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MIT Developing Self-Assembling Computer Chips 65

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 17, 2010 @11:41PM from the so-easy-it-builds-itself dept.

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."

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MIT Developing Self-Assembling Computer Chips

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Self-assembling post (Score:5, Funny)

by Kingrames ( 858416 ) writes: on Wednesday March 17, 2010 @11:41PM (#31519178)

This post made itself. I accept no responsibility.

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- Self assembling reply (Score:3, Funny)
  
  by unity100 ( 970058 ) writes:
  
  this reply also made itself. looks like its out of our hands now
  - Re: (Score:3)
    
    by siloko ( 1133863 ) writes:
    
    I guess it's out of our hands in much the same way as that Connect 4 token's final resting place is 'out of our hands' once we put it in the slot. Polymers falling into place is not the same as 'self-replicating intelligent life form'. Come back in a few million years and see if they've evolved!
  - Re: (Score:1, Funny)
    
    by Anonymous Coward writes:
    
    Sorry about the -1, Offtopic there... it self-assembled that mod.
- Re: (Score:3, Funny)
  
  by Cryacin ( 657549 ) writes:
  
  But it's a garden of eden post! LIAR!!!
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by davester666 ( 731373 ) writes:
  
  It's just like a computer to deflect it's responsibility onto the computer.
  I can see the headline now:
  Skynet says "I was programmed to do this!"
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by Sulphur ( 1548251 ) writes:
  
  db 'This post is written in self assembly'
Beginning of the End (Score:1)

by Anonymous Coward writes:

Good to know that we'll soon have replicators...
- Re: (Score:2, Funny)
  
  by MichaelSmith ( 789609 ) writes:
  
  And I for one...
  - Re: (Score:3, Funny)
    
    by Anonymous Coward writes:
    
    And I for one...
    - Re: (Score:3, Funny)
      
      by Anonymous Coward writes:
      
      And I for one ...
      - Re: (Score:1)
        
        by Ethanol-fueled ( 1125189 ) * writes:
        
        Mod Parent and GP down - everybody knows that synthehol isn't as good as the real thing.
        
        Re: (Score:2)
        
        by trapnest ( 1608791 ) writes:
        
        whoosh. Wrong replicators bro.
        
        Re:Beginning of the End (Score:4, Interesting)
        
        by Matrix9180 ( 734303 ) * writes: on Thursday March 18, 2010 @12:37AM (#31519422)
        
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Stargate) [wikipedia.org]
        
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      - Re: (Score:1)
        
        by Mitchell314 ( 1576581 ) writes:
        
        Oh damn, nobody told me the self assembly was recursive . . .
Now all I need (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes:

...is a self-assembling girlfriend.
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by bar-agent ( 698856 ) writes:
  
  All girlfriends self-assemble. You just have to decide how long to wait before that first date.
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by drkim ( 1559875 ) writes:
  
  ...all people are self assembling.
  I did it myself in 9 months.
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by Pvt_Ryan ( 1102363 ) writes:
  
  And then the cylons created cylons...
  
  I think I see a pattern...
Judgement Day (Score:1)

by tom_fpsb ( 1759062 ) writes:

Creeps closer...
Integrated circuit, eh? (Score:2, Funny)

by charlesbakerharris ( 623282 ) writes:

Does this mean the transistors and the capacitors don't have to drink at different fountains anymore? We've certainly come a long way.
Send in John Connor... (Score:1, Funny)

by ntimid8 ( 980393 ) writes:

Cause this sounds like Skynet all over again.
That's it (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes:

I'm taking the red pill.
Replicators ! (Score:1)

by OricAtmos48K ( 979353 ) writes:

I have seen that on a tv show ...
Exciting stuff (Score:5, Informative)

by sammydee ( 930754 ) writes: <seivadmas+slashd ... m ['ail' in gap]> on Thursday March 18, 2010 @03:22AM (#31520010) Homepage

This is a really hot topic in research right now. For my final year project on my physics degree I am investigating a theory of a model fluid with a repulsive step potential and it's amazing what kind of self assembly you get on a mesoscopic level.
At certain temperatures and pressures the molecules will all just spontaneously line up into stripes or clusters. This could have amazingly useful applications in chip assembly, because you don't need to assemble the chip any more - you just engineer a molecule that assembles itself into the right shape.

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- Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
  
  by colonelquesadilla ( 1693356 ) writes:
  
  Sounds a lot like proteins really... just saying. Is this sort of thing being viewed as a form of biomimetics?
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by L4t3r4lu5 ( 1216702 ) writes:
  
  Sorry bud, I just patented that.
  
