If we are to continue to see improvements in the performance and cost of computing, we must go beyond silicon. The technologies discussed today chemical and molecular devices and quantum computing explore these new frontiers for computing through different approaches. Chemical and Biomolecular Computing Chemical principles, such as the switching gates developed by Heath and Williams, are potentially smaller and faster than silicon transistors and operate at lower energy levels. At present, research is identifying chemical substances with required electrical, mechanical, and other properties. We also support research on massive fault-tolerance to find techniques for good devices to assemble and operate as reliable functional units even in the presence of many faulty units.
Biological principles are the basis for DNA computing.
Much as DNA sequences store information in the genome, DNA can also store information that represents complex scheduling problems, data-bases or other information. These methods are based on DNA fragments mixing in water solutions rather than ordered materials on surfaces. These methods have potential for very high degrees of parallelism with low material cost and energy requirements. Research challenges include a new and unfamiliar programming model, finding methods to detect low concentration answers in solutions, and characterizing the sorts of problems that could be efficiently solved. Quantum Computing Quantum phenomena are the latest in the quest for new principles to be used for computing purposes.