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What do you consider to be the biggest technological advancement for electrical components? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 68 comments | Search Discussion
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday November 17 2018, @08:36PM (1 child)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday November 17 2018, @08:36PM (#763199)

    Semiconductors required an understanding of quantum mechanical phenomena.

    Understanding not required. We may not yet understand the true "first principles" by which anything works. All that is required is to know how to reproduce desired behavior, bonus points if you can develop multi-dimensional behavioral control with your knowledge of how to make things happen.

    Carpenters using span tables don't need to know how to calculate stresses in a beam, and even the makers of the span tables don't really need to know that, nor do they use engineering/physics formulae exclusively in the development of span tables - experimental testing is a huge part of the final answer of: how does this material behave when loaded. Very similar approaches are used where the doping agents meet the semiconductors. We _think_ we have an understanding of the quantum processes underpinning the behaviors, but those are just a rough guide to what really happens in a 7nm process.

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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday November 28 2018, @09:16PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @09:16PM (#767496) Journal

    Understanding not required.

    Understanding very definitely required. Without a sufficient understanding of quantum mechanics, even the idea of the transistor would have been impossible. It's not something you find by accident.

    We may not yet understand the true "first principles" by which anything works.

    Understanding does not necessarily mean understanding the first principles. If you only consider someone to understand computers if you understand it from first principles, then you probably can count the number of people who understand computers on one hand. There are probably not many people who have in-depth knowledge of everything in semiconductor physics, integrated circuits, chip design, processor design, computer architecture, motherboard layout, the various bus systems, assembly programming, compiler technology, all programming languages used in the computer, operating system design, GPU programming, …

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