1. Home
  2. Electronics Design
  3. A solid-state CPU with discrete components

A solid-state CPU with discrete components

Hi:

I'm daydreaming of a hypothetical solid-state CPU fitting all the following characteristics:

  1. That does not need any soldering to build

  1. Uses that same amount of wattage as most CPUs in eco-friendly PCs

  2. In which the only electrical insulator/resistor is air

  1. Uses extremely high-voltage [~1 billion volts] yet the amperage is low-enough not to harm to anything or anyone

  2. Does not need any cooling system

  1. Can withstand temperatures extreme enough to destroy conventional CPUs without experiencing any damage

  2. Can withstand physical stress [such as from falls] without experiencing any damage

  1. Air is the only thing that acts as a passive electronic component

  2. Does not require the use of any hazardous material to construct

  1. Does not require any vacuum [such as glassfets]

  2. Does not require any sealed container of ionized gases [such as GaAsFETs].

  1. Does not need any integrated-circuits; all circuits are discrete

  2. A voltage of 1,000,000,000 represents a '0' while a voltage of
1,000,000,001 represents a '1'.

  1. No capacitance or inductance is required.

  2. Can withstand amperages -- but does not use -- high-enough to instantly destroy conventional CPUs without being damaged to any extent

  1. Can withstand wattage levels -- but does not use -- high-enough to fry conventional CPUs without being damaged to any extent

  2. Can withstand square-waves, spike-waves, triangle-wave, and other sharp-edged signals intense enough to immediately obliterate conventional CPUs without being damaged to any extent

Is this CPU possible to build, given the state of today's technology?

If this hypothetical CPU were built, would it be made entirely out of copper [the best least-expensive conductor of electricity]? Silver conducts better than copper but is way too expensive.

What existing type of CPU design most closely fits this hypothetical CPU I'm pondering about?

Thanks,

Green Xenon

Reply to
GreenXenon
Loading thread data ...

Propably you going to have the same chance to achive your goal as to find an Unicorn

Reply to
Luis Filipe Rossi

I think you've been reading to many sci fi books :)

Reply to
TTman

What makes it impossible to construct a CPU purely out of copper?

Reply to
GreenXenon

You'll need two stable states to store one bit.

Wait an minute! You can have your block of copper standing or flattened. Then with enough copper you have can your new 128b processor with 1To cache, truck Hypertransport and such... Cool

--
Thanks,
Fred.
Reply to
Fred Bartoli

Ask on alt.rec.troll.troll.troll.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
Reply to
Tim Wescott

Very bad science fiction, no doubt. Part of the 90% covered by Sturgeon's Law... "that which is garbage."

Hah.

If you are *literally* talking about a one-billion-volt level for these signals, then you're out of luck. You'd be operating your whole computer at a level of charge which would create massive electrical discharges to everything nearby. The field strength required to break down (ionize) air is only around 3 million volts per meter... so you'd be plugging voltages into your CPU high enough to immediately generate a lightning bolt about 1000 feet long.

If you're talking about operating at a much lower absolute voltage, but with only one part per billion between the "1" and "0" voltage... you're also out of luck. That level of voltage variation is going to be well below the amount of voltage variation created within the circuit itself due to random noise... so the whole CPU would almost instantly lose all of the data stored within it, and would immediately malfunction.

Capacitance and inductance are inherent in all electronic devices... they arise from the very nature of space-time. You cannot get away from them, cannot eliminate them, and must always account for their presence.

Since the CPU that you propose would either instantly destroy itself via a high-voltage discharge to its surroundings, or instantly corrupt all of its internal data due to self-generated noise, it seems to me that destruction by external forces are completely irrelevant.

No.

I seriously doubt that you could build a computer to these specifications out of any form of matter known to humanity.

Radiation-hardened (e.g. spaceflight-capable) processors, based on some of the more exotic materials. They are a *long* way from what you are looking for, though.

--
Dave Platt                                    AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page:  http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
  I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
     boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!
Reply to
Dave Platt

No, he's reading Fantasy books. He's not smart enough to read Sci-Fi.

--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a band-aid on it, because it's
Teflon coated.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

No problem. Welding or wire-wrapping are more difficult, but if you're paying for it, it'll work.

Odd; it won't market well if it's the same as the competition. Can you ask instead for some kind of competitive advantage?

Odd; the materials cost of insulators are negligible, why would one want them eliminated?

Any charged electrode at that voltage in air needs a large radius to avoid corona discharge, and the development (in air) of toxic gasses like ozone. Maybe you could get away with it, if your wiring were all about 1km diameter... I'm thinking this will eliminate wire-wrapping as an option.

Cooling system is not the problem: the Earth's atmosphere only goes a couple miles up, your wiring will be VERY cramped to fit in that space.

Reply to
whit3rd

Just define ground as being -1,000,000,000V. QED

Reply to
krw

Gee... your so funny asshole!

Reply to
Shaun

You must be another of Nymbecile's nyms. Makes perfect sense.

Reply to
krw

What the f*ck is that suppose to mean, Shithead?

Reply to
Shaun

I know it's hard, but try reading.

Reply to
krw

up ast a few hundered volts air is an active component, (eg spark gap, corona discharge)

not to those specifications.

anything you pick will corrode too fast at the voltages you want to use

a turing machine, because it's impractical. :)

--
?? 100% natural
Reply to
Jasen Betts

Fred Bartoli expounded in news:ij3v6u$ou1$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:

You need zero bits to store 1 state..

or..

1 bit in base-zero, to store 1 state.

I have some 1-state electronics in my junk box.

Warren

Reply to
Warren

Use relays, they are TRUE solid state...

Reply to
Robert Baer

Warren a écrit :

but you'll never know which one it is...

Ditto. Some working, some not working, and I've long forgotten this little bit of information...

--
Thanks,
Fred.
Reply to
Fred Bartoli

Fred Bartoli expounded in news:ijlc9s$1jd$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:

..

Some of it may suffer quantum effects-

- test it once and it works.

- test it again and then it doesn't..

- repeat, ad nauseum (probability near 50%)

It's bi-state only when tested.

In the junk box, it is 1-state, albeit unknown.

Warren

Reply to
Warren

You mean whosit's cat that does not know it is in the box or not?

Reply to
Robert Baer

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.