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Hewlett-Packard has announced that it's been awarded a patent that - it believes - could remove a major obstacle on the road to molecular-scale computing. It proposes a solution to the problem of connecting molecular-scale devices to the much larger integrated circuits of today.

"We have a strategy to reinvent the integrated circuit with molecular rather than semiconductor components," asserts HP Fellow Williams, director of quantum science research, HP Labs. According

The new patent proposes making connections randomly using a chemical process. The resulting pattern, apparently, can then be determined using computer algorithms.

The motive behind the research is the approaching end of Moore's law - that silicon technology will reach physical and economic limits by the end of the decade.

At the end of last year we reported on nanotechnology research at Cornell University. They've also managed to build a molecular model - a truck that's made of a single molecule and could carry a smaller molecule on its back. It is ecologically sound too, as it runs on magnetic fields rather than petrol!