6 ms·

"this may spark a revolution in electronics as significant as the invention of the transistor, vacuum tube, and induction motor." How, exactly?

bhaak 3y ago
Maglev trains, fusion power plants, fanless super computers in your pocket that charge in a minute and don't get hot. Basically utopia.
- DrBazza 3y ago
  Maybe it will be the thing that gives the US a nudge towards building a high speed train network. Commodity maglev would be generational leap over existing high speed rail. It would be an economic driver for the US, and take a lot of planes out of the sky, and even freight off the roads.
  - rcpt 3y ago
    Ultra efficient super fast maglev trains between our most important cities? Not in MY backyard!
    - bick_nyers 3y ago
      You want to bury a power cable connecting my city to a solar farm in the Sahara desert? Not in MY backyard!
      - zardo 3y ago
        Oh you say it's made out of lead, well in that case could you run my drinking water through it?
- psychoslave 3y ago
  While these are all cool applications, I can perfectly see them used in the most awful dystopian world imaginable.
  - autoexec 3y ago
    I can't remember the last time a new technology became widely available that wasn't somehow used against us. There's always a catch. New products are often designed to work on behalf of people other than the "owner", and often are designed to prevent the "owner" from being able to do what they want with the product.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- l33t233372 3y ago
  I don’t understand how superconductors will make phones into supercomputers. There is a still the limitation of the number of transistors in a given volume. Also, how does this help fusion become possible?
  - yetihehe 3y ago
    > I don’t understand how superconductors will make phones into supercomputers. Currently transistors and connections use a lot of power just to transfer some bits, superconducting wires and maybe transistors would help. > Also, how does this help fusion become possible? Stronger magnets which you don't need to cool with liquid helium will help achieve better plasma confinement.
    - l33t233372 3y ago
      That’s really interesting. It seems like this technology could be huge
    - p1mrx 3y ago
      We've already passed the point where superconductors need liquid helium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARC_fusion_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARC_fusion_reactor "The most probable candidate material is yttrium barium copper oxide, with a design temperature of 20 K, allowing various coolants (e.g. liquid hydrogen, liquid neon, or helium gas) instead of the much more complicated liquid helium refrigeration chosen by ITER."
    - kickopotomus 3y ago
      Superconductors may reduce power consumption but they don't do anything to improve transistor density.
      - spaethnl 3y ago
        Before the node-size race we also had the clock-speed race. Eventually it was common for processors reach 2-4ghz, and after that the clock speed gains stopped being practical because as you increase clock speed you also increase energy requirements and heat. I think the implication is that clock-speed could start increasing again. It would probably require a completely new manufacturing process, but if we assume this superconductor is legit, perhaps an older process could manufacture it. If so, maybe we could have (just spitballing here, I have no idea) 28nm super conducting CPUs that run at a 1thz instead of 4ghz. That would be quite an improvement over today's CPUs, even with fewer transistors, I think. There are other losses and limitation in increasing clock-speeds aside from just resistive losses, but I think they are a significant part of the current bottleneck. Other losses involve transistor switching losses, and inductive losses but I don't really know the details, and I think those details change with superconductors.
XCSme 3y ago
Someone posted a ChatGPT answer, which seems a pretty good response: Energy Efficiency: Superconductors conduct electricity without resistance, which means they don't produce heat as a byproduct. This could make electronic devices more energy-efficient and help them run cooler, which could extend battery life in mobile devices and potentially reduce the need for cooling in larger devices like computers. Processing Speed: Superconducting circuits could potentially operate at higher speeds than conventional circuits, which could lead to faster processors and more powerful computers and smartphones. Data Storage: Superconductors could also be used to create more efficient and compact data storage devices. For example, they could be used in the development of Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM), a type of non-volatile memory that uses magnetic states to store information. This could potentially offer faster and more energy-efficient data storage than current technologies. Quantum Computing: Superconductors are already used in some types of quantum computers, which use the principles of quantum mechanics to perform complex calculations much more quickly than conventional computers. A room-temperature superconductor could make quantum computers more practical and affordable, which could have a profound impact on many areas of technology and science. Power Transmission: Superconductors can transmit electricity without any loss, which could dramatically increase the efficiency of power grids. This could reduce energy costs, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and make renewable energy sources more viable. Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) Trains: Superconductors can produce powerful magnetic fields, which can be used to levitate trains above their tracks, reducing friction and allowing for higher speeds. Current maglev trains already use superconductors, but they require cooling to very low temperatures, which is expensive and energy-intensive. Room-temperature superconductors could make maglev trains more practical and affordable. Medical Imaging and Therapy: Superconductors are used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines to generate the strong magnetic fields required for imaging. Room-temperature superconductors could make MRI machines cheaper, more efficient, and more accessible. They could also be used in other medical technologies, such as particle beam therapies for cancer treatment. Scientific Research: Superconductors are used in a variety of scientific instruments, such as particle accelerators and detectors. Room-temperature superconductors could make these instruments more efficient and less expensive to operate. Electric Vehicles (EVs): Superconductors could be used to make more efficient electric motors and batteries for electric vehicles, potentially increasing their range and reducing their cost. Telecommunications: Superconductors could be used to create more efficient and higher-capacity communication networks, potentially improving internet speeds and reducing latency. Aerospace and Defense: Superconductors could be used in a variety of aerospace and defense applications, such as advanced radar systems, satellite technologies, and even propulsion systems.
CrzyLngPwd 3y ago
Shareholders and CEOs increase their wealth.
- notsound 3y ago
  I don't think we need new technology for that.
jansan 3y ago
More destructive weapons. Of course I am being cynical, but that will certainly be one of the outcomes.
- candiddevmike 3y ago
  I thought there was something about waste heat being a problem in outer space, so if this fixes that it could open the door for space-based laser weapons and other terrible things. GDI Ion Cannon when?
  - tetrisgm 3y ago
    I mean Russia claims they have battle dolphins. Might as well.
    - astrange 3y ago
      The US navy also has battle dolphins. https://thebulletin.org/2022/03/how-dolphins-protect-the-us-nuclear-arsenal/ https://thebulletin.org/2022/03/how-dolphins-protect-the-us-...
- jerf 3y ago
  Maybe around the edges, but existing weapons are plenty destructive and many of them do not operate in an electronic regime except for control systems. Rail guns would probably get more effective but they're still not really all that useful and lasers might get more effective but again not really a material change to the battlefield, only an incremental one. It's hard to develop a technology that can't be used by the military in some capacity but as such things go this one seems substantially more useful to everyone than useful to militaries.
retrac 3y ago
Superconductors are in the name. They're ideal conductors. As a corollary, superconductors coiled into a wire, shaped like an inductor, are also ideal inductors. By ideal, I informally mean nearly perfect in a mathematical sense. A thin superconductor can carry an almost arbitrary amount of electricity with 0% loss. This is a real-world application already for superconductors, but it requires cooling the entire conductor to liquid helium temperature. (It's not truly limitless - enough current will eventually break down the superconducting effect - but ten billion watts down a 1 mm thick wire is doable.) Similarly, an inductor made out of a superconductor, that is looped back on itself, can hold a magnetic field indefinitely, with 0% loss. Energy storage. Also, novel ways of manipulating magnetic fields, and as a consequence of that, novel ways of manipulating radiation that interacts with magnetic fields. Really, anything that needs a strong magnetic field could benefit. Maglev trains. Portable MRI scanners would exist today, if the electromagnet didn't need to be submerged in liquid helium. Superconducting computer circuits would dissipate no heat other than for the work required to physically change the state of the transistors. Power consumption could decrease by several orders of magnitude. Though to be honest, one day printing room-temperature superconductors lithographically is a rather unlikely prospect. But one can hope. And some proposed realizations of quantum computing would benefit from small, extremely powerful magnets, while other proposed methods exploit the properties of superconductors directly (Josephson effect).
- petesergeant 3y ago
  > an inductor made out of a superconductor, that is looped back on itself, can hold a magnetic field indefinitely, with 0% loss. Energy storage. In a way that could be used to power a car?
  - retrac 3y ago
    Conceivably, though the power density of superconducting energy storage is very low and will likely remain low. It is currently used at grid-scale to smooth out power spikes, since they can charge/discharge their full capacity almost instantly. > SMES is also used in utility applications. In northern Wisconsin, a string of distributed SMES units were deployed to enhance stability of a transmission loop. The transmission line is subject to large, sudden load changes due to the operation of a paper mill, with the potential for uncontrolled fluctuations and voltage collapse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energy_storage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energ...

bhaak 3y ago

Maglev trains, fusion power plants, fanless super computers in your pocket that charge in a minute and don't get hot. Basically utopia.

