PROTEIN MEMORY FOR COMPUTERS Akshata.s.revankar E&C,8thsem Usn:2mm7ec002 Email:aks_rev2000@yahoo.com Abstract: While magnetic and semi-conductor based information storage devices have been in use since the middle 1950's, today's computers and volumes of information require increasingly more efficient and faster methods of storing data. While the speed of integrated circuit random access memory (RAM) has increased steadily over the past ten to fifteen years, the limits of these systems are rapidly approaching. In response to the rapidly changing face of computing and demand for physically smaller, greater capacity, bandwidth, a number of alternative methods to integrated circuit information storage have surfaced recently. Among the most promising of the new alternatives are photopolymer-based devices, holographic optical memory storage devices, and protein-based optical memory storage using rhodopsin , photosynthetic reaction centers, cytochrome c, photosystems I and II, phycobiliproteins, and phytochrome. Introduction: This seminar focuses mainly on protein-based optical memory storage using the photosensitive protein bacteriorhodopsin with the method of exciting the molecules. Bacteriorhodopsin is a light-harvesting protein from bacteria that live in salt marshes that has shown some promise as feasible optical data storage. The current work is to hybridize this biological molecule with the solid state components of a typical computer. In response to the demand for faster, more compact, and more affordable memory storage devices, several viable alternatives have appeared in recent years. Among the most promising approaches include memory storage using holography, polymer-based memory, and our focus, protein-based memory.
What is protein memory? Several biological molecules are being considered for use in computers, but the bacterial (bR)-has generated much interest among scientists. In the past few decades, much research was carried out in several laboratories in North America, Europe, and Japan, and the scientists become successful in building prototype parallel processing devices, three-dimensional memories, and protein-based neural networks. Bacteriorhodopsin, a light harvesting bacterial protein, is the basic unit of protein memory and is the key protein in halo bacterial photosynthesis. It functions like a light-driven photo pump. Under exposure to light it transports photons from the hollow bacterial cell to another medium, changes its mode of operation from photosynthesis to respiration, and converts light energy to chemical energy thus can be utilized to frame protein memories. ENERGY PATTERN Protein Memory Chip Advantages: 14. Advantages and Applications of Bacteriorhodopsin Bacteriorhodopsin is an excellent molecule for photonics. Naturally occurring, the purple pigment grows in salt marshes and has evolved to exist in half-a-dozen stable states within a convenient, reversible photo cycle. This robust system, coupled with the emergence of genetic engineering, forms the basis of a variety of applications and devices based on bacteriorhodopsin that are now beginning to emerge. The range of potential applications for which bacteriorhodopsin (bR) has been Investigated is remarkable. It includes: 1) Reversible holographic memory 2) Ultrafast random-access memory 3) Neural logic gates 4) Spatial light modulation 5) Nonlinear optical filters 6) Photonic-crystal band gap materials, 7) Pattern-recognition systems 8) High-contrast displays 9) Optical switches 10) Pico second photo detectors.