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'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun' (1969)
"Quadibloc" wrote in message
... On Feb 1, 8:35 pm, "Lord Androcles, Zeroth Earl of Medway" wrote: Asimov's "positronic brain" for his robots was an unnecessary fantasy for an artificially intelligent computer, Yes, that's true. And Star Trek filed the serial numbers off, and had "duotronic" computers. But, ironically, although there is no reason to think that computers would work faster using positrons to carry information, integrated circuits _did_ use _holes_ instead of electrons to carry information. This had the benefit, in PMOS circuits, that gates could be more tightly packed - although they were slower than the ones in NMOS circuits which used electrons. So pocket calculators, which could be slow, but had to be complex, were made from PMOS chips back in the 'seventies. Today, though, CMOS circuitry, which, unlike either NMOS or PMOS circuitry, doesn't require current to flow through it (except for unavoidable leakage) when in a stable state, only when switching, is used in the most advanced microelectronics as the lower power consumption allows circuits to be made at a smaller feature size, which would be far too hot if made from NMOS (even though that would allow them to run faster, if they could be made to run, in fact they would be too hot to run at all). So, if "positronics" could refer to holes as positive charge carriers, then in real life "duotronics" of a sort _has_ won out. John Savard ================================================== Holes are essentially no different to +ve ions in a battery moving to the negative terminal while -ve ions move to the positive terminal. Why does conventional current flow the wrong way (negative to positive) inside Volta's pile when it's positive to negative outside, and why was the convention based on hole flow? And how do you make people unlearn convention? The answer is: You don't! Instead, you teach the next generation the new paradigm and leave the old fools to carry on insisting they are right and making even bigger fools of themselves. He who knows not and knows not that he knows not, he is a fool. Shun him. He who knows not and knows that he knows not, he is a student. Teach him. He who knows and knows not that he knows, he is a tool. Use him. He who knows and knows that he knows, he is a sage. Follow him. Bill Owen is a tool. You are a fool. -- This message is brought to you from the keyboard of Lord Androcles, Zeroth Earl of Medway. When I get my O.B.E. I'll be an earlobe. |
#12
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'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun' (1969)
On Feb 2, 8:58*pm, Quadibloc wrote:
On Feb 2, 2:50*pm, RichA wrote: Hollywood uses 1 and 3, but could still do good stories if only using 1 & 2. This is true. Of course, since being a producer, director, or screenwriter takes years of study in its own right, it's hardly astonishing that such people seldom have the qualifications needed to tell the difference between 2 and 3. John Savard They need more script-advisers from the scientific world. Note I said advisers. I don't want the scientist to write the script, I want them to provide alternative suggestions where the science is clearly wrong in the script. |
#13
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'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun' (1969)
On Feb 7, 9:54*pm, RichA wrote:
On Feb 2, 8:58*pm, Quadibloc wrote: On Feb 2, 2:50*pm, RichA wrote: Hollywood uses 1 and 3, but could still do good stories if only using 1 & 2. This is true. Of course, since being a producer, director, or screenwriter takes years of study in its own right, it's hardly astonishing that such people seldom have the qualifications needed to tell the difference between 2 and 3. John Savard They need more script-advisers from the scientific world. *Note I said advisers. *I don't want the scientist to write the script, I want them to provide alternative suggestions where the science is clearly wrong in the script. This seems not bad advice. Such advisers would likely be cheap (or else marketable in the ads), and, more often than merely scrapping an occasional plot-line, they'd likely be stimulating ones better in all respects. -- - - - - - - - - YOUR taste at work... http://www.moviepig.com |
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