Cognitive computer from E-mail Don Shorling sent me.
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Stanford Ovshinsky: Glasses for the Masses
Article # : 23128
Section : NATURAL SCIENCE
Issue Date : 6 / 2003 3,286 Words
Author : Dale Buss
Dale Buss is a veteran journalist and author in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
Part scientist, part industrialist, all visionary, Stanford Ovshinsky has harnessed his glassy materials for planet-improving applications ranging from photovoltaic cells to a new standard in computer memory.
After nearly a half-century of groundbreaking achievements in basic physics, alternative energy, consumer electronics, and computer technologies, 80-years-young Stanford Ovshinsky could be forgiven for enjoying retirement. Instead, the creative fountain, who has been compared with Edison, is busier than ever at the helm of his 43-year-old company, Energy Conversion Devices (ECD), in metro Detroit. He spends much of his time developing ways of expanding ECD's repertoire of patented materials and processes as solutions to present and future challenges facing society.
The "cognitive computer" that he is refining, for example, has been the subject of much of his work lately. Ovshinsky explains that this machine's way of "thinking" is much more similar to the way the human brain operates than are any of the crude analogs represented by computing methods so far. In place of today's computer technology based on crystalline arrays encompassing vast numbers of binary on/off switches, tomorrow's computers, asserts Ovshinsky, will be based on disordered materials able to encompass vast numbers of multiconnected switches resembling neurons with synaptic-like connections. He further asserts he has "demonstrated that these concepts actually work and, therefore, the proprietary Ovonic Cognitive Computer can be transformative for the semiconductor and computer industries and become the paradigm for the twenty-first century."
Ovshinsky is convinced that the Ovonic Cognitive Computer duplicates in a very simple and cost-effective manner the functions of the biological brain. He views it as being the kind of technology to which he is committed--technology upon which new industries can be built to meet societal needs. Several very knowledgeable experts and electronic companies, he says, are keen on the idea as well.
"It is my desire to work together with the various information companies so that activities leading to commercialization can begin," Ovshinsky said about the new computer in early February as he sat in his office. A huge copy of the periodic table of elements was prominently displayed on the wall. Ovshinsky mixes and molds the elements on the chart in unprecedented ways to achieve unprecedented results. "I always make things to prove my principles, rather than just argue with people. That's why we are demonstrating this unique computer, ... Read Full Article
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