Alternatives to rare earth elements in computing

[StolenWindows]

You can make simple processors out of electrolyte gel, but they're not a replacement for modern hardware (at best, you could probably run a text-based OS written in Forth for programming and that's it). While America has some silicon, however it's no good. It's like the kind of silicon Texas Instruments makes. So 80s tech, basically. You can even make a computer clock out of a potato via an electrochemical process, but again, it's not an alternative to quartz. Yes, homebrew CPUs exist (like putting some transistors, resistors and capacitors on a breadboard), but that's only for basic functions such as binary counting. The closest anyone ever came to building a factory-equivalent CPU at home was Jeri Ellsworth, who made a microprocessor for her Commodore 64 30-in-1 Direct-to-TV joystick remote computer using a toaster oven, a tea kettle, toilet bowl rust cleaner and tens of thousands of her own homemade tranaistors (called N-MOS transistors) made from silicon she bought off eBay. And even that would only be useful for retro computing. Not modern OSes. Earlier computers used vacuum tubes. One vacuum tube is akin to one transistor. It would take billions to make a modern CPU (which would be the size of a building if you used tubes). For batteries, ionic energy is one alternative to lithium-ion/lithium-titanate, like electrolyte gel, saltwater (aqueous/sodium-ion) or laboratory-grade H2O, but the problem is ions travel much slower than silicon, so they're low power, usually. The best alternative I've seen is magnesium batteries, although they fry easy. While America does have some lithium, however lithium mining is bad for the environment and China's is way cheaper.

So long as we're alive, chinks will dominate in the tech field.

 

[DeutschfagAufAbwegen]

How bout dem common earth metals?

 

[Otis Mallebrok]

Silicon is not a rare earth metal. Its abundant. Its everywhere.

 

[Otis Mallebrok]

I looked it up. Silicon is 27.7% of the earth crust by mass. Least rare earth metal.

 

[StolenWindows]

Silicon is not a rare earth metal. Its abundant. Its everywhere.

Yes, but there's high end pure silicon that's used for modern electronics and the cheap kind that's used in TI calculators. America doesn't have a lot of the good kind. If we nationalized our industry, internet access would be in the hands of a few.

 

[Otis Mallebrok]

Yes, but there's high end pure silicon that's used for modern electronics and the cheap kind that's used in TI calculators.

Incorrect. Silicon in nature is in various silicates that has to be purified before they can be used in semiconductors. High end pure silicon is manufactured from sand.

 

[StolenWindows]

Incorrect. Silicon in nature is in various silicates that has to be purified before they can be used in semiconductors. High end pure silicon is manufactured from sand.

Getting from MG-Si to EG-Si requires very advanced chemical refining (trichlorosilane distillation, Siemens process, float-zone purification). This infrastructure is rare and tightly concentrated: Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, some U.S., and a few others.

 

[Otis Mallebrok]

Getting from MG-Si to EG-Si requires very advanced chemical refining (trichlorosilane distillation, Siemens process, float-zone purification). This infrastructure is rare and tightly concentrated: Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, some U.S., and a few others.

It can be done anywhere in the world, from raw materials found anywhere in the world. Because silicon is not a rare earth metal.

 

[Whaler]

So long as we're alive, chinks will dominate in the tech field.

Chinese tech is only good in one way, and that's being cheap to make so that companies can jack up the prices and make hundreds, if not thousands times more selling it. There's a reason they steal tech blue prints to make their own (and often worse) versions or set up restrictions to stop their own companies from buying tech from other countries. Look at the recent regulations they put on tech companies from buying AI Chips (I belive it was those) from Taiwan to favor their own for a self-boost with their economy.

 

[StolenWindows]

It can be done anywhere in the world, from raw materials found anywhere in the world. Because silicon is not a rare earth metal.

Well actually, you could mix SiO₂ with magnesium powder or aluminum powder. Heat it with a torch and the violent reaction reduces (impure) silicon.

 

[Margo Martindale]

So long as we're alive, chinks will dominate in the tech field.

Because they are not afraid to dump all the toxic byproducts of manufacturing into the near town or river, and black bag anyone who complains. These processes are dirty with dirty byproducts, and the waste to has to go somewhere. China (and also India) just dump it where most convenient, consequences to people and nature be damned.

 

[BiggestKai]

Whatever happened to carbon nanotubes, if anyone knows? Last I've read(and this was nearly 5 years ago and a probably out of date paper I've mostly forgotten) they wanted to replace channels with charged nanotubes(or was it doped?) which let you get around some of the physical problems you'd see with doping being non uniform.
Man I wish there was some decent EE news site I could pop into every now and then for a technology update.

 

[Judge Dredd]

How bout dem common earth metals?

Grey loot computing?


And to the OPs point, maybe, but not certain.

I assume you're young, because I've seen this song and dance before. Not with computing, but with other things. I'll use fuel as an example. So many times we've supposedly hit "peak oil" and nothing ever comes of it. There are various reasons for this. New technologies for getting oil. New technology for discovering oil. New technology as an alternative to oil. Old technology as an alternative to oil. New disruptive technologies that don't really pan out. @BiggestKai mentioned carbon nanotubes and that's a great example of that.

For a none-oil example, look at how we've been promised drone delivery for over a decade, but in practice it's amounted to a few hospitals in Africa and a few novelty services in major cities. Even those novelty services are only half realized, with food delivery bots having a human walking next to it to make sure it gets to it's destination.

It's all but agreed that moore's law is dead. Software has become bloatware, quantum computing hasn't panned out yet, and AI isn't the be all end all tool it was promised to be. The truth is for most applications, you can get away with decade old tech. Just look at how a simple linux installation can turn 20 year old laptops into practical daily drivers.

That's assuming you even need a computer in the first place. Cars don't need to be full of microchips. Neither do fridges, ovens, or pretty much any other "smart" device.

 

[StolenWindows]

Grey loot computing?


And to the OPs point, maybe, but not certain.

I assume you're young, because I've seen this song and dance before. Not with computing, but with other things. I'll use fuel as an example. So many times we've supposedly hit "peak oil" and nothing ever comes of it. There are various reasons for this. New technologies for getting oil. New technology for discovering oil. New technology as an alternative to oil. Old technology as an alternative to oil. New disruptive technologies that don't really pan out. @BiggestKai mentioned carbon nanotubes and that's a great example of that.

For a none-oil example, look at how we've been promised drone delivery for over a decade, but in practice it's amounted to a few hospitals in Africa and a few novelty services in major cities. Even those novelty services are only half realized, with food delivery bots having a human walking next to it to make sure it gets to it's destination.

It's all but agreed that moore's law is dead. Software has become bloatware, quantum computing hasn't panned out yet, and AI isn't the be all end all tool it was promised to be. The truth is for most applications, you can get away with decade old tech. Just look at how a simple linux installation can turn 20 year old laptops into practical daily drivers.

That's assuming you even need a computer in the first place. Cars don't need to be full of microchips. Neither do fridges, ovens, or pretty much any other "smart" device.

You can just substitute crude oil for hemp. They have a "hemp" everything now. Biodegradeable hemp plastics, hemp biodiesel / syngas (either one could be carbon neutral or even carbon negative in that it could remove the carbon from the atmosphere), hemp foams, hemp paper, hemp toilet paper, hemp COVID masks, and so on. You could even use genetic engineering to make hemp stalks tree sized with pine comb sized seed filled buds to do your work.