Well? How are processor speeds doing? I did a few google searches but couldn’t find anything recent.
Look up Quantum computers or quantum computation. Wow!
Still there
new scientist
Moore’s law has become unattainable, at least for Intel. The Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.4Ghz, based on the Northwood core, is going to be the fastest Intel processor released until 2005, when the new Tejas processor, running on the Socket-T platform, is released. Intel was expecting the new 0.9micron Prescott processor to cover 2004, but production, yield, and temperature problems prevent it from reaching even 3Ghz. Essentially, AMD has the market to itself for the launch of its Socket-939 platform for the Athlon 64 and Athlon FX 64-bit processors.
Thanks. I was able to find this article about IBM’s latest super-duper computer.
http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/20031114_bluegene.shtml
From chillihead’s link:
For silicon, with a bond length of ~0.235 nanometers, that distance represents about 276 atoms. So there’s only room for 8 more doublings.
Of course, 8 more doublings would give us computers 256 times faster than what we have today. That’ll also take us forward another 12 years, by which time we may have an entirely new technology allowing us to keep on going.
But at some point, it’s gotta slow down.
Moore’s law is commonly thought to refer to processor speed, but it is really “the number of transistors that can be produced on a piece of Si for the same price doubles every two years”. This has been achieved by reducing feature size on the die. The shrinking line size has allowed both the number of transistors and the clock rate to advance together. In many ways Moore’s law is less a law than a self-fullfilling prophecy that drives the industry forward.
Recent advances in reducing leakage will help address thermal issues that arise from reducing fearure size. In the long run there are other possibilities to extend Moore’s law such as building chips in 3 dimensions.
DB got it right about what Moore’s Law actually is. But even the good folks at Intel are hedging their bets about how much longer it will hold up: