Extreme Computing: Using Diamond Circuits
Engineers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, stated that they created transistors and logical gates using nanodiamond films. The benefit? More performance potential, especially in extreme environments.
"Diamond-based devices have the potential to operate at higher speeds and require less power than silicon-based devices," Research Professor of Electrical Engineering Jimmy Davidson said. "Diamond is the most inert material known, so our devices are largely immune to radiation damage and can operate at much higher temperatures than those made from silicon."
Davidson said that the devices are not "exorbitantly" expensive. Due to the size of transistors and gates, a one-carat diamond is enough to create about one billion of them. However, the diamond film is created from hydrogen and methane and the "deposited form of diamond is less than one-thousandth the cost of a jewelry diamond," the researchers said. The cost of producing nanodiamond devices may be competitive with silicon as a result, they stated. A Sandy Bridge die, by the way, has 995 million transistors.
The researchers envision their invention to be used in military electronics, circuitry that operates in space, ultra-high speed switches, ultra-low power applications and sensors that operate in high radiation environments, at extremely high temperatures up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit and extremely low temperatures down to minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to Davidson, nanodiamond devices can be manufactured by processes that are commonly used by the semiconductor industry with the exception that the production of the chip needs a vacuum, which requires a modified packaging process. Davidson and his colleagues said they have investigated the packaging process and have found that the metallic seals used in military-grade circuitry "are strong enough to hold an adequate vacuum for centuries."
There was no information when such chips could actually find their way into a production process.
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Maybe someday. This technology has potential.
Nice to hear that we are making some advances, I'm assuming with the recent technology that allow us to produce artificially made diamonds, the price will drop dramatically and soon we gonna see lots of diamond based devices
There are a lot of potential applications to circuitry in computers. Graphene, photo-transistors, magnetic switches, diamonds, memristors,ect....
Sounds really interesting for computing in extreme conditions.
Thank you for sharing this technology! No, really, it's quite exciting. I hope to see the day where silicon will be replaced as the primary material in computer chips.
the use of carbon/chemical vapor deposition is not even in question, but whether the technology has advanced enough over the past decade for mass production and meet the same purity requirements as its silicon cousins. Silicon carbide circuitry is a more economical alternative for mass production
I want this for one reason: When I rebuild my wife's computer I could claim that I am giving her diamonds!
Thank you for sharing this technology! No, really, it's quite exciting. I hope to see the day where silicon will be replaced as the primary material in computer chips.
Lol, I almost thought you're one of those bots =))) +1
This is awesome. 1 carat diamond equivalent to 1 billion transistors? Sounds very promising...
I want this for one reason: When I rebuild my wife's computer I could claim that I am giving her diamonds!
or u can just grab one of those disk they use for sanding for her, since technically.......some of them are diamonds too......just industrial diamonds
I am sure they wont have a laptop with a LCD display, with diamond ckts. The screen would freeze at 300 degree below zero. That would put a new meaning to my computer just froze. Oh, you would freeze as well, lol
Diamond replacing silicon? Add the gold pins and Rappers on both coasts will be sportin these chips as bling son! BOO-Ya!
In other news, guys now have code in terms of talking about buying an engagement ring... Example below:
John; "Hey Bob, i bought 4 billion transistors for my girl, hope she says yes" Bob; "Don't get married dude, I'll have nobody else to live vicariously through!"
If this makes it into CPU's, Video Cards and Motherboards circuitry in the near future, maybe we would see very cool computers that won't require that many fans or any liquid cooling.
In short we might be able to see the beginning of true SILENT PC's.
I believe this technology is part of the need for electronics equipment, namely military, that can survive large EM bursts, like those released by nuclear weapons. This is cool. I just wish we hadn't created the need for them.
Combine this and Intel recent tri-gate and you might have something good
Moissanite could potentially help in this area. It's a man made diamond except it has silicone in it as well. It's cheap enough to produce.
Intel's tri-gate?
Lol... I hope that was sarcasm because tri-gate is about a decade old innovation that AMD was using in it's own CPU's.
