Multi-Instably Mechanical Systems for Computing-Storing Functions.

Computations based on mechanical systems exhibit unconventional environmental adaptability and interaction capabilities beyond electronical computing. In this research, the multi-instably mechanical systems are proposed to achieve the functions of scientific computing, logical operations, and data storage, i.e., solving fourth-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by ODE solvers, realizing logical operations by digital logic gates, and stably storing data by mechanical memories. The mechanical solvers obtain the special solutions for the fourth-order ODEs by determining the unknow factors in the general solution via capturing the deformation shapes of multi-instable beams, and the results are validated with the existed theoretical solutions with satisfactory agreements. The multi-instable beams are then converted into the reconfigurable switches to build the digital logic gates, and assembled into 1 × 8 and 5 × 8 matrices for the mechanical memories. The reported computing-storing system can accomplish interaction between the logical operation and storage modules. Eventually, the mechanical systems are discussed with the integrated functions that can perform scientific computing and logical operations in the computation module while mechanically saving the computing results in the storage module. The reported multi-instably mechanical systems open a promising path to expand the mechanical computing from separate function to multifunctionality.