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Same author in 2012: "Batteries are too heavy to ever be used by trucks or other large vehicles, and require a revolutionary breakthrough to power electric cars

by voqv 7y ago

Same author in 2012: "Batteries are too heavy to ever be used by trucks or other large vehicles, and require a revolutionary breakthrough to power electric cars." And China now [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-14/china-is-leading-the-world-to-an-electric-car-future https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-14/china-is-...] Still, even the thought of a collapse for chips is scary. I wonder if we can at least fallback to 80-s chips production in case of a supply chain collapse.

Tade0 7y ago
There's something better on the horizon: https://www.sciencealert.com/vintage-vacuum-tube-tech-could-take-electronics-and-solar-panels-to-the-next-level https://www.sciencealert.com/vintage-vacuum-tube-tech-could-... Also regular vacuum tubes are still pretty competent for power applications. Making a switching power supply might be a challenge though - we would have to return to using Thyratrons which contain mercury vapour.
- pjc50 7y ago
  The nanoscale vacuum transistor is still a silicon device - part of the point of it is that it can be produced in a conventional fab! Power diodes are not going to be a problem, they are a comparatively crude device from the 50s.
pjc50 7y ago
Chip shortages happen every now and again. I remember at least two due to shortages of a particular kind of epoxy resin: 2011 https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1258963 https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1258963 " "This is an unfortunate coincidence where 90-100 percent of the world's supply of bismaleimide triazine is made in northeastern Japan," 1993 https://apnews.com/8fe2925b68d34d33f19a53e4892c74a2 https://apnews.com/8fe2925b68d34d33f19a53e4892c74a2 "epoxy resin has been the talk of the computer chip business for the past month after an explosion destroyed a Japanese factory that made 60 percent of the world’s supply." > if we can at least fallback to 80-s chips production in case of a supply chain collapse. Not literally, most of the 80s US chip manufacturing sites are Superfund sites now.

by voqv 7y ago

Tade0 7y ago

There's something better on the horizon: https://www.sciencealert.com/vintage-vacuum-tube-tech-could-take-electronics-and-solar-panels-to-the-next-level https://www.sciencealert.com/vintage-vacuum-tube-tech-could-... Also regular vacuum tubes are still pretty competent for power applications. Making a switching power supply might be a challenge though - we would have to return to using Thyratrons which contain mercury vapour.

pjc50 7y ago
The nanoscale vacuum transistor is still a silicon device - part of the point of it is that it can be produced in a conventional fab! Power diodes are not going to be a problem, they are a comparatively crude device from the 50s.

pjc50 7y ago

Chip shortages happen every now and again. I remember at least two due to shortages of a particular kind of epoxy resin: 2011 https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1258963 https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1258963 " "This is an unfortunate coincidence where 90-100 percent of the world's supply of bismaleimide triazine is made in northeastern Japan," 1993 https://apnews.com/8fe2925b68d34d33f19a53e4892c74a2 https://apnews.com/8fe2925b68d34d33f19a53e4892c74a2 "epoxy resin has been the talk of the computer chip business for the past month after an explosion destroyed a Japanese factory that made 60 percent of the world’s supply." > if we can at least fallback to 80-s chips production in case of a supply chain collapse. Not literally, most of the 80s US chip manufacturing sites are Superfund sites now.