At 10:54 AM 10/21/2011, Jed Rothwell wrote:
This is like suggesting that a nation that happens to have a lot of
silicon to make glass will go on using vacuum tube computers long
after transistors are invented.
Bad analogy : excepting Galium Arsenide, most chips are made up of
Silicon, Oxygen and Aluminum ... the three most abundant elements in
the earth's crust:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth%27s_crust
I was unpacking an old trunk recently, and came across a slide
presentation I made called "The future of sand" -- pointing out that
chips and optical cables are made from refined sand. (Must have been
about 1975).
