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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts
Posted - 05/13/2009 :  14:07:02  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Chat tonight! We have ways of making you talk... Who do you think came up with the "tortured pun"?

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Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
Edited by - Ricky on 05/13/2009 14:07:35

Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist

USA
4955 Posts
Posted - 05/16/2009 :  15:54:04   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Cuneiformist a Private Message  Reply with Quote
To follow up on a topic that came up during chat, I was reading in the June 2009 issue of Discover about the problem of silicon computer chips. In the "Data" section of the magazine, the talk about how "today's chips are made from silicon, but many engineers thing that we are approaching the limit of how small the transistors in these chips can be built" and that silicon chips speeds "have hit a plateau in the gigahertz range."

The alternative is to use graphene-- a flat sheet of carbon rings one atom thick. At least, that's according to the article. There are several advantages, though some big problems remain-- namely that graphene doesn't act like a true switch, so the chip draws electricity continually.

I thought I'd throw this out there, since the whole silicon problem was new to me. But people are thinking about it, and I suspect that we're not going to reach any sort of computer limit anytime soon.


edited to fix minor spelling issue; thanks Dave
Edited by - Cuneiformist on 05/16/2009 19:58:56
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts
Posted - 05/16/2009 :  18:41:27   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Just a nitpick, but chips are made with silicon. Silicone fills breast implants.
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist

USA
4955 Posts
Posted - 05/16/2009 :  19:58:28   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Cuneiformist a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dave W.

Just a nitpick, but chips are made with silicon. Silicone fills breast implants.
Noted
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts
Posted - 05/17/2009 :  22:37:32   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I thought I'd throw this out there, since the whole silicon problem was new to me. But people are thinking about it, and I suspect that we're not going to reach any sort of computer limit anytime soon.


I suppose we will probably hit the silicon limit before major corporations invest in nanotechnology. No sense in making a risky investment if you can still squeeze a little more milk out of it, right? But as of now we're at 45nm, and Intel has it's sights set on 32nm by 2010. I can't imagine it will be much longer before we hit the dreaded 16nm where problems start coming up. And my (un)educated guess is that nanotechnology, especially for use in computers, is at least 15 years from being used.
Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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