ASPECTS OF SYSTEMS AND CIRCUITS FOR NANOELECTRONICS

A tremendous number of devices, a limitation of wiring, and very low p ower dissipation density are design constraints of future nanoelectron ic circuits composed of quantum-effect devices. Furthermore, functiona l integration, which is the possibility of exploiting quantum effects to obtain a function specific behavior, becomes a core design principl e. This paper analyzes the effect of this technological progress on th e design of nanoelectronic circuits and describes computational paradi gms revealing novel features such as distributed storage, fault tolera nce, self-organization, and local processing. In particular, linear th reshold networks, the associative matrix, self-organizing feature maps , and cellular arrays are investigated from the viewpoint of their pot ential significance for nanoelectronics. Although these concepts have already been implemented using present technologies, the intention of this paper is to give an impression of their usefulness to system impl ementations with quantum-effect devices.