This article is published in the March 2017 issue.

Nanotechnology-Inspired Information Processing Systems Workshop Report

By: Khari Douglas, CCC program associateIn: /

Nanoscale tubeThe organizing committee for the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) sponsored Nanotechnology-Inspired Information Processing Systems has released their workshop report.

The workshop, held in September 2016, brought together over 40 leading researchers from the areas of computing, neuroscience, systems, architecture, integrated circuits, and nanoscience, to come up with new ideas for the future of information processing platforms on beyond-CMOS nanoscale technologies that can approach the energy efficiency and the decision‐making capacity of the human brain.

The workshop report addresses the future of nanoscale process technologies within three application-driven platform-focused topic areas and discusses the current technologies, challenges, and research opportunities in each area. The topic areas are:

  • cloud-based systems that provide software, platforms and infrastructure as an on demand service,
  • autonomous systems that perform certain tasks to assist, augment, and/or replace humans,
  • and human-centric systems including health and wellness preservation and cognitive assistance.

The previously released Executive Summary calls for the creation of a nation-wide Vertically Integrated Semiconductor Ecosystem (VISE), which conducts research and development seamlessly across the entire compute stack. This is necessary for the future of nanoscale technology research because it opens up new areas of semiconductor research and, due to its cost, creates a high barrier to entry from foreign competitors. Coupled with its recommendations within the three application areas, the report offers a potential roadmap for the future of nanoscale technology research.

To learn more about the workshops recommendations, please read the full report.