Slashdot Mirror
The First Plastic Computer Processor
jcombel writes "There's been a lot of talk lately about developing replacements for silicon; how about a nearly-transparent film of plastic, woven into clothing or affixed directly to equipment? From the article, 'Researchers in Europe used 4,000 plastic, or organic, transistors to create the plastic microprocessor, which measures roughly two centimeters square and is built on top of flexible plastic foil. ... The processor can so far run only one simple program of 16 instructions. The commands are hardcoded into a second foil etched with plastic circuits that can be connected to the processor to "load" the program. This allows the processor to calculate a running average of an incoming signal, something that a chip involved in processing the signal from a sensor might do.'"
Now geeks can get socially acceptable plastic surgery.
16 instructions should be enough for everybody!
Call me when it can run Linux.
I had one of these back in the 1960's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digi-Comp_I
This means I can get chips in my tin foil hat?
Sure, if you make your tinfoil hat out of the bag the chips came in. Might get your hair greasy, but that's a relatively small inconvenience.
No, that'd be a plastic/metal composite.
Also, composite does not mean the same thing as a polymer. A composite is a mixture of chemically distinct materials; in a polymer, the materials have chemically combined to form polymerized molecules.
Composite: a solid material which is composed of two or more substances having different physical characteristics and in which each substance retains its identity while contributing desirable properties to the whole
Polymer: a chemical compound or mixture of compounds formed by [a chemical reaction in which two or more molecules combine to form larger molecules that contain repeating structural units]
Honestly, how is this better than a silicon die in a Plastic carrier? I already can make a processor so thin that you would not feel it in a shirt, and you can waterproof it so it will survive washings. Flexing is not an issue as it's too tiny to care.
Other than a "neat-o lookie what we did" aspect, I can not see any practical use to replace a silicon die of the same thing.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
How do you figure? They are "plastic" in both the noun and adjective senses.
Plastic (n): any of numerous organic synthetic or processed materials that are mostly thermoplastic or thermosetting polymers of high molecular weight and that can be made into objects, films, or filaments
Plastic (adj): capable of being molded or modeled
I don't think I'll permit a Chinese company to dictate proper use of the English language, nor a page entitled "Here you obtain information about plastic foils".
*laugh* OK, fair enough ... I've never heard the term before, and all of the hits for "plastic foil" seem to be Chinese companies.
The term seems to be in use, but nothing I would call authoritative on the subject. Though, someone filed a patent relating to it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
They're just using the astronomer's definition of metal.
Dude, when "OMG" and "LOL" get added to the Oxford Dictionary, it's too late to start worrying about what's "allowed".
Let's face it, if they're just adding "rotoscope" and "suicide door" to the lexicon (both words which have been around for ever), a dictionary isn't always definitive on what words people are using in practice.
You can now be free to make up geek-bonics as you please. ;-)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.