51–60 of 233 posts
Does superconductivity remove or reduce the limit on die size?
Can't imagine why it would, but the lack of heat makes a 3D cpu much more feasible. So you could take 20 die, make 20 layers, and get radically more transistors per volume.
This sounds perfect for space. It's cold in space, power is at a premium, and it can be tough getting rid of heat.
Its a bit cold in space. But actually its really difficult to cool down things in space as there is nothing around you to transfer heat to.
I miss old school BioWare.
The other strategy that is ultra-efficient is to stop using the net to sell hoards of useless crap that will break the day after the warranty expires and cannot be repaired. That would save money on the computing power as well as the mining, transportation of raw materials, refining, transportation of refined materials, manufacturing, transportation of finished goods and the whole retail chain. Unless we achieve room…
This sounds perfect for space. It's cold in space, power is at a premium, and it can be tough getting rid of heat.
Its a bit cold in space. But actually its really difficult to cool down things in space as there is nothing around you to transfer heat to.
Once this can be done at the temperature of liquid nitrogen, that will be a true revolution. The difference in cost of producing liquid nitrogen and liquid helium is enormous.
Alternatively, such servers could be theoretically stored in the permanently shaded craters of the lunar South Pole, but at the cost of massive ping.
Given the cooling requirements, I suppose it would create completely impassable rift between datacenter computing and other kinds. Imagine how programming and operating systems might look in a world where processing power is 80x cheaper. Considering that "data centers alone consume 2% of world's enegy", I think it's worth it.
It seems likely that the more efficient our processors become, the larger share of the world's energy we'll devote to them [0]. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, if we're getting more than proportionally more utility out of the processors, but I worry about that too [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law
The trend seems to be that we get only a little bit of extra utility out of a lot of extra hardware performance.
When the developer upgrades their PC it's easier for them to not notice performance issues. This creates the situation where every few years you need to buy a new PC to do the things you always did.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its a bit cold in space. But actually its really difficult to cool down things in space as there is nothing around you to transfer heat to.
In Sundiver by David Brin they put all the heat in a laser, so they can beam it away from their craft
Nice, but requires 10 K temperature - not very practical. Once this can be done at the temperature of liquid nitrogen, that will be a true revolution. The difference in cost of producing liquid nitrogen and liquid helium is enormous. Alternatively, such servers could be theoretically stored in the permanently shaded craters of the lunar South Pole, but at the cost of massive ping.
Given the cooling requirements, I suppose it would create completely impassable rift between datacenter computing and other kinds. Imagine how programming and operating systems might look in a world where processing power is 80x cheaper. Considering that "data centers alone consume 2% of world's enegy", I think it's worth it.
Before this happens, I recommend having your exit strategy for the industry, living off whatever profits you made working as a developer during the early 21st century.
Nice, but requires 10 K temperature - not very practical. Once this can be done at the temperature of liquid nitrogen, that will be a true revolution. The difference in cost of producing liquid nitrogen and liquid helium is enormous. Alternatively, such servers could be theoretically stored in the permanently shaded craters of the lunar South Pole, but at the cost of massive ping.
If the throughput is fast enough 3+3=6 seconds latency doesn't really sound that bad. There are websites with that kind of lag. You can't use to build a chat app, but you can use it as a cloud for general computing.