5 ms·
It really depends on how many steps down the ladder of abstraction you go. Computers are still magic if you step down a few more rungs.
by FPGAhacker 5y ago
It really depends on how many steps down the ladder of abstraction you go. Computers are still magic if you step down a few more rungs.
- tuatoru 5y agoAt the third to bottom rung, all electronics are analog.
- picture 5y agoDown to the physics of FETs and the underlying chemistry? How much further doe it go?
- Cyph0n 5y agoQuantum effects, particle physics, and then the unknown (for now).
- Dylan16807 5y agoI'd say the field effects on electrical flow are probably the weirdest part to look at, and they don't reach 'magic' levels. The atoms below that are relatively straightforward, and them being made up of building blocks is fine I guess, increasingly irrelevant to the issue of a computer. And going up everything starts to get very non-magical as you turn response curves into binary signals and then string gates together.
- ngcc_hk 5y agoQm is still magical as you sort of use it but do not really understand it. It is so weird. And that is magically part. Btw I read your below word as above.
- Dylan16807 5y agoIt's such a narrow sliver of quantum effects that are relevant here, though, and it's not the weird stuff.
- ZeikJT 5y agoQuantum tunneling is a step into weird.
- Dylan16807 5y agoYou don't need tunneling to make a transistor work. (And for difficulty making walls too thin lest electrons leak through, you don't need to invoke tunneling to explain that.)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- fsckboy 5y agoi think amplified current flow through bipolar junction collector depletion zones are the weirdest part, and they are magic.
- erosenbe0 5y agoYeah for me it is the parasitic bjt/collector that forms in a fet (c.f. latch up). Also that bjts work in reverse active to some extent, despite the emitter nominally being the injector of the carriers. Weird! Also I never understood things like slew rates, noise, gain bandwidth. Too high up the stack.
- dan_hawkins 5y agoGain bandwidth is directly related with slew rate. Slew rate is mostly an effect of capacitances (gate capacitance in FETs for example.) Noise is mostly caused by thermal effects (atoms bumping randomly.)
- baq 5y ago10, 7 and 5 nm patterning and EUV light sources are basically magic.
- pjmorris 5y agoClarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. [0] [0] Profiles of the Future, Arthur C. Clarke
- Teongot 5y agoThe corollary to that is, of course, that any technology which is distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced