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Writer's pictureFrancois S. Marmion

Is Moore Law like a Phoenix, always resurrecting when it seems obsolete?

Moore's Law - an observation made in the late 1950's by which the power of computer doubled every two years - was true for the last six decades. In practice it means you have to be able to put more and more nano transistors on a chip.


We have now reached a transistor size in the region of 7 nanometers (7 billionth of a meter...). As you can see on the picture below, we are talking about transistors smaller than viruses and comparable to DNA or blood cells.


(Source: CC BY-SA 3.0)


Some says Moore's Law is slowing down, it was doubling every 18 months at first and now it is every two years. They doubt we can much longer miniaturize transistors so that we can keep with the pace of Moore's Law. It would be over anytime soon. Another thesis is that the only way to keep up with Moore's Law will be the use of Quantum computing.


However, the chip industry is still trying hard to keep the momentum going and Moore's Law might no be dead yet. The next step is the 3 nanometer transistors - Samsung has already announced a prototype - and Intel still has good hopes of finding ways to make Moore's law live a bit longer. If you want to know more, you should read this article by the Singularity University: https://singularityhub-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/singularityhub.com/2020/08/23/moores-law-lives-intel-says-chips-will-pack-50-times-more-transistors/amp/



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