chxo internets

Nano Babbage

BBC NEWS: Antique engines inspire nano chip

Nano technology finally starts to get street-level interesting as researchers re-model nineteenth-century mechanical computing ideas, on a very small scale.

“We are not going to compete with high-speed silicon, but where we are competitive is for all of those mundane applications where you need microprocessors which can be slow and cheap as well.”
—Robert Blick, U of Wisconsin

I wonder if you’ll be able to hear it clicking?

Here’s the paper: A nanomechanical computer—exploring new avenues of computing.

Here’s some inspiration: The Difference Engine by Gibson and Sterling.