Abstract:Biological computer is a novel computer model, which uses nucleic acid molecular as“data”and uses enzyme and biological operations as informational processing tools. In 1959, Feynman conceived a kind of computer in molecular scale. In 1994, Adleman proposed a DNA computing model based on biochemical reaction. The breakthrough of the biological computer is Peking University’s parallel DNA computation model, it was carried out in 2007, in which the 3-coloring problem of a 3-chromatic graph with 61 vertices was solved. The computation complexity is 359, which means that it would take 13217 years to complete the computation process even by the fastest supercomputer. This fact seems to herald the era of biological computer. In this paper, we mainly present the background and significance of biological computer, and give an instruction on the basic principles and calculation method of DNA computer, especially Zhongzhou I-type DNA computer. Then we briefly summarize its applications in the fields of cryptanalysis and decipher. Furthermore, we discuss the computational ability of DNA computers, and point out some difficulties in the study of biological computer. Finally, we predict the possible development trends of DNA computing in the future, and propose some advices to the further research on DNA computing in China.