Nano-nano : Simulation at the Microscopic Level and Smaller

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Nov 5, 1999

In today's hi-tech world there is constant demand and incentive to go faster and farther, make day-to-day tasks easier, and create ways to dazzle our senses in new and exciting ways. A natural byproduct of all of this advancement is the miniaturization of many of our beloved technologies. The reason for this trend is pretty simple, and can be readily ellicited by examining the PC from which you're probably reading this article.

Consider your computer today in comparison to the one you might have owned ten years ago. On the surface, the two machines probably appear to be very similar : a CPU box, a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse. Sure there might be a few fancy peripherals on this year's model that weren't present a decade ago, but by and large, the computers are externally similar. Of course, when you turn the machines on, it's a completely different story. Your PC likely blazes through its tasks, bringing thousands of colors and sounds to your desktop and allowing you to access ports at the farthest reaches of the planet. While these features may make the 1989 antique look like a mere chalkboard in comparison, the real marvel is that all of the goodies fit in the same space as the clunky model.

In order for this transformation to occur, the components on the inside of the machine have shrunk to Lilliputian levels, and there appears to be no end in sight. Each year, more and more circuits are fit onto a single chip, and monitor resolution becomes greater in our endless pursuit of more performance in the same (or less) space. And this trend doesn't just apply to PC's. It's not hard to find examples of the miniaturization of technology in the realms of consumer electronics, automobiles, scientific instruments, and even materials manufacturing. One of the hottest new areas of research is in the so-called MEMS (or micro-electrical-mechanical) devices, which consist of gears, levels, and other devices built from just a few molecules!

So, what does all of this talk of shrinking technology have to do with scientific computing? Well, besides the fact that computational researchers benefit from the improved visualization and performance capabilities, simulation technologies have found a very vital role in the production of such inventions. Because of the size and time scales involved in the research in these areas, it is often not feasible to conduct purely experimental studies, and simulations are the only real alternatives. As we continue to look at scientific computing's real-life contributions, we'll spend the next few weeks looking at how computational researchers are making revolutionary discoveries

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