4 ms·

Could this kind of computer work at 450°C?

• imglorp 6y ago
  That's a great question if you're asking about using it on Venus. Copper melts at 1084 C, so you're good there for springs, conductors and contacts. You'd need insulation for wires and circuit boards: something like fiberglass weave would be good up to 537C. No solder, wire wrap, steel posts. Resistors and capacitors for RC circuits should be similar, carbon is good and capacitors are insulator/conductor layers. I suspect making a temperature controlled oscillator will be very hard. This means power supply AC current might be hard to make. Anyway rebuilding OP's computer that can run in your kitchen oven would be a nice hobby goal. https://www.mcmaster.com/high-temperature-insulation/fiberglass-high-temperature-sleeving/ https://www.mcmaster.com/high-temperature-insulation/fibergl...
  • frabert 6y ago
    > Copper melts at 1084 C, so you're good there for springs Would you really be able to make a spring out of copper? It is my understanding that copper work hardens very quickly, which is a big no-no if you're making a spring, I guess
    • imglorp 6y ago
      True, bad idea, anyway there's many metals for that including steel, etc.
    • opwieurposiu 6y ago
      For springs you have to use Beryllium copper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_copper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_copper
  • swiley 6y ago
    The spring constant/youngs modulus probably changes with temperature. Making a relay work reliably over that kind of range sounds difficult.
• Robotbeat 6y ago
  Yes, you could. But there are also specialized electronics that work at 450C (or even 500C). NASA Glenn Research Center has developed them. Transistors and such using Silicon Carbide (instead of regular silicon). A simple computer could as easily be made with such transistors and passive elements. It’d be much faster and lighter than a relay computer. The issue with all such computers is developing significant storage. Enough RAM for scientific data and images is probably too energy intensive (electrical energy is hard to get if you have to dump heat at 450C for your RTG). So you either transmit constantly as described here: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20150002090 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20150002090 or you store it using maybe a magnetic tape with high curie temperature.
  • sitkack 6y ago
    Ozark Integrated Circuits got a contract from NASA to develop a high temperature RISC-V chip. > Ozark IC will create the first 500-degree Celsius RISC-V multi-chip system in a package as a way to illustrate the techniques, design procedures and the multi-chip package with high-temperature components that go into creating a high-temperature electronic system. press release https://talkbusiness.net/2020/05/nasa-to-give-750000-to-ozark-ic-for-high-temperature-electronics-project/ https://talkbusiness.net/2020/05/nasa-to-give-750000-to-ozar... Their banner says, "We Design for Venus" https://archive.is/w0lZV/image https://archive.is/w0lZV/image https://www.ozarkic.com/ https://www.ozarkic.com/
    • Robotbeat 6y ago
      Holy crap, that’s awesome!