[kken]

Silicon oxide grown on Si is actually amorphous, so it is not lattice matched.

But you are complety right, the oxidation properties of Si are really fortunate and ICs would have taken decades longer if it were not for that. SiO2 is really the unsung hero of the silicon age.

- SiO2 has a high bandgap and a very good insulator.

- It is quite inert to many chemical and gasses. (e.g. germanium oxide is soluble in water, which is a headache)

- It can easily be grown on stoiciometric form by oxidizing silicon and will form an abrupt interface to Si.

- The formation proceeds by diffusion of oxygen to the Si interface. This is in contrast to other metal oxides, where the metal will diffuse to the surface and create a nonstoiciometric mixture.

There is no other semiconductor that forms as good an oxide. Very few metals form insulating oxides on their surface, one notable exception is Aluminum.

Edit: The famous paper that describes the SiO2 formation kinetics was actually co-authored by Andy Grove, from intel CEO fame.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deal%E2%80%93Grove_model

[stavros]

Huh, it's as if the universe was built to make computers out of.

[arcanemachiner]

One time I was driving around, and I thought to myself "Boy, it sure is lucky we had all the products for asphalt laying around, or it would have been difficult to build all these roads."

Then I realized that if the products for building roads weren't around, then we wouldn't have had those roads in the first place, and I wouldn't have been reflecting on how lucky we were to have all this stuff.

[namaria]

The universe is such that the computers that do exist seem perfectly matched to its properties. How could it not be so? Other possible universes might have completely different computers and the kind we have here would be unimaginable there.

[kken]

It's as if someone created one element that is perfectly suited to build microelectronics. Sure, there are other materials that improve on one property or the other, but there is not a single other element which balances properties as well as silicon.

Not even mentioned yet:

- Excellent mechanical properties of the single crystal (think MEMS, or wafers that don't break all the time)

- Piezoresistive properties can be used to measure strain (also quite unique due to silicon band structure)

- Optical properties perfectly suited to detect visible light (think detectors, image sensors). Good combination of band gap and carrier lifetime to build solar cells.

[eternauta3k]

It took ages from the theoretical invention of the MOS transistor to us being able to grow practically good enough oxides (which aren't riddled with interface traps)...

[amelius]

A fully optical computer would be better still.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_computing

[layer8]

There is the flaw that they don’t build themselves, though.