New State of Matter Could Extend Moore's Law 329
rennerik writes "Scientists at McGill University in Montreal say they've discovered a new state of matter that could help extend Moore's Law and allow for the fabrication of more tightly packed transistors, or a new kind of transistor altogether. The researchers call the new state of matter 'a quasi-three-dimensional electron crystal.' It was discovered using a device cooled to a temperature about 100 times colder than intergalactic space, following the application of the most powerful continuous magnetic field on Earth."
Hm... (Score:3, Insightful)
The researchers call the new state of matter 'a quasi-three-dimensional electron crystal.' It was discovered using a device cooled to a temperature about 100 times colder than intergalactic space, following the application of the most powerful continuous magnetic field on Earth.
I don't know why, but I think this will take a while to get to my local PC store.
Could you be any more vague? (Score:2, Insightful)
... "...It was discovered using a device cooled to a temperature about 100 times colder than intergalactic space, following the application of the most powerful continuous magnetic field on Earth."
What does this mean? Give us a temperature. At least that would be concrete.
According to wikipedia, intergalactic space is 2.71 Kelvin. I would assume that they mean "100th the temperature of intergalactic space", not "100 times colder than intergalactic space", as the latter is nonsensical and implies that it exists at 100 times colder than intergalactic space is colder than room temperature, meaning -28834 Kelvin (293 - 100 * (293 - 2.73) where we assume that room temperature is 20 degrees centigrade). This is nonsense.
So, my PC is going to be running at 0.0273 Kelvin. Well, that's convenient! I love my room when it's that cold!
New transistor, that's nice. (Score:4, Insightful)
Now gimme mah memristors! [wikipedia.org]
Moore's Law? (Score:3, Insightful)
Scenes from the lab (Score:5, Insightful)
[Scientist 1] A new state of matter! This is AWESOME!
[Scientist 2] Yeah, but it's bloody expensive making the stuff. How can we bring in more funding?
[Scientist 1] Umm ... Something to do with terrorism? Err ...
[Scientist 2] ...energy crisis? Can we do anything with oil? ...
[Scientist 1] ...what about computers? Could you make smaller transistors with this stuff?
[Scientist 2] Yeah, it might fly. Let's run with that.
Re:100 times colder than what? (Score:2, Insightful)
100 times as cold as.
Re:100 times colder than what? (Score:4, Insightful)
and i really cringed when i read the 100 times colder crap. Seriously, if it's at 0.03 K why not just say that?
Re:100 times colder than what? (Score:1, Insightful)
and i really cringed when i read the 100 times colder crap. Seriously, if it's at 0.03 K why not just say that?
Because 100 times colder sounds much more dramatic than 2.97 degress less.
Re:100 times colder than what? (Score:1, Insightful)
Most accurately, one should say "one hundredth as warm as intergalactic space."
Why the unnecesary laymanspeak? (Score:2, Insightful)
"Approximately 100 times colder than intergalactic space"
Call me a troll if you must, but this is 'news for nerds'. Why not just give us the temperature in Kelvin?
Re:It came from... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:100 times colder than what? (Score:3, Insightful)
And the reason people don't say 0.03 K is because the average person does not know what K is [...]
Well then let them become curious and not so average.
Re:Hell Yeah! (Score:3, Insightful)
If you did have it in your office, there's not much danger of it blowing up, but the vacuum pumps would be pretty loud. ...
Not to mention, the vacuum pumps, the cold trap and the helium storage system would probably take up most of the space in your cubicle anyway.
They're not talking about cooling your computer that way, but about creating the transistors that way. There's nothing in the article that says that they have to be continuously kept at that temperature.
I'm pretty sure once it's done, it's done.
Re:It came from... (Score:4, Insightful)
... a device cooled to a temperature about 100 times colder than intergalactic space, following the application of the most powerful continuous magnetic field on Earth."
Hmmm... this is definitely going to extend Moore's Law in home computing... sure. ;)
Re:Colder than Space? (Score:4, Insightful)
That took me by surprise. I was sure it was going to be because of the vast number of virtual particles [wikipedia.org] constantly appearing and disappearing within the vacuum.
Re:100 times colder than what? (Score:2, Insightful)
It does not work well. 100x colder than 1 C is not 0.01 C, it is -270.27 C. And the reason people don't say 0.03 K is because the average person does not know what K is, but they know space is very cold.
Agree, but this is a science article. It is obviously going to be read by quite a few technically minded people. So it doesn't hurt to give a clear value as well as a clarifier for the masses.
Re:100 times colder than what? (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the reasons the average person does not know what K is, is because they're never expected to know it.
If everyone stopped using Celsius or Fahrenheit in situations where Kelvin would better suited, people would have to actually remember the Kelvin-scale from school-physics or take a minute out of their lives to find out what the Kelvin-scale is.
Anyone who does not know what K is (Score:1, Insightful)
Anyone who does not know what K is won't read the article.
Re:100 times colder than what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Q: What is the difference between an orange?
A: A banana.
The problem with "x times colder"... (Score:3, Insightful)
Here's the problem... when you say things like "x times SMALLER than" and "x times COLDER than" people think "oh, something TIMES something... I have to multiply."
But with diminishing comparisons (smaller, colder, etc) you're actually multiplying by a decimal, which most people regard as DIVISION.
Worse, when you say something like "100 times colder than" people think not just "I have to multiply" but rather "I have to multiply something by 100".
Let's save everyone a headache and if you want to make a comparison, use the most explicit form possible. In this case, "1/100th the temperature of intergalactic space" (or just give us the damn Kelvins).
To paraphrase an AC's earlier post: