

Tiny Chiplets: A New Level of Micro Manufacturing - rmah
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/science/tiny-chiplets-are-a-new-level-of-micro-manufacturing.html

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mhb
I was going to submit this. Then I read it and realized it said nothing. And
in a confusing way.

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ippisl
This is brilliant.

One problem with today's chip manufacturing tech is if you want to build
system with multiple manufacturing technologies(digital/RAM/Flash/Analog) it
increases your price by much because you have to package each part(which also
limits your designs), test it and assemble it on a relatively large pcb. So in
order to save money, you manufacture everything using the same un-optimal
process.

So this is why microcontrollers like the arduino have relatively low memory.

Now if you could easily and cheaply assemble miniature electronic components -
suddenly you get the optimal composition of your circuit, by picking an
matching low cost components.

So you want to make an arduino cpu with megabytes of ram and flash ? now
that's possible and very cheap(probably in the cents). Even something like
microcontroller that could run linux and python would seem possible.

Can't wait to see it deployed.

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interconnector
One solution to this using conventional CMOS technology is to use 3D stacking,
where each layer uses a different technology.

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ippisl
You're right , but that's a pretty difficult and expensive solution.

The more practical solution for now is 2.5D stacking - stacking all the un-
packaged chips on silicon/glass die instead of a pcb. That's already being
used in some fpga and communications equipment.

But 2.5d is still pretty expensive and complex. Not yet ready for low cost
stuff.

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rmah
This technology looks very intriguing to me but I'm confused about potential
applications for it. That is, what's it good for?

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randomdata
If I read it correctly, essentially, tiny circuit boards full of components
that can be printed. It seems like it would make the manufacture of electrical
devices easier, and perhaps even more accessible to hobbyists, if the
production machines and "chiplets" are affordable.

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disbelief
Lots of NYTimes articles on HN lately. While I think most of the topics are
worthy of the front page, it really sucks when you hit their "10 articles a
month" pay wall. Wish posters would look for alternative, free versions of
some of these stories (I'm aware that might not always be possible).

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pi18n
If you are hitting their pay wall every month, may I suggest you subscribe to
the Times? You obviously want to read their content at least that much. To get
that kind of quality writing isn't free, the writers really have spent years
on their craft (a close family member of mine is a journalist). I don't
subscribe, but I typically am not interested in their articles more than a
couple times each month.

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learc83
>The emerging printing technology poses a heretical idea: Rather than
squeezing more transistors into the same small space, why not smear the
transistors across a much larger surface?

Did they forget about the speed of light?

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zdw
This isn't for performance, it's for the capability at all.

Would you rather have:

1\. No ability to create your own silicon logic outside of FPGA/CPLD chips or
having an ASIC fabbed, all of which tend to be very high cost per unit and
have large board outlines, and are limited in i/o by the predefined
capabilities of the chip?

2\. The ability to whip out cheap prototypes whose performance is nowhere near
state of the art in a few hours with a laser printer style device onto
substrates on an arbitrary surface.

New tech is frequently disruptive in ways different from how things were
envisioned - for example, I doubt people reading Stephenson's "Diamond Age"
would have envisioned the plastic PLA/ABS fiber printers as the first major
incarnation of the 3D printing revolution.

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jes5199
I don't have a good mental model for this. What sorts of problems are more
suited to a network of tiny ICs rather than a FPGA or a microprocessor?

