[Gllug] [OT] 2013 - The End for SSCs?

[Axel Segebrecht]

Just read another interesting article from our friends across the 
channel about Gordon Moores introduction speech at the ISSCC 
(International Solid State Circuits Conference).

http://heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-11.02.03-000/

According to Moore - Intels founder - the exponential growth rate of 
SSCs (aka Moores Law) will see the end of the line within 10 years but 
said he would leave the next generation open to speculation.

In the 1960s, when SSC were first introduced, you were happy to fit a 
mere 200 odd transistors on a wafer, nowadays it's 10 to the power of 
18! The production per transistor equals the printing cost of a letter 
in the New York Times today, thanks to the rapid development of 
production technologies.

He says that energy consumption and interference on such a micron-small 
level will soon prevent us from growing the number of transistors we 
can possibly fit onto a wafer however.

Moore left the next generation of technology - e.g. DNS or Quantum 
technologies - open for discussion and when asked about them he snapped 
"Fifty million transistors for one dollar - who could possibly beat 
that?" Although plastic chips made of polymers are propagated because 
they are more cost efficient, they can only be an alternative for 
producing LCDs.

Bruno Murari of ST Microelectronics reckons that we should create 
better interfaces between digital systems and their physical world. The 
future - according to Murari - belongs to the analog designers.

Axel


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