Nanotechnology

Read the following words and word combinations and use them for understanding and translation of the text:

to space - расставлять

precisely - точно, в точности

implication - значение, роль

density - плотность

to dissipate - рассеивать

to overcome - преодолевать

dormant - дремлющий, находящийся в состоянии покоя

branch - ответвление

assembly - сборка, монтаж

replication – копирование, репродукция

to deposit – поместить, помещать

nanotube - нанотрубка

conductor - проводник

to shrink - сокращаться

counterpart - двойник, аналог

core - ядро, сердечник, стержень

ultimate - конечный, окончательный

In a talk given in 1959, physicist Richard Feynman suggested that it might be possible to manipulate atoms individually, spacing them precisely. As Feynman also pointed out, the implications of computer technology are potentially very impressive. A current commercial DIMM memory module about the size of a person’s little finger holds about 250 megabytes worth of data. Feynman calculated that if 100 precisely arranged atoms were used for each bit of information, the contents of all the books that have ever been written could be stored in a cube about 1/200 of an inch wide, just about the smallest object the unaided human eye can see. Further, although the density of computer logic circuits in microprocessors is millions of times greater than it was with the computers of 1959, computers built at the atomic scale would be billions of times smaller still. Indeed, they would be the smallest computers possible short of one that used quantum states within the atoms themselves to store information. “Nanocomputers” could also efficiently dissipate heat energy, overcoming a key problem with today’s increasingly dense microprocessors.

The idea of atomic-level engineering lay largely dormant for about two decades. Starting with a 1981 paper, however, K. Eric Drexler began to flesh out proposed structures and methods for a branch of engineering he termed nanotechnology. (The “nano” refers to a nanometer, or one billionth of a meter. The term “nanotechnology had been coined by the Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi in 1974, and Drexler unknowingly used a related term to describe what later became known as molecular nanotechnology). Research in nanotechnology focuses on two broad areas: assembly and replication. Assembly is the problem of building tools (called assemblers) that can deposit and position individual atoms. Since such tools would almost certainly be prohibitively expensive to manufacture individually, research has focused on the idea of making tools that can reproduce themselves. This area of research began with John von Neumann’s 1940s concept of self-replicating computers.

There are several potential applications of nanotechnology in the manufacture of computer components. One is the possible use of carbon nanotubes in place of copper wires as conductors in computer chips. As chips continue to shrink, the connectors have also had to get smaller, but this in turn increases electrical resistance and reduces efficiency. Nanotubes, however, are not only superb electrical conductors, they are also far thinner than their copper counterparts. Intel Corporation has conducted promising tests of nanotube conductors, but it will likely be a number of years before they can be manufactured on an industrial scale.

Another alternative is “nanowires”. One design consists of a germanium core surrounded by a thin layer of crystalline silicon. Nanowires are easier to manufacture than nanotubes, but their performance and other characteristics may make them less useful for general-purpose computing devices.

The ultimate goal is to make the actual transistors in computer chips out of nanotubes instead of silicon. An important step in this direction was achieved in 2006 by IBM researchers who created a complete electronic circuit using a single carbon nanotube molecule.

Notes:

DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module) - двусторонний модуль памяти

Intel Corporation - американская корпорация, производящая широкий спектр электронных устройств и компьютерных компонентов, включая микропроцессоры, наборы системной логики (чипсеты) и др. Штаб-квартира - в городе Санта-Клара (Калифорния, США).