HVAC Control in the New Millennium.pdf - HVAC.Amickracing

Control Technology, Microelectronics and NanotechnologyBio-chips are another term for molecular electronic systems. NEC,Hitachi, Toshiba, Matsushite, Fujitsu, Sanyo-Denki and Sharp havestarted research efforts on bio-chips for bio-computers.Molecular computers will control molecular assemblers, providingthe flow of instructions needed to place large numbers of atoms.Nanocomputers with molecular memory devices can also store datagenerated by a process that is the opposite of assembly.Assemblers will be used to shrink the size and cost of computercircuits. In today’s bulk technology, the patterns on silicon chips remainflat and molecular-scale flaws are unavoidable. Assemblers allow circuitsto be built in three dimensions with atomic precision.The fastest computers will use electronic effects, but the smallestmay not. With components a few atoms wide, a simple mechanical computercould be 1/100 of a cubic micron. This is billions of times morecompact than today’s microelectronics. Even with a billion bytes of storage,a nanomechanical computer would fit in a cube a micron wide,which is about the size of a bacterium or single bacteria. It would be fast.Although the mechanical operations will be about 100,000 times slowerthan electrical signals, they need to travel only 1/1,000,000 as far andthere will be less delay. This results in a mechanical computer that worksfaster than most of today’s electronic units.Universal AssemblersSecond-generation nanomachines will use enzymes. Thesenanomachines will function as assemblers. Enzymes assemble largemolecules by grabbing small molecules from the water around them andhold them together so that a bond forms. Enzymes can assemble essentiallythe whole range of molecules found in living things.An enzyme-like machine could add carbon atoms to a small area,layer on layer. If bonded correctly, the atoms will form a fine, flexiblediamond fiber having more than fifty times as much strength as thesame weight of aluminum.DNA copying machines make less than one error in100,000,000,000 operations. This is done with DNA enzymes that proofreadthe copy and correct errors. Assemblers could use similar errorcheckingand error-correcting schemes. The future will bring many improvementson biological evolution, and nanomachines will be but one.©2001 by The Fairmont Press, Inc. All rights reserved.