Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]


Welcome to Conversations. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Moore's Law Still Valid After 50 Years
Topic Started: Apr 20 2015, 01:59 AM (51 Views)
Webster
Member Avatar
Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Engadget: Moore's Law Turns 50 Years Old
Quote:
 
Today represents a historic milestone in technology: it's the 50th anniversary of Moore's Law, the observation that the complexity of computer chips tends to double at a regular rate. On April 19th, 1965, Fairchild's Gordon Moore (later to co-found Intel) published an article noting that the number of components in integrated circuits had not only doubled every year up to that point, but would continue at that pace for at least a decade. He would later revise that guideline to every two years, but the concept of an unofficial law of progress stuck. It not only foresaw the rapid expansion of computing power, but frequently served as a target -- effectively, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The revised law has largely held up over the past five decades, but it might not last much longer. With chips at 14 nanometers (such as Intel's Broadwell processors), the industry is starting to hit physical limits. Circuits are now so small that escaping heat is a big problem. While Moore's Law may survive for another couple of processor generations, there's a chance that chip designers will need new materials or exotic data transmission techniques (like quantum tunneling) for the rule to hold true. Semiconductor companies have run into seemingly impassable barriers before, though, so Moore may be vindicated for a while yet.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Computers, Technology & The Internet · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Aquös by tiptopolive of the ZB Theme Zone