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High Performance Parallel Computational NanotechnologyAt a recent press conference, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin encouraged NASA Ames Research Center to take a lead role in promoting research and development of advanced, high-performance computer technology, including nanotechnology. Manufacturers of leading-edge microprocessors currently perform large-scale simulations in the design and verification of semiconductor devices and microprocessors. Recently, the need for this intensive simulation and modeling analysis has greatly increased, due in part to the ever-increasing complexity of these devices, as well as the lessons of experiences such as the Pentium fiasco. Simulation, modeling, testing, and validation will be even more important for designing molecular computers because of the complex specification of millions of atoms, thousands of assembly steps, as well as the simulation and modeling needed to ensure reliable, robust and efficient fabrication of the molecular devices. The software for this capacity does not exist today, but it can be extrapolated from the software currently used in molecular modeling for other applications: semi-empirical methods, ab initio methods, self-consistent field methods, Hartree-Fock methods, molecular mechanics; and simulation methods for diamondoid structures. In as much as it seems clear that the application of such methods in nanotechnology will require powerful, highly powerful systems, this talk will discuss techniques and issues for performing these types of computations on parallel systems. We will describe system design issues (memory, I/O, mass storage, operating system requirements, special user interface issues, interconnects, bandwidths, and programming languages) involved in parallel methods for scalable classical, semiclassical, quantum, molecular mechanics, and continuum models; molecular nanotechnology computer-aided designs (NanoCAD) techniques; visualization using virtual reality techniques of structural models and assembly sequences; software required to control mini robotic manipulators for positional control; scalable numerical algorithms for reliability, verifications and testability. There appears no fundamental obstacle to simulating molecular compilers and molecular computers on high performance parallel computers, just as the Boeing 777 was simulated on a computer before manufacturing it.
Document ID
20020038836
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Saini, Subhash
(Computer Sciences Corp. Moffett Field, CA United States)
Craw, James M.
Date Acquired
August 20, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1995
Subject Category
Computer Operations And Hardware
Meeting Information
Meeting: Fourth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: November 9, 1995
End Date: November 11, 1995
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS2-12961
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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