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I went looking for a recent estimate of the number of transistors that have been manufactured. It appears to be in the range of 10^23. I'm pretty sure there in
by intrasight 3y ago
I went looking for a recent estimate of the number of transistors that have been manufactured. It appears to be in the range of 10^23. I'm pretty sure there in nothing else anyone has invented that has been replicated in such volume.
- analog31 3y agoWow, nearly a mole. I remember thinking that a mole of any "thing" was impossible.
- intrasight 3y agohttps://spectrum.ieee.org/transistor-density https://spectrum.ieee.org/transistor-density Interpolate out and we'll be at a mole in 1-2 years
- taneq 3y ago1/6th of the way to Avocado's Number. ;)
- colordrops 3y agoWhat about bits on drive platters? Do they count as individually manufactured units?
- tomnipotent 3y agoFor a modern SSD, it requires several transistors to store a byte so it's still transistors all the way down.
- irjustin 3y agoI'll be the first to admit this is a meaningless debate but seems fun! I'll say no We don't colloquial think of a HDD bit as a manufactured unit on magnetic disks. It doesn't have a direct macro connection/object. For SSDs the macro analog of a bit storage is a register and those are like 6 nand gates which those are made of like 3 transistors? Exact numbers are wrong I'm sure. It's been a long time.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- smaddox 3y agoI'm not so sure. Last time I followed the field, modern HDDs were nanostructured, such that each magnetic domain was literally a physically distinguishable object, in a sense. I'm not sure if that's still the case, and I'm also not 100% sure that ever made it in to production, but I'm pretty sure it did.
- wbl 3y agoAt least as of the last time I read the domains were a pretty uncontrolled result of the crystalization and each bit is covering a few statistically. Nanopatterning of the sort your describing would let you make the bits smaller and hence weaker by ensuring a separation and friendlier magnetic environment.
- djmips 3y agoYou can still walk into a store and buy one transistor but you can't buy one storage bit. Not sure if that is an argument but interesting.
- throwaway173738 3y agoA toggle switch is one bit.
- smaddox 3y agoFlip flops existed before transistors.
- dghughes 3y agoIt's amazing to think of a thing someone has made or has helped make be so numerous. And a physical thing too not software or words or an idea an actual thing. Transistors on a CPU are actual things. Intel or AMD CPUs having billions. One CPU the Cerebras Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE) as they describe it "has 2.6 trillion transistors, which make up 850,000 AI-optimized processing units". That's one big chip!
- hovden 3y agoInteresting. Do you have a source? How does it compare to other tech, like nails? Or cups? Shoes?
- intrasight 3y agoIEEE https://spectrum.ieee.org/transistor-density https://spectrum.ieee.org/transistor-density Interpolate out and we're close to 10^23
- Fatnino 3y agoLetters?
- smaddox 3y agoPaperclips?
- mecsred 3y ago10^23? Maybe if we push all the way to AGI.
- newswasboring 3y agoAn average paper clip is 204.8mm^3. 10^23 of those would be 2.048x10^19 L in volume[1]. That would be only two orders of magnitude less than total volume of oceans 1.33x10^21 L [2]. So I think not. [1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=volume+of+a+paperclip+times+10%5E23 https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=volume+of+a+paperclip+t... [2] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=total+volume+of+oceans https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=total+volume+of+oceans
- FoeNyx 3y agoIs that a reference to the "Universal Paperclips" game?
- smaddox 3y agoBasically, yes. Or at least it's related. The game is based on (arguably, a misinterpretation of) the writings of Elizer Yudkowski.
- devsda 3y agoInteresting numbers. How does it fare if we compare against those that are measured by weight ? Edit:typo
- streakfix 3y agoPenicillin molecules
- bibanez 3y agoI was thinking the same! Something bio, that has the benefit of exponential growth
- intrasight 3y agoDiscovered not invented. And grown not fabricated.
- streakfix 3y agoPotato potato
- fsckboy 3y ago> in the range of 10^23. I'm pretty sure there in nothing else anyone has invented that has been replicated in such volume Covid-19 coronavirus particle/strands