> (The electron wavefront travels at ~0.66 C in copper. I don't know about Si though.)
Copper doesn't have much to do with this, rather what is important are the impedance characteristics of the transmission line. 0.66*C is a reasonable number for thin coax cable. Split speaker wire on the other hand is also often copper and has a propagation velocity of 95+% of the speed of light. Generally the dielectric used and configuration of the transmission line is far more important than the type of material used as the conductor.
As for processors, signals are still moved around on metal wiring, the propagation velocity through Si isn't really important but rather the propagation delay of gates which is less about the speed of the wave front and more about how long it takes to turn the transistor on or off. While there is some component of propagation velocity involved in this, its not really significant in comparison other factors in the gate design (see Intel's Tri-gate).
Comments
(The electron wavefront travels at ~0.66 C in copper. I don't know about Si though.)
> (The electron wavefront travels at ~0.66 C in copper. I don't know about Si though.)
Copper doesn't have much to do with this, rather what is important are the impedance characteristics of the transmission line. 0.66*C is a reasonable number for thin coax cable. Split speaker wire on the other hand is also often copper and has a propagation velocity of 95+% of the speed of light. Generally the dielectric used and configuration of the transmission line is far more important than the type of material used as the conductor.
As for processors, signals are still moved around on metal wiring, the propagation velocity through Si isn't really important but rather the propagation delay of gates which is less about the speed of the wave front and more about how long it takes to turn the transistor on or off. While there is some component of propagation velocity involved in this, its not really significant in comparison other factors in the gate design (see Intel's Tri-gate).