Web Designer and Developer

Free Wordpress Template

Gavin — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:01:42 +0000

I have created a Wordpress theme which is now available for download here. The template can be used and customised as much as you want and you can remove any credits to or mentions of this site, but please don’t pass the original template off as your own work. A demo of the template is available here so that you can view it before you download.

If you find any problems with the template please post a comment here to let me know so that I can fix it.

Minesweeper

Gavin — Sat, 10 May 2008 01:14:48 +0000

A basic version of Minesweeper written in VB.net. I may write a tutorial on how to create it later on. Download the executable file here.

Hide a webpage until it has fully loaded

Gavin — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:56:45 +0000

I decided to write this post after someone recently asked on a forum how they could hide a webpage until it had fully loaded then display it. There are tutorials out there that will hide the page using css then use a JavaScript onload event to show the page when it has loaded. The problem with that is if the user has JavaScript disabled then they will never see your page. We can avoid this problem by making use of an event provided by the Prototype JavaScript framework as is explained in the following steps.

Step 1 – Set up Prototype

To start with you need to download the Prototype JavaScript framework from http://www.prototypejs.org/. You then need to include this in your page using a script tag in the head section of the document e.g. .

Step 2 - Implement dom:loaded event listener to hide the page

The Prototype JavaScript framework provides a function called observe and an event called dom:loaded that fires immediately after the html is loaded and before any elements have loaded. We can use this event to apply a mask over the page that will hide the page while everything is loading. First we create an empty div element in the with an id called ‘mask’ that we can style with some css to hide the page.

document.observe('dom:loaded', function () {
 
	//create a new div element
 
	var maskElement = document.createElement(’div’);
 

 
	//create an id attribute
 
	var idAttr = document.createAttribute(”id”);
 
	
 
	//set the value of id attribute to ‘mask’
 
	idAttr.nodeValue = “mask”;
 
	
 
	//add the id attribute to the div element
 
 maskElement.setAttributeNode(idAttr);
 
	
 
	//get the body element
 
	var body = document.getElementsByTagName(’body’);
 
	
 
	//add the new div element to the body
 
	body[0].appendChild(maskElement);
 
	
 
	//get the mask div element
 
	var mask = $(’mask’);
 
	
 
	//style the mask so that it hides the whole page
 
	mask.style.backgroundColor = ‘#fff’;
 
	mask.style.position = ‘absolute’;
 
	mask.style.top = ‘0px’;
 
	mask.style.left = ‘0px’;
 
	mask.style.width = ‘100%’;
 
	mask.style.height = ‘100%’;
 
});

Step 3 - Implement onload event listener to show the page

No that the whole page has been hidden we need to show it again once the page has finished loading. The window.onload event listener can be used for this as it doesn’t fire until all elements on the page have fully loaded.

window.onload = function() {
 
	//get the mask div element
 
	var mask = $(’mask’);
 
	
 
	//style the mask so that it is no longer displayed
 
	mask.style.display = ‘none’;
 
}

There are limited uses for this technique and I would not recommend using it on a public website as you are likely to confuse your users by breaking convention. You may wish to add an animated loading gif so that the user knows that something is going on in the background and they should wait. This technique will not work on websites that use Flash.

How to choose a web design company

Gavin — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:50:50 +0000

Introduction

Welcome, for this blog post I decided to write about how you should go about choosing the best web design company for you. This article is intended for people who run a small to medium sized business and want to establish an online presence, but don’t know where to start with choosing a web designer. There are many web design companies out there some better than others. This article will look at how to go about choosing the right web design company for you.

Firstly it’s not strictly on topic, but let’s look at whether you should create the website yourself. Good web design companies do not tend to come cheap, so if you may consider saving money and creating the website yourself. This will most likely be a false economy. Just as you would hire a plumber to fit your central heating or a mechanic to fix your car you should hire a web design company to build you a website. The truth, that the DIY industry may try to ignore, is that experts do a better job than amateurs. There is of course always the exception to the rule, but when people are working day in and day out creating websites they are going to learn more about it than someone who does it as a hobby or uses the dreaded save as html option in Microsoft Office.

