Moore's law to last for another 10-15 years?

Posted on Saturday, September 22 2007 @ 13:05 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck

Gordon Moore's famous Moore's Law that the number of transistors on a computer chip will double roughly every two year has already hold out for more than 40 years.

Moore himself seems to be confident that this trend will continue for at least another decade:

Another decade, a decade and a half, I think we'll hit something fairly fundamental" that would render the continuing pace of Moore's law untenable, Moore said on Tuesday at Intel's twice-annual technical conference, now in its 10th year.

Transistors are the tiny switches that process the ones and zeros that are the foundation of digital computing, and now number in the hundreds of millions on modern microprocessors.

Intel in January announced what it hailed as the biggest breakthrough in the basic building blocks of semiconductors in more than 40 years. The world's biggest chipmaker is now using an element called hafnium and metal gates in its chipmaking processes, which will let Moore's Law continue for now.

Source: Reuters

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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