back to article Electro/photonic 'Excitonic' cryo-computing breakthrough

Boffins in California say they may be on their way to developing new, superfast "excitonic" computers. The latest experiments have seen hybrid electronic/photonic integrated circuits functioning at "around 100" degrees Kelvin, which - while extremely cold - is much more practical to achieve than the previously necessary 1.5°K …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    Degrees of what?

    When I went to school, I would have been severely chastised for using "degrees Kelvin" instead of just "Kelvin". Admittedly I went to school in the Mesozoic era but I haven't seen anything anywhere that says that this has changed (although I may just have missed that - wouldn't be the first time).

  2. DrunkenMessiah
    Coat

    OK...

    ...but can I buy one? If not, I don't care, and if so, is it over £500? If so, I don't care.

  3. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Terminator

    That's pretty cool (oh my god, a pun...)

    ...but I suspect the first use will be running uploaded cat's brains controlling Predator Drones to blow away fleshy enemies of democracy and freedom fries. Oh well. We do what we must because we can.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I want one...

    ...I don't care what it does, anything with 'exciton' on the label does it for me.

    And as Big, tattooed Fred pointed out - it's just Kelvin, no degrees, nothing.

  5. Neoc

    Kelvin

    "273 Kelvin", "0 Celsius" but "0 degrees centigrade".

    It depends on your units, donnit.

  6. Cameron Colley
    Boffin

    Have to add to the comments about Kelvin.

    Funny thing is El Reg have, of late, being using some strange scale based on the blood temperature of an excited German or some such thing* rather than SI units -- then the moment they try to use the correct unit it is used incorrectly.

    *I think it's called degrees Frauenhofer or something.

  7. Astarte

    What's in a number?

    For anyone with an interest in units of temperature I recommend the following article:

    http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2191/why-do-we-have-so-many-temperature-scales

    The question of a prefix is a little unclear - the use of the ‘degree’ symbol (º) is preferred to the written form ‘degrees’ or 'Deg' but is usually omitted if the context is clear. Incidentally the Germans generally use the term ‘Grad’ meaning degrees (not to be confused with the Gradian which is 1/400th of a circle), e.g. the temperature today is 20 Grad.

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