We recently sat down with Adam Khan of Diamond Quanta – the company that wants to replace the silicon chip with ones made from diamond. We discussed the reason for this glittering idea, the challenges it presents, and the implications of the technology.
The past half century has seen a fantastic evolution in electronics and computers thanks to the silicon chip. In line with Moore’s Law, the number of transistors on a single chip doubled roughly every two years with a commensurate rise in computer power and drop in prices. The result is our modern age of handheld supercomputers, increasingly common AI, the internet, and all the other things that make those of us who remember punch cards feel very old.
However, silicon is reaching the limits of not just its technology but the very laws of physics. Chip components have become so small that quantum effects, among other problems, are beginning to crop up, to the point where the silicon chip is set to suffer from the inevitable law of diminishing returns.
To overcome this, Diamond Quanta is working on swapping out silicon for diamond. That may seem like replacing plastic in your house with solid gold, but there’s method in this seeming madness – as well as the promise of not only more advanced computers, but ones that work more efficiently and can even operate in high-temperature environments that make modern chips very unhappy.
For the rest of this interview: https://newatlas.com/computers/interview-why-diamonds-computers-best-friend/