A Computer That Operates On Water Droplets 67
Okian Warrior notes a Stanford project to build a basic computer that operates on water droplets. One of its creators, Manu Prakash, says the goal is not to compete with digital computers for manipulating data (though they can theoretically perform all of the same computations). Instead, "Our goal is to build a completely new class of computers that can precisely control and manipulate physical matter. Imagine if when you run a set of computations that not only information is processed but physical matter is algorithmically manipulated as well." The biggest obstacle in creating the water computer was figuring out a way to develop a clock mechanism. The team decided to use a rotating magnetic field, which is both precise and easy to control. To get it to interact with the water, they put arrays of tiny iron bars on glass slides, and then added a layer of oil, and finally another glass slide. Magnetized water droplets are injected into this scaffolding, and the magnetic field can then easily push them along paths created by the iron. "It's about manipulating matter faster," Prakash said.
Block-Transfer Computations (Score:3)
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Peoples of the universe, please attend carefully. The message that follows is vital to the future of you all.
don't they all? (Score:2)
Stanford? The one in Palo Alto? (Score:2)
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damn beat me to it!!! :)
Get the mop (Score:5, Funny)
We have a memory leak.
Re:Get the mop (Score:5, Funny)
Better wipe it and start clean.
We'll have to wait for the trickle charger, though.
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We have a memory leak.
Check the bubble sort algorithm!
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I hate it when I drop my fluidic phone into sand and ruin it. When will they think of a case with sponge covering the inside, so I can keep it moist under any conditions?
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Microfluidics? (Score:5, Interesting)
The project looks interesting from an academic perspective, but the stated application to biological microfluidics seems ridiculous when it requires the droplets to be filled with magnetic materials that could potentially compromise any test you might want to perform.
Microfluidic channels are fairly easy to produce using traditional lithography, and a simple water pump produces all of the motion necessary. It's difficult to see how this really improves upon that model.
Or another application (Score:3)
http://www.halfbakery.com/idea... [halfbakery.com]
Re:Microfluidics? (Score:4, Informative)
Microfluidic channels are fairly easy to produce using traditional lithography, and a simple water pump produces all of the motion necessary. It's difficult to see how this really improves upon that model.
You have a valid point, but I thought it was an interesting approach(*).
In his paper [arxiv.org], Dr. PraKash notes that microfluidics requires pumps, valves, and other controlling hardware to route the chemicals to the required places.
His system moves microsamples around using magnetic fields, eliminating the need for pumps and valves.
Check out his dancing droplets [youtube.com] video on YouTube. There's really a lot going on at the atomic level with these micro droplets.
(*) I submitted the article
Re:Microfluidics? (Score:4, Interesting)
Isn't this something similar to a switching apparatus that Russia was working on, except with switching done by jets of water, where two jets would cancel each other out, creating a zero? I remember reading about half-adders done this way, as well as far more complex hydrofluidic building blocks.
One advantage of this form of switching is that it is EMP-proof (barring a blast that actually causes physical damage), something that has been the Achilles heel of almost all technology made today.
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Rollerball
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I don't remember the original, series, or the new movie it's been a while but Aeon Flux had some kind of surveillance system that used water droplets.
They missed the memo (Score:3)
Hydraulic, pneumatic, hydropneumatic, mechanical... these kinds of control systems, as it turns out, are less reliable than using electronics, and they react more slowly. They also don't learn. Before you get enough complexity to have them learn, see points A and B.
In the south (Score:2)
Cloud computing (Score:3)
Fluidics was very big some 25 years ago (Score:5, Interesting)
It produced some PhDs and some R&D grants. But never went beyond academic labs. I don't think there was the Big Digital Electronic conspiracy to stymie the upstart competitor. Even their proponents did not really believe it could take on digital electronic circuits.
Re:Fluidics was very big some 25 years ago (Score:4, Informative)
It produced some PhDs and some R&D grants. But never went beyond academic labs.
The typical automatic transmission contains a fluidic computer, and that was the only computer they ran on until the 1980s. However, today the trend is towards shift-by-wire, with no linkage present even to handle limp-home mode shifting. If the electrical system serving the trans goes south, it's dead, Jim.
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It produced some PhDs and some R&D grants. But never went beyond academic labs.
The typical automatic transmission contains a fluidic computer, and that was the only computer they ran on until the 1980s. However, today the trend is towards shift-by-wire, with no linkage present even to handle limp-home mode shifting. If the electrical system serving the trans goes south, it's dead, Jim.
All the more reason to continue driving manual. Unfortunately manual transmission cars are getting increasingly hard to find as more people who don't know how to drive prefer everything automatic.
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When I went through that process nearly 30 years ago, I wanted to learn on Dad's car with the 5-speed. I felt since manuals were cheaper, the driving school would surely have manuals in their cars, and I wanted to know how to shift one.
If it hadn't been for that, I probably never would have learned to drive a straight. The driver's ed cars were automatics, my mother's car was an automatic, my first three used cars were all automatics. When I bought a 2012 Ford Focus, I was going to get the manual transmi
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Or you could just get an electric car which typically has no transmission because with its higher torque, it can go from 0 to 60 in less than 5 seconds essentially on one gear.
