Defense Intelligence Reference Document Quantum Computing And Utilizing Organic Molecules In Automation Technology

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The first challenge to overcome in supercomputing in space is radiation causing temporary
and permanent errors in calculation. The current approach is to make the solid state
components radiation-hard, a time-consuming and costly process. An alternate approach is
to use multiple commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components in parallel architecture.
George's group at the University of Florida pursued this approach with earthbound success. (2,
3) A good question arises that if SO years of space travel hasn't required one on board
supercomputer, why start now? It seems NASA asked this question as well and, after years
of preparation, cancelled the space test of the technology in late 2009.
Regardless of the need for current missions, one can imagine many future applications where
it would be more convenient to data process on long space missions without downloading
data to Earth-based system and uploading the results. This is especially true for long-
duration spaceflight where communication delays could be minutes to hours (Mars ~13
minutes, Jupiter ~45 minutes, and Neptune ~4 hours). Spacecraft active in the 40-year
horizon will require supercomputing technology on-board to process all of the data to be
acquired during flight. This includes astronomical data as well as ship and crew data.c
Example missions include Mars with a goal to analyze the planet using thousands of semi-
autonomous sensors or millions of independent, wirelessly communicating nanomachines
("magic dust"). In such scenarios, it is not necessarily numbers that need lots of crunching,
but algorithms that need to be run on powerful systems that could be non-traditional in their
design; for example, massively parallel.
MAKING DIGITAL CIRCUITS FASTER
In consideration of the underlying physics in the electrodynamics of transistor operation, the
scale of the constituent elements dominates the type of analyses required. In the
macroscopic regime, constituents are measured in microns or larger, properties are
dominated by well-defined statistical averages in bulk matter, and non-classical effects due
to the underlying fact that all particles involved in the interactions are really fluctuations
within a relativistic quantum field can safely be ignored. For 40 years making a fast transistor
was primarily accomplished by avoiding saturation between states in an arrangement known
as emitter coupled logic (ECL, pronounced "ek-el"). The ECL family of logic circuits could
achieve sub-nanosecond switching times and dominated the leading-edge of high-speed
computing up until the early 1990s. The drawback of ECL was that without reaching
saturation, no depletion zone existed within the individual transistors and thus current flowed
through much of the device hardware instead of the usual small leakage current associated
with gates in a defined state. ECL's large current flow makes cooling and power requirements
challenging, especially for space-based platforms where heat dissipation is an issue.
Saturation technologies, primarily MOSFET-based, surpassed the speed of high-current
devices when the footprint of individual elements became small enough that a change
between depletion states could be quickly stabilized, given the comparably slow drift
velocities of primary charge carriers. These CMOS-family technology devices are the current
state-of-the-art in integrated circuits, and device speed increases, until recently, were
dominated by making the circuit elements smaller (see below). Intel produces high volume
ICs with circuit elements size at 32 nm, and has demonstrated memory elements in 22 nm
c The scenario of several massive data acquisition channels was presented at the Workshop for Technology Breakthroughs
for Human Space Exploration, June 17'h 2010, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC. Navigation is and will continue to be
handled by traditional computing machines - it is only rocket science that needs to be solved for navigation purposes.
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