News Coal could be in your next CPU -- researchers eye coal as a metal oxide insulator replacement in next-gen 2D transistors

[Admin]

A team of researchers are looking into coal as a potential replacement for metal oxide to insulate transistors. If successful coal could change the semiconductor landscape as we know it today.

Coal could be in your next CPU -- researchers eye coal as a metal oxide insulator replacement in next-gen 2D transistors : Read more

 

[usertests]

Billions must transist.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Good thing we have plenty of Coal to use =D

 

[lorfa]

"Coal of all materials, has been found to be a highly material that can effectively insulate skinnier 2D transistors."

Materials that are highly material are good. Immaterial materials that are ethereal and incorporeal are tough to make things out of.

 

[DougMcC]

"Coal of all materials, has been found to be a highly material that can effectively insulate skinnier 2D transistors."

Materials that are highly material are good. Immaterial materials that are ethereal and incorporeal are tough to make things out of.

Exactly what I thought when I read that. Unlike most typos though, I find with this one I can't seem to guess what was intended. Is the missing word 'useful' maybe?

 

[p3dr0]

Exactly what I thought when I read that. Unlike most typos though, I find with this one I can't seem to guess what was intended. Is the missing word 'useful' maybe?

More like 'available'

 

[pixelpusher220]

More like 'available'

it hasn't "been found" to be a highly available material, we already knew that. Something to do with it's molecular properties would be my guess

 

[Oldcompsci]

Are there any editors involved in proof-reading these articles before they are posted? It also shouldn't surprise anyone that life-based complex hydrocarbon materials are useful for all kinds of stuff.

 

[Co BIY]

Exactly what I thought when I read that. Unlike most typos though, I find with this one I can't seem to guess what was intended. Is the missing word 'useful' maybe?

More fun than a Times crossword -

Insulative ?

The structure of coal is much more complex and interesting than I had imagined.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ar...ctural units in,one pyrrole, and one pyridine.

From another article, "Coals are believed to be three-dimensionally cross-linked macromolecular networks containing dissolved organic material that can be removed by extraction"

 

[TCA_ChinChin]

Billions must transist.

I wish there was a laugh button alongside the like one in forums lmao.

 

[gondor]

"Silicon, the material that makes up modern-day semiconductor transistors, is getting harder and harder to find due to the ever-increasing demand for semiconductor chips."

Klutz strikes again - silicon makes up for more than one quarter of Earth's crust, it's the second most abundant element after oxygen. It an be found everywhere; just bend down and pick up some sand. Hardly qualifies as "harder and harder to find".

Coal - dead dinosaurs & their veggies - on the other hand, not so easy to find and in very much finite supply in comparison.

Tom's hardware should get rid of this guy,his "articles" are one clueless rambling after another and nothing of value in-between.

 

[Notton]

"Silicon, the material that makes up modern-day semiconductor transistors, is getting harder and harder to find due to the ever-increasing demand for semiconductor chips."

Klutz strikes again - silicon makes up for more than one quarter of Earth's crust, it's the second most abundant element after oxygen. It an be found everywhere; just bend down and pick up some sand. Hardly qualifies as "harder and harder to find".

Coal - dead dinosaurs & their veggies - on the other hand, not so easy to find and in very much finite supply in comparison.

Tom's hardware should get rid of this guy,his "articles" are one clueless rambling after another and nothing of value in-between.

The "Silicon" referred to here is "Silica Sand", aka Quartz. It's at least 95% SiO2.
Currently, only silica sand is suitable for making silicon ingots for semiconductors.

Concrete has the same problem, only it requires coarse sand. Mixing concrete with the wrong type of sand results in less strength.

 

[gondor]

The "Silicon" referred to here is "Silica Sand", aka Quartz. It's at least 95% SiO2.
Currently, only silica sand is suitable for making silicon ingots for semiconductors.

"Only silica sand" is far more abundant than "any coal". And if we go down this route I bet not all coal is suitable for above mentioned purposes (due to impurities in e.g. lignite).

Out of curiosity I googled prices for silica sand and (black) coal - about 1 : 5 price ratio for 25 sack kg of each.

 

[pixelpusher220]

"Silicon, the material that makes up modern-day semiconductor transistors, is getting harder and harder to find due to the ever-increasing demand for semiconductor chips."

Klutz strikes again - silicon makes up for more than one quarter of Earth's crust, it's the second most abundant element after oxygen. It an be found everywhere; just bend down and pick up some sand. Hardly qualifies as "harder and harder to find".

Coal - dead dinosaurs & their veggies - on the other hand, not so easy to find and in very much finite supply in comparison.

Tom's hardware should get rid of this guy,his "articles" are one clueless rambling after another and nothing of value in-between.

"Freelance News Writer" Well they got the price right

 

[Geef]

"Coal of all materials, has been found to be a highly material that can effectively insulate skinnier 2D transistors."

Now try re-reading this after drinking a couple beers and things start to come together.

"Cool of all materials, has been found to be a highly material. That can effective lynsulate skin. bier 2D transi-stores."

 

[williamjeremiah]

Exactly what I thought when I read that. Unlike most typos though, I find with this one I can't seem to guess what was intended. Is the missing word 'useful' maybe?

Or 'abundant'

 

[bit_user]

"Silicon, the material that makes up modern-day semiconductor transistors, is getting harder and harder to find due to the ever-increasing demand for semiconductor chips."

I was also highly skeptical of this claim. If you read the source article, in IEEE Spectrum, what it actually says is:

"It has become increasingly difficult to get silicon, a material whose properties as a semiconductor require all three dimensions, into slices that are thin enough and small enough."
​

Read that too hastily and you might miss the last two clauses. That entirely changes the meaning of the sentence, from one of silicon scarcity to citing silicon's limitations in lithography.

As you say, the misunderstanding should've been caught by a simple sanity-check. What's especially odd about this reading is how the entire IEEE Spectrum article focuses on transistor development and not supply-chain issues. Even if you knew nothing else, basic knowledge of the craft of writing should've flagged the stated interpretation as suspect. I doubt Anton would've made this mistake.