Scientists took inspiration from the evolution of organisms in nature to find "evolutionary" methods of creating advanced processing devices.
Most living creatures have evolved ways to perform difficult tasks with surprising ease, and researchers hoped to do the same for the creation of these useful devices, the American Institute of Physics reported.
The research team described using single-walled carbon nanotube composites (SWCNTs) as an "unconventional" computing material. They studied the electrical and mechanical properties of these types of materials, and found a correlation between "SWCNT concentration, viscosity, conductivity and the computational capability of the composite."
"Instead of creating circuits from arrays of discrete components (transistors in digital electronics), our work takes a random disordered material and then 'trains' the material to produce a desired output," said Mark K. Massey, research associate, School of Engineering and Computing Sciences at Durham University.
The new field of research, known of as "evolution-in-materio," blendsmaterials science, engineering and computer science. These early tests have shown the new method, which is similar to natural evolution, can "train" materials to mimic electronic circuits.
"The material we use in our work is a mixture of carbon nanotubes and polymer, which creates a complex electrical structure," Massey said. "When voltages (stimuli) are applied at points of the material, its electrical properties change. When the correct signals are applied to the material, it can be trained or 'evolved' to perform a useful function."
The innovations created with this new method could include "analog signal processing or low-power, low-cost devices." These devices could help complement high-speed silicon computers in the future.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Journal of Applied Physics and are part of the Nanoscale Engineering for Novel Computation using Evolution project, which is funded by the European Union.
