Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!pasteur!ames!vsi1!apple!ems
From: ems@Apple.COM (Mike Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Soviet Semiconductor Manufacturing
Message-ID: <573@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 7 Feb 89 23:06:52 GMT
References: <8901260516.AA04149@crash.cts.com> <14016@cup.portal.com>
Organization: Circle C Shellfish Ranch, Shores-of-the-Pacific Ca
Lines: 19

In article <14016@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:

>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.

Small lot manufacturing.  For example, each Cray is custom built...

>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?

REALLY FAST test instruments to test the best stuff you can build on
earth (for one...).  Think nitch!  Not everyone is an assembly line.