Nano Computing and The Future of Silicon Essay -- optical computing, d

We are coming to the end of advancement in traditional silicon-based computation; therefore we should utilize non-traditional silicon. While there are other alternatives, currently none of them are commercially available or developed in any realistically usable way like silicon is. Currently we have been able to successfully prototype a variety of methods for non-traditional silicon based technologies such as 3D chip stacking and multi-core processor design. This paper will discuss the benefits of utilizing non-traditional silicon and how the other â€Å"solutions† to the end of traditional silicon are not developed to the point of being a real solution. The other â€Å"solutions† are DNA computing, Optical computing, Molecular computing, and Quantum computing. There are limitations with these â€Å"solutions† even before being commercially available. For instance, current development of DNA computation is not going to solve our problem, because it is so expensive and you have to pay someone to program the DNA so it can grow into what it needs to be. Optical computing won’t solve the issue because it has some major disadvantages such as: cost, size, alignment precision, thermal stability, fabrication, lack of design software for creation, and the need for ultra low voltages (Optical Computers). Additionally Mark Ratner, a chemist at Northwestern University, who is generally regarded as one of the grandfathers of the field, doubts molecules will ever compete directly with silicon in complex computational tasks making molecular computation not needed (Rotman). Quantum computing will not solve the current issue because no one knows yet how long a true Quantum computer will take to develop or how many functions it will accurately perform early o... ...ense Tech RSS. Military.com, 17 Mar. 2014. . â€Å"the contractor purchased a † "Optical Computers." UNCW. University of North Carolina Wilmington, n.d. . â€Å"an optical computer is a † Preskill, John. "Quantum Computing: Pro and Con."Http://www.theory.caltech.edu/. California Institute of Technology, n.d. 1998. . â€Å" Quantum computers will be too expensive.† Ramanathan, R. M. "Intel Multi-Core Processors." Pogolinux. Intel, n.d. . Seffers, George I. "National Security Drives Quantum Computer Research." SIGNAL Magazine. SIGNAL Online, Oct. 2010. . â€Å"No one knows yet what a working quantum †