Microprocessors Running on Air?

Re:Microprocessors Running on Air? by Prcmaker on Saturday January 09, 2021 @03:18AM (#25698604)

I'm thoroughly irked by blog posts like this. Fluidics and microfluidics are still an area of active research. Useless pondering that because of parallelism, fluidic based computers could be viable in practical application. The inference that because Amish people use air for tools, as do many others, that is somehow special. Articles like this smell to me of useless 'what if'. It is one thing to dream, but this steps past that and presents no real useful input.

I've enjoyed making microfluidics in the past, and hope to make more in the future, but 'hey do it in parallel' isn't useful, its obvious.

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Re:Microprocessors Running on Air? by foerbert on Saturday January 09, 2021 @03:38AM (#25698675)

I think you have misinterpreted the intended audience. It seems to me it's clearly intended as "hey, did you know this was a thing?" for a passing yet curious layman.

It rather briefly covers the main basics questions one might have after hearing first being exposed to this idea.

What even is it? Computation. With fluid. Is it possible? Water jet example. Okay but seriously, is it practically possible? Parallelism, so sure. Is it useful? Venus.

I don't see how the main point of this blog post could possibly be parallelism. It's mentioned, but in about as much detail as all of the other topics I listed above.

The whole thing is also so simplistic that I don't see how it could possibly be targeted at people with actual knowledge - never mind experience - in the field.

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Re:Microprocessors Running on Air? by Prcmaker on Saturday January 09, 2021 @04:44AM (#25698982)

I understand writing for an audience, yet at the same the article is painfully erratic in its contents. It reminds me of writing stories with my kid. We're going to the pool, by the way there's a dragon, and that's why I should stay up late tonight.

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Re:Microprocessors Running on Air? by foerbert on Saturday January 09, 2021 @08:33AM (#25700192)

It didn't come across that way to me. I suspect familiarity with the topic is to blame here. As I mentioned, it basically went through and gave a short answer to all the first common questions you see in any discussion about a new technology.

What is it? Does it work? Does it actually work in practice? What do you do with it?

For somebody first exposed to the topic, that's kind of the basic starting point. The post kind of directly went from one answer to the next. As I was reading it the post felt pretty natural. But if you already know all that and are instead reading for more detailed knowledge, yeah I can see why that might seem particularly erratic. It was probably kind of like reading a Q&A without any of the Qs.

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Re:Microprocessors Running on Air? by StanislavPetrov on Saturday January 09, 2021 @10:54AM (#25701347)

I agree with your sentiment. As someone who was previously unaware of fluidic-based computing I found the article interesting, informative and well-written. Indeed, it has inspired me to look further into the subject.

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Re:Microprocessors Running on Air? by memetherapy on Saturday January 09, 2021 @03:51AM (#25698735)

I know there's lots of research papers out there talking about it but do you know if today's commercial microfluidics "lab on chip" devices use fluidics logic gates or is this still something that is still confined to academia?

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Re:Microprocessors Running on Air? by Prcmaker on Saturday January 09, 2021 @04:32AM (#25698918)

I'm not sure of the current state of industry in that area. I know minifab make a few things in that area, but the specifics escape me now, it's been a while since I saw them. I'm not aware of any lab on a chip devices that work outside of a regular lab.

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