Computing with Liquid-State Nanomechanical Oscillator Networks

我们的研究计划探索使用纳米级机械元件来取代电子晶体管作为先进计算设备的基本构建模块。众所周知，由于电子晶体管的制造工艺中的基本物理限制，减小电子晶体管的尺寸以创建更好的计算应用越来越困难和昂贵。相反，我们在非常强大和节能的计算系统（如人脑）中寻找灵感，提出一种基于复杂网络中互连的机械单元的计算机器。选择机械单元是因为它们可以以小尺寸制造，具有独特的功能（高速，低能耗，非线性行为）。这些单元被组织成一个网络，就像大脑中的神经元一样，因为这种类型的组织可以产生更有趣的计算设备，这些计算设备具有生物体的典型特征（大规模并行性，鲁棒性，适应性）。我们建议，特别是，非常小的振荡液滴的液态金属（直径下降到100纳米）作为我们的示威者的机械单位的新用途。这些纳米液滴制造起来相当简单，并且是液体，对于我们的目的具有非常有趣的特性。成千上万的液滴将被组装在网络中，以研究计算能力的出现。预计这些复杂的机制将在困难和重要的问题上表现得比标准的电子计算机好得多，例如检测声音或图像中的模式。 我们的多学科研究在科学上是重要的，因为它引入了一种新的工具，液态金属纳米液滴，以探索在非常小的尺度上流体的运动;因为它创造了可能是有史以来最复杂的计算机机器制造的机械元件，与尺寸和功率效率优于微电子电路;还因为它加深了我们对复杂系统中计算能力的理解，这是计算机科学和神经科学中的一个重要主题。我们的研究在技术上也很重要，因为它可能导致微型，节能和强大的计算设备，可以在飞行中重新配置，以快速解决具有挑战性的问题。这些设备在能源有限的应用中特别有用，例如移动的电话或分布式传感器网络。

Our research program explores the use of nanoscale mechanical elements to replace electronic transistors as the elemental building block of advanced computing devices. It is well-known that it is increasingly difficult and expensive to reduce the dimensions of electronic transistors to create better computing applications, due to fundamental physical limitations in their fabrication process. Instead, we look for inspiration in extraordinarily powerful and energy-efficient computing systems such as the human brain, to propose a computing machine based on mechanical units interconnected in a complex network. Mechanical units are chosen because they can be fabricated at small dimensions with unique capabilities (high speed, low energy consumption, non-linear behavior). These units are organized in a network, like neurons in the brain, because this type of organization can lead to much more interesting computing devices with characteristics typical of living organisms (massive parallelism, robustness, adaptability). We suggest, in particular, the novel use of very small oscillating droplets of liquid metal (diameters down to 100 nm) as the mechanical units for our demonstrators. These nano-droplets are reasonably simple to fabricate and, being liquid, have very interesting properties for our purpose. Thousands of droplets will be assembled in networks to study the emergence of computing capabilities. It is expected that these complex mechanisms will perform far better than standard electronic computers on difficult and important problems, such as the detection of patterns in sounds or in images.***     Our multi-disciplinary research is important scientifically because it introduces a new tool, liquid metal nano-droplets, to explore the motion of fluids at very small scales; because it creates what is probably the most sophisticated computing machine ever fabricated from mechanical elements, with dimensions and power-efficiency better than those of microelectronic circuits; and because it deepens our understanding of the emergence of computing capabilities in complex systems, a theme of central importance in computer science and neuroscience. Our research is also important technologically, as it may lead to miniature, energy-efficient and robust computing devices which can be reconfigured on the fly to rapidly solve challenging problems. These devices would be especially useful in applications with limited energy resources, such as mobile phones or distributed sensor networks.