A team of engineers at Fudan University has successfully designed, built and run a 32-bit RISC-V microprocessor that uses molybdenum disulfide instead of silicon as its semiconductor component. Their paper is published in the journal Nature.
    • seathru@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      7·
      3 days ago

      Molybdenum disulfide itself is plentiful. It’s a common lubricant. But I have no idea what turning it into a single atom thick sheet entails.

    • LostXOR@fedia.io
      3·
      3 days ago

      Sulfur is dirt cheap, literally, however molybdenum is a lot rarer. Wikipedia says there are 10 million tons of molybdenum reserves globally, and humans use somewhere around 4 million tons of silicon a year, so limited supply could be a big issue.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      27·
      3 days ago

      You clearly haven’t read the article. If you do, it’s quite obvious that this is a prototype implementation - essentially a proof-of-concept.

      • vortic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        3 days ago

        It seems like the prototype stage, or even before, is a good time to ask whether the materials are plentiful enough for this to be a major discovery or just a curiosity.