Nanocomputer Design Ditches Clock

from the who-needs-to-keep-time? dept

Roland Piquepaille writes "Nanotechnology research will use very small computer components which will require new computer designs. Technology Research News says that "researchers from Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) in Japan have come up with a design for nanocomputers that would use less power, dissipate less heat, require less wiring, and be more reconfigurable than existing proposals." Their design is based on cellular automata, but with a key differentiation. These are asynchronous cellular automata with no centralized clock. This will lead in 20 years to unknown levels of efficiency. "Computers made using the design would be able to process highly parallel applications as many as one billion times faster than today's computers." I've also written a column with more analysis and references to the world of asynchronous computing."

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