While these sound like characters from
Japanese anime, these two relatively unknown
products may send us careening into the next age of
speed-demon computing faster than some of the more
well-known technogoodies. Aerogel, a family
of substances being produced at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, may soon replace silicon
dioxide as a chip insulator. Why do we care? Using a
more efficient chip insulator would allow chips to
compute faster. RPI claims that using aero gels may
more than double present-day computing speeds.
Xerogel is a substance made up of microscopic
glass bubbles filled with air. Texas Instruments
claims that combining Xerogel with copper wires
could give us chips that compute up to 10 times
faster than today's slowpokes. A good place for more
info about aerogels is at eetd.lbl.gov/ECS/Aerogels/aerogels.htm.
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