Since the 1960s, Moore's Law has described the progress of the IT
industry but overheating could slow down the pace of change
Computing power and performance has doubled every 18 months to two
years, while the cost and size of hardware has halved with the same
frequency. Despite this rapid progress, our understanding of
miniaturisation technology has progressed even faster, and the way
is clear for Moore's Law to continue to rule for many more
years.
However, a problem is threatening to derail the train. Electrical
power consumption (and the consequent heat generation) has not
fallen at the same rate as the physical dimensions. In fact, power
consumption per square centimetre of chip surface is on an
exponential increase. This very non-virtuous circle has to be
broken. Graham Titterington looks at the many faceted approach that
leading chip maker Intel is following in its research
programme.
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