A solid-state CPU with discrete components

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Gee... your so funny asshole!

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

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

I know it's hard, but try reading.

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. :)

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

You need zero bits to store 1 state..

or..

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

Warren

Use relays, they are TRUE solid state...

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...

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

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