Rephrasing by Others
As computers became more and more popular during the 1980s and 1990s, the law started to be paraphrased by other people and researchers in the field. For instance, the law now applies to the amount of transistors that are on a chip. In addition the law is now also applied to computer power per unit expenses and so on. While variations of the law emerged, there is no questioning the fact that the law is still holding up.
In the mid 2000s in fact, variations of the law started being applied to data transmission, and their increasing speed, magnetic data storage dimensions, amount of RAM available and how genomes can be sequenced. Other variations of Moore’s Law are now applied to inventions that are mass produced, scanning device resolutions, LED lights and other technologies.
Endurance of the Law
What really makes the law even more amazing is the fact that Moore made that statement even though he had only half a dozen years experience working on microchips when he said it. A lot of people have predicted the death of Moore’s Law yet it has kept going and continues to keep going. Today a lot of experts believe that Moore’s Law will have to be adjusted in 2015 when standard photolithographical techniques come to their end.
Photolithography
Photolithography utilizes light beams to embed the features and elements onto a chip. What this means is that etching smaller components will need smaller light wavelengths. The reason why many predict an adjustment of the law is required is that the photolithography technique is rapidly moving into the range of ultraviolet. It is very difficult to go further than that because it will require vast amounts of energy to generate frequency waves at smaller frequencies.
Because of this physical limitation, other options like 3-D chips, nanocomputing, DNA computing other technologies are being considered. Economy is one aspect that gave in so that the law could be sustained. This area of the economy is the funding required to start a state of the art microchip-manufacturing plant.
Today it costs about $2 billion. Based on recent studies it will cost as much or more to get past the physical limitations imposed by photolithography. While the task is complex, there is little doubt that the supply will be crated as there is a strong demand for even more powerful applications.
Misconceptions
Some people mistakenly believe that what Moore said was that computing power will double every 18 months. But this was said not by Moore but by David House, an Intel executive. He said that in reference to doubling the power of microchips.
Now that you know the meaning of Moore’s Law, it has become easