Next generation computing

Filed in archive Technology on July 14, 2006

One of the "parents" of wearable computing is the theory of pervasive computing: computing power is completely hidden, you will even not recognize them.
In the heart of computing - or better _the heart_ of computing is the chip. And here comes a technology that could change the way we see computing because the PC may disappear:

A project that could remove the electrical wiring in microchips, allowing denser circuitry, could result in computers with 500 times the power of present day technology. The University of Bath is to lead an international £555,000 three-year project to develop the wireless silicon chip system.

The idea for that chip is from nanotechnology:


The research project, which involves four universities in the UK and a university and research centre in Belgium and France, will look at ways of producing microwave energy on a small scale by firing electrons into magnetic fields produced in semi-conductors that are only a few atoms wide and are layered with magnets.

But if this research is successful, it could make computers with wireless semi-conductors a possibility within five or ten years of the end of the project.

And from the beginning they think about wearable computing in the healthcare sector:

This research may also improve the accuracy and speed of medical diagnostics by gathering data from health monitoring sensors. The microwave emitters are small enough to be integrated on portable biological sensors which feed information out on faulty biological processes.

via MTB Europe

[Picture: University of Bath; BBC]