3 ms·

I don't understand, transistors are already dirt cheap compared to what you pay for IP and market segmentation.

rwmj 11y ago
I don't really get it either, but I assume that the idea is you can "inkjet" print them on to existing plastic things. My reason for posting on HN was to find out if any insiders here can tell us more.
ju-st 11y ago
It's propably cheaper for low quantities?
bjackman 11y ago
Plastic ICs are flexible (I mean physically. I've touched one of the M0 "SoC"s in the picture, it feels a bit like the floppy bit of a floppy disc). The plastic process allows you to make masks very cheaply (I believe on the order of $5k, as opposed to $millions), so low-volume production is more practical.
bsder 11y ago
> transistors are already dirt cheap compared to what you pay for IP and market segmentation. Transistors are dirt cheap in volume. In reality, transistors have a megabuck+ NRE (non-recurring expense) that prevents us from making effective use of the global oversupply of transistor manufacturing capacity. So, just like plastic injection molding is dirt cheap in large volume, but 3D printed plastic is way better for small volume; silicon transistor manufacturing is dirt cheap is large volume, but printed transistor manufacturing would be good for small volume.
coliveira 11y ago
The great advantage would be for individuals to create their own designs. Right now chips are very cheap as long as you produce millions of them. If you come up with your own chip design it is very expensive to produce them. The ability to crate your own chip can make it possible for individuals to design customized machines, where the instructions would be created to solve particular problems. For example, a Lisp machine could be easily created to support exactly the instructions needed by Lisp.
- andrewflnr 11y ago
  More importantly IMO, it lets you potentially get rid of dark silicon, and make open source hardware a reality.

rwmj 11y ago

I don't really get it either, but I assume that the idea is you can "inkjet" print them on to existing plastic things. My reason for posting on HN was to find out if any insiders here can tell us more.

ju-st 11y ago

It's propably cheaper for low quantities?

bjackman 11y ago

Plastic ICs are flexible (I mean physically. I've touched one of the M0 "SoC"s in the picture, it feels a bit like the floppy bit of a floppy disc). The plastic process allows you to make masks very cheaply (I believe on the order of $5k, as opposed to $millions), so low-volume production is more practical.

bsder 11y ago

> transistors are already dirt cheap compared to what you pay for IP and market segmentation. Transistors are dirt cheap in volume. In reality, transistors have a megabuck+ NRE (non-recurring expense) that prevents us from making effective use of the global oversupply of transistor manufacturing capacity. So, just like plastic injection molding is dirt cheap in large volume, but 3D printed plastic is way better for small volume; silicon transistor manufacturing is dirt cheap is large volume, but printed transistor manufacturing would be good for small volume.

coliveira 11y ago

The great advantage would be for individuals to create their own designs. Right now chips are very cheap as long as you produce millions of them. If you come up with your own chip design it is very expensive to produce them. The ability to crate your own chip can make it possible for individuals to design customized machines, where the instructions would be created to solve particular problems. For example, a Lisp machine could be easily created to support exactly the instructions needed by Lisp.

andrewflnr 11y ago
More importantly IMO, it lets you potentially get rid of dark silicon, and make open source hardware a reality.