As many a knowledgeable person will know, chaos in computer systems is not a good thing, in fact it’s probably seen as ‘El Diablo’ for most computer engineers. In a recent New Scientist, published 1^st November 2008, an article described a heretical approach to computer chip design using chaotic energy oscillations. The well established view is that any chaotic activity in a computer chip will render it useless in nanoseconds as the true signal decays into random noise and ceases to be useful.

A physicist from the University of Florida however has a different view; William Ditto believes that behind the seemingly random nature of chaotic behaviour in electrical systems are a non-random series of energy oscillations which can be stimulated to stabilize that system. In the case of a computer circuit this means controlling the oscillations can allow the behaviour of a circuit to change within a nanosecond, and effectively morph into performing a completely separate task.

To keep a very long story short this has profound effects for internet search engines. Using such circuits to store data can create digital memory which is far more compact than conventional memory and also allows for search time to be reduced dramatically. A database can be searched using more processing power than can normally be achieved with standard chips. Chaotic digital memory can store data at much higher densities and retrieve it up to 8 times faster. This makes it economical as well as practical.

The consequences of this novel approach to computer chip manufacture are far reaching, and it’s still very early day. As conventional manufacturing techniques are suitable for making these surreal chips it won’t be long till we start to feel the effects of this new technology.

Posted by Dean Euden