Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
other satellites, analyze it, and, if necessary, initiate repeated measurements. An
even more attractive option is a system of picosatellites built on the principles of
self-organization and capable of reorganizing its structure and functions depending
on data received by each satellite.
Thus, the nanosatellite system represents in a sense a macro model of the system
operating based on nanotechnological principles. Indeed, an object whose macro-
scopic properties change due to directed structural changes at the microlevel
represents one of the varieties of distributed dynamic systems. A distributed
dynamic system is defined as spatial ensemble of the components, elementary for
the given system, that perform specific functions and interact with each other.
Atoms and molecules in a crystal or in an amorphous body, microorganisms in a
biological culture, individual molecular units in block copolymers—all these are
basic components of distributed systems at different levels of structural organiza-
tion. The dynamics of a distributed system is determined not only by the processes
taking place in each of its elements (i.e., at each point of the system) but also by the
interactions between these elements. Therefore it turns out to be fundamentally
different from the processes in its basic components and is much more complex. In
the theory of distributed systems, the term “emerging” properties refers to the
properties that are inherent to the system as a whole and cannot be directly derived
from the properties of its elementary constituents.
In a general sense, nanosystems are distributed environments with complex
mechanisms of interaction at the nano-level. It is these mechanisms that determine
the processes of self-assembly or self-organization at the structural level and lead to
the appearance of new, emerging properties of the system at the macro-level.
Because of the similarity of construction and operational principles of distributed
systems at different levels of structural organization as well as the processes taking
place in them and their new properties, some analogies between the nanoscale
systems built and the macroscopic distributed systems become apparent.
Today, at the height of the nanotechnological boom, the principles and methods
of nanotechnology are gaining new positions in various fields of human activity.
But among all these areas, there is one which was like a “testing ground” for
nanotechnology, passing successive stage of miniaturization of the devices created.
Since the 1940s of the last century, computer technology has made an amazing
journey from vacuum tubes to very large integrated circuits (VLSI) and persistently
seeks today to use the molecular component base. In this topic an attempt will be
made to describe the main principles and ways of establishing the molecular
component base and the possible role of molecular information processing devices
in information technology.
