NEW YORK: A water-based computer has been developed by researchers at Stanford University after nearly a decade of research and development. This device utilizes droplets of water to carry out the functions of a clock within the computer infrastructure.
Small iron bars were laid out on a glass slide, in a formation much like a maze found in a children’s activity book. This was layered in oil and covered with a blank glass slide. Researchers then injected water, laced with magnetic nanoparticles, into the system.
Each time a magnetic field is turned on, the magnetized water droplets alter their polarity in a specified direction. When the field is switched off, the droplets flip again and move forward a single step, while droplets interacting with each other provide computational abilities. A camera recording the positions of the droplets is able to determine if the tiny bars are in one position or another, representing the ones and zeros of binary language.
Water droplets are used to represent bits of information, directed by a magnetic field to synchronize the packets of water, keeping their movements in precise timing. Clocks are essential to the computers that drive all modern electronics. Processors need to precisely synchronize the actions of several processes at once, which would not be possible without the use of clocks. Without the use of a precise timepiece, if any single computer process were to fall behind during operations, it could radically affect the other operations happening within the processor, grinding the computer to a standstill.
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