Week 9 - Clear: Days May Be Numbered for Silicon Computer Chips

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by  Tomizak 

Changing the Rules for Production & Mother Nature's Laws of Physics & Quantum Tunneling Will All Contribute to Silicon Valley's Eventual Demise or Transformation!!! 



Wow!  Or should I say, whew!!
Most of this week's material wasn't totally muddy but it definitely wasn't crystal clear either - more like blurry - but very, very fascinating. I hope that I am around to see how some of the theories, new technologies and predictions play out - especially those involving Moore's Law - Gordon Moore's observation that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two (2) years.  

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                            by schwa23 

In Electronics Magazine, Moore stated "transistors per chip, a proxy for power, would double every two years", which Carver Mead, a CalTech Professor and chip entrepreneur dubbed "Moore's Law".    The Business World gives Moore's Law the following definition:  Chip performance per dollar doubles every eighteen months or next generation chips today should be twice as fast but cost the same as chips from eighteen months ago.
 
   
Consumer demand for smaller, faster, more powerful, yet cheaper chips seems to be the driving force that has given Moore's Law a bountiful playing field for decades but it appears that all may be coming to a screeching halt.  As computer chips are produced smaller and more powerful, size, heat, and power all become significant stumbling-blocks to the possibility of Moore's Law continuing to apply.  The laws of physics (a chip's pathway can never be smaller than a single molecule) and quantum tunneling (Mother Nature has set the actual physical limit - which in all probability is larger than a single molecule - so chip pathways can never be smaller than this without spontaneous disruption of its electrons), are both indicators that silicon computer chips' days may be numbered.  Will Silicon Valley just gracefully bow down or stand up and fight, getting into the game by embracing new technologies, principles, materials, etc. - new rules - all for the production of next generation computer chips which satisfies consumer demand? 

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by pennstatelive  

Efforts to overcome the speed bumps of shrinking silicon chips are already underway and have been for some time now.  Solutions which include the graphene wafer (pictured left), three dimensional transistors like Intel's "3-D Tri-Gate", protein computers, DNA computers, optimum computers, quantum computers and many others are on the horizon. 

The fight is on...