Will Moore’s Law Collapse?

Will Moore’s Law Collapse? Famed theoretical physicist Michio Kaku thinks so.

In case you’re wondering, Moore’s Law is the famous rule that states “The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years.”. What this has actually meant in practice is that, every 18 months or so (give or take), the speed or computational power of processors has doubled. This has played a huge part in the many advances we’ve seen in Information Technology, including the fact that the telephone I have in my pocket as I type this is thousands of times smaller, and tens of thousands of times more powerful, then the first computers developed.

But back to Michio Kaku!

He points out that “Computer power cannot continue its rapid exponential rise using standard silicone technology” - which makes sense, as silicone will only allow so many transistors to be crammed onto a circuit board of any given size. He says that it is already slowing down and predicts that it will flatten out completely in 10 years.

However, all is not lost - he points to research into 3-dimensional computing, quantum computing, and so forth, that (if realized) may allow us to transcend Moore’s Law completely.

Here is the complete video - well worth a look!

Tags: ,