Moore’s Law seen extended in chip breakthrough
By Scott Hillis
“Intel Corp. and IBM have announced one of the biggest advances in transistors in four decades, overcoming a frustrating obstacle by ensuring microchips can get even smaller and more powerful.
The breakthrough, achieved via separate research efforts and announced on Friday, involves using an exotic new material to make transistors the tiny switches that are the building blocks of microchips.
The technology involves a layer of material that regulates the flow of electricity through transistors.
“At the transistor level, we haven’t changed the basic materials since the 1960s. So it’s a real big breakthrough,” said Dan Hutcheson, head of VLSI Research, an industry consultancy.
“Moore’s Law was coming to a grinding halt,” he added, referring to the industry maxim laid down by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip doubles roughly every two years.
The result of Moore’s Law has been smaller and faster chips and their spread into a wide array of consumer products that now account for the bulk of the industry’s $250 billion in annual sales.
The latest breakthrough means Intel, IBM and others can proceed with technology roadmaps that call for the next generation of chips to be made with circuitry as small as 45 nanometers, about 1/2000th the width of a human hair.”
From me
This is such great news for the tech industry everything from Mobile devices to Games will be better faster and more colorful than ever before. When I read the entire article on the Reutuers web site I felt chills go down my spine and my hair raise up on my arms which is so creepy but cool so I knew right then I had to blog about it. Be sure to click on the link and read the article all the way thru. I think whatever company makes hafnium a silvery metal soon to be used in the next generation of chips will see there Stock sky rocket on the market.