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arXiv · 1110.5844

Massively parallel computing on an organic molecular layer

Anirban Bandyopadhyay·Ranjit Pati·Satyajit Sahu·Ferdinand Peper·Daisuke Fujita
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Abstract

Current computers operate at enormous speeds of ~10^13 bits/s, but their principle of sequential logic operation has remained unchanged since the 1950s. Though our brain is much slower on a per-neuron base (~10^3 firings/s), it is capable of remarkable decision-making based on the collective operations of millions of neurons at a time in ever-evolving neural circuitry. Here we use molecular switches to build an assembly where each molecule communicates-like neurons-with many neighbors simultaneously. The assembly's ability to reconfigure itself spontaneously for a new problem allows us to realize conventional computing constructs like logic gates and Voronoi decompositions, as well as to reproduce two natural phenomena: heat diffusion and the mutation of normal cells to cancer cells. This is a shift from the current static computing paradigm of serial bit-processing to a regime in which a large number of bits are processed in parallel in dynamically changing hardware.

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Anirban Bandyopadhyay, Ranjit Pati, Satyajit Sahu, Ferdinand Peper, Daisuke Fujita. 2011-10-17. Massively parallel computing on an organic molecular layer. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1636

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