Spintronics closer to reality:

https://phys.org/news/2017-11-two-dimensional-materials-path-ultra-low-power-transistors.html

This looks promising but I have some concern that they used dichalcogenide, a material that would always be expensive. I hope they will eventually later substitute that for some much cheaper material so it can be scaled-up without costs spiraling out of control. But I am betting they can do that without too much difficulty.

Originally posted by @humy
This looks promising but I have some concern that they used dichalcogenide, a material that would always be expensive. I hope they will eventually later substitute that for some much cheaper material so it can be scaled-up without costs spiraling out of control. But I am betting they can do that without too much difficulty.

Do you know how expensive? One of the benefits of Perovskites is, say for solar cells, is that it is much cheaper than silicon and you make cells with the stuff by roll to roll rather than a cleanroom system.

Any idea of how much this stuff costs compared to silicon? I did a google search for price but only came up with science stuff about it but no place to buy or prices. That seems to be not a good sign🙂

Originally posted by @sonhouse
Do you know how expensive?

no, but, as far as I am aware, it normally contains several rare Earth elements so I am guessing it must generally be relatively expensive.
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_metal_dichalcogenide_monolayers
to see what I mean.

Originally posted by @humy
no, but, as far as I am aware, it normally contains several rare Earth elements so I am guessing it must generally be relatively expensive.
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_metal_dichalcogenide_monolayers
to see what I mean.

actually, it has just occurred to me that it might not matter too much even if the material is relatively very expensive (in terms of cost per kilogram) providing the total amount used per computer (in terms of, say, micrograms per computer) is so minute that its total cost per computer is still small despite that. But not sure how little of it (per computer) you can get away with using while maintaining most of its good functional benefit. I suppose it would be used sparingly by ONLY putting it into the microcircuits themselves (it could also be put in their external wires excluding the power wires) and we all know how tiny they can be!

Originally posted by @humy
actually, it has just occurred to me that it might not matter too much even if the material is relatively very expensive (in terms of cost per kilogram) providing the total amount used per computer (in terms of, say, micrograms per computer) is so minute that its total cost per computer is still small despite that. But not sure how little of it (per com ...[text shortened]... be put in their external wires excluding the power wires) and we all know how tiny they can be!

Besides all that, when they come across an interesting effect, that usually spurs an effort to find cheaper subs.