Prospects for single molecule information devices

Present information technologies use semiconductor devices and magnetic/optical discs, however, they are all foreseen to face fundamental limitations within a decade. Therefore, superseding devices are required for the next paradigm of high performance information technologies. This paper describes prospects for single molecule devices suitable for future information technologies. Possible four milestones for realizing the Peta(10
¹⁵
)/Exa(10
¹⁸
)-floating operations per second (FLOPS) personal molecular supercomputer are proposed. Current status and necessary technologies of the first milestone are described, and necessary technologies for the next three milestones are also discussed.