If you want to create a website properly it is going to require at a minimum learning the basics of web design, xhtml/css and specific equipment and software. You will need to take a course at your local college to pick up the very basics. Which will take considerable time and money. Hiring a web design company is going to allow you to focus on your own business and get your website up and running more quickly saving you money. There are more than enough reasons to get the professionals in and the next challenge is choosing the best company for you.

Step 1 – Research Web Design

Choosing the best web design company for you is probably the most difficult and most important decision to be made about your new website. Getting this decision correct can mean the difference between your website succeeding and failing. If you are willing to put some effort in to learn a little about web design it could seriously pay off in the long run. Try visiting web design forums and buy a web design magazine. The web design magazine ‘.net’ (called Practical Web Design if you’re not in the UK) is probably the best around. A basic understanding of what’s good and bad in web design will be very useful when choosing your web design company.

Step 2 – Word of mouth

Just as with all the trades (plumber, joiner, etc.) the best way to choose a web design company is through recommendation. If you know someone who has used a web design company and has had a good experience then the best place to go is probably to that company.

Step 3 – Search for companies and compile a short list

If you can’t get any recommendations then you will have to spend some time researching web design companies. It’s best to start by looking for companies in your area. You support the local economy and you have easy access to the company. Start by creating a check list of what you want from your website. Search for companies that offer what you want, look at their website and if you like what you see then add them to a short list.

Step 4 – Review Portfolio

The best way to evaluate a web design company is by reviewing the previous work in their portfolio. If your not going by recommendation then their previous work is the only thing that can indicate to you whether they are any good. One problem is how you evaluate the portfolio. You will of course look through it to see whether you like the visual appearance of the sites they have built, but there is more to a good website than whether it looks nice. You can use some techniques to evaluate whether their websites are well built which are explained below.

Check for errors in the website

The W3C is an organisation that sets standards for web design. Their website has a service to check for errors in the code of a website. Go to http://validator.w3.org/ and enter the website address you want to check. If the page shows a green bar then all is good, if it shows a red bar then there are error on the page. If there are errors it’s not the end of the world the website will most likely still work fine, but if the website is error free it shows that the company puts care into building their sites properly.

Check sites in browsershots.org

The most popular web browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer, many people are not aware that others even exist, but there are others the most popular of which is Mozilla Firefox. More importantly than whether the website passes the W3C test is whether it works in these other web browsers. If it doesn’t you could lose a lot of potential customers by having a website that doesn’t look or work as intended for a large percentage of people. The w3schools website, found at http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp, shows the current popularity of each web browser.

You can check that the web design companies website works in all major browsers by using a website called http://browsershots.org/. Go to the site and enter the website address of some of the sites in the companies web design portfolio. There are many check boxes that you can tick, but the important ones to tick are:

Linux – Firefox 2.0
Windows- Firefox 2.0, MSIE 6.0, MSIE 7.0
Mac– Safari 2.0, Safari 3.0

Browsershots.org will then return pictures of how the website looks in these different web browsers. It may take some time to return the results, but the site will give you a web address that you can bookmark and check the results later. If the website you check does not look pretty much the same in each picture then cross the company off your short list.

Check for usability features

The easier your website is to use the more people are likely to use it so when you look at the sites in the web design portfolios you should keep an eye out for features like a navigation bar that is consistent across all pages, a breadcrumb trail, a site map, easy to read text and an uncluttered page layout.

Look for sites in a similar area of business

Look in their portfolio for previous websites they have built for businesses in a similar industry to yours, it’s certainly not essential that they have experience in your industry but it could be an advantage.

Step 5 – Get in touch

Get in touch with the companies that you like the look of and talk to them about what you want. Get quotes from several companies and compare what they have to offer, but don’t automatically go for the cheapest, because they may not be the best value for money.

Step 6 – Avoid low prices

Avoid per-page and per-hour prices (unless there is a maximum price set). Good web design is a time consuming process and will not come cheap. It is not advisable to choose a web design company that promises you a website within a week or two for a couple of hundred pounds. Remember that as with most things you get what you pay for.

