[rescue] Re: Drive Reliability (was SCSI drive for sale atbuy.com)

[Dave McGuire]

On Thursday, May 15, 2003, at 01:28 AM, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> O   Likely not...those chip packages were around long, long before GaAs
>> chips came into vogue.
>
> Hm.  I didn't know that.  I guess it's just coincidence that the few
> that I have seen were all GaAs.

   Probably so.

>>    GaAs is still used for ultra-high-speed semiconductors.
>
> How is it that they can still clock it faster than silicon?  I thought
> the silicon clocks were reaching a physical limitation.  Or is it just
> that GaAs has less resistance than silicon, so it doesn't heat up as
> quickly?

   I don't know much (well, zilch, really) about semiconductor physics, 
so I can't really explain this.  As I understand it, the speed of the 
motion of charge carriers is higher through GaAs...upwards of *twice* 
the speed according to some references.

   This is, of course, a physics thing which cannot be dicked with by 
even the powerful forces of Intel's money or Microsoft's greed.

   The most common application for GaAs semiconductors, though, is in 
small-signal RF circuitry like the front-ends of cell phones and other 
high-sensitivity receivers.  GaAs FETs are much, exhibit much, much 
lower noise figures than silicon FETs.  While GaAs chips are exotic and 
expensive, GaAs FETs in RF circuitry is the norm.

           -Dave

--
Dave McGuire                "They live deeply, these vagabonds."
St. Petersburg, FL                            -Goro