this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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Technology

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 years ago (2 children)

So we are just rediscovering what the Atlanteans knew? Power crystals!

[–] Cyberwitch_7493 17 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I just hope this doesn't mean Big Tech is incentivized to buy up lots of beach sand from poor cities already dealing with hurricanes.

Beach sand, if you didn't know, is an important barrier between the land and oceans and greatly affects the size of waves that come crashing into the coast. Big rocks and other substrates just don't calm waves like ocean-eroded sand can.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The problem for chipmakers is not the sourcing of materials itself, but the purity of the sourced material. So don’t worry about public beaches disappearing into Intel’s hopper-feeder.

[–] Cyberwitch_7493 -4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That totally makes sense that they would need pure sand, idfk how to make that work. But if Intel needs rounded sand grains, then they need to find another way to erode sand into that shape cause ocean sand is quite unique from the billions of years it's had to tumble in the ocean. Otherwise Intel will indeed be using ocean sand.

Also it occurred to me that making chips on glass could be more recyclable since glass is also recyclable. 🤔 Would be good if that happens!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Seeing as they melt the stuff, I’m not sure the grains need to be rounded.

[–] Cyberwitch_7493 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That... makes a lot of sense, I hadn't considered that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Let's not be hasty.

Surely free-range, organic, gluten-free sand would be the bestest source material ever.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

slaps roof of Sahara

"This bad boy can keep so much sand in it"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You're confusing this with concrete.

[–] Cyberwitch_7493 1 points 2 years ago

I totally am lol.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Oxygen and silicon are the most abundant elements in earths crust. Glass is silicon oxide.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I really don't think we have a shortage of sand. And you also have to consider how small computer chips are. Compare how much sand you need for a glass window versus a few CPUs.

Besides that, they wouldn't take sand from public beaches..

[–] Cyberwitch_7493 8 points 2 years ago

Sand is a non-renewable resource

Not all beaches are public, and not all are in America where there are laws that protect beaches.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Funny you say that because we are running out of sand. We can produce it but it'll just make things more expensive. Gangs have been stealing beaches

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This caught my eye, The IPhone 15 Pro has as many as 20% transistors compared to a modern intel supercompute GPU. Wild.

“Apple's new iPhone 15 Pro has 19 billion transistors. Intel's Ponte Vecchio supercomputing processor has more than 100 billion.”

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

The supercomputer does have a whole lot of those processors though.