Silicon Is About to Change the World - Again [Point of View]

This paper describes several examples of benefits derived from replacing mechanics with power electronics, including SkyTran-a silicon-based transportation system. However, the new power electronics has much wider application than SkyTran alone. Mating diverse distributed power sources to the electric grid is challenging, but SkyTran´s power electronics partner, One-Cycle Control, Inc., a spinoff of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California, Irvine, has shown how agile power control can help. Interestingly, One-Cycle Control accomplishes this with no digital signal processing or microprocessor software.