jim@pnet01.cts.COM (Jim Bowery) (01/26/89)
>From Scientific Foundations of Space Manufacturing
First paragraph of the preface:
Recent years have seen the advent of manufacturing onboard spacecraft --
a new dimension in man's activities in outter space. The materials
thus produced, show performance substantially improved owing to the
factors that exist in orbital flight. Above all, dynamic
weightlessness, which cannot be simulated on the earth for a sufficiently
long time.
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INET: jim@pnet01.cts.commmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) (01/28/89)
Is this supposed to be news? If I'm not mistaken, high-quality GaAs crystals were manufactured aboard Skylab. Sony equalled that quality using high magnetic fields during crystallization. Anyhow, who could use such materials? I can't do a production run based on a couple ingots grown in space. I need quantity, and I need a performance edge so large it can justify dependence on an expensive technology that could be yanked away at any time by engineering "glitches" beyond my control. What would you do with super-perfect crystals grown in microgravity? Redesign your latest RISC engine for an ultra-custom batch of super-tight geometry chips? Re-tune your operating system to accommodate the higher speed? Design new hardware systems to hold these super-chips? What applications cry out for performance so badly that they can justify this technology?
rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rick Francis Golembiewski) (01/29/89)
>What would you do with super-perfect crystals grown in microgravity? >Redesign your latest RISC engine for an ultra-custom batch of super-tight >geometry chips? Re-tune your operating system to accommodate the higher >speed? Design new hardware systems to hold these super-chips? What >applications cry out for performance so badly that they can justify >this technology? Humm... How about a brand new super computer for the Soviets (Wouldn't it be grand for the Soviets to have one really increadible machine to do the processing for all of the soviet space program Y times quicker then it is done now...) How about Space applications (kind of running around in circles isn't it ;-), however consider: a fast/smaller system is vital for something that your going to be sending out in space (especially very FAR out, I wonder what the cost per lb was on, say the voyager/viking probes...), also if we want to autonomous Mars rovers then they will need a great deal of processor power (AI is very processer intensive) and weight/power are pretty critical in these situations. Still I doubt that the soviets will make a major industry out of micrograv. crystals, but if they make a few super applications with them it could really boost their space program. Disclaimer: Since I have no idea as to the specifics of the crystals in question I am going on the assumption that they can build something much more powerful then using "regular" earth grown crystals... /// Rick Golembiewski Rg20 +@Andrew.cmu.edu \\\ \\\ "In reality Light is very rude... after all it even /// \\ has a set pattern for interfearence...." //
alastair@geovision.uucp (Alastair Mayer) (02/01/89)
>situations. Still I doubt that the soviets will make a major industry out of >micrograv. crystals, but if they make a few super applications with them it Actually, according to one report (which was quoted to me verbally - it'd take a while for me to dig up the specific reference), the Sovs expect to make space materials processing (primarily semiconductors) a mult-tens of billions of rubles (whatever that works out to in billions of dollars) a year industry, and do that within the next 10 years. Already they are doing a *lot* with space-grown semiconductors. They've had equipment for this aboard space stations for years, long before Mir. At least some of this space-grown gallium arsenide has gone into solar panels for the space station - possibly the stuff rejected for IC use. -- "The problem is not that spaceflight is expensive, | Alastair J.W. Mayer therefore only the government can do it, but that | alastair@geovision.UUCP only the government is doing spaceflight, therefore | al@BIX it is expensive." |
mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) (02/01/89)
>(AI is very processer intensive) and weight/power are pretty critical in these >situations. Still I doubt that the soviets will make a major industry out of >micrograv. crystals, but if they make a few super applications with them it For super-performance, we can use parallel processing. Granted, some problems cannot be parallelized (such as compiling a program). Bear in mind that the super-computer built from microgravity silicon and meteoric iron will be surpassed in performance by conventional technology in 2 to 5 years. (Of course, the new technology 2 to 5 years from now could also benefit from super-perfect crystals; perhaps this suggests stockpiling these crystals, and only turning them into IC's in the last months before war.) An inaccuracy in my previous statement on this topic is the idea you would use low-defect silicon to make tight-geometry chips. Actually, you would make larger chips. A more advanced silicon technology would be used to tighten geometries. Larger chips might be linear extensions of conventional technology chips. For example, you could take the standard CPU+cache chip and make it with a cache 10X larger. I once toyed with the idea of a burst computer. This would be a machine which would provide 100X or 1000X performance for, say, 10 or 100 milliseconds. I figured it would mostly be useful for compiling programs and refreshing raster-graphics displays. A friend of mine suggested using it for solving complex pattern recognition problems during a missile attack. Because a missile attack could take several minutes, I imagined a long row of burst computers being gobbled up one-at-a-time. (BTW, I was just kidding about using meteoric iron. But you should consider microgravity silicon a similarly scarce resource.)
ems@Apple.COM (Mike Smith) (02/08/89)
In article <14016@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes: >Anyhow, who could use such materials? I can't do a production run based >on a couple ingots grown in space. I need quantity, and I need a >performance edge so large it can justify dependence on an expensive >technology that could be yanked away at any time by engineering "glitches" >beyond my control. Small lot manufacturing. For example, each Cray is custom built... >What would you do with super-perfect crystals grown in microgravity? >Redesign your latest RISC engine for an ultra-custom batch of super-tight >geometry chips? Re-tune your operating system to accommodate the higher >speed? Design new hardware systems to hold these super-chips? What >applications cry out for performance so badly that they can justify >this technology? REALLY FAST test instruments to test the best stuff you can build on earth (for one...). Think nitch! Not everyone is an assembly line.