Step 7 – Contact previous clients

Looking through a companies portfolio can give you an idea of the quality of the work they produce, but it won’t necessarily help you to know whether the company is good to work with or whether the final result was actually what the client wanted. It can be a good idea to get in touch with some of their previous clients to ask if they had a good experience with the company. Just go to the websites of some of there client’s find an email address and send them a polite email. This stage was left until after you have created a short list so that you don’t have to contact lots of compnaies previous clients wasting both their time and yours.

Step 8 – Get a contract

It is very important that whatever web design company you choose you get a contract detailing how much the website will cost, what dates major milestones should be completed by, who will be responsible for extra costs, who owns the copyright etc. Also, make sure that the company registers you as the administrative contact for your domain name, otherwise it will belong to them not you and if you want to stop dealing with the company or fall out with them you don’t want to have trouble getting it back. Although you would most likely be able to claim it back by making an appeal to WIPO, but that costs money.

Additional Notes

Normally a web design company would not expect full payment upfront. Payment is usually made in stages when major deliverables are met. The stages at which payment should be made should be agreed upfront and documented in the contract. You may expect to pay when the design is complete, then when the build is complete.

If you want your website to be online as quickly as possible then it is very important that you make yourself available to your designer. One of the most common causes of delay to a project is waiting on the client.

You may have a clear idea of what you want your website to be like and ultimately since you’re paying your designer will probably create whatever you want, but they will advise you if they don’t consider something to be a good idea and if you want a successful website it is probably a good idea to listen. Assuming you have followed some of the tips here and managed to find a good web design agency then your designer will know what they are talking about and will be trying to create a website that achieves your goals so it is a good idea to listen to them and take their advice.

The Future of Nanotechnologies in Computing (Part 3)

Gavin — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:34:11 +0000

Computer Architectures

The development of VSLI CMOS systems will continue with new silicon based nanotechnologies, such as silicon-on-insulator, for at least another decade and should allow for the development of systems that will operate at speeds of up to 15GHz. There are however issues with CMOS systems that will mean they cannot be developed indefinitely. These issues are set out in the SIA roadmap, which identifies several major technical difficulties in the development of CMOS systems. These are power management, new architectures to overcome bottlenecks at interconnects, ultimate short channel limitations requiring more complex gate structures such as SOI or dual-gate transistors, the spiralling costs of lithography and fabrication (Beckett and Jennings 2002). Almost all VSLI current computer architectures are based on the stored-program (Von Neumann) architecture that separates out the processing and the computer memory then communicates between them through busses (Figure 5). It will be impossible for the stored program architecture to continue when communication between even adjacent switches is difficult (Beckett and Jennings 2002). If nanotechnology is to continue to provide improved performance within computers then nano-computer architectures must supersede conventional architectures, while performing the same high level functions as their predecessors as well as sharing many of their characteristics.

Whereas current computer architectures rely on computation to be error free nano-computer architectures will have high rates of failure and varying performance levels (Beckett 2003). This is because “physical problems such as leakage, threshold voltage, tunnelling, electro-migration, high interconnect resistance, crosstalk and the need for robust and flexible error management become significant as device features shrink” (Beckett and Jennings 2002). These problems can affect the way devices are connected together and will cause future computer architectures to move towards locally-connected, reconfigurable hardware meshes that merge processing and memory (Beckett and Jennings 2002). The biggest challenge in nano-electronics has been described as the development of logic designs and computer architectures necessary to link small, sensitive devices together to perform useful calculations efficiently (Beckett and Jennings 2002).

Figure 5 – A representation of the Von Neumann architecture (Wikipedia 2005).

