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NASA Building Massively Heat-Resistant Chips

Posted by kdawson on from the don't-bother-with-water-cooling dept.

coondoggie writes "NASA researchers have designed and built a new circuit chip that can take the heat of a blast furnace and keep on performing. Silicon carbide (SiC) chips can operate at 600 degrees Celsius or 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit where conventional silicon-based electronics — limited to about 350 C — would fail. The new silicon carbide differential amplifier integrated circuit chip may provide benefits to anything requiring long-lasting electronic circuits in very hot environments such as jets, spacecraft, and industrial machinery. In particular, NASA said SiC applications will include energy storage, renewable energy, nuclear power, and electrical drives."

8 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    This gives an update for my macbook pro.

  2. Too Bad by Kryptonian+Jor-El · · Score: 5, Funny

    Its too bad, we could have used this when the Pentium 4 Prescott came out...

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  3. That sound you hear by SpiffyMarc · · Score: 5, Funny

    is hundreds of champagne corks popping simultaneously at the AMD campus.

  4. Re:This could help my girlfriend by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    This could help my girlfriend

    Every time she tries to use a laptop, it melts because... she is so hot.

    Maybe you should take her in for repairs. If the battery is from Sony, you may risk serious fire damage.

  5. Re:This could help my girlfriend by Bodrius · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ah, the moderation conundrum:

    Should this be +1 Funny for using the words "my girlfriend" in Slashdot, or does the lameness of the other joke cancel it out?

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    Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
  6. Re:CPUs.. by QuickFox · · Score: 4, Funny

    That is pretty cool. Cool? You think these chips are cool? I'd hate to be in a place you think is hot.
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    Terrorists can't threaten a country's freedom and democracy. Only lawmakers and voters can do that.
  7. Hey, NASA's capabilities are increasing by leaps by patio11 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now the chips which will execute the

        distanceInFeet = distanceInFeet + deltaInMeters;

    calculation are heat resistant.

    (Hey, only kidding guys. I mean, we all make mistakes. Of course, I don't expect you to be rocket scie... oh, wait. Well, its not like you had ten billion dollars of... oh, wait. Well, the point of it is, you can still make mistakes.)

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    Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
  8. Re:A=A if you ignore B by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    you could also just go back and build a Pentium out of vac.tubes

    I gotta tell you. I just did this. What a difference! It has this quality that's hard to describe. A kind of warmth that I just don't get from silicon transistors.