Date   : Tue, 13 Aug 1985 10:16:00 EDT
From   : Bakin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: Re: This is serious!

Hey, this really is serious!  The following is a brief article from
the August 1985 AdaData newsletter:

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VLSI Circuits Too Small to Endure?  A report in the June issue of
the Journal of Defense & Diplomacy states that the lightweight
conductors used in very large-scale integrated circuits may be
getting too small to withstand the stresses of carrying current.
JODD says that even the tiny flow of electricity passing through
a chip may be sufficient to displace an aluminum circuit's
individual molecules in the same way that traffic can turn an
uneven roadway into a streat of potholes.  But while the road is
usually able to continue to carry its load, the same may not be 
true of the microscopic conductor, which could actually end up
breaking.  The magazine therefore recommends that military chip
suppliers use heavier metals like tungsten, for which Sandia
National Laboratories (Albuquerque, NM) is developing a two-stage
vapor deposition process.

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-- Dave
   (Bakin -at mit-multics.ARPA)