Defect-Tolerance in Cellular Nanocomputers

摘要

For the manufacturing of computers built by nanotechnol- ogy, defects are expected' to be a major problem. This paper explores this issue for nanocomputers based on cellular automata. Known for their regular structure, such architectures promise cost-effective manufacturing based on molecular self-organization. We show how a cellular automaton can detect defects in a self-contained way, and how it configures circuits on its cells while avoiding the defects. The employed cellular automaton is asynchronous, i.e., it does not require a central clock to synchronize the updates of its cells. This mode of timing is especially suitable for the high integration densities of nan-otechnology implementations, since it potentially causes less heat dissipation.