In discussing nanocomputer programming, I had said that they would
probably be programmed in assembly language.
On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, Emlyn wrote:
> Why assembly? I'd be really interested to know why you'd say that. Just
> space constraints?
In large part. You are going to be constrained on memory *and*
processing power. You are going to want to do as much as possible
with as little as possible. Nanobots have to be small (to go crawling
around inside cells). That puts strong limits on things unless you
teleoperate them from larger 'bots in circulation. But there
are limits on communication, interference from nearby 'bots, etc.
that make this problematic. You may be heat density limited on the
number of 'bots you can operate at the site of an infection
(so they need to be as CPU cycle efficient as possible).
In the 'real' world, you have similar problems -- if you want the
simulations to run as fast as possible, the nodes have to be as
close as possible and they have to generate as little heat
per unit work done as possible. That means you don't want
'wasted' instructions in the execution stream.
Robert
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