Either way, this is nothing new.
Is this supposed to be the first official announcement?
Lol...
They had the ability to do this over a decade ago as well, and it wasn't until NOW that this was put into circulation?
Capitalism/Stagnation at it's finest (why am I not surprised).
You forgot to mention diamonds can work at terahertz speed. I've being waiting for this tech to become mainstreams for a decade now.
If this makes it into CPU's, Video Cards and Motherboards circuitry in the near future, maybe we would see very cool computers that won't require that many fans or any liquid cooling.In short we might be able to see the beginning of true SILENT PC's.
Well, maybe possible for a short period of time.... although people will push the tech to the point were we are at now. Needing fans, LC, LN2,ect.
Yep, i saw a nova episode of a top secret manufacturer that makes diamonds. The nova crew had to be blind folded so they won't know the location. they talk about the diamond technology and how it can also replace silicone technology and has the potential to make a diamond screen to replace glass for the space shuttle.
Even if the chips can handle the thermal issues, you would need to worry about the PC boards. They have more issues with breakage due to expansion and contraction.
So that's how the T-1000 took the tanker load full of liquid nitrogen!
*Old Spice Guy* "Look at my hand. I have two CPU's for that computer you love. Now look again.. Your CPU's are now DIAMONDS!"
" lol
Sorry, I just had to.. But seriously, this would be awesome.. Can you imagine not having to be restricted(basically) to the 100 Celsius ceiling when it comes to overclocking, or the like? I can see it now.. "Whoa bro, your CPU is about to explode! It's at 193 degrees!" "Dang.. I was hoping to hit a modest 400 with this overclock...
Diamonds... I am still waiting for organic memory that HP was boasting last year...
This is where Science puts Alchemy to shame, turning coal into diamonds instead of lead into gold. Too bad a lot of "Scientists" are opting for Alchemy in their quest for Science Fiction instead of Science Fact, or is it just me who thinks that it's curious that there's a pill for everything & that everyone needs one, because everyone has an illness that only pills can do something about? If a shrink will become jobless if his/her patient is ever cured, & gets sponsor $$$ to get you to take them...
Does this mean in extreme conditions diamond breasts support heat much better than silicone ones? :-)
Won't be too long before guys will start asking for clothes, shoes and a motorcycle.
Of course Tom is always interested, "when can WE get our hands on it?" When you get enough gold duuuuh.
"The researchers envision their invention to be used in military electronics"
good god, the last thing this world needs is more weapons. please don't go down this road.
LOL You do know that besides "Making war" the US military does search and rescue, civil projects, shovels old peoples walk ways in the winter, hands out toys to kids that would never see one and support the economy around every post to name a few non war projects. ON top of that military grade chips are often used in the civilian world where reliability is a must not just convenient. You want to hate on the military, thats fine. Move to a country where the military is used to keep the populace in check, not keep them free.
"the US military does search and rescue, civil projects, shovels old peoples walk ways in the winter, hands out toys to kids that would never see one"
we don't need the military for this. other programs can just as easily accomplish these things.
"support the economy"
if you mean "supports defense contractors at the expense of tax payers" then yes.
"ON top of that military grade chips are often used in the civilian world where reliability is a must not just convenient."
we can just as easily invest in chips without turning them into weapons for the military first.
"You want to hate on the military, thats fine."
actually i didn't hate on the military, all i said was don't make more weapons, but you read what you wanted to read, and now i'm responding to your "hate" towards me.
"Move to a country where the military is used to keep the populace in check, not keep them free."
the military doesn't really keep us free. modern threats to american soil don't come from invading armies, they come from individual terrorists who walk right in. modern defense is all about intel gathering. 9/11 could've been easily prevented if the CIA/FBI had acted quicker or we had had better airport security. the military didn't and couldn't have prevented 9/11, and invading afghanistan and iraq have done nothing to make american soil any safer. what they have done is cost us ungodly amounts of money and killed even more americans than died on 9/11. the only people who benefit from war are the defense contractors and their lobbyists.