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#Silicon
jaubaius · 1 year
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element-tournament · 8 months
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FINALS
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CARBON:
Forms the basis of all life
What diamonds, coal, and pencil lead are made of
Used to make graphene, one of the strongest materials (one atom of thickness is 200x stronger than steel)
SILICON:
Not to be confused with Silicone
Could potentially be used to make life instead of carbon
Used in a lot of electronics, hence the name of silicon valley
ARGON:
Has a distinctive purple glow
used in neon signs
often mistaken as a pirate's favorite element
POTASSIUM:
Found in high quantity in bananas
burning it produces a light purple or red flame
the first metal to be discovered by electrolysis
STRONTIUM:
Used in cancer treatment
Used in toothpaste
The most accurate atomic clock (to one second in the 200 million years) uses strontium atoms
FLOURINE:
the most receptive and most electronegative of all the chemical elements
oxygen, helium, neon, and argon are the only elements fluorine can't react with
the only element that can react with noble gases, specifically xenon, krypton, and radon
BISMUTH:
the most diamagnetic metal (meaning it gets repelled by magnets instead of attracted)
Known for its unique shape and colorful style
PROMETHIUM:
the last lanthanoid to be discovered
PLUTONIUM:
Named after the dwarf planet Pluto
Was once thought to have been discovered by Enrico Fermi along with element 93, but he was actually mistaken. He named it Hesperium.
An unnaturally poor conductor of electricity
Used to make atomic bombs, even more powerful than uranium
Known by some as the "forbidden gummy"
COBALT:
Turns a vibrant blue when heated to extreme temperatures
Named after kobolds, who are "mythical, death-dealing goblins" (not the lizard kobold)
One of only three elements that are ferromagnetic at room temperature
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andmaybegayer · 9 months
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Hello. So what's the deal with computer chips? Let's say, for example, that I wanted to build a brand new Sega Genesis. Ignoring firmware and software, what's stopping me from dissecting their proprietary chips and reverse-engineering them to make new ones? It's just electric connections and such inside, isn't it? If I match the pin ins and outs, shouldn't it be easy? So why don't people do it?
The answer is that people totally used to do this, there's several examples of chips being cloned and used to build compatible third-party hardware, the most famous two examples being famiclones/NESclones and Intel 808X clones.
AMD is now a major processor manufacturer, but they took off in the 70's by reverse-engineering Intel's 8080 processor. Eventually they were called in to officially produce additional 8086 chips under license to meet burgeoning demand for IBM PC's, but that was almost a decade later if I remember correctly.
There were a ton of other 808X clones, like the Soviet-made pin-compatible K1810VM86. Almost anyone with a chip fab was cloning Intel chips back in the 80's, a lot of it was in the grey area of reverse engineering the chips.
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Companies kept cloning Intel processors well into the 386 days, but eventually the processors got too complicated to easily clone, and so only companies who licensed designs could make them, slowly reducing the field down to Intel, AMD, and Via, who still exist! Via's CPU division currently works on the Zhaoxin x86_64 processors as part of the ongoing attempts to homebrew a Chinese-only x86 processor.
I wrote about NES clones a while ago, in less detail, so here's that if you want to read it:
Early famiclones worked by essentially reverse-engineering or otherwise cloning the individual chips inside an NES/famicom, and just reconstructing a compatible device from there. Those usually lacked any of the DRM lockout chips built into the original NES, and were often very deeply strange, with integrated clones of official peripherals like the keyboard and mouse simply hardwired directly into the system.
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These were sold all over the world, but mostly in developing economies or behind the Iron Curtain where official Nintendo stuff was harder to find. I had a Golden China brand Famiclone growing up, which was a common famiclone brand around South Africa.
Eventually the cost of chip fabbing came down and all those individual chips from the NES were crammed onto one cheap piece of silicon and mass produced for pennies each, the NES-on-a-chip. With this you could turn anything into an NES, and now you could buy a handheld console that ran pirated NES game for twenty dollars in a corner store. In 2002. Lots of edutainment mini-PC's for children were powered by these, although now those are losing out to Linux (and now Android) powered tablets a la Leapfrog.
Nintendo's patents on their hardware designs expired throughout the early 2000's and so now the hardware design was legally above board, even if the pirated games weren't. You can still find companies making systems that rely on these NES chips, and there are still software houses specializing in novel NES games.
