Yes, the fact that contrary to what the title claims, at this point there is no transistor working at petaherz frequency at all. All there is, is a promising new technology.
This is a laser controlled device. Even the terminology of "interconnect" is not really applicable. Your best hope is an optical waveguide coupled to the device, definitely not a metal line. It's not even a transistor in the traditional sense really.
This has limited applications. It doesn't have a viable path to being used in a CPU or GPU. So we're not going to see a zillion-fold increase in compute speeds from this. Maybe some physicists find it useful for an experiment, but the average joe won't notice anything different about the world.
OP's link is about a photonic transistor using graphene. Your link is about making interconnects using individual LEDs and fibers in parallel instead of putting multiple wavelengths on one fiber. They are only superficially related.
AFAIK PC power supplies are actually one of the most efficient power supplies out there so I'll use them as a reference. The Titanium class of power supplies is around 94% efficient at 100% load and 90% at 20% load [1]. On the other hand plain old transformers start at around 95% and can go even higher. Random internet source claims that it can be 98.5% efficient [2].
Of course you cannot run your computer at AC. I had mostly grid-scale equipment in mind. I just wanted to use something relatable as an example.
Original commenter might be a bit behind on many things but this is actually my day job.
Do you have a source for the reliability claim? There are so many good old transformers deployed around the world. Many of them working for 10s of years without a replacement. I'd be suspicious that a buck converter will have longer MTBF than oil submerged transformer.
Also, I don't see why it is mentioned here but NREL estimates the cost of grid scale inverters (for installations of 100 MW) to be 5-10x more than what was mentioned. [1]
You are probably more knowledgable than me. I am just here for the cake.
However, AFAIK the most fault prone components in PV are inverters and (where applicable) transformers.
> 5-10x more than what was mentioned.
This was my mistake. I started with 5c/W and missed a decimal place.
None of this addresses the key issue - you mentioned 10% loss for a simple DC converter, and the next commenter [1] mentioned the newer generation of far superior alternatives.
Amazing to see OctoPrint on HN. In a weird way I owe my career to it and specially Gina.
8 years ago I started working at a 3D printing company as a support engineer, where the UI of the printer was not up to par. In a short period of time during my off hours I developed a different front-end that could sit on top of OctoPrint. The printer was able to be sold again and I got offered a software engineering job. Gina was so helpful on IRC, she often pushed me into Python documentation instead of solving the problem for me. We build the first plugins for OctoPrint at that time. The plug-in is still running on many printers in the wild.
I have huge respect for Gina and OctoPrint, being able to make your opensource project your job.
PHYSEE | Hybrid | Full-time | Delft, The Netherlands
SENSE is the first nature-smart building operating system. 40% of all energy consumption in the world can be accredited to the built environment. We are on a mission to make the built environment energy neutral by saving energy in offices while increasing the comfort using data driven control strategies.
PHYSEE | Full-stack and Tech Lead | Full-time | Delft
SENSE by PHYSEE is the only smart building technology that opens your building interior to the outside world. With a powerful building physics engine, we let you connect your building to nature.
We are looking for people who want to change the perspective and make the built environment energy positive
PHYSEE is on a mission to make all buildings smart, healthy and productive. To achieve that, PHYSEE software team has the vision to develop a client-facing web-based application to increase comfort in user experience and facilitates communication between various products.
What you’ll be doing?
Development and maintenance of application code (React Native, React, node.js)
Work on further usability, performance improvement, or quality assurance, including bug fixes and test automation
Work closely with product managers, product designers, and other engineers to conceptualize, build and test new features.
Who we’re looking for?
- 5+ years of industry experience building fast, reliable, real-time web-based applications.
- Experience with developing and deploying production-level product with thousands of users
- Knowledgeable about modern web technologies and excited to learn new ones, e.g. Node.js ES6, TypeScript, React
- Exposure to architectural patterns of a large, high-scale web application.
- Product-minded: committed to building the best user experience.
- Bonus if you have experience with test-driven development and a CICD approach to developing applications.
- Bonus if you have experience with Microsoft Azure.
What you can expect?
- Be part of a growing organization, with the mission of transforming the built environment into a smart, sustainable, and healthy eco-system
- Open environment to express your opinion and share new ideas
- Daily lunch & fruits (when we’re in the office)
- Weekly fitness Bootcamp on Monday’s (PHYSEEO).
- Fun events and Friday drinks every six weeks.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions: pim@physee.eu
