MISC for Quantum Computers?
Penio Penev wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Oct 1996, Christophe Lavarenne wrote:
> Since there are very few posiible instructions to execute, x21 executes
> them all in parallel, producing the resluts of all of them in internal
> registers. The decoding of the intruction merely tell you _which one_ of
> those internal registers to latch to TOS.
Christophe Lavarenne pointed out some specific inaccuracies with this
statement for the current MISC chips. But the essence of this approach
reminds me of the researchers looking into the theoretical and practical
possibilities of using _Quantum Mechanics_ to perform computation. In
QM theory, depending on your "interpretation" of the theory, a physical
system is in a simulataneous supperposition of states. Later, the
system may "collapse" into one definate state. For a computer, the QM
processor could be investigating bazillions (a highly technical term :)
) of alternative solutions to a problem in parallel, then by careful
design, one of these solutions "collapses" into the one right answer to
the problem, perhaps through a stream of selection instructions, a la
MISC.
I know that Jeff Fox and Chuck Moore have training in physics. Chuck is
acting as a nano-scale hand craftwman, in how he designs the MISC
chips. At a talk, Jeff reports:
Chuck also has been thinking about nano technology. Chuck feels
that mechanical computers at that scale are not the only way
to go. Electrons or fields will still be faster.
In OKAD one of the units represents 6000 electrons per femto
coulomb. This is getting close enough to think about single
electrons. In the smaller transistors that Chuck makes there
are about 3000 atoms along the edge of the transistor, and the
oxide level is about 60 atoms deep. So there are only a billion
atoms in a transistor, and with the statistical distribution of
dopants in transistors there are potential problems.
So Chuck is already concerned about Quantum Mechanical effects. As far
as Quantum Computers are concerned, due to the newness and strangeness
of the technology, it seems that the MISC approach will be required - at
least at first. It is the only approach to computing that is simple
enough to be translated into Quantum Mechanics. Maybe today's MISC
designers will be in the best position to design the ultra-high
technology computers of the future -- Or at least make them practical.
Getting back to reality -- three cheers to iTV and all those like Jeff,
Chuck, and Joe for getting the MISC technology commercialized! They are
probably way too busy to think much about the computer technology of 20
years in the future. At least there are neat things happening today!
--
Mike Losh mlosh@tir.com
