Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

How Printable Computers Will Work

Posted by timothy on from the better-than-my-fax-machine-I-hope dept.

Gart points to this article on printable computers, an "Illustrated narrative [that] shows how users will simply download microchip designs from the Internet and print out a working ink-based, plastic processor on a desktop fabrication machine, similar to an ink jet printer." This is a nicely lucid account, and straightforward about the reasons that you probably won't start printing out a new motherboard this evening. Still, a glimpse of the future; this is one technology it will be cool to watch emerge from vapor.

7 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Density issues by JoeBuck · · Score: 5

    They are talking about achieving a 25 micron feature size. The current generation of processors is being done with an 0.13 micron feature size, meaning that the number of gates you can fit on your plastic chip is about 40000 (200 times 200) times lower.

    Still, if they can get one transistor in 25 microns square, and handle all the wiring in other layers:

    • The original 68000 (with 68,000 transistors) fits in a 6.5 by 6.5 mm square.
    • The original 80386 (with 275,000 transistors) fits in a 13.1 by 13.1 mm square.
    • The original 80486 (1.2M transistors) needs 27.4 by 27.4 mm (just over a square inch). Once we get to this stage a lot of the transistors are L1 cache.

    Trying to get much bigger than this (do the P5 in two inches square) is likely to be a loser because getting the signals across these large chips is going to be slow unless you use enough power to melt the plastic.

    Memory: if you can do one bit in 25 by 25 microns, a square inch (2.54 cm on a side) gives just over one megabit (bits, not bytes). You're probably not going to be running Gnome or KDE on this.

  2. All this technology is useless... by Aggrazel · · Score: 5

    ... until they figure out a way to download and print a Pizza.

    "Hello, Domino's? Can you e-mail me a large pizza with mushrooms and extra cheese?"

    But then, that might bring a whole new meaning to "Spam Mail" ... hmmm

  3. Bad business model by ryanr · · Score: 5

    I wonder if they realize they are only going to sell a handful of these things... The first guy to get one of these printers is just going to print up more printers for his friends...

  4. The next big thing in security: by ryanr · · Score: 5

    Trojan hardware.

  5. The future... by drivers · · Score: 5

    In the future... motherboards may be nothing more than layers of nonconducting materials with thin conductors connecting various chips and sockets (into which other boards can be connected). Imagine the possibilities!

  6. Woo by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 5

    The same way that literacy, pencils, pens, ink, paper, and books destroyed the iron grip of the autocracy and nobility of hundreds of years ago, printable computers can break the grip of monolithic oligarchies dictating hardware and standards to people who don't need them.

    Don't you have any sense of decency, to post such utter garbage in the first place, perdida?

    (go ahead mark me as troll or whatever, it really doesn't matter)

    Geek dating!

    --

    GPL Deconstructed
  7. Imagine... by ackthpt · · Score: 5
    a copy of Beowulf printed on a cluster of these...

    --

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar