Aspects of systems and circuits for nanoelectronics

A large number of devices, a limitation of wiring, and very low power dissipation density are design constraints of future nanoelectronic circuits composed of quantum-effect devices. Furthermore, functional integration, which is the possibility of exploiting quantum effects to obtain a function specific behavior, becomes a core design principle. This paper analyzes the effect of this technological progress on the design of nanoelectronic circuits and describes computational paradigms revealing novel features such as distributed storage, fault tolerance, self-organization, and local processing. In particular, linear threshold networks, the associative matrix, self-organizing feature maps, and cellular arrays are investigated from the viewpoint of their potential significance for nanoelectronics. Although these concepts have already been implemented using present technologies, the intention of this paper is to give an impression of their usefulness to system implementations with quantum-effect devices.