Why doesn't this really happen anymore? Well, mostly CPU's and their accoutrements are too complicated. Companies still regularly clone their competitors simpler chips all the time, and I actually don't know if Genesis clones exist, it's only a Motorola 68000k, but absolutely no one is cloning a modern Intel or AMD processor.
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The die of a Motorola 68000 (1979)
A classic Intel 8080 is basically the kind of chip you learn about in entry level electrical engineering, a box with logic gates that may be complicated, but pretty straightforwardly fetches things from memory, decodes, executes, and stores. A modern processor is a magic pinball machine that does things backwards and out of order if it'll get you even a little speedup, as Mickens puts it in The Slow Winter:
I think that it used to be fun to be a hardware architect. Anything that you invented would be amazing, and the laws of physics were actively trying to help you succeed. Your friend would say, “I wish that we could predict branches more accurately,” and you’d think, “maybe we can leverage three bits of state per branch to implement a simple saturating counter,” and you’d laugh and declare that such a stupid scheme would never work, but then you’d test it and it would be 94% accurate, and the branches would wake up the next morning and read their newspapers and the headlines would say OUR WORLD HAS BEEN SET ON FIRE. You’d give your buddy a high-five and go celebrate at the bar, and then you’d think, “I wonder if we can make branch predictors even more accurate,” and the next day you’d start XOR’ing the branch’s PC address with a shift register containing the branch’s recent branching history, because in those days, you could XOR anything with anything and get something useful, and you test the new branch predictor, and now you’re up to 96% accuracy, and the branches call you on the phone and say OK, WE GET IT, YOU DO NOT LIKE BRANCHES, but the phone call goes to your voicemail because you’re too busy driving the speed boats and wearing the monocles that you purchased after your promotion at work. You go to work hung-over, and you realize that, during a drunken conference call, you told your boss that your processor has 32 registers when it only has 8, but then you realize THAT YOU CAN TOTALLY LIE ABOUT THE NUMBER OF PHYSICAL REGISTERS, and you invent a crazy hardware mapping scheme from virtual registers to physical ones, and at this point, you start seducing the spouses of the compiler team, because it’s pretty clear that compilers are a thing of the past, and the next generation of processors will run English-level pseudocode directly.
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Die shot of a Ryzen 5 2600 core complex (2019)
Nowadays to meet performance parity you can't just be pin-compatible and run at the right frequency, you have to really do a ton of internal logical optimization that is extremely opaque to the reverse engineer. As mentioned, Via is making the Zhaoxin stuff, they are licensed, they have access to all the documentation needed to make an x86_64 processor, and their performance is still barely half of what Intel and AMD can do.
Companies still frequently clone each others simpler chips, charge controllers, sensor filters, etc. but the big stuff is just too complicated.
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plantify · 4 months
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Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have devised an efficient method of recovering high-purity silicon from expired solar panels to produce lithium-ion batteries that could help meet the increasing global demand to power electric vehicles. High-purity silicon makes up the majority of solar cells, yet they are typically discarded at the end of their operational lifespan after 25 to 30 years. It is challenging to separate the silicon from other solar cell components such as aluminium, copper, silver, lead, and plastic. Moreover, recycled silicon has impurities and defects, making it unsuitable for other silicon-based technologies. Existing methods to recover high-purity silicon are energy-intensive and involve highly toxic chemicals, making them expensive and limiting their widespread adoption among recyclers.
Read more.
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playerspliffsmagoose · 8 months
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rub it out to the thought of you 🫡
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digitalfossils · 4 months
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berosgarden · 5 months
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headshot icons with the elements 10-18 from this
In order: Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Phosphorous, Sulfur, Chlorine, Argon
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mootmead · 4 months
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Hobby journal : I spent the last few days trying to recast some minis! Nothing fancy. I used some two part silicon that I bought ages ago. The notice said it cured in 10 minutes et whoaa that was fast ! I originally made a whole mould (the dwarf holding the cannon ball) and a two part mould (the other one). Unfortunately there was some cracks (the "whole mould", and also the front of the other one). It still gave some good results! I'm in awe of how well the details held !
