Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!amdcad!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!mmm
From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Soviet Semiconductor Manufacturing
Message-ID: <14016@cup.portal.com>
Date: 28 Jan 89 01:19:15 GMT
References: <8901260516.AA04149@crash.cts.com>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 16

Is this supposed to be news?  If I'm not mistaken, high-quality GaAs crystals
were manufactured aboard Skylab.  Sony equalled that quality using high 
magnetic fields during crystallization.

Anyhow, who could use such materials?  I can't do a production run based
on a couple ingots grown in space.  I need quantity, and I need a 
performance edge so large it can justify dependence on an expensive 
technology that could be yanked away at any time by engineering "glitches"
beyond my control.

What would you do with super-perfect crystals grown in microgravity?
Redesign your latest RISC engine for an ultra-custom batch of super-tight
geometry chips?  Re-tune your operating system to accommodate the higher
speed?  Design new hardware systems to hold these super-chips?  What
applications cry out for performance so badly that they can justify
this technology?