Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by n1 on Wednesday June 10 2015, @10:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-ip66-rated-apparently dept.

Manu Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford, and his students have developed a synchronous computer that operates using the unique physics of moving water droplets. Their goal is to design a new class of computers that can precisely control and manipulate physical matter.

[...] "In this work, we finally demonstrate a synchronous, universal droplet logic and control," Prakash said.

Because of its universal nature, the droplet computer can theoretically perform any operation that a conventional electronic computer can crunch, although at significantly slower rates. Prakash and his colleagues, however, have a more ambitious application in mind.

"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."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by jcross on Wednesday June 10 2015, @01:34PM

    by jcross (4009) on Wednesday June 10 2015, @01:34PM (#194511)

    If you watch the video, it's quite clear they're well aware of pre-existing mechanical computers. The purpose of this is not to process information mechanically, but to manipulate fluids using the tools of information processing. So think of microfluidics as a potential application, i.e. precisely controlling chemical reactions in parallel on a tiny scale without using any robotics or nano-actuators or anything like that. In that sense, it's more like Jacquard's loom (which applied information to threads) than Babbage's difference engine (which applied gears to information processing).

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday June 10 2015, @01:43PM

    by darkfeline (1030) on Wednesday June 10 2015, @01:43PM (#194515) Homepage

    Indeed, that particular application sounds useful, but the summary implied that somehow doing computations physically is a new concept when it is not. Any competent computer scientist can apply any algorithm running on a standard electronic processor equally to mechanical gears, waffle-ball pushing apparatuses, Amazon shipping routes, drops of water, and, my personal favorite, interconnected ant farms.

    --
    Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!