DrBazza 3y ago
Maybe it will be the thing that gives the US a nudge towards building a high speed train network. Commodity maglev would be generational leap over existing high speed rail. It would be an economic driver for the US, and take a lot of planes out of the sky, and even freight off the roads.
- rcpt 3y ago
  Ultra efficient super fast maglev trains between our most important cities? Not in MY backyard!
  - bick_nyers 3y ago
    You want to bury a power cable connecting my city to a solar farm in the Sahara desert? Not in MY backyard!
    - zardo 3y ago
      Oh you say it's made out of lead, well in that case could you run my drinking water through it?
psychoslave 3y ago
While these are all cool applications, I can perfectly see them used in the most awful dystopian world imaginable.
- autoexec 3y ago
  I can't remember the last time a new technology became widely available that wasn't somehow used against us. There's always a catch. New products are often designed to work on behalf of people other than the "owner", and often are designed to prevent the "owner" from being able to do what they want with the product.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
l33t233372 3y ago
I don’t understand how superconductors will make phones into supercomputers. There is a still the limitation of the number of transistors in a given volume. Also, how does this help fusion become possible?
- yetihehe 3y ago
  > I don’t understand how superconductors will make phones into supercomputers. Currently transistors and connections use a lot of power just to transfer some bits, superconducting wires and maybe transistors would help. > Also, how does this help fusion become possible? Stronger magnets which you don't need to cool with liquid helium will help achieve better plasma confinement.
  - l33t233372 3y ago
    That’s really interesting. It seems like this technology could be huge
  - p1mrx 3y ago
    We've already passed the point where superconductors need liquid helium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARC_fusion_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARC_fusion_reactor "The most probable candidate material is yttrium barium copper oxide, with a design temperature of 20 K, allowing various coolants (e.g. liquid hydrogen, liquid neon, or helium gas) instead of the much more complicated liquid helium refrigeration chosen by ITER."
  - kickopotomus 3y ago
    Superconductors may reduce power consumption but they don't do anything to improve transistor density.
    - spaethnl 3y ago
      Before the node-size race we also had the clock-speed race. Eventually it was common for processors reach 2-4ghz, and after that the clock speed gains stopped being practical because as you increase clock speed you also increase energy requirements and heat. I think the implication is that clock-speed could start increasing again. It would probably require a completely new manufacturing process, but if we assume this superconductor is legit, perhaps an older process could manufacture it. If so, maybe we could have (just spitballing here, I have no idea) 28nm super conducting CPUs that run at a 1thz instead of 4ghz. That would be quite an improvement over today's CPUs, even with fewer transistors, I think. There are other losses and limitation in increasing clock-speeds aside from just resistive losses, but I think they are a significant part of the current bottleneck. Other losses involve transistor switching losses, and inductive losses but I don't really know the details, and I think those details change with superconductors.

XCSme 3y ago

Someone posted a ChatGPT answer, which seems a pretty good response: Energy Efficiency: Superconductors conduct electricity without resistance, which means they don't produce heat as a byproduct. This could make electronic devices more energy-efficient and help them run cooler, which could extend battery life in mobile devices and potentially reduce the need for cooling in larger devices like computers. Processing Speed: Superconducting circuits could potentially operate at higher speeds than conventional circuits, which could lead to faster processors and more powerful computers and smartphones. Data Storage: Superconductors could also be used to create more efficient and compact data storage devices. For example, they could be used in the development of Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM), a type of non-volatile memory that uses magnetic states to store information. This could potentially offer faster and more energy-efficient data storage than current technologies. Quantum Computing: Superconductors are already used in some types of quantum computers, which use the principles of quantum mechanics to perform complex calculations much more quickly than conventional computers. A room-temperature superconductor could make quantum computers more practical and affordable, which could have a profound impact on many areas of technology and science. Power Transmission: Superconductors can transmit electricity without any loss, which could dramatically increase the efficiency of power grids. This could reduce energy costs, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and make renewable energy sources more viable. Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) Trains: Superconductors can produce powerful magnetic fields, which can be used to levitate trains above their tracks, reducing friction and allowing for higher speeds. Current maglev trains already use superconductors, but they require cooling to very low temperatures, which is expensive and energy-intensive. Room-temperature superconductors could make maglev trains more practical and affordable. Medical Imaging and Therapy: Superconductors are used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines to generate the strong magnetic fields required for imaging. Room-temperature superconductors could make MRI machines cheaper, more efficient, and more accessible. They could also be used in other medical technologies, such as particle beam therapies for cancer treatment. Scientific Research: Superconductors are used in a variety of scientific instruments, such as particle accelerators and detectors. Room-temperature superconductors could make these instruments more efficient and less expensive to operate. Electric Vehicles (EVs): Superconductors could be used to make more efficient electric motors and batteries for electric vehicles, potentially increasing their range and reducing their cost. Telecommunications: Superconductors could be used to create more efficient and higher-capacity communication networks, potentially improving internet speeds and reducing latency. Aerospace and Defense: Superconductors could be used in a variety of aerospace and defense applications, such as advanced radar systems, satellite technologies, and even propulsion systems.

