Trends in Hardware Development

Let us briefly look at some trends in hardware technology that have consequences for developers of parallel scientific applications and for the efficient utilization of single processors as well. 

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In this article, we would like to review the principles and applications of thermal biosensors. Especially, the newest results of ET research and trends in hardware developments are pointed out. Thermal biosensors will probably have a promising future in biotechnology. 

A central trend in hardware development is the exponential increase with time of the number of transistors in an integrated circuit. This observation, known as Moore s law, was first made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, who foimd that the number of transistors that minimized the cost per component in an... 

In a field that is changing so rapidly, it is difficult to make specific predictions about the direction of future developments (14). The remainder of this section will discuss in general some areas where trends in hardware, software, and methodology are having significant impact on CAMD studies. Hopefully, this will provide a useful perspective to scientists who are involved in the field, or who anticipate getting into CAMD. 

For a manufacturer the difficulty is to estimate future developments or trends in NMR microscopy. Based on dedicated laboratory-made hardware developed by the NMR microscopy users and on their requests for new commercial hardware and software, the following topics could become more important micro-coil applications, multiple receiver systems and multi-coil arrangements, NMR microscopy at very high magnetic fields, MAS imaging and localized 1H MAS spectroscopy and localized single-shot 2D spectroscopy. There are no clear-cut distinctions between most of the individual topics, as will be discussed in the following sections. 

There has been an explosion of activity (as measured by number of published papers, books, symposia, workshops, dedicated journals, etc.) in the development of polymer modeling recently. This trend is expected to continue as new algorithms and advances in computer hardware allow the study of more realistic systems for example, the chapter by Kendall et al. in this volume. Two journals are worth mentioning because they are dedicated to publishing peer-reviewed results of work exclusively on polymer modeling. One is the Journal of Computational Polymer Science, which started in 1991 and the other is Die Makromolekulare Chemie Theory and Simulation, which began publication in 1992. 

The trend in the 1980 s has shifted towards the development of microcomputer controlled voltammetry. Several reports have appeared in the literature where an inexpensive personal computer has been interfaced to a potentiostat (27). The most significant advantage of the microcomputer is that itnas made it possible for researchers to build their own instrumentation hardware, thus dispelling much of the mystery previously associated with... 

Fig. 5 shows the main modules included for the various components of the Phebus experiment or reactor system. At the same time, it is planned to present a strategic plan for further ESTER development for user comments, which will be pursued in the years which follow. It is certain that by that time trends in software and hardware development will be clearer. New modules will have... 

One of the key trends of sensor technology will he in modularisation of the technology steps in order to provide quasi-customized solutions without the need for a complete development. A modularisation of the sensor hardware in combination with standardization attempts are also being followed, but are deemed too expensive for the use in many applications, without a significant customisation advantage. 

The HPC market is very volatile and sometimes changes overnight. Thus some of the information presented here may be dated by the time of publication, and it would be prudent to contact the particular MPP vendor directly for clarification of specific software/hardware attributes of interest. If we neglected a favorite parallel application, tool, or vendor, it is not because of unawareness or dislike. Rather, we are displaying trends that in our view will most likely affect computational chemistry use and development on MPPs. Finally, we eschew discussion of relative costs of various MPPs the relevant vendor should be contacted to obtain this information for a site-specific quote. 

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