Sharp Unveils Glass Computer

thug writes "Moscow Times: Sharp Corp., Japan's largest maker of liquid crystal displays, unveiled a screen Tuesday with microprocessor circuitry applied directly onto the glass, enabling it to function like a computer. Shumpei Yamazaki, president of unlisted Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Ltd., Sharp's partner in the project, compared the challenge of putting processor circuitry on glass to "building a skyscraper on rubber." But he said glass offered several advantages over silicon, including lower temperatures for production, so that faster metal gates could be used for its transistors."

Yet another dubbel post

[YeeHaW_Jelte]

Also seen yesterday on slashdot ...

Re:Yet another dubbel post

[OrangeSpyderMan]

There are some stories that everyone wishes they posted - and the great thing about slashdot is that everyone can! :-)

Re:Yet another dubbel post

[MikeDX]

*Bad actor mode*

"Yes, I can see the case mods.. now. casserole pc, coke bottle pc, fish tank pc"

Also known as how to whore karma from yesterdays Funny mods :)

no it isnt

[tanveer1979]

This is version Beta 1. yesterday was alpha.
Those OPen something guys are giving us the same software again and again without much changes, these guys have changed so much. Stop complaining okay. Havent you noticed that most of the gramatical bugs have been fixed!

If you cant contribute atleast dont complain. These guys have fixed part of the bugs, tommorow they will fix all, so be patient.. and look now dont start a K5//. thing here like those KD Gsomething ppl always do whenever a new release comes out. :P

Re:no it isnt

[OrangeSpyderMan]

It's slashdot's take on release early, release often. :-)

Re:Yet another dubbel post

[BoBaBrain]

Clearly there has been a breakdown in communication between the "beef-jerky-based-computing-to-follow" department and the "good-enough-to-lick" department.

Re:Record Time Repeat

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually welcome some double posts, sometimes i miss the really cool articles the first time around, like this one. Lighten up people, it happens, doesnt hurt anyone, and your getting it for free.

Re:Record Time Repeat

[OrangeSpyderMan]

Great to see this getting modded up - it's like going to Microsoft and explaining that you really welcome the new license changes, and that the many hidden features [greymagic.com] are a real boon to your productivity. :-)

Re:Old News?

[OrangeSpyderMan]

Yeah, hats off to the guys at Sharp R&D - only yesterday they were announcing a glass computer. Err, hang on a minute.

I see a connection.

[WilliamsDA]

Sharp... glass computer. Does anyone else see the connection?

Re:I see a connection.

[poot_rootbeer]

At least it's not a Philip Glass computer. Those things only execute endless loops!

Can't run Windows

[commodoresloat]

Because if this thing crashes, you have to buy a whole new computer.

Chips on glass?

[Mocenigo]

I want to see them melt. You can make nice sculptures melting glass: I was born not too far from Venice, and I have seen how they do it in Murano. Overclocking will be then rightly called a form of art.

Re:Chips on glass?

[Anonvmous Coward]

"I want to see them melt..."

Why? So you can blow it? Heh.

Okay, that was rude. I'm sorry. It's just that when I read his post I remembered a classic line from the Simpsons:

"The students will never again make fun of your name, Mr. Glasscock."

uh hunh

[Easy2RememberNick]

Well I have a short attention span anyway, I didn't even notice.
Maybe they're trying to be like CNN Headline news, the same thing over and over and over and over... ..what was I talking about?

Sharp's Glass Computer

[Anonymous Coward]

Computing on the cutting edge of technology!

Re:Sharp's Glass Computer

[hype7]

Computing on the cutting edge of technology!

Oh come on, it's just a PR stunt. I'm surprised you didn't see right through it.

-- james

while (1) { post_story(); }

[e8johan]

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/22/121521 1&mode=thread&tid=137 [slashdot.org]

Porous silicon

[Microsoft Research]

Perhaps scientists and engineers should consider porous silicon rather than glass (well, at least at this stage in the game [glass infancy]).

I remember recently reading about a new sensor based on porous silicon. Apparently, it has a unique metallization process that is very sensitive. Moreover, it uses less power and is, overall, cheaper to create and maintain.

There's a nice article at http://unisci.com/stories/20021/0313025.htm [unisci.com] that touches on some of these issues. It should make for a good read, especially if you're not a total expert on silicon applications in engineering.

This is all part of the karma system

[bLanark]

How many times have /. rejected your write-up of a story and posted an inferior version instead? (Generally for one with unneccessary urls like the home page of the news site as well as a link to the story on the news site; who can't edit out story.pl?artid=423423 to get to http://www.site.com/ ?)

Well, this is the payback. Simply note a good story, and try and slip it past /. submission editors a few times to make them look like dweebs. (Hey, has anyone managed to get the same story three times?)

It also gives you a chance to steal those insightful comments from the first article post and max out on karma without getting "-1 redundant", so we all can win! - Last to +5 insightful is a dinosaur egg!

