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NTT Verifies Diamond Semiconductor Operation At 81 GHz
Anonymous Coward writes "This story over at eetimes.com reports of a semiconductor made of diamond that is able to run at 81 GHz." Mmmm, foreshadowing.
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Does anyone know how hot these things will get?
This tech has some serious military applications.
Killing devices like the star drek phaser is not that far off. The high energy output potential because of the thermal characteristics is scarry! Just imagine if the output of a cell phone could have a signal db and directional capable antenna. Yipes you could get scrambled brains if the antenna was too close. The radar and remote sensor applications for this could kick current US stealth tech out the window as well.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
I remember a Nova special about manufactured diamonds and how GM finally got the large ones made with no defects. A trip from a Debeers exec and the operation was shutdown and people were released. Back to the industrial diamond business!
Highly unlikely. See, what you don't realize is that this technology will likely be utilised in memory before processors. One of the first verification processes in semiconductor technologies is 'can we make memory with it'. They start off simple and let the circuits get more complex from there. We'll likely see very high speed memory before you see a Pentium 5 or Athlon Diamond XP. This is a great boon for computing. Memory has been a large bottleneck for a long time.
:)
Imagine 1GB of processor core clock speed memory. That would be friggin amazing for databases
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
Anyone who's bothered to do the research into it knows that DeBeers is about as evil as a multinational can get. Somehow I doubt that they are going to play nice with another industry that wants to use thier bread and butter product for making something that doesn't cost $100,000 a gram.
As I see it, there are one of only two outcomes here:
#1) Someone finds a way to make cheap diamonds, and DeBeers goes after them (in more ways than just the legal route) to make sure that #2 happens.
which brings me to
#2) Nobody finds a way to make cheap diamonds, and DeBeers can triple their prices. Of course, the diamond supply is already kept artifically low to drive up prices, so meeting this new demand won't be a problem at all (it'll just cost you the price of a small car to buy a CPU.)
I don't like this one bit...nope...not one bit. As if Microsoft's monopoly wasn't bad enough.
It already is a consideration in many settings. Rackmount systems are the first to notice because of the density. As I understand it, any processor over 50 watts is pushing it for 1U applications. I think Sun is going to use mobile Athlon 64's for just that reason.
With Prescott set to top 100 watts, I think we've hit the limit of what desktop users are willing to tolerate. We're into "can't run it on summer afternoons" territory already. I've been using my laptop at home because of it.
When someone might yell at me, it has to be OpenBSD.
This is part of the reason why the fibre optic revolution has been more of a slow turn... fast pipes are great, but it helps if you know where to send them.
81GHz isn't going to solve the problem - but it will help.
Q.
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That inhuman pack of gunship flying, mercenary hiring, indigenous population exploiting *ssholes can suck it down and shut up.
Our obsession over "pretty sparklies" is disgusting, and what we are willing to ignore to ensure a steady flow is reprehensible. How many middle-class housewifes with a rock on a finger know the TRUE cost of that shiny bauble?
Lets wake up to ourselves and try to develop a modicum of common sense? Why are diamonds expensive? Because they are in demand. Why are they in demand - no it is not the industrial applications? Because they are expensive.
Q.
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That's exactly right. Even with all of the newest improvements in semiconductor technology and the resulting memory density(Remeber those old 512KB clunky SIMMS :) improvements, we are still placing the memory too far away from the processor. It should be closer(physically, logistically, electrically). With the new AMD Opteron, they got it right. Putting the memory controller on the processor is the first step in a long line of improvements that can be made. With a few more fundamental changes in design, memory might actually be able to keep up with processors in the future. One such design change would be getting the main memory bus off the motherboard PCB. With the memory controller on the processor itself, the compatability or portability of the memory modules between Opteron generations is no longer a viable excuse. There is no reason why the memory can't be a stacked silicon module that plugs into the side of the processor. That right there would solve quite a few problems as well as take full advantage of the Opteron's built-in memory controller and provide memory performance unchallenged by either DDR SDRAM or RDRAM technologies.
I'm betting we'll see 1Ghz memory(not effective via DDR or QDR, I'm talking actual bus frequency) within 1 year from this day.
Anyone wanna take my money?
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
I am sick and tired of people claiming tubes sound better,
Well, since "sounding better" is a subjective judgement, anyone who says so is right. They'd be wrong if they claimed that tube amps were more accurate than transistor amps.
What tubes have going for them is that they don't clip the way that transistors do when their power limit is exceeded. Transistors clip, tubes go non-linear and approach their power limit asymptotically.
Of course, anyone who routinely overdrives their amp like that has probably lost the ability to hear much more than the ringing in their ears.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Given that the final shuttle accident report was released today, I'm surprised that no-one else has touched on this topic.
The Reinforced-Carbon-Carbon panels have been noted to get very pitted and pot-marked over time. Indeed there has always been serious concerns over this component.
Given the chemical process for synthesizing diamond wafers, isn't it reasonable to deposit a single sheet part super heat conductive material that would replace the reinforced-carbon-carbon on the space shuttle wings. Diamond is the hardest substance known to man. Isn't it reasonable that such a macro-application would be reasonable and logical.
Other near term application could be heat sinks in other industrial super-heated applications. I could even imagine sythesizing the linings of cannon barrels out of sheet diamond. How about aircraft "black boxes" made out of sythesized diamond so that they absoluetly CANNOT be destroyed.
On more application could be to organically grow the hull of a small submarine capable of diving to tremendous depths. A sufficiently polished application could be optically transparent!!!! That is no portholes required. Remember "transparent aluminum" from star trek. A chemically deposited transparent diamond panel could probably kick it's ass in strenth.
How about armor for tanks, helicopters and planes???? A thin panel may be stronger then the most exotic alloy.
A sufficiently advaned systhesizing process may be capable of produce "machine grade" parts that will effectively NEVER wear.
The 20th century was the century of steel. With a reliable diamond production process, and technology that generates carbon nanon-tube threads (as well as bucky ball "bearings"), this could be the century of carbon!!!!!!
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!