Difference between revisions of "CSC103: DT's Notes 1"
| Line 1,737: | Line 1,737: | ||
====The End of Moore's Law==== | ====The End of Moore's Law==== | ||
<br /> | <br /> | ||
| − | The article "The End of Moore's Law"<ref name="endMooresLaw">Tim Worstall, The End of Moore's Law, ''Forbes'', Aug. 29, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/29/darpa-chief-and-intel-fellow-moores-law-is-ending-soon/, retrieved 9/29/13.</ref> is typical of many articles that have been published for many years, and will continue being published for years to come. | + | The article "The End of Moore's Law"<ref name="endMooresLaw">Tim Worstall, The End of Moore's Law, ''Forbes'', Aug. 29, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/29/darpa-chief-and-intel-fellow-moores-law-is-ending-soon/, retrieved 9/29/13.</ref> that appeared in August 2013 in ''Forbes'' is typical of many articles that have been published for many years, and will continue being published for years to come. |
| − | The main point | + | The main point that these authors are making is that when you have an exponential law, the quantity measured at some point becomes such that it becomes physically impossible to exist. For example, if you look at transistors, the number of transistors being packed in a surface that is roughly 1 square inch is now surpassing the billion mark. That means that the size of the individual transistors is becoming smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and at some point they will reach the size of a few atoms. And because we can't build anything (yet) smaller than atoms, we will be stuck, and the law will abruptly stop its trend. |
| + | |||
| + | There is a very nice video from Intel showing the fabrication process of integrated circuits. You will notice at some point that the process of making an integrated circuit relies on depositing layers of material, sometimes metal, sometimes semiconductor, radiating it with some form of electromagnetic wave, and then removing different patterns of layers with acid. By repeating the process a very intricate network is created, linking different transistors to each other into blocks, and linking blocks with other blocks. The movie gives a good sense of the overwhelming complexity of the structure that results. When you have more than a billion transistors in a square inch connected together by a giant network of wires, some limits are becoming real. | ||
| + | |||
| + | So the point made by articles predicting the end of Moore's law simply state that we are designing ever smaller transistors and that the size of an atom is on the horizon. The Forbes article puts the end of Moore's law at around 2020. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | <center><videoflash>d9SWNLZvA8g</videoflash></center> | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
Revision as of 19:32, 29 September 2013
--© D. Thiebaut 08:10, 30 January 2012 (EST)