CrzyLngPwd 3y ago

Shareholders and CEOs increase their wealth.

notsound 3y ago
I don't think we need new technology for that.

jansan 3y ago

More destructive weapons. Of course I am being cynical, but that will certainly be one of the outcomes.

candiddevmike 3y ago
I thought there was something about waste heat being a problem in outer space, so if this fixes that it could open the door for space-based laser weapons and other terrible things. GDI Ion Cannon when?
- tetrisgm 3y ago
  I mean Russia claims they have battle dolphins. Might as well.
  - astrange 3y ago
    The US navy also has battle dolphins. https://thebulletin.org/2022/03/how-dolphins-protect-the-us-nuclear-arsenal/ https://thebulletin.org/2022/03/how-dolphins-protect-the-us-...
jerf 3y ago
Maybe around the edges, but existing weapons are plenty destructive and many of them do not operate in an electronic regime except for control systems. Rail guns would probably get more effective but they're still not really all that useful and lasers might get more effective but again not really a material change to the battlefield, only an incremental one. It's hard to develop a technology that can't be used by the military in some capacity but as such things go this one seems substantially more useful to everyone than useful to militaries.

retrac 3y ago

Superconductors are in the name. They're ideal conductors. As a corollary, superconductors coiled into a wire, shaped like an inductor, are also ideal inductors. By ideal, I informally mean nearly perfect in a mathematical sense. A thin superconductor can carry an almost arbitrary amount of electricity with 0% loss. This is a real-world application already for superconductors, but it requires cooling the entire conductor to liquid helium temperature. (It's not truly limitless - enough current will eventually break down the superconducting effect - but ten billion watts down a 1 mm thick wire is doable.) Similarly, an inductor made out of a superconductor, that is looped back on itself, can hold a magnetic field indefinitely, with 0% loss. Energy storage. Also, novel ways of manipulating magnetic fields, and as a consequence of that, novel ways of manipulating radiation that interacts with magnetic fields. Really, anything that needs a strong magnetic field could benefit. Maglev trains. Portable MRI scanners would exist today, if the electromagnet didn't need to be submerged in liquid helium. Superconducting computer circuits would dissipate no heat other than for the work required to physically change the state of the transistors. Power consumption could decrease by several orders of magnitude. Though to be honest, one day printing room-temperature superconductors lithographically is a rather unlikely prospect. But one can hope. And some proposed realizations of quantum computing would benefit from small, extremely powerful magnets, while other proposed methods exploit the properties of superconductors directly (Josephson effect).

petesergeant 3y ago
> an inductor made out of a superconductor, that is looped back on itself, can hold a magnetic field indefinitely, with 0% loss. Energy storage. In a way that could be used to power a car?
- retrac 3y ago
  Conceivably, though the power density of superconducting energy storage is very low and will likely remain low. It is currently used at grid-scale to smooth out power spikes, since they can charge/discharge their full capacity almost instantly. > SMES is also used in utility applications. In northern Wisconsin, a string of distributed SMES units were deployed to enhance stability of a transmission loop. The transmission line is subject to large, sudden load changes due to the operation of a paper mill, with the potential for uncontrolled fluctuations and voltage collapse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energy_storage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energ...