Defense Distributed Is The Greatest

[gaelic cowboy]

Eh no. The problem with "big" is not just that you need a lot of space, but also that there is physically more stuff of which you need to coerce electrons to do your bidding. Coercing takes power, which means heat, which means coolers. Additionally longer wires have long propagation delays, which means lower clock speeds, which means less bang per buck of electricity bill and less performance. Additionally the bigger package, thermal and power enveloppes mean that even relatively straightforward electronics won't "fit" in the packages we currently expect.


You need semi-conductors, and you need them to be tiny (order of magnitude of now more than a few tens of nm) because you need to cram in millions of them. Then you need to have good switching properties for your semi conductors, which also means longevity and longevity of semi-conductors is not improved by applying more force (more power) or running at higher temps (melting). You also have industrial specs to contend with which may require typically -45°C to 80°C ambient temperature operating range, even for CPU's.

For modern CPU's we are currently down to such a scale that only a few atoms of Si can fit together in the wire (22nm) and the material has to be subjected to quite some special treatment to achieve this (basically "stretching" the atoms). Parts are cut out by means of intense (i.e. human-frying) UV radiation, and doping the semi-conductors is a lot trickier at that scale as traditional doping would not yield sufficient conductivity at all when the semi-conductor is switched "on". Try injection-printing that.

People thought we would never get to 12in wafers either so of course people will print microprocessors eventually.

Not if you need the thing to behave as "a solid thing". That is traditionally overcome with welding, but how will 3d printed stuff take to industrial welding? That's a major headache with current aerospace techniques already given the operating parameters the parts are subjected to.

You dont need welding in 3d printing, remember the process is additive so you can print a frame fully assembled. Aerospace people are looking at printing hollow parts which would lighten a plane and still retain the majority of the strength.

the possibilities are only limited by size and materials in my view

Chocolate 3-D Printer Arrives At Last

3D Printing, Now in Glass

It's a cliche to say it's going to change everything but I guessing it will be pretty close to it.

[Strike For The South]

Meh, Not impressed.

Is this supposed to be how we get around the evil tyranny?

Because you can find plenty of parts around, maybe not in New York, the ammo is the rub

GET WITH THE PROGRAM PEOPLE, LEARN HOW YOU'RE BEING OPPRESSED.

[Montmorency]

GET WITH THE PROGRAM PEOPLE, LEARN HOW YOU'RE BEING OPPRESSED.

Tell us.

[Strike For The South]

Tell us.

That was the end of my joke.

You seem to think I am holding back some sort of awesome knowledge.

I am a drunk butcher, I AM YOUR PAPER GOD

[Tellos Athenaios]

People thought we would never get to 12in wafers either so of course people will print microprocessors eventually.

Fundamentally there is a difference between cutting out and printing. On the one hand you have a solid which you know "works" and can be cut repeatedly to trim it down to the required size,on the other you have to hope the right bits (i.e. doped versus normal) land up at the right place (a few nm difference) and then the bits you "spray" have to be of less than the required size because you can only add more of them. You have to be able to aim with nm precision here.

Cutting is considerably easier to do, no need for moving parts with nm precision.

You dont need welding in 3d printing, remember the process is additive so you can print a frame fully assembled. Aerospace people are looking at printing hollow parts which would lighten a plane and still retain the majority of the strength.

Yes but then you need to produce the thing in one go, i.e. no prefabbed parts and assembly. So either you need to be able to 3d-print as big as your parts need to be (in the case of aerospace, very big) or you need to weld.

[gaelic cowboy]

Fundamentally there is a difference between cutting out and printing. On the one hand you have a solid which you know "works" and can be cut repeatedly to trim it down to the required size,on the other you have to hope the right bits (i.e. doped versus normal) land up at the right place (a few nm difference) and then the bits you "spray" have to be of less than the required size because you can only add more of them. You have to be able to aim with nm precision here.

of course but seeing as were already very close to being able to print circuit boards it's likely that something like a very simple processor will be printed in the next 10yrs. Very soon no doubt people will print the board on which the processor sits and buy summit off the web to sit in it.

Once your doing that the drive to complete the circle will be immense.

Cutting is considerably easier to do, no need for moving parts with nm precision.

But cutting is wasteful and it has limitations on geometry that are not as prevalent in additive manufacture.

Yes but then you need to produce the thing in one go, i.e. no prefabbed parts and assembly. So either you need to be able to 3d-print as big as your parts need to be (in the case of aerospace, very big) or you need to weld.

one could imagine a scenario where a frame is extruded from a printer that inches along a track inside a large warehouse.


also welding does not appear to be a problem

[Idaho]

All these waves of immigrants to the US got there only to discover they were expected to fit in and shut up.

The land of the free. Providing universal suffrage since 1968.

[Fragony]

All these waves of immigrants to the US got there only to discover they were expected to fit in and shut up.

The land of the free. Providing universal suffrage since 1968.

In great contrast to the EU you mean? I'll take the American attitude towards individualism over European collectivist apathy every day, too bad that I don't want to live anywhere else but the Netherlands

[Idaho]

In great contrast to the EU you mean? I'll take the American attitude towards individualism over European collectivist apathy every day, too bad that I don't want to live anywhere else but the Netherlands

you are an archetypal conservative frag. A bundle of contradictions.

[Fragony]

you are an archetypal conservative frag. A bundle of contradictions.

Not really, there is a desillusioned idealism to cynism