A computer that will last hundreds of years

[Tom Byers]

I am working on a project where computers will have to last for centuries.

 

Assume that you have a warehouse stocked with plenty of spare parts and a computer technician to make repairs. How long can you keep a computer going?

 

Are any of the parts going to decay on the shelf even if they are properly stored? Which ones? Would it make sense to custom engineer some ultra-durable parts?

 

What computers would be best for this purpose?

[Mr Skeptic]

Hm, I think you'd want to have custom made hardware for that. Or at least use a military/NASA version. Part of your problem would be that the way the chips work is we make them ultrapure with two different contaminants, and we make that as small as possible. But the contaminants are more or less dissolved and can migrate a little, even with a solid. But I think if you go with NASA/military hardware, and keep your spare parts in a very cold freezer, they should keep long enough.

 

Of course if Moore's law keeps up, 100 years from now your computer will get beaten by a fancy calculator...

 

Also, in the future we are probably going to change our basic microchip technology, for example if we go with nanotubes they probably won't have a problem with diffusion.