There are several possibilities for new architectures including, Synthetic Neural Systems, Quantum Dot Arrays and Locally Connected Machines. One that seems to show promise at the moment is Quantum Dot Arrays. Quantum Dot Arrays or “Quantum Dot Automata is a novel computing mechanism that can represent binary information based on spatial distribution of electron charge configuration in chemical molecules” (Racichandran et al 2004). Figure 6 shows a high level Quantum Dot Array of four dots that can be used to represent the binary value’s 0 and 1 (Neimier et al 2000). The array contains four quantum dots and two electrons. The electrons can be moved between the quantum dots using electron tunnelling. At the different positions shown in Figure 6 they represent the binary values 1 and 0 encoded in the charge configuration within the quantum dot cells (Neimier et al 2000). These QCA cells can then be combined together to make simple logic devices. These devices include QCA wires, the majority gate, and other more complex devices (Neimier et al 2000). Some simple QCA logic devices are represented in Figure 7. These simple devices can be used to create more complex logic device to use as AND gates, OR gates or inverters (Racichandran et al 2004). These logic gates can then be used to create a processor. A simple QCA processor architecture has already been proposed – called Simple 12. A high level diagram of Simple 12 can be seen in Figure 8. Simulation tests on Simple 12 have shown that it is a “theoretically correct QCA design” (Neimier et al 2000).

Before the QCA Simple 12 was designed a CMOS version was also designed. The comparisons between these showed that “the QCA offers at least an order of magnitude area density increase over the equivalent CMOS design.” (Neimier et al 2000). Additionally, scientists are currently working to reduce the size of QCA cells so that “potential density gains are three orders of magnitude.” (Neimier et al 2000).

Although, the CMOS systems and the QCA system are built very differently they work in a similar way at a high level and they both use binary representations of data. The diagram of the Von Neumann architecture in Figure 5 when compared to the QCA diagram in Figure 8 shows that the two architectures have similar features, such as logic units and clocks, however the QCA architecture does not contain any long busses over which data has to be transmitted.

Figure 6 - QCA cell polarisation and representations of binary 1 and 0 (Neimier et al 2000).

Figure 7 - (a) Majority Gate, (b) 90 degree wire, (c) Wire crossing (Racichandran et al 2004).

Figure 8 – A diagram of Simple 12: a possible QCA architecture (Neimier et al 2000).

Risks with Nanotechnologies

Much has been made of the perceived risks posed by the development of nanotechnologies; however the actual risks are minimal. One of the most famous examples is the “grey goo” scenario proposed by Michael Crichton where nano-robots uncontrollably self replicate destroying everything in their path. These stories are however “more in the tradition of King Kong than the realms of scientific plausibility” (Donaldson and Stone 2004). Other worries include nano materials damaging vital organs such as the digestive system or the lungs through inhaling particles. As Donaldson and Stone (2004) explain there is a potential risk to the body from nanoparticles, however, nanotechnologies are successfully in use today without any health risks to the people working with them and “not surprisingly, public fears are directly correlated with the amount of knowledge that people have about nanotech: the less knowledge, the more fear” (Lawrence 2005) as is shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9 – Chart showing peoples perception of nanotechnology risks (Lawrence 2005).

Conclusion

Nanotechnologies are contemporary technologies that are already in commercial use as well as in research and development. Nanotechnologies are already affecting the computing industry and will continue to do so as they are further developed in the future. Nanotechnologies will continue to improve computing as we know it for at least another decade, but the development of VSLI CMOS systems will reach its limit and a new type of nano-computer will be needed to replace it. These systems will use very different computer architectures from today, possible not even electronic, but will to work in the same way as they do currently at a high level and support inherently linear software development and legacy systems. An architecture that shows particular promise is QCA, which could be a very viable alternative to CMOS (Neimier et al 2000). Where the speed of CMOS systems will be limited to around 15GHz these new architectures could provide “operating frequencies in excess of 100GHz” (Beckett and Jennings 2002). Although there are minimal risks with nanotechnologies, the possible advantages that can be gained far outweigh any risks.

References

Beckett, Paul. 2003. Exploiting multiple functionality for nano-scale reconfigurable systems. Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI, Washington, 28-29 April. [online] New York: ACM Press, pp.50-55. Available from: http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=764822&type=pdf&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=4145846&CFTOKEN=70281767 [Accessed 10 November 2006]
Beckett,P and Jennings A. 2002. Towards nanocomputer architecture. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Melbourne. [online] Darlinghurst: Australian Computer Society, Inc, pp.141-150. Available from: http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=563950&type=pdf&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=2270945&CFTOKEN=37058276 [Accessed 10 November 2006]
Donaldson,K and Stone, V. 2004. Nanoscience fact versus fiction. Communications of the ACM. 47(11): pp.113-115. [online]. Available from: http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=1029518&type=pdf&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=2270945&CFTOKEN=37058276 [Accessed 10 November 2006]
IBM.Photograph. [online image]. Ibm.com. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/vintage_4506VV1003.html [Accessed 12 December 2006]
Instituteof Nanotechnology. 2006. [online]. Nano.org.uk. Available from: http://www.nano.org.uk/whatis.htm [Accessed 30 October 2006]
Intel.2006. Chart. [online image]. Intel.com. Available from: http://www.intel.com/technology/mooreslaw/index.htm [Accessed 12 December 2006]
Lawrence,S. 2005. Nanotech Grows Up. Technology Review. 108(6): pp.31-31. [online]. Available from: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsh&AN=17213257&site=ehost-live [Accessed 25 November 2006]
Lundstorm,Mark. 2002. Is nanoelectronics the future of microelectronics? International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design, Monterey, 12-14 August. [online] New York: ACM Press, pp.172-177. Available from: http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=566410&type=pdf&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=2270945&CFTOKEN=37058276 [Accessed 10 November 2006]
Neimier,M T et al. 2000. A design of and design tools for a novel quantum dot based microprocessor. Annual ACM IEEE Design Automation Conference, Los Angeles, 05-07 June. [online] New York: ACM Press, pp.227-232. Available from: http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=337398&type=pdf&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=4145846&CFTOKEN=70281767 [Accessed 10 November 2006]
OxfordInstruments. 2006. Chart. [online image]. Oxinst.com. Available from: http://www.oxinst.com/wps/wcm/resources/file/ebf9b00f461238a/Nanotech_brochure_2006.pdf [Accessed 25 November 2006]
Racichandran,R et al. 2004. Automatic cell placement for quantum-dot cellular automata. Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI, Boston, 26-28 April. [online] New York: ACM Press, pp.332-337. Available from: http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=989033&type=pdf&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=4145846&CFTOKEN=70281767 [Accessed 15 November 2006]
RoyalSociety. 2006. [online]. RoyalSoc.ac.uk. Available from: http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/landing.asp?id=1210 [Accessed 30 October 2006]
TheNanoTechnology Group Inc. 2006. [online] TheNanotechnologyGroup.org. Available from: http://www.thenanotechnologygroup.org/index.cfm?content=118 [Accessed 10 November 2006]
Wikipedia.2005. Illustration. [online image]. Wikipedia.org. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture [Accessed 19 November 2006]
Wikipedia.2006. [online]. Wikipedia.org. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology [Accessed 30 October 2006]
Winters,J. 2005. Are we there yet? Mechanical Engineering. 127(4): pp.4. [online]. Available from: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsh&AN=16712955&site=ehost-live [Accessed 15 November 2006]

Download the whole report on the future of nanotechnologies in computing in PDF form

The Future of Nanotechnologies in Computing (Part 2)

Gavin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:24:39 +0000

Nano-devices

The development of VSLI computer systems over the last few decades has mainly been led by the development of the CMOS chip (Neimier et al 2000). This has proved to be a very successful method of building computer systems, which is still conforming to the implied rules of Moore’s Law, which can be seen in Figure 4. However, the refinement of the silicon transistor may well reach its limits within the next decade with top speeds of around 10-15GHz (Beckett and Jennings 2002). This means that the development of nano-scale electronics and system architectures is becoming increasingly important.

Figure 4 – Diagram illustrating Moore’s Law (Intel).

