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Computer Chips Made of Wood Promise Greener Electronics
alphadogg writes: Researchers in the U.S. and China have developed semiconductor chips that are almost entirely made out of a wood-derived material. In addition to being biodegradable, the cost of production is much less than conventional semiconductors. According to the NetworkWorld report: "The researchers used a cellulose material for the substrate of the chip, which is the part that supports the active semiconductor layer. Taken from cellulose, a naturally abundant substance used to make paper, cellulose nanofibril (CNF) is a flexible, transparent and sturdy material with suitable electrical properties. That makes CNF better than alternative chip designs using natural materials such as paper and silk, they argue in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications."
And it specializes in Bamboolean operations...
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
So they replace the substrate with wood ... instead of silica ... the argument being that wood is plentiful and biodegradable and biologically safe ...
Except ... Silica is more plentiful and more biologically safe since its essentially biologically inert.
As an advantage, silica is NOT biodegradable, because I want my chips to last, not fall apart over the winter when it sheds its leaves.
Silica is NOT the issue for the environment in CPUs, its the production materials and doping agents that are horrible on living things and hard to dispose of.
So congrats ... you solved a problem ... wait, no, you didn't really do anything productive. Not seeing any redeeming quality about a chip produced this way and seeing plenty of down sides.
Whats next, you're going to try and convince me that the aircraft carrier made of sawdust and ice they tried to construct during WWII really was a brilliant plant for a warship sailing in the south pacific?
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
since global ore reserves of current substrates such as silicon and aluminum dioxide are rare and almost depleted.
Another advantage of cellulose based wafers is that using traditional Japanese technology, they can be made even smaller, and in pretty shapes like swans.
Not so true. Not only trees have a limit in the amount of carbon they can sink, but if you cut a 100years old tree, and replant it, the new trees is not gonna sink as much carbon as the previous tree.
Some research on the subject... https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/ne...
Not actually true. As part owner of a tree farm we've looked into carbon credits, etc. CO2 sequestration is highest in the first few years of growth and then gradually tapers off. You probably get more CO2 sequestered in the first 20 years than the next 80.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
A Beowulf shrubbery of these!
How can you tell how old your iPhone is? Call it and count the rings.
Landscapers are becoming in demand because of their ability to provide wood chips.
Play Nintendogs, now with more bark.
Search functionality vastly improved for native binary trees.
God spoke to me
For the highest amount of CO2 sequestration you need the plant matter to fall into an anaerobic bog and slowly sink into the ground as new stuff lands on top. After a few hundred million years, an advanced society then digs it as coal and oil and burns it, dumping all the carbon back into the atmosphere.
There's a huge amount of stored carbon in the ground. It's only a problem when you burn it. Burn current plant matter and and you're only returning the carbon that came from the air recently, not the carbon that's been saved up for millions of years.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.