That’s cool, but how easy is that material to manufacture ? Silicon is relatively easy to make a plentiful.
this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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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.
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.
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.
That doesn't mean it's not a reasonable question.
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.
In practical terms, how significant is this accomplishment? I didn't understand the future implications.
You can make a full 32-bit RISC-V out of 5,900 transistors? That’s about ⅔ of a Z80.