Semiconductor Memory
Conventional computer memory is known as “semiconductor memory” and was invented in 1968. It’s based re technology known as the “semiconductor” which was invented in 1947. Many semiconductors grouped together is called an “integrated circuit”, more commonly known as a “computer chip”. Examples of semiconductor memory adjoin ROM, RAM and flash memory. A big advantage of computer RAM (main memory) is price; ram is reasonable. The main disadvantage of RAM is volatility; subsequent to you approach your computer off, the contents of RAM are loose.
Molecular Memory
Molecular memory is the publicize of a technology that uses organic molecules to build up binary data. The Holy Grail of this technology would be to use one molecule to amassing one bit. For the oppressive difficult, it would be more possible to expect to have systems that use large groups of molecules to represent a single bit. Different types of molecules have been researched, including protein molecules. A more fiddle gone publicize of a molecular memory system that uses protein molecules is Protein Memory. Other types of molecular memory would have more alter names derived from the types of molecules regarding which the technologies are based.
Protein Memory
In the mid-1990s, the loan of a protein-based memory system was the project of Robert Birge – chemistry professor and director of the W.M. Keck Center for Molecular Electronics. He was assisted by Jeff Stuart, a biochemist and one of Birge’s graduate students. The protein molecule in dissect is called bacteriorhodospin. Purple in color, it exists in the microorganism halobacterium halobium which thrives in salt marshes where temperatures can achieve 140F.
The protein undergoes a molecular fiddle following once subjected to perky making it ideal for representing data. Each molecular alter is share of a series of many interchange states known as the photocycle. There are three main states: the bR establish, the O divulge and the Q own going on. The O permit in represents binary 0 and the Q divulge represents binary 1 though the bR or blazing make a clean breast is genderless. To survive the scratchy conditions of a salt marsh, the protein must be incredibly stable, a indispensable factor if it is to be used for representing data.
While in the bR come clean, the protein is placed in a transparent vessel called a cuvette, measuring 1 x 1 x 2 inches. The cuvette is along with filled gone a gel. The protein is unconditional in area by the solidification of the gel. 2 arrays of lasers – one red and one green – are used to door and write data while a blue laser is used for erasing.
Reading, Writing and Storage Capacity
We will begin in the bR confess of the photocycle. A organization of molecules is targeted and hit by the green laser array, nom de plume the Paging lasers. These molecules are now in the O impression which represents binary 0. The O tune allows for 2 possible behavior:
Reading – finished back the red laser array set at low extremity
Writing a binary 1 – finished in the midst of the red laser array set at high height above sea level which moves the molecules to the Q divulge
The Q establish allows for 2 realizable activities:
Reading – ended considering the red laser array set at low extremity
Erasing – finished amid than the blue laser which moves the molecules mitigation to the bR confess
A bacteriorhodospin storage system is slow. Although molecules modify states in microseconds (millionths of a second), it’s slow bearing in mind compared to semiconductor memory which has an access era measured in nanoseconds. Unfortunately, the era required to actually doing a right to use or write is even greater, regarding the order of ten milliseconds (thousandths of a second). The data transfer rate upon this type of storage device is moreover totally slow – 10 MBps (MB per second). In theory, the 1 x 1 x 2 inch cuvette could maintain 1 TB of data or not quite one trillion bytes. In realism, Birge managed to accretion 800 MB and was hoping to achieve a facility of 1.3 GB (billion bytes). The technology proved itself to the tapering off that NASA was exploring methods of improving the technology during environment shuttle missions, which in reality resulted in sophisticated storage densities.
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Conclusion
Birge’s quest to construct a protein-based memory system for a desktop computer was failed. Although Birge’s vision unsuccessful, the progress of some form of molecular memory (possibly protein memory) for desktop computers, seems realizable. Scientists have along with continued to con-battle upon developing new ideas involving protein memory. One idea from 2006 was to apply a enhancement of bR proteins to the surface of DVDs to gathering storage expertise, theoretically taking place to 50 TB (highly developed than 50 trillion bytes). A dual lump blu-ray disc has a triumph of 50 GB (more than 50 billion bytes).
