Mechanical Computing Redux: Energy-Efficient Computing with Relays

Transistor scaling has yielded continual improvements in integrated-circuit performance and cost per function over the past four decades, to usher in the Information Age.  Continued transistor scaling will not be as straightforward in the future as it has been in the past, however, due to fundamental limits leading to increased power consumption.  This presentation will discuss recent progress in micro-relay technology and circuits, aimed to overcome the CMOS power crisis and usher in the Age of Ambient Intelligence.