I hope to have one electric car one day for everyday use and trips of less than 200 to 250 miles and another vehicle (perhaps just borrowing a parent's jeep from time to time) for longer road trips. I'm hoping for a breakthrough in battery or fuel cell tech to take things to the next level as well as a price drop - but, since Telsas
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Motorcycle
Porche performance, Prius gas milage.
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I know. Dangerous with all of you driving around with no idea what is going on around you.
Or hunting us down and running us over.
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Awesome. I was just wondering where my next liver would come from.
Don't forget Hummer emissions.
Also, I have done lost count of the time I've been stuck behind a superbike on twisty roads. Motorcycles are slow if they're not on a prepared track that's been carefully swept of detritus. In the real world, keeping them on the road is a challenge, and you have to stick your head into oncoming traffic to take left-hand corners rapidly. I've whipped 750s and bigger like cream with stock-engine Nissan 240SX and Su
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I don't know about the bikes in your area, but my BMW has a cat converter just like any car, and the emissions are just as clean.
I get 55 to 65 mph off the freeways, 45 to 50 on the freeways.
Gravel can be an issue, mainly because drivers drag it from the shoulder onto the road because they can't stay on the road. Having a dual sport with ABS, ASC and tires made for road and off road means I can generally ignore gravel that would send a streetbike spinning.
As for being able to beat them on the road... it is
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don't know about the bikes in your area, but my BMW has a cat converter just like any car, and the emissions are just as clean.
Most of the bikes on the road are still pre-emissions, because motorcycles tend to be kept longer than cars... cheaper maintenance, cost almost as much as a car but do much less.
As for being able to beat them on the road... it is not a race. Slow down. YMMV
Haha, tell that to motorcyclists.
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All the more reason to continue driving manual. Unfortunately manual transmission cars are getting increasingly hard to find as more people who don't know how to drive prefer everything automatic.
Here in Finland, manual transmission is the norm, presumably due to fuel efficiency, which suits our high fuel prices. If our white trash can learn to drive them, then it shouldn't be too hard for you guys either. Automatic transmissions are generally used by people who lost a leg so can't easily operate the clutch.
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Here in Finland, manual transmission is the norm, presumably due to fuel efficiency, which suits our high fuel prices.
Sorry, modern automatics have higher efficiency than driving stick. The only cars in which the stick gives better efficiency are cars with old-school slushboxes like 5 and 6 speeds. The 8+ speed automatics have multiple overdrives and can get better mileage than you can.
The new automatics might still be annoying to drive, of course. For example the ZF9 has to make a weird shift to get in and out of overdrive, best-case it is much slower than the other shifts, though pretty fast. Still, as a driver what you
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If the transmission in my Audi A8 should go tits-up, I will probably drop the two grand for a six speed swap kit from another vehicle with a 4.2 V8 in it. Allroad, S4... apparently you can swap an OD from a TDI gearbox and get really bitchin' mileage out of it, too.
Problem is, lots of cars aren't even offered with a stick. Both my sedans fall into that category. There was no manual A8 (and only some S8s) and the only manual W126 was the AMG... and even that was an option.
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I imagined the automatic transmission to be using analog computation, along the lines of Watt's governor of steam engines. Was it digital?
Ultimately what it does is control various valves which can either be open or closed, so I guess you'd say so, but I'm not a transmission expert.
Electrons matter (Score:2)
Imagine if when you run a set of computations that not only information is processed but physical matter is algorithmically manipulated as well.
And here I thought the movement of electrons in normal computers was already the embodiment of algorithmic manipulation of physical matter. Silly me.
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Look, a brother's got to write his PhD thesis on something, you know? Don't be a spoil-sport.
Math (Score:2)
I can't wait to see the SQRT function.
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Max() and Minim()...
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SIN() and COS()
old tech (Score:4, Insightful)
A droplet computer is certainly new and interesting, but people should remember that computers using pneumatic or fluidic elements are actually quite old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F... [wikipedia.org]
MONIAC (Score:1)
And this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... [wikipedia.org]
Imagine.. (Score:1)
Imagine if when you run a set of computations that not only information is processed but physical matter is algorithmically manipulated as well.
Imagine if your TI-89 could be not only a graphing calculator but a handheld Rube Goldberg machine as well.
well described in "The New Hackers Dictionary" (Score:2)
The Eric S Raymonds jargon.txt or "The New Hackers Dictionary" has a series of illuminating illustrations on the features of a water-powered computer, made by Bells & Whistles incorporated. ...
No cooling problems, good floating point performance, but the overflow error and subsequent core dump is to be taken seriously
See http://www.catb.org/jargon/htm... [catb.org]
Water Clock (Score:2)
The biggest obstacle in creating the water computer was figuring out a way to develop a clock mechanism.
Water Clock [wikipedia.org]
Is it hosted on digital ocean! (Score:1)