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A Transistor for Sound Points Toward Whole New Electronics
- gene-h 5y agoControlling the transistor requires an intermediate step converting the sound to heat. In my book, this isn't really an 'acoustic' transistor. Phononic transistors have been proposed though[0]. Phononic transistors have been built, albeit with some magnets, but merely for their nonlinear mechanical properties[1] [0] https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.00679 https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.00679 [1]https://www.pnas.org/content/114/18/4603 https://www.pnas.org/content/114/18/4603
- omeze 5y agoI recently read “To The Digital Age” (would recommend) which covers the history of the transistor and I left with a few takeaways: - New transistor architectures can matter a lot (MOSFETs are why we enjoy the benefits of Moores law, BJTs wouldnt have gotten us here) - It took an entire industry decades to mobilize the tooling, manufacturing, art, and science of a single architecture (MOS) even with related tools for BJTs - Once an architecture shows promise, even giants like IBMs and its infinite funding cant fight against the tides - Even when some people know an architecture is promising, organizational politics can prevent work on it So, new architectures are always interesting but they have a huge slew technology transfer problems. But if theyre better in some way, they can find a niche and over time (decades) may turn into the next big thing. But I wouldnt hold my breath.
- afandian 5y agoIs that ISBN 9780801868092?
- omeze 5y agoYea, thats the one
- mwattsun 5y agoThis documentary by PBS claims William Shockley was an ego maniac who stole a lot of the credit for the transistor from his subordinates John Bardeen and Walter Brattain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4XknGqr3Bo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4XknGqr3Bo
- aksss 5y agoThis is getting to be a trope - "what you knew is wrong, the guy who is generally given credit was actually an evil bastard who oppressed these other team members who did the lion's share of the work." I'm not sure we need sacred cows and I have no dog in a fight for credit for transistor, mouse, DNA, electricity or anything else, but the constant demand for deconstruction - "everything you know is wrong" - gets a bit wearisome.
- graderjs 5y agoWelcome to postmodernism?
- mxmilkiib 5y agoIsn't it more poststructural? E.g. instead of some well defined "this one person invented X" narrative structure being the way society happens, the reality is more often nuanced (and badly recorded) with multiple personal involvements with the new concept. Though I think this is more just the subject of 'history' and figuring out what exactly happened. Some people seem to get defensive when they find it the history they have been taught is challenged. Why not be wearisome about the flawed system/culture that keeps promulgating half truths?
- graderjs 5y ago> Isn't it more poststructural? I'm not an expert, so it might be. Although I tend to think that postmodern is a rejection of any objective authority truth. Whereas from what I understand about poststructuralists, they still believe there's some sort of Truth you can attain, they just disagree with structuralists about how to get there. And in this case I tend to feel it's more of a post-modern "tearing down anything that seems like an authority truth" than anything else. > Though I think this is more just the subject of 'history' and figuring out what exactly happened. Agree. > Some people seem to get defensive when they find it the history they have been taught is challenged. Why not be wearisome about the flawed system/culture that keeps promulgating half truths? Agree. but I think you can replace some people with most people. And it's very understandable to feel scared and angry when someone challenges what you think is true about reality.
- hulitu 5y ago> it is suspected, Potential, scientists at Harvard have now invented and simulated So another hype. I thought IEEE are serious people eveb if they charge a lot of money for their publications. You can simulate _anything_. All you need is a simulator and a model. Reality is a bit different.
- mikro2nd 5y agoDo you suppose that modellers are unaware of the differences?
- hulitu 5y agoI don't think they are not aware. But for fame, they ignore it.
- cracrecry 5y agoIn particular you need to know what to simulate, because when you simulate you leave lots of things outside the simulation. The only thing that proves that you made a good work ignoring those things is prototyping on the real world. Without that it is just vaporware.
- hughrr 5y agoGod no they are a shit show. Having been an EE years ago I stopped reading any journals and research. 99.9% of it is garbage which is engineered to sell attention rather than a better future. Anything worth giving attention to turns up in EDN when a product comes to market after someone took it serious enough to actually invest in it. Then you pay attention. My favourite recent thing is chip scale atomic clocks: https://www.microsemi.com/product-directory/clocks-frequency-references/3824-chip-scale-atomic-clock-csac https://www.microsemi.com/product-directory/clocks-frequency... You can actually buy them!m Edit: the worst garbage is actually IET’s E&T Magazine. That’s horse dung.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago> You can actually buy them! For $5,200. I wonder how many they sell. They would be useful in things like rangefinding and positioning (and maybe encrypted packet comms). Sounds like a military market.
- SOMA_BOFH 5y agovery interesting and innovative. great work.
- Animats 5y agoA heat-activated switch for sound? Is this extremely slow, or what?
- cousin_it 5y agoI think the idea is they hypothesize a new way to build electronic transistors, and the equations it relies on happen to have an exact counterpart in sound, so they built a sound-based one as a kind of scale model.
- graderjs 5y agoI thought that was part of it, but with s/electronic/photonic/g
- dontcare007 5y agoWow, I wonder if topological materials exist for heat? It would be cool to have a super efficient heat exchange or deliver heat to a distant source...