Most of the nanotechnologies that are currently in use are knows as ‘passive nanostructures’. Passive nanostructures are nano-scale materials; they do not in themselves do anything, but can be used to build other nano-devices or inserted into other larger materials to change their physical properties. Passive nanostructures are already well understood and are produced in bulk for use within many commercial products (Winters 2005). This is only the first stage in the development of nanotechnologies. There will be another three stages of development before nanotechnologies can be exploited to their full (The NanoTechnology Group Inc 2006). The next stage is ‘active nanostructures’. These have only become commercially viable in the last couple of years in devices such as computer processors (Winters 2005). Active nanostructures are devices that perform some kind of processing or action, such as a semi-conductor. Active nanostructures are currently used commercially, but are also still in development so they can be improved and their full potential harnessed. The third generation will be complex nanostructures (Winters 2005). These will involve using different combinations of active and passive nanostructures to create simple devices and machines. These are still very much in research and development and are not yet used commercially. The fourth stage of development will be molecular nano-systems. The development of these systems will require all the previous stages to be well developed and a good understanding of nano-system biology will be required as these systems will in effect be synthetic biology (The NanoTechnology Group Inc 2006).

Development Techniques

There are two approaches to the way nanotechnologies can be developed. These are top-down and bottom-up. When using the top-down approach devices are constructed by removing material from larger entities, such as semi-conductors. Very complex structures can be made, such as microprocessors, using this process (Lundstorm 2002). Most current computer chip technologies that reach the nano-scale are achieved with a top-down approach, but increasingly new techniques are being used to converge bottom-up and top-down production techniques.

The bottom-up approach involves building devices up atom by atom. This technique is also known as molecular nanotechnology. As was mentioned earlier molecular nanotechnology will be the fourth stage and the ultimate goal in the development of nanotechnologies. These will use the forces of nature to ‘self assemble’ nanostructures (Lundstorm 2002). The self assembling properties of biological systems, such as DNA, can be used to control the organisation of entities such as carbon nano-tubes, which may lead to the ability to ‘grow’ parts of an integrated circuit, rather than having to rely on expensive ‘top-down’ techniques (Institute of Nanotechnology 2006).

As the development of bottom-up techniques improve they will no doubt be integrated with top-down techniques and will probably some day replace most top-down production techniques. This is because the lithography of top-down techniques is very complex and expensive; however as bottom-up techniques develop they should be self-assembling which will greatly reduce the cost of constructing nano-devices.

Go to part 3 of 3 of ‘The Future of Nanotechnologies in Computing’

Download the whole report on the future of nanotechnologies in computing in PDF form

The Future of Nanotechnologies in Computing (Part 1)

Gavin — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:13:39 +0000

Introduction

The study of nanotechnologies is a field of science that attempts to achieve something useful by manipulating matter on a nano-scale (between 1 – 100nm). Nano refers to a nano-meter (nm), which is 1/1,000,000,000th of a meter or about the same size as one eighty thousandth of the width of a human hair. A more formal definition of nanotechnologies from the Royal Society (2006) is, “Nanotechnologies are the design, characterization, production and application of structures, devices and systems by controlling shape and size at a nanometer scale.”

The study of nanotechnologies involves the extension of existing sciences, including physics, chemistry, biology and in particular colloidal science to a nano-scale (Wikipedia 2006). At this scale the ordinary rules of physics and chemistry no longer apply, so some materials behave very differently than they do in their larger form. This is because new phenomena occur caused “by the dominance of interfaces and quantum mechanical effects” (Lundstorm 2002). For example, the colour, strength, conductivity and reactivity of a material can differ greatly between the macro and nano scales (Institute of Nanotechnology 2006). These special attributes are already being used in a number of ways, such as in making computer chips, CDs and mobile phones. The aim of nanoeletronics in computing will be to exploit these new properties to improve the performance of materials, devices, and systems (Lundstorm 2002). It is better to refer to Nanotechnology in the plural as there are many different types of nanotechnologies and many diverse uses for them, which don’t always have much in common except their incredibly small size.