Autoposter/Autosubmitter

[Qbertino]

How many times have /. rejected your write-up of a story and posted an inferior version instead?

10^10Zillion times.

I'm thinking of building an autoposter with dynamically generated filling phrases for each topic. It would make things easier.
Maybe with multiple accounts support. Each account could mod all others up and have it's own DB of random typos, and when one gets blocked from modding by censor it would autmatically generate a new one. You could also build in a post-tracker to avoid double posts and a dialectic analysis option than automatically generates interessting threads with controverse opinions. You could set values for agressiveness, wisdom or talkativeness of each account, or the average amount of Star-Trek, Star-Wars and Monyt Python quotes and a "Beowulf" option. It would also have a set of "goatseX" and "Tableblaster" scanner/filter accounts.
You could assign an account to the "first poster" slot that would check /. for new posts every 30 seconds or so, and, at last, you could have a web interface for the whole thing with an own community using it. Maybe call it Meta-Slashdot?
It would add quality, I'm shure. :-)

Whoah

[gvonk]

This repeat was predicted [slashdot.org]by ari_j.

Weird.

Though, you could say that for every article and have a pretty good success rate.

Don't the /. editors read...

[Shanep]

/.?

The SHARP press release

[jukal]

is here [sharp.co.jp]. It has much more interesting content, including some specifications, the fact that they have filed 330 related patent applications, some info about the process of making the displays and finally some images :) Now someone who wants to ride around and avoid breaking any of the 330 patents will have to be very careful. Infact, some might think that Sharp is actually slowing down the development with this invention and making it harder for others to enter the market.

Now you'll SEE the logic bug,

[crovira]

Visible computing, all open-source right down to the electron traces.

Redundancy on multiple levels

[Arti]

Is it just me, or are there an awful lot of cries of 'redundant'? One would have sufficed...

Re:Redundancy on multiple levels

[KecCu]

I wonder what a redundant reply to a redundant post would be. Informative?

Just like Minority Report

[Jezza]

Wow a computer etched on glass - reminds me of Minority Report ... WAIT A MINUTE! As the sports writer says: "It's deja vous all over again!"

Nurse - more medication!

Re:Not a sport Writer

[Jezza]

Ah I stand corrected thanks - And to be totally English about it, I can't spell in French either, Duh!

Nurse - let's cut down on the medication a bit.

To all complaining of the repeat post...

[GMontag]

People who use glass computers should not throw flames ;-)

Get one

[Ratbert42]

And use it to read Slashdot before posting duplicate stories.

Practical applications

[BluBrick]

One of these devices is already being used to mirror slashdot [slashdot.org].

Re:Practical applications

[BluBrick]

This probably probably should have been given it a (-1 redundant). After all that's what mirroring is all about!

Duplicated Earlier than Usual

[ari_j]

Exactly as predicted [slashdot.org].

Its not a repeated story....

[GnomeKing]

Yesturday, they were looking from one side of the glass, today we're obviously looking from the other side

Must be the DMT

[nurb432]

"But i swear its not a flashback. really".. :)

It's reflective

[leek]

It's made of glass, so it's bound to reflect something, say previous stories?

/. logic

[CaptainPhong]

while (1) {
foreach $story (@pending_stories) {
next if is_stupid($story);
next if ms_is_good($story);
next if postgres($story) > mysql($story);
cream_shorts() if content($story) eq 'vapor';
(drool() && next) if content($story) eq 'pr0n';
push @repeat_stories, $story if iq($editor) < 80;
post($story);
}
@pending_stories = (@repeat_stories, get_new_stories(@kuhlest_slashdotters));
}

Wish I'd thought of this yesterday...

[jea6]

What's that they say about people who live in glass houses, and use Windows computers?

Re:Wish I'd thought of this yesterday...

[JWSmythe]

It would make me worry that much more about a Windows machine "Crashing". I don't think I've ever seen one shatter before. :) .. too early .. need coffee ..

For those who are bitchin'

[KH]

Don't you people see what's going on here?

CmdrTaco already has this computer on a glass thing. With the help of three pre-cogs, he uses this machine to see what will happen in the future (a la Minority Report). He saw that this story was going to be posted today.

He posted the story yesterday to predict what is going to happen, at the same time to brag that he has this computer-on-glass.

Got that?

Sharp unveils glass computer...

[42forty-two42]

...will gain new meaning when you drop it :)

Acronym?

[n8willis]

The company's name is Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Ltd., and it's unlisted? Why, did they think investors would be put off from purchasing a stock whose ticker symbol was SELL?

Re:Acronym?

[jasonkohles]

Maybe they figured nobody would be able to invest in them anyway, imagine how a broker would react if you called them up and said 'BUY SELL!'.

I can't think of a better company...

[Alethes]

than one called Sharp to release a glass computer.