  Eastern District Court of Texas, here I come!
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by Hurricane78 ( 562437 ) writes:
  
  “Just”? Engineering such a molecular Transformer sounds much harder than just creating the finished chip
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by inigopete ( 780297 ) writes:
  
  I'd be interested to know how closely this links with protein structure and self-assembly. It's called secondary and tertiary (and, to a degree, quartenary) structure with proteins and occurs thousands of times a second in living cells, self-catalysed and at room (or body) temperature in most cases: relatively simple long-chain molecules composed from only 20 possible different elements (amino acids) will become incredibly complex structures capable of anything from incredible structural strength to active
  - Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
    
    by Anonymous Coward writes:
    
    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).
Does it work with GDB? (Score:4, Funny)

by flyingfsck ( 986395 ) writes: on Thursday March 18, 2010 @03:29AM (#31520034)

How do you debug self assembly?
Is it supported by GCC yet?

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- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 ) writes:
  
  Given RMS' ties to MIT, it's only a matter of time...
ID (Score:1)

by Obble ( 1680532 ) writes:

So is this an example of Evolution or INTELegent Design?
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by chichilalescu ( 1647065 ) writes:
  
  mod parent up
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by chichilalescu ( 1647065 ) writes:
  
  seriously, guys. mod parent up. it's important to ask the right questions from time to time, even if you have no idea how to begin to answer. What is the difference between a virus and a selfassembling chip? dump their seed in the right environment, and they start eating. or something like that.
Don't worry. (Score:2)

by Osmosis_Garett ( 712648 ) writes:

What could possibly go wrong?
autofac? (Score:2)

by orcus ( 21207 ) writes:

Cool - I've always wanted an autofac.... Or two.... Or three...
I wonder if... (Score:1)

by ctrl-alt-canc ( 977108 ) writes:

...self assembled computer chips program themselves in self-assembly language.
And do they also self-debug ?!? It would be a dream for every programmer...
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by thunrida ( 950858 ) writes:
  
  What dream? Getting fired dream?
  - Re: (Score:1)
    
    by Ironhandx ( 1762146 ) writes:
    
    Indeed. Mod parent up, look what happened to the illustrious US manufacturing industry. Its still going strong, but only employs about 5% of the bodies that it used to.
    As more and more modern tech automates everything around us we're going to be forced to either move to a socialist government type or suffer the consequences of everyone being unemployed, hungry, and pissed off.
It's ALIVE!!! (Score:1)

by sourcerror ( 1718066 ) writes:

There's a pretty good scifi that starts with self-modifying, self-replicating robots: screamer [youtube.com]
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by sourcerror ( 1718066 ) writes:
  
  Of course they turn on humans: what else would you expect?
Time to stock up on machine guns and lots of ammo! (Score:2)

by Joe The Dragon ( 967727 ) writes:

Time to stock up on machine guns and lots of ammo! EMP guns only work a few times before they are able to work around them.
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by Creepy ( 93888 ) writes:
  
  Or they could just make the chips radiation hardened to begin with... oh, wait, you're talking about "magic" technologies like in the movies. Yeah - anti-EMP adaptive technology because radiation hardening is too easy and you need something that can kill the baddies, right?
import skynet (Score:2)

by Ecks ( 52930 ) writes:

http://xkcd.com/521/ [xkcd.com] -- It's in the mouseover.
Mr. Crab wants to know (Score:1)

by Loko Draucarn ( 398556 ) writes:

Can a Music player made from these play I_Cannot_Be_Played_on_Music_Player_X.flac?
Useless article for publicity (Score:1)

by cyfer2000 ( 548592 ) writes:

This is a piece of useless article just for some kind of publicity. Let me put more interesting one for who have been tricked in to this thread for more information about polymer self assembly [eetimes.com].
Terminator Tag (Score:1)

by Zotdogg ( 1469295 ) writes:

How has this story not been tagged with the "Terminator" tag.

Maybe it's because this isn't such a new thing (according to previous posters) but it seems to be that the average post length for this story seems to be very low and they're all about one SciFi-esque self-sustaining robotic race or another. I mean, come on, if you've been following /. here with Religious-like or even RSS-like regularity, you would have seen how we are raising our own AI in it's own little sandboxed area compelete with environm

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Self-assembling post (Score:5, Funny)

Self assembling reply (Score:3, Funny)

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Beginning of the End (Score:1)

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Re:Beginning of the End (Score:4, Interesting)

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Now all I need (Score:1, Funny)

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Judgement Day (Score:1)

Integrated circuit, eh? (Score:2, Funny)

Send in John Connor... (Score:1, Funny)

That's it (Score:1, Funny)

Replicators ! (Score:1)

Exciting stuff (Score:5, Informative)

Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

Re: (Score:2)

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Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

Does it work with GDB? (Score:4, Funny)

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ID (Score:1)

Re: (Score:1)

Re: (Score:1)

Don't worry. (Score:2)

autofac? (Score:2)

I wonder if... (Score:1)

Re: (Score:1)

Re: (Score:1)

It's ALIVE!!! (Score:1)

Re: (Score:1)

Time to stock up on machine guns and lots of ammo! (Score:2)

Re: (Score:2)

import skynet (Score:2)

Mr. Crab wants to know (Score:1)

Useless article for publicity (Score:1)

Terminator Tag (Score:1)

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