Tomorrow's computers
The move from a focus on the individual stand-alone computer system to a situation in which the real power of computers is realised through distributed, open, and dynamic systems has radically changed the nature of software and its development.
Modern systems are typically networked and can interact dynamically to form new configurations of systems to suit current needs. The flexibility offered, although increasingly taken for granted, is set to change the way we do business, undertake science, and manage our everyday activities.
The School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) is a world-leader in agent technologies. Agents are autonomous, problem-solving computational entities capable of operating effectively in dynamic, open and uncertain environments. A large-scale project in the School is designing agent-based systems that will sustain information systems in the aftermath of large-scale environmental disasters, such as the South-East Asian tsunami or terrorist attacks in cities.
At the same time, a member of ECS is working on developing computers the size of a house fly. Dr Klaus-Peter Zauner has been awarded a €250,000 Microsoft Research European Fellowship grant to explore how molecules that are used as components in information processing can be joined up to create large molecular computing architectures.
This could lead to a new class of information processors that will use a minimum of material, be small enough to work inside a cell and have the power to control very small robots