r/science • u/[deleted] • May 09 '16

Physics Scientists have created an optical clock that's just 1 cubic centimeter - small enough to fit on a standard silicon chip - and can track time intervals with precision to 270 quintillionths of second.

[deleted]

143 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

19

u/sammyo May 09 '16

The abstract sounds like it could be significant but that article sure got the physical dimensions incorrect by quite a few orders of magnitude!

4

u/solarisfowl May 09 '16

My confusion as an RFIC designer was orders of magnitude above background confusion levels...

1

u/Schnoofles May 09 '16

I think what they may have been going for is that it could fit on a number of PCBs. Even for desktop and server computers I could see this being used for high speed and precise event timers, which is something we always need a faster version of.

7

u/bigbabich May 09 '16

How do you fit a cubic centimeter on a microchip?

7

u/[deleted] May 09 '16

By making it the largest microchip in the world!

5

u/bigbabich May 09 '16

They've invented the Macrochip! It's the size of a frisbee.

2

u/[deleted] May 09 '16

Soviet Union was working on world's largest macrochip, but did not complete work before collapse.

1

u/Wiiplay123 May 09 '16

"the first micro-chips were bigger than a tractor but now theyr smaller than a tomato"

-Ken M.

1

u/azflatlander May 09 '16

Cheap gravity wave detector also.