8.1) Key benefits :

8.1) Key benefits :

Today, the new Pentium 4 has a massive 42 million electronic switches. According to recent stastics, one cubic-centimeter of DNA material can store a upto 10E21 bits of information, whereas the current computer have a maximum memory capacity of 10E14. As estimated, a single DNA computer could contain more data compared to all the existing computer memories combined. Adleman’s experiment was carried out at 1.2x 10E18 operations per second. This is approximately 1,200,000 times faster than any existing super computing device.


The following are the benefits of DNA computer :

1) PREDICTABILITY :

After a year in lab, Adleman realized that strands of DNA behave much like mathematical equations. DNA’s chemical bases-adenine, thymine,cystosine, and guanine—hook up in a predictable manner:adenine always links with thymine and cytosine with guanine. Because of regularity of pattern Adleman hypothesized that he could use molecules to process data the same way PCs use microprocessors.

2) DNA DIRECTIONS:

Over a period of time, Adleman performed a series of biochemical reactions to eliminate the wrong answers—strands encoding routes that either started or ended in the wrong city, those that visited a city more than once, and so on. When all the wrong answers had been destroyed, Adleman was able to look under the microscope and find only strands that carried the right answers.

Adleman’s experiment used just seven cities, a problem that isn’t hard to solve on modern computers. But Adleman’s biological computations showed that DNA has the potential to solve more complex problem than even the most advance electronic computer can. The fastest supercomputer wouldn’t be able to solve a problem if more than about 50 cities, Adleman says. He believes that a testtube full of DNA would solve the problem with as many as 200 cities.

First, DNA is incredibly enery-efficinet.Take ligase, a molecule whose job is to stick strands of DNA together. With just one joule of energy – the amount of energy a human expends to lift one kilogram one meter, ligase molecules can perform 20x10 the 18th operations, Adleman says. Thats a million times 20 operations. Such efficiency push computing to new levels since electronics are limited by the amount of power—and the heat it gives off—needed to run increasingly sophisticated operations.

3) INCREDIBLY CHEAP :

DNA is also a wonderful way to store information. One gram of genetic material, which would occupy about one cubic centimeter, can hold as much information as 1 trillion CDs, according to Adleman. It’s also incredibly cheap: Commercial labs sell a molecule of SNA for about one-thousand trillionth of a cent. The cost is about $30. for a DNA sequence big enough to compute on. Intel sells its latest P4 chiop for more than $500. “DNA has been storing the blueprint of life for several billion years,” says Adleman. “its powers are untapped legacy for the 21st century.

4) HALF-HOUR TEST :

The first practical applications are also emerging. Last January Olympus optical company and the university of TOKYO claim to have jointly develop a fast way identifying genes associated with diseases. Researchers developed a process that synthesizes 10,000 different DNA strands that are known to bond with genes related to specific diseases such as cancer. The strand are numbered and mixed with fluid containing genes extracted from the patient. The fluid is than tested to determine which genes are functioning in the patient’s cells by reading the number of DNA strands that appear after a series of biochemical reactions. Researchers can complete a single test in about 3 hours, about one-half to one-third time taken by conventional biological methods.


5) AMAZING TOOL TEST :

Thus, as the complexity of problems increases, the manual labour require for DNA computing would outweight the benefits of super fast computation. “Here we have the most amazing tool chest we have ever seen. We know it’s great because it was used to build you and me, “enthuses Adleman. “Right now, though, we are very clumsy with it.”

DNA computers have the potential to take computing to new levels, picking up where Moore’s law leaves off. There are several advantages of using DNA instead of silicon:
1) As long as there are cellular organisms, there will always be a supply of DNA.
2) The large supply of DNA makes a cheap resource.
3) Unlike the toxic materials use to make traditional microprocessors, DNA biochips can be made cleanly.
4) DNA computers are many times smaller than today’s computer.