Those who compute on glass computers

[hackwrench]

shouldn't code stones.

Other stories on Glass Computers

[randomErr]

Building a Computer the Size of a Credit Card
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,106247,0 0.asp [pcworld.com]

Sharp is showing off an LCD with a built-in CPU, and plans to use it in a new breed of mobile display devices by 2005.

Sharp and its partner Semiconductor Energy Laboratory unveiled Tuesday what the companies claim to be a world-first prototype of an LCD with an 8-bit CPU on its glass substrate.

Sharp runs computer on piece of glass
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/22/10345614 95445.html [smh.com.au]

Japan's leading liquid crystal display maker Sharp Corp said yesterday it had made an "epoch-making" step toward making ultra-flat "sheet computers" after it succeeded in running a computer on a tiny piece of glass.

The prototype it unveiled was a functioning tiny circuit board - from a Sharp central processing unit (CPU) originally made in 1977 - imprinted on a piece of glass some 15 millimetres square and one millimetre thick.

Running a PC on a piece of glass
http://cooltech.iafrica.com/technews/178311.htm [iafrica.com]

Japan's leading liquid crystal display maker Sharp Corp. said on Tuesday it had made an "epoch-making" step toward making ultra-flat "sheet computers" after it succeeded in running a computer on a tiny piece of glass.

The prototype it unveiled was a functioning tiny circuit board - from a Sharp central processing unit (CPU) originally made in 1977 - imprinted on a piece of glass some 15 millimeters (0.6 inches) square and one millimeter thick.

Re:Other stories on Glass Computers

[Kragg]

Sharp runs computer on piece of glass
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/22/1 0345614 95445.html

Japan's leading liquid crystal display maker Sharp Corp said yesterday it had made an "epoch-making" step toward making ultra-flat "sheet computers" after it succeeded in running a computer on a tiny piece of glass.

The prototype it unveiled was a functioning tiny circuit board - from a Sharp central processing unit (CPU) originally made in 1977 - imprinted on a piece of glass some 15 millimetres square and one millimetre thick.

Running a PC on a piece of glass
http://cooltech.iafrica.com/technews/178311 .htm

Japan's leading liquid crystal display maker Sharp Corp. said on Tuesday it had made an "epoch-making" step toward making ultra-flat "sheet computers" after it succeeded in running a computer on a tiny piece of glass.

The prototype it unveiled was a functioning tiny circuit board - from a Sharp central processing unit (CPU) originally made in 1977 - imprinted on a piece of glass some 15 millimeters (0.6 inches) square and one millimeter thick.

And we complain about slashdot repeats...

splat

[SouperDouper]

Does anybody else get a picture in their head of some proud new computer owners (a father and son perhaps). They are carrying their large screen glass computer from the car into the house when....splat, a bird dropps a bomb on it from 100 feet above leaving a dirty mess and one unhappy pappy.

any pictures?

[Uttles]

Are there any pictures of this thing out there?

Mmm, teryaki-flavored Beowulf cluster

[infernow]

Better not eat it, though. You might ruin the Slim Jim RC5 team's chances at winning.

I hope this isnt patented

[mary_will_grow]

Thanks to sandy highways, my windshield has had chips on it for 10 years!!

(Ba dum BING!)

Soon enough...

[augros]

Yes, that means I'm one step closer to getting a computer tattooed on my ass!

More technical article at eetimes

[morcheeba]

There are more details at eetimes [eetimes.com] -- it's a Z80 running at 3 MHz (8 bits, 13k transistors) in a 3 micron process (0.09 micron is the next step in silicon processes). The glass computer works as fast as the original 1970's version did on silicon. They played an old game on the system... I wonder what it was!

But

[GungaDan]

can you make a bong out of it?

Security Vulnerability

[John Garvin]

Watch out for new DoS attacks involving high-pitched noises.
Just think: script kiddies teaming up with operatic sopranos. The thought is almost too horrifying to contemplate.

2001

[nounderscores]

Does this mean we finally get those funky transparent memory modules which ran HAL which Dave Bowman pulled out to lobotomise him?

Last Post!

[alpg]

Exxon's 'Universe of Energy' tends to the peculiar rather than the
humorous ... After [an incomprehensible film montage about wind and sun and
rain and strip mines and] two or three minutes of mechanical confusion, the
seats locomote through a short tunnel filled with clock-work dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs are depicted without accuracy and too close to your face.
"One of the few real novelties at Epcot is the use of smell to
aggravate illusions. Of course, no one knows what dinosaurs smelled like,
but Exxon has decided they smelled bad.
"At the other end of Dino Ditch ... there's a final, very addled
message about facing challengehood tomorrow-wise. I dozed off during this,
but the import seems to be that dinosaurs don't have anything to do with
energy policy and neither do you."
-- P.J. O'Rourke, "Holidays in Hell"

- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...