This report will look at nanotechnologies and their current uses in the field of computing. It will then go on to look at how nanotechnologies are currently being built and could be built in the future, including what materials may be used and what computer architectures may be suitable.

History of Nanotechnologies

One of the first people to realise the advantages that could be achieved from manufacturing on a very small scale was Richard Feynman when he envisioned the manipulation of individual atoms in a lecture he gave in 1959 (Institute of Nanotechnology 2006). The term nanotechnology was coined by Norio Taniguchi in 1974, meaning that which achieved greater dimensional accuracy than 100nm (nanometres). The invention of the scanning probe electron microscope in 1982 helped with the development of this idea as it allowed physicists to see and manipulate single atoms. Then in 1989 Don Eigler who worked for IBM performed one of the defining experiments in nanotechnology. He spelled out the letters IBM using single xenon atoms, showing for the first time that scientists could place atoms exactly where they wanted them (Institute of Nanotechnology 2006).

Figure 1 - IBM spelled out with xenon atoms using a scanning probe electron microscope (IBM).

Nano scale materials have been used for a very long time, for example since the 10th century AD nano sized particles of silver and gold have been used to stain glass (Royal Society 2006). Computer chips already have nano-sized features etched into their surface and nanotechnologies have enabled computers to be made smaller and faster in recent years. More recently, researchers have produced nano-sized wires and tubes, such as QCA wires and Carbon nano-tubes (Beckett and Jennings 2002). These have remarkable optical, electronic and magnetic properties that it is hoped will prove useful in future computer architectures.

The Nanotechnologies Industry

There has been much fanciful and sci-fi like speculation about how nanotechnologies could change the world from providing medical care that could eliminate natural death to rebuilding the Ozone layer. These ideas stem from “extrapolating this new technology to its limit” (Winters 2005) and while theoretically possible will certainly not materialise for many decades, if ever. Nanotechnologies do show potential for greatly affecting the world we live in. It is difficult to predict exactly what nanotechnologies will be able to do for us in the long term, but it is likely that they will impact on many areas of our lives. In the short-term nanotechnologies are likely to enable the creation of faster and smaller computer chips and better electronic displays.

Nanotechnologies promise to affect a wide variety of industries from manufacturing and engineering to health care, but of particular interest here is the effect they will have, and are currently having on computing and information technology. Nanotechnologies are not just technologies of the future they are in use here and now. They are receiving heavy investment from business and Government for the research and development of devices and materials. It is difficult to predict the current state of the nanotechnologies industry accurately as “predictions of the future growth of nanotech markets vary widely as do the names used to define the sectors of the industry” (Lawrence 2005) as is illustrated in Figure 2. There is however a definite trend that shows increased investment in nanotechnologies globally both for research and for commercial purposes. For instance funding for research and development “almost doubled to more than $10 billion in 2004 from the previous year” (Lawrence 2005) and this “is expected to triple by 2008” (Lawrence 2005). It is also expected that by 2008 “more than $100 billion in products will likely involve some type of nanotechnology” (Lawrence 2005). This rapid growth is also illustrated in the chart from Oxford Instruments in Figure 3, which shows that most areas of the industry still involve a significant amount of research and development.

Figure 2 – Estimates of nanotechnology growth (Lawrence 2005 p.1).

Figure 3 – Diagram showing the development of each area of nanotechnologies (Oxford Instruments 2006 p.4).

Go to part 2 of 3 of ‘The Future of Nanotechnologies in Computing’

Download the whole report on the future of nanotechnologies in computing in PDF form

Win A Million

Gavin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:41:12 +0000

When I was learning to program in University I wrote a Java fruit machine game. You can play it here.

Welcome to GDKS

Gavin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:38:51 +0000

Howdy, welcome to my new website. I’ve built this website as an online portfolio of my work and a place to try out new web design and development techniques. It was built to have a simple, clean design that was standards compliant, usable and accessible. The front end is written in XHTML, CSS and JavaScript. The back end is powered by a slightly customised version of WordPress. I’ll be using the blog section as a personal resource to document any interesting websites and articles and hopefully write posts that may be helpful to others.