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Japan Developing Diamond-based Semiconductors
s spencer and others wrote in with submissions about Japan funding the development of diamond-based semiconductors to replace silicon chips. The main advantages of diamond include heat resistance and higher electrical resistance.
"Pentiums are a girl's best friend"?
Okay, that's not funny. Taking off Score +1 Bonus.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
She's been pushing for a diamond for a little while now - I wonder if she'll be upset if she gets it in chip form rather than the traditional ring?
I'm glad they waited until after I bought an engagement ring...
Intel may now become the United States largest diamond importer.
Just as long as the jewelry store doesn't put up a sign saying "Intel Insides Inside"
Imagine the overclocking!
Actually diamonds are neither rare nor intrinsically valuable. The only reason that they cost so much at the jewelry store is because of the monopoly of debeers. They pretty much control all the diamonds in the world. if they wanted they could manufacture diamonds out of coal instead of mining them. It is not a lack of supply that makes them expensive but the fact that one company controls all the supply.
Diamonds are expensive for the same reason that Win2k costs $200 per seat. Actually, I prefer emeralds myself.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
When I was at Auburn, we had Star Wars funding to look into this. We had created a diode that switched at 2000 celcius.
The idea was to have IC circuits right inside the rocket engines.
There is (at least) one key advantage silicon has over diamond (or any semiconductor except Germanium). It has a self-repairing crystal lattice. When dopant atoms (phosphorous, arsenic, etc.) are injected into the bulk silicon wafer using ion implantation (diffusion not used in practice too much anymore) they cause structural damage to the crystal lattice which would hurt circuit performace. However, Silicon has this magical property that if you heat it up to the right temperature (several hundred degrees Celcius) the lattice begins to reorganize itself to incorporate the dopant atoms without damage. Tis process is called Annealing and it is one of the key reasons Silicon became the dominant semiconductor (the other was the availability of a good thermal oxide, SiO2).
Diamond does not have this desirable property, so a lot of research will have to go into maintaining the quality of the crystal lattice.
I got my girl a diamond earing so she had some processing power above the neck.
Now SHE wants a beowulf cluster of these.
if they wanted they could manufacture diamonds out of coal instead of mining them
Not just yet. Other companies have manufactured diamonds, but they get cloudy after a few years. When this gets solved, you'll hear about it.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
The idea of using diamond as a semiconductor has been kicking around for years with quite a bit of research being done world wide.
Technology Research News has an article published in September that discusses this.
Among other things they mention that diamond's charge carrier mobility is three times better.
Diamond transistors could in theory deliver one watt of power at 100 gigahertz, or billion cycles per second, said Isberg. This is five times faster has been achieved using the semiconductor Gallium Arsenide.
Diamond-based electronics would also be better than existing semiconductor materials for high-temperature applications, said Isberg. Diamond conducts heat 15 times more efficiently than silicon, and therefore cools faster.
etc. etc.
www.bannination.com Two things float to the top he
Keep in mind that this article was written in 1982. It talks about prices dropping from $60,000 per carat to $30,000 a carat. The colapse it predicts happened in the early '90s, and prices of "perfect" diamonds are now quoted around $5,000 per carat, and can be had for slightly over $1,500 per carat without much trouble. The article also talks about resale values of diamonds being 40% of their retail value. Today, diamonds 1 carat and smaller are essentially worthless. Large retail jewlery chains are still maintaining a significant markup, but that is steadily decreasing now that the public has greater access to wholesale diamonds.
.25 carat diamonds in a custom setting she designed. $900) I saw another guy buy a 2.9 carat diamond engagement ring for $3500. It wasn't flawless, but it was an excelent stone, and impractically large.
If she has to have a diamond (even after reading that article), do a little research and buy a loose stone from a wholesale vendor. It's not hard to find one, and you can get a local jewler to make you a very nice setting for $100-300. For two months salary these days, she can have a ring that will give her a workout. When I purchased my fiancee's ring (a 2.72 carat saphire with two