MIT Developing Self-Assembling Computer Chips

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on have released research detailing how molecules in chips can self-assemble, potentially reducing manufacturing costs. The researchers have developed a technique in which polymers automatically fall into place to create an integrated circuit."

Re:Beginning of the End

[Matrix9180]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Stargate) [wikipedia.org]

Re:Exciting stuff

[colonelquesadilla]

Sounds a lot like proteins really... just saying. Is this sort of thing being viewed as a form of biomimetics?

Re:Exciting stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

This particular project may not be that closely linked, but much of the self-assembly research going on currently (by Erik Winfree et. al.) uses biological materials (DNA, proteins) as the building blocks.

Part of this is because some of the target applications involve interactions with biological systems (people, bacteria, etc.) and part is because DNA manufacturing is well-studied and powerful (in a computational sense).