How fast will computers get?

How will the climate change in the coming decades? When will autonomous vehicles become a reality? And how do diseases spread in the population? We can now answer questions like these more precisely than ever before thanks to the enormous amounts of data that are collected and stored worldwide.

In the meantime, however, the flood of digital data is so enormous that our current computing systems struggle to process it. This can mean that they do not recognize a lot of valuable information, whilst consuming an extremely large amount of energy in the process.

That's why we're redesigning the computer: Four Helmholtz Centers are pooling their expertise in the Research Field Information where scientists are investigating how data can best be recorded, processed and transmitted.

They rely on radically new computer systems, such as networks that we are developing that are based on the model of the human brain, or microchips that work on the principle of synapses. Together with other researchers worldwide, we are also significantly driving research into quantum computers. These computers will be able to work many times faster and in a more complex way than previous computer systems.

Moreover, we are refining data analysis by, for example, using optimized methods of machine learning and the use of artificial intelligence. We also simulate attacks on digital networks in order to discover possible weak points in them and to develop protective mechanisms.

The new generation of computers will therefore only be able to rely on proven technologies in part. That's why we devote ourselves intensively to materials research in our laboratories, such as the creation of new sensors and membranes that record data with previously unimagined precision. To do this, we design them down to the level of precision of individual molecules.

Computers are thus becoming an even more important scientific tool across all disciplines.

Image: Michael Schmitz for Helmholtz/HIDA (CC BY-SA 4.0)