It kinda turns out this whole thing won't be necessary, but it's the kind of things I love to work with. The "try stuff to see", the "fuck around and find out" :D
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tufnation · 11 months
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Silicon Valley in pink
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Because of my recent egg situation with my Dustox String Bean (see here) I’m make an info post about what to expected if your interested in one of the wurmple when they hatch. Just some General things anyone should know if they decide they want one.
“Apatura Iris Stellatarum” variant wurple are native to Galar , Kolas and much of the surrounding regions on the Great Peninsula. Generally shy in this part of their evolution .Their preferred diet is made of mostly bedstraw and Willow leaves, but will eat most hardy greens and standard herbivore bug pokemon mix sold at most pokemarts . Abug type like its standard counterpart this variant of Wurmple generally processes the ability “Compound Eye” or “Shield Dust”. Like most variants of wurmple can potentially evolve down two routs. The routs are colloquially called “purple emperor “ and the “hummingbird hawk”
Hummingbird hawk route
The Cascoon of this line are of the cocoon-less variety and Prefer to spend this duration of this part of life hidden in brush ,fallen leaves or close to the ground partial burrowed in soil . During this time of their life they will generally only consume water , absorbed by the thin more absorbent lines on their chrysalis .When threatened can slowly shimmy itself to another location. A bug type like their standard counterpart this variety generally possesses the ability “sturdy“
The Dustox of the this variant are excellent flyers . Their wings move so fast they’re barely visible when in motion and they can move directionally 360° in flight .Able to make rapid turns and dynamic maneuvers without changing their acceleration. One of the fastest variants of Dustox They’re top speed cabs around 60 mph .The diets at this stage in the evolution consist mainly of nectar that they uses their straw like tongue to collect, but they will eat any easily available fruit material that has been softened enough with time. Apatura Iris Stellartarum-Dustox are a Poison / Flying type and generally possess the ability “Speed boost” or “poison touch”.
Purple Emperor route
Silcoon of the Apatura Iris Stellartarum variant like their cascoon counterpart are of the cocoon-less variety meaning their Chrysalis structure is exposed. They prefer to spend this part of their life camouflage on leafy trees (Willow trees generally) , they don’t generally eat during this portion of their life and will absorb moisture through The outer tissue of their pupa exposed through the gaps in their chrysalis. Like the standard counterpart they are a bug type and generally possess the ability “sturdy”. 
The Beautifly of this variant are comparatively aggressive to their standard counterpart , actively territorial and omnivores. males and females of this variant will fight Each other to to maintain their Territories . Preferring a diet of tree sap, honeydew ,dung, urine and carrion, Apatura Iris Stellartarum beautifly can eat Standard omnivore bug type mix sold at most PokéMarts. possessing a comparatively longer abdomen compared to their standard counterpart it allows them to flex and enhance striking motion from their arms and feet. Apatura Iris Stellartarum Beautifly are a fighting /fairy type and generally possess either the ability “Reckless” or “Cute Charm”.
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Round 3 - Matchup 6
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Sulfur 16 (S) - Makes plenty of stinky compounds, but on its own its yellow and reasonably chill. Burns into a blood red liquid with a blue flame which is pretty sick.
vs
Silicon 14 (Si) - Beep Boop. Computer time. Along with being most of sand, and many ceramics, concrete, quartz and glass. Very very widespread. Could be a basis for life as an alternative to carbon.
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Round 7 - Triels & Tetrels
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klim-the-milk · 4 months
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Making silicone molds for dice, talking to a friend whose done it before, they are horrified at my methods
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unanchored-ship · 5 days
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if my silly is moth in the bug au am cooking, what bug would your silly be?
termite is the first thing that came up :v
they both love destruction ig
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look at they bugs :O
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Testing a New Solar Sandwich
By combining the world’s oldest photovoltaic material with today’s most used one, researchers have taken a step toward next-generation solar devices. [...] Thanks to their reliability and cost, silicon-based devices have dominated the commercial solar-panel market for 50 years. But the sunlight–electricity conversion efficiencies of these devices are now nearing their theoretical limits. One challenging but promising way to increase this efficiency is to make solar cells from multiple materials with different photon-absorption properties, which would allow them to absorb more sunlight. Rasmus Nielsen of the Technical University of Denmark and his colleagues have done just that, demonstrating a solar cell that combines silicon with selenium, the first photovoltaic material to be discovered [1]. The researchers say that with updates, the performance of their selenium/silicon device could soon rival today’s best silicon cells.
Read more.
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