Hafnium

[dianeduane]

The next big thing. Or is it? Some have their doubts.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out...

 

Comments

[katerinfg.livejournal.com]

Is it a very bad thing that my mental pronunciation of that word is not spoken, but sung, and in Tom Lehrer's voice (http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html)?

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Germanium.

They can't move onnto Heffn ... Hafnium until they've fulfilled their promise to use Germanium!

Though you'll notice in the details that silicon isn't going away - this proposal is for another substance to be added to the sandwich. I'm a little surprised there's no silver in there yet - copper is used instead - since silver is better than copper as a conductor. More pricy, but when you're looking at almost homeopathic quantities, that's not a problem.

[kengr]

They used germanium *before* they used silicon.

And while silver may be a better conductor, its other properties may make it worse for use on chips.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Thay may indeed have used Ge first. But it was also always going to be the way forward to speeds greater than 1 GHz.

Well, Si got there anyway.

As for silver, who knows. I suspect that copper is good enough for the purpose.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I thought this was going to be a reference to the hafnium isomer bomb (http://www.amazon.com/Imaginary-Weapons-Pentagons-Scientific-Underworld/dp/1560258497). But no. I guess hafnium has all kinds of uses around the house!

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Well, they do say hafnium is better than none...

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Out of pure selfish whimsey, I was hoping for phosphorous-doped niobium-yttrium (http://forums.bungie.org/halo/archive19.pl?read=540358).

-- Steve has no idea whether it'd fly for-real, but it sure sounded cool.