuits shrink toward atomic dimensions - which they have for decades in accordance with Moore's Law - chip designers are running into physical limitations using traditional techniques.
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Alongside the development of silicon computer chips (integrated circuits to many of us) there was a companion revolution.
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The Stanford team's work was featured recently as an invited paper at the prestigious International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) as well as a "keynote paper" in the highly regarded IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems.
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The proof-of-concept computer won't give silicon circuits any threat when it's running at just 0.15Hz and takes up as much space as a mini fridge, but the hope is to dramatically speed up and shrink down future iterations to where there are advanced computers that occupy the same size as real muscles.
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The composites are also likely to see applications in enhancing the storage capacity of CDs and DVDs and in increasing the number of circuits that can fit on computer chips.
AMD's official rationale: By adding Markham, Ontario-based ATI's (nasdaq: ATYT - news - people ) graphics chips and chipsets--the circuits at the core of a computer system--to its arsenal, the company is better positioned to compete with Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ).
Just as biotechnology and software have sprung up outside the mainstream drugs and computer industries, so the industry that has grown up on voice circuits will find it hard to transfer its grip to the new world of data networks.
The lot also includes some handouts that cover Ferractor-based systems, which Univac used in their logic circuits as a magnetic alternative to the vacuum tubes used in earlier computer designs.
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Instead of just looking at one gene at a time, it uses an emerging method called systems biology that marries differential equations, computer simulations, and wet-lab biology to try to understand how molecular circuits go awry in cancer.
Its products include integrated circuits that are used in disk drives, solid state drives, high-speed communications systems, computer servers, storage systems, and personal computers.
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