X-Message-Number: 16506 From: "John Clark" <> Subject: Moore's law Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 10:43:52 -0400 At a computer conference in Kyoto Japan this weekend Intel announced that they have made transistors 70 atoms wide and 3 atoms thick that switched at 1.5 Trillion times a second. Smaller transistors have been made but this one is significant because they used standard techniques and the same material used in today's chips. Ever since Moore formed his famous law people have wondered how long it would last, in 1993 Moore himself said .25 microns might be the end of the line but this year .13 micron technology became mainstream. Just 2 years ago Intel scientists wrote in Science that the rate of improvement will slow down significantly after the .13 micron generation, but now that same company has demonstrated .045 micron technology and says Moore's law should stay on track until at least 2014. In another development IBM said they found that if they put a physical strain on silicon they can increase the speed of chips by 35% even if you don't make them smaller. The process is not difficult and the company will start selling such chips in two years. John K Clark Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16506