Emerging Technologies In Computing|Computing Technologies

Emerging Technologies In Computing: Mobile computing, Grid Computing, Cloud Computing, Green Computing, DNA computing, Quantum computing, Molecular computing, Biological computing,Optical computing

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Emerging Technologies In Computing

Mobile Computing

Mobile computing enables users to work from a nonfi xed location using portable computing and communications devices such as laptops, notebooks, palmtops, smart cell phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

Mobile voice communication has been widely established throughout the world impacting our life at work and home. An extension of the above development forms the basis of mobile computing.

A PDA is such a device, which have both color screens and audio capabilities, enabling them

to be used as mobile phones, smartphones, Web browsers, or portable media players. Many PDAs can access the Internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi.

The wireless-fi delity (Wi-Fi) is used to connect to the Internet when within range of a wireless network. The main aims of Wi-Fi are the following: make access to information easier, ensure compatibility and co-existence of devices, eliminate cabling and wiring, and eliminate switches, adapters, plugs, pins and connectors.

The Bluetooth is a wireless protocol utilising short-range communications technology facilitating data transmission over short distances from fi xed and/or mobile devices, creating wireless Personal Area Networks (PANs). Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, telephones, laptops, personal computers, printers, GPS receivers, digital cameras and video game consoles.

Grid Computing

Grid computing is a form of distributed computing whereby a “super and virtual computer” is composed of a cluster of networked, loosely coupled computers, acting in concert to perform very large tasks.

This technology has been applied to computationally intensive scientific, mathematical and academic problems through volunteer computing. It is also used in commercial enterprises for diverse applications such as drug discovery, economic forecasting, seismic analysis, and back-office data processing in support of e-commerce and Web services.

Grid computing facilitates more cost-effective use of a given amount of computer resources

as well as provides as a way to solve problems that can’t be approached without an enormous amount of computing power.

In some grid computing systems, the computers may collaborate rather than being directed

by one managing computer. One likely area for the use of grid computing will be pervasive computing applications—those in which computers pervade our environment without our necessary awareness.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing means Internet (‘Cloud’) based development and use of computing. It is a paradigm in which information is permanently stored in servers on the Internet and cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, entertainment centres, table computers, notebooks, wall computers, handhelds, etc.

The majority of cloud-computing infrastructure currently consists of reliable services delivered through next generation data centres that are built on compute and storage virtualisation technologies.

The services are accessible anywhere in the world, with the cloud appearing as a single point of access for all the computing needs of consumers.

Green Computing

Green computing is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently. The goals are similar to green chemistry, i.e. reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximise energy efficiency during the product’s lifetime, and promote recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste, etc.

Modern IT systems rely upon a complicated mix of people, networks and hardware. Green computing is the environmentally responsible use of computers and related resources.

Such practices include the implementation of energy- efficient central processing units (CPUs), servers and peripherals as well as reduced resource consumption and proper disposal of electronic waste (e-waste).

The work habits of computer users and businesses can be modified to minimise adverse impact on the global environment

NEXT-GENERATION COMPUTING PARADIGMS

Silicon-based technologies have dominated the computing domain since its inception more than six decades ago.

Researchers have been pursuing a number of alternatives to silicon-based computing. Now, the technology pundits say that silicon-based technologies are fast reaching towards the saturation point and would have to accommodate a swell of new computing paradigms, which are decidedly silicon-free.

These non-traditional computing paradigms include DNA, quantum, molecular, biological, optical and nano-fluidic computing.

All these are in their infancy but have the potential to complement the current silicon-based technologies if not to replace them. Most probably, these new paradigms would be applied to special-purpose computing.

The following provide a few examples of new computing paradigms.

DNA computing

DNA computing is a form of computing which uses DNA, biochemistry and molecular biology, instead of the traditional silicon-based computer technologies. It is fundamentally similar to parallel computing in that it takes advantage of the many different molecules of DNA to try many different possibilities at once.

For certain specialised problems, DNA computers are faster and smaller than any other computer built so far.

However, DNA computing does not provide any new capabilities from the standpoint of computability theory, the study of which problems are computationally solvable using different models of computation.

Quantum computing

Quantum computing is direct use of distinctively quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. In a classical (or conventional) computer, information is stored as bits; in a quantum computer, it is stored as qubits (quantum binary digits).

The basic principle of quantum computation is that the quantum properties can be used to represent and structure data, and that quantum mechanisms can be devised and built to perform operations with these data.

If large-scale quantum computers can be built, they will be able to solve certain problems much faster than any of current computers.

Molecular computing

Molecular computing are massively parallel computers taking advantage of the computational power of molecules (specifi cally biological). Molectronics specifi cally refers to the sub-fi eld of physics, which addresses the computational potential of atomic arrangements.

Molecule cascade computing is the newest area in the development of alternatives to traditional computing. This technique is based on forming circuits by creating a precise pattern of carbon monoxide molecules on a copper surface. By nudging a single

molecule, it has been possible to cause a cascade of molecules, much like toppling dominoes.

Different molecules can represent the 1’s and 0’s of binary information, making possible calculations.

While this technique may make possible circuits hundreds of thousands of times smaller than those used today, it shares with the other alternatives the fact that a number of problems must be solved for it to be ever suitable for practical applications.

Biological computing

Biological computing is the use of living organisms or their component parts to perform computing operations or operations associated with computing, e.g. storage. The various forms of biological computing take a different route than those used by quantum or optical computing to overcome the limitations to performance that silicon-based computers face.

Rather than focusing on increasing the speed of individual computing operations, biological computing focuses on the use of massive parallelism, or the allocation of tiny portions of a computing task to many different processing elements.

Each element in and of itself cannot perform its task quickly, but the fact that there is an incredibly huge number of such elements, each performing a small task, means that the processing operation can be performed far more quickly.

Optical computing

Optical computing uses light instead of electricity (i.e. photons rather than electrons) to manipulate, store and transmit data. Photons have fundamentally different physical properties than electrons, and researchers have attempted to make use of these properties, mostly using the basic principles of optics, to produce computers with performance and/or capabilities greater than those of electronic computers.

Most research projects focus on replacing current computer components with optical equivalents, resulting in an optical digital computer system processing binary data.

This approach appears to offer the best short-term prospects for commercial optical computing, since optical components could be integrated into traditional computers to produce an optical/electronic hybrid.

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