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which is not always exactly known, and a time-varying pattern of interconnections.
The interaction of the elements is considered to be local. In fact, amorphous
computing, in terms of its initial assumptions, is the opposite of the idea of using
molecular structures as basic elements. Molecular elements are in principle identi-
cal, and none of them is “defective” due to imperfections in the process.
The authors of the concept emphasize that as a result of improvement of various
technological processes in recent years a real basis for the development of amor-
phous computing has been created.
Modern technologies of mechano-electronic microsystems allow formation of
chips that simultaneously accommodate logic circuits, sensors, actuators, and
devices responsible for communication between the elements. The authors of the
concept note that today there exist real opportunities to mix such chips with
building materials or paints. Therefore a situation is conceivable where the paint
covering the wall is sensitive to vibration and prevents the invasion of robbers or
reduces external noise.
Even more significant opportunities open up today due to substantially increased
understanding of biochemical mechanisms of the processes in living cells. This can
be used for creating, based on the methods of cell engineering, sensor cells, actuator
cells, programmed cells, cells delivering drugs to specified tissues or organs of the
human body at the specified time, etc.
The basic concept of amorphous computing is an element of a system, a particle
with a certain set of characteristics (properties). Initially it is assumed that the
amorphous system is characterized by a scatter of properties within a certain range.
It is also assumed that the particles are distributed randomly on the surface or in the
volume. The particles interact with each other on the basis of local mechanisms,
which generally must be nonlinear. As a result of this interaction, the internal state
of a particle can be changed, as it is done, for example, by the methods of cell
engineering.
It is easy to see that the main characteristics of an amorphous system follow the
characteristics of distributed reaction-diffusion media. Therefore, naturally, in the
amorphous system propagating waves switching the properties of the particles may
arise, and the formation of complex spatiotemporal structures may occur.
In order to thoroughly study the properties and dynamics of amorphous systems,
the authors of the concept chose an unconventional, original approach. Attempts
were made to develop an abstract programming language of the evolution of
amorphous systems. In this case, the development of the language actually involved
choosing the characteristics of the particles and the operations on them that must be
specified so that the system displayed the behavior provided for by the concept. The
entire set of the characteristics found was supposed to be incorporated at a later
stage into practically created particles. We illustrate this approach on an example
that is often mentioned in the literature describing the fundamentals of amorphous
computing.
One of the main devices of the planar semiconductor technology is the inverter.
A typical version of such a circuit, manufactured using the CMOS technology, is
