A slightly different (yet exciting) definition for "the feed"

In Neal Stephenson's book The Diamond Age, one of the more intriguing (at least, to me) mechanisms was "the feed", a connection that served up atoms for replicator-like devices to use to construct whatever they were programmed to make.  Fantastic fiction?  Perhaps ... but now, it seems that science has discovered a means to bring that concept into the real world.  Maybe not for years, but at least it's moved from fantasy to crudely demonstrated theory.