John Berry <[email protected]> wrote: BTW AFAIK Moores Law isn't that speeds increase but that transistor > densities increase. >
Correct. It was originally a simple statement about two-dimensional geometry. It happens that speed followed roughly the same curve for a long time, although in recent years microprocessor speed has not increased. It is not really a "law." It is just an informal rule of thumb. This also goes back to a talk given by Feynman in 1959, "there is plenty of room at the bottom." http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html I recall another statement by someone describing vacuum tubes as, "using a railroad car to bring a pat of butter." Even before the invention of the transistor, people understood that computing and signal processing could be done with far less power and with smaller components. - Jed
