If you follow computer technology then you have probably heard of Moore's Law. Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel Corportation came up with his famous law back in 1965 sighting the rapid increase of circuits on a single chips.
THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE IS HERE
An article on wired.com pointed out that Moore's Law is often misunderstood. The article goes to say that the paper
"referred to the number of transistors that could be cost-effectively produced on a single integrated circuit, and he somewhat optimistically predicted that this number would double every year."
The full article is here:
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/04/0419moores-law-published/#ixzz0lj2nMhEC
Some highlights of the original paper published in 1965 are:
1. That means by 1975, the number of components per integrated circuit for minimum cost
will be 65,000
2. Computer processing power would double every two years.
3. The cost of computing is cut in half every two years. In other words. As the circuitry gets more complicated, the cost drops.
According to a press release from Intel back in September 2009, the new 22 nanometer chips contain the smallest SRAM cell used in working circuits ever reported at
.092 square microns. You can fit 10,000 of these cells per millimeter. Find your ruler, located the small hash marks on the metric side. Now imagine 10,000 cells between each hash mark.
Eventually, the physical limits of microchips will be realized. As Mr. Moore said in this article a few years ago:
"Moore reiterated, however, that there really are fundamental limits to his law, regardless of materials. Indeed, while he admitted to being “perpetually amazed” at how technologists have been pushing those limits out ahead of us, Moore said the end times are near. So when can you expect the law that has driven you to replace your computer every 2-3 years to be obsolete? You’ve got ten-to-15 years..." Wired.com
