Anirban Bandyopadhyay and Somobrata Acharya
International Center for Young Scientists, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
Edited by Mark A. Ratner, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, and approved January 15, 2008 (received for review April 4, 2007)
Abstract
A machine assembly consisting of 17 identical molecules of 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-1–4-benzoquinone (DRQ) executes 16 instructions at a time. A single DRQ is positioned at the center of a circular ring formed by 16 other DRQs, controlling their operation in parallel through hydrogen-bond channels. Each molecule is a logic machine and generates four instructions by rotating its alkyl groups. A single instruction executed by a scanning tunneling microscope tip on the central molecule can change decisions of 16 machines simultaneously, in four billion (4^16) ways. This parallel communication represents a significant conceptual advance relative to today's fastest processors, which execute only one instruction at a time
Source: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0703105105v1
