The future on the head of a pin continued ap plications. The Sw iss may have been excell ent watc hm akers, bu t the ga me changed whe n th e hi ghl y accurate electro ni c watches appeared. Yo ur a uto mo bil e, any e leva to r you rid e, yo ur TV and a udi o sys te ms, yo ur tele ph o ne, a nd every Y2K proble m in the world all de pe nd on IC s. Thi s great inventi o n has c rea ted the informat io n age that has revo luti o ni zed th e way we li ve. Whil e e-co mm e rce growth rates are astou ndin g, th at sector represe nts less th an I pe rcent of th e $9 trillion U.S. eco nomy. It is also estimated th at the in fo rm ati o n technology revo luti on is impactin g o ur natio n's infla ti o n, lowerin g it by I percent thi s year. Wh e re are we headed? Moo re's law has been o ffi ciall y re placed w ith the Inte rn ational Tech no logy Roadmap fo r Semi co nduc tors, w hi ch pred ic ts mi c roprocessors wi ll co ntain 76 milli o n tra nsistors each in 2002 a nd 200 million api ece by 2005. Dyna mi c RAM me mo ry passed the bi II io n tra nsistor level several years ago. Ultim ate ly th e re are ph ys ical limits to how closely togethe r circ uits ca n be etc hed w ith li ght o nto th e s urface of a silicon c hip , w ith an e nd to Moore's law by 20 12. But las t summe r sc ie nti sts ann o unced a brea kthro ugh in resea rc h in mo lec ul ar stru ctures th at seem to be have li ke d ig ital sw itc hes . These resea rc he rs fo resee mo lecul ar-scale e lec tron ics (mo leclro ni cs) and co mpute rs that wo uld be 100 billi o n tim e as fa st as today' s fa stes t PC - a nd 100 o f th e process in g circuits co ul d be pl aced o n the head o f a pin . T hey predi ct smart materi als used fo r new types of coa tin gs , fo r exa mpl e, th at wo uld e nab le a surface to be " painted" w ith co mpute r-like se nso rs. Resea rc he rs at UMR a re already workin g o n app lica tio ns o f these s mart mate ri als th at will chan ge o ur li ves o nce aga in. Qur c hall e nge as we ente r th e 2 1st century is to in c reas in g ly make o ur des igns and sys te ms peo ple-o ri e nted, so th a t techn o logy does no t ru n o ur li ves, bu t instead in creases o ur produ cti vity and o ur qual it y o f li fe. Tod ay' stu dent s have their wo rk c ut o ut fo r th e m . Robert Mitchell is dean of the UMR School of Engineering and a professor of electrical and computer engineering.
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MS ~I ¡U~I R ALU ~I N~S I Winter 1999
BV Aria" R. DeKock (adekock@umr.edu)
