Category:	Science and Technology
Domain:	Computer Science
Keywords:	Computer Science - computers, processors, storage, data servers, miniature, nanotechnology, nanocomputing
Outlook:	Tiny processors and Web servers, some as small as specks of dust, with increasing capacities for data storage, may be widely embedded in the environment and in physical objects by 2015.
Summary Analysis:	The recent development of nanoscale micro electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) suggests that computing devices may continue to shrink until high capacity data servers can be invisibly embedded in other systems and environments. As early as 1999, researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst demonstrated the world's smallest implementation of a TCP/IP stack -- on an 8-pin low-power microcontroller about the size of a match-head. Since then, researchers at IBM, HP, and other companies have begun to develop tiny servers based on MEMS technologies. For instance, tiny nanoscale processors under development at HP measure less than one square micron and can be used to create memory chips or to augment processors. (For scale: more than 1,000 of these circuits can fit on the tip of a human hair.) In 2003 IBM researchers forecast that by 2007 tiny servers with 10-GB capacity would be available for about $1 each; by March 2005 they had already demonstrated a chip with that storage capacity.

	Implications:	Lighter and smaller mobile devices Ability to connect practically any device or appliance to a network, from which it can be controlled
	Early Indicators:	IBM's demonstration in March 2005 of a tiny server with a capacity of 10 GB HP's development of promising dense tiny nanoscale processors
	What to Watch:	Price of nanoscale processors continues to come down (the iPic mini Web server developed at UMass cost less than $1 in 2005). Storage capacity of nanoscale processors continues to increase.
	Parallels/Precedents:	Miniaturisation enabled by development of transistors
	Enablers/Drivers:	Continuing successful research in the parallel fields of nanomechanical engineering, mathematics, and molecular sciences Relentless demand for more data storage per square cm at increasingly lower costs
	Leaders:	Regions: US, Japan Institutions: UC Santa Barbara (research on the use of MEMS-based storage for buffering and caching streaming data) University of Massachusetts at Amherst (development of the iPic mini Web server) IBM, HP (development of nanoscale servers based on MEMS technology) University of Edinburgh [link] Heriot-Watt University [link] Centre for Electronic Nanosystems, NE England [link] Sintef, Norway [link] University of Tokyo [link]
	Figures:
	Sources:	"IPic - A Match Head Sized Web-Server." UMASS. [link] Raju Rangaswami, Zoran Dimitrijevi, Edward Chang, Klaus E. Schauser. 2003 "MEMS-based Disk Buffer for Streaming Media Servers." University of California, Santa Barbara [link] Spooner, John. "HP uses nanotechnology for new circuit." CNET News 9 Sep 2002 [link] Laurie Sullivan, "Intel, ADT prep future sensor networks," Information Week May 9 2006 [link] Michael Frank, Ultimate theoretical models of nanocomputers, Nanotechnology 9, 162-176, 1998 [link] Paul Beckett and Andrew Jennings, Towards Nanocomputer Architecture [link] Grid Technology will help design the tiny devices of the future, EPSRC, 15 May 2006 [link] Nanotube transistors pave the way for future nanocomputer design, CERN Courier 2002 [link] Nanoelectronics and Nanocomputing Home Page [link]

	At A Glance:	When:	3–10 years
		Where:	Global
		How Fast:	Months–Years
		Likelihood:	High
		Impact:	Medium-High
		Controversy:	Low

Related Outlooks: