A computer that operates using the unique physics of moving water droplets has been developed by an Indian-origin scientist and his team.
The computer is nearly a decade in the making, incubated from an idea that struck Manu Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, when he was a graduate student.
What Prakash did was devise a system in which tiny water droplets are trapped in a magnetic field. When the field is rotated or flipped, the droplets move in precise direction and distance. This became the basis of the computer clock, which is an essential component of any computer.
The work combines his expertise in manipulating droplet fluid dynamics with a fundamental element of computer science an operating clock.
"In this work, we finally demonstrate a synchronous, universal droplet logic and control," Prakash said.
Computer clocks are responsible for nearly every modern convenience. Smartphones, DVRs, airplanes, internet - without a clock, none of these could operate without frequent and serious complications. Nearly every computer program requires several simultaneous operations, each conducted in a perfect step-by-step manner. A clock makes sure that these operations start and stop at the same times, thus ensuring that the information synchronizes.
The results are dire if a clock isn't present. It's like soldiers marching in formation: If one person falls dramatically out of time, it won't be long before the whole group falls apart. The same is true if multiple simultaneous computer operations run without a clock to synchronize them, Prakash explained.
"The reason computers work so precisely is that every operation happens synchronously; it's what made digital logic so powerful in the first place," Prakash said.
The droplet computer can theoretically perform any operation that a conventional electronic computer can crunch, although at significantly slower rates.
"We already have digital computers to process information. Our goal is not to compete with electronic computers or to operate word processors on this," Prakash said.
"Our goal is to build a completely new class of computers that can precisely control and manipulate physical matter."
"Imagine if when you run a set of computations that not only information is processed but physical matter is algorithmically manipulated as well. We have just made this possible at the mesoscale," Prakash said.
The study describing the water computer, published in Nature Physics, has all the technical details of the way this computer works. A simple-state machine including 1-bit memory storage (known as "flip-flop") is also demonstrated using the above basic building blocks.The current chips are about half the size of a postage stamp, and the droplets are smaller than poppy seeds, but Katsikis said that the physics of the system suggests it can be made even smaller. Combined with the fact that the magnetic field can control millions of droplets simultaneously, this makes the system exceptionally scalable.
"We can keep making it smaller and smaller so that it can do more operations per time, so that it can work with smaller droplet sizes and do more number of operations on a chip," said graduate student and co-author Jim Cybulski. "That lends itself very well to a variety of applications."
Prakash wondered if he could use little droplets as bits of information and utilise the precise movement of those drops to process both information and physical materials simultaneously.
Prakash decided to build a rotating magnetic field that could act as clock to synchronise all the droplets.
Prakash and his team built arrays of tiny iron bars on glass slides that look something like a Pac-Man maze. They laid a blank glass slide on top and sandwiched a layer of oil in between.
Prakash said the most immediate application might involve turning the computer into a high-throughput chemistry and biology laboratory. Instead of running reactions in bulk test tubes, each droplet can carry some chemicals and become its own test tube, and the droplet computer offers unprecedented control over these interactions.
Instead of running reactions in bulk test tubes, each droplet can carry some chemicals and become its own test tube, and the droplet computer offers unprecedented control over these interactions.
From the perspective of basic science, part of why the work is so exciting, Prakash said, is that it opens up a new way of thinking of computation in the physical world. Although the physics of computation has been previously applied to understand the limits of computation, the physical aspects of bits of information has never been exploited as a new way to manipulate matter at the mesoscale (10 microns to 1 millimeter).
The computer is nearly a decade in the making, incubated from an idea that struck Manu Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, when he was a graduate student.
Manu Prakash, who amazed the world last year by building a paper microscope, has now come up with a computer that works by moving water droplets. Prakash is an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University and he has developed the water computer with the help of two of his students. He was born in Meerut, India.
What Prakash did was devise a system in which tiny water droplets are trapped in a magnetic field. When the field is rotated or flipped, the droplets move in precise direction and distance. This became the basis of the computer clock, which is an essential component of any computer.
The work combines his expertise in manipulating droplet fluid dynamics with a fundamental element of computer science an operating clock.
"In this work, we finally demonstrate a synchronous, universal droplet logic and control," Prakash said.
Computer clocks are responsible for nearly every modern convenience. Smartphones, DVRs, airplanes, internet - without a clock, none of these could operate without frequent and serious complications. Nearly every computer program requires several simultaneous operations, each conducted in a perfect step-by-step manner. A clock makes sure that these operations start and stop at the same times, thus ensuring that the information synchronizes.
The results are dire if a clock isn't present. It's like soldiers marching in formation: If one person falls dramatically out of time, it won't be long before the whole group falls apart. The same is true if multiple simultaneous computer operations run without a clock to synchronize them, Prakash explained.
"The reason computers work so precisely is that every operation happens synchronously; it's what made digital logic so powerful in the first place," Prakash said.
The droplet computer can theoretically perform any operation that a conventional electronic computer can crunch, although at significantly slower rates.
"We already have digital computers to process information. Our goal is not to compete with electronic computers or to operate word processors on this," Prakash said.
"Our goal is to build a completely new class of computers that can precisely control and manipulate physical matter."
"Imagine if when you run a set of computations that not only information is processed but physical matter is algorithmically manipulated as well. We have just made this possible at the mesoscale," Prakash said.
The study describing the water computer, published in Nature Physics, has all the technical details of the way this computer works. A simple-state machine including 1-bit memory storage (known as "flip-flop") is also demonstrated using the above basic building blocks.The current chips are about half the size of a postage stamp, and the droplets are smaller than poppy seeds, but Katsikis said that the physics of the system suggests it can be made even smaller. Combined with the fact that the magnetic field can control millions of droplets simultaneously, this makes the system exceptionally scalable.
"We can keep making it smaller and smaller so that it can do more operations per time, so that it can work with smaller droplet sizes and do more number of operations on a chip," said graduate student and co-author Jim Cybulski. "That lends itself very well to a variety of applications."
Prakash wondered if he could use little droplets as bits of information and utilise the precise movement of those drops to process both information and physical materials simultaneously.
Prakash decided to build a rotating magnetic field that could act as clock to synchronise all the droplets.
Prakash and his team built arrays of tiny iron bars on glass slides that look something like a Pac-Man maze. They laid a blank glass slide on top and sandwiched a layer of oil in between.
Prakash said the most immediate application might involve turning the computer into a high-throughput chemistry and biology laboratory. Instead of running reactions in bulk test tubes, each droplet can carry some chemicals and become its own test tube, and the droplet computer offers unprecedented control over these interactions.
Instead of running reactions in bulk test tubes, each droplet can carry some chemicals and become its own test tube, and the droplet computer offers unprecedented control over these interactions.
From the perspective of basic science, part of why the work is so exciting, Prakash said, is that it opens up a new way of thinking of computation in the physical world. Although the physics of computation has been previously applied to understand the limits of computation, the physical aspects of bits of information has never been exploited as a new way to manipulate matter at the mesoscale (10 microns to 1 millimeter).
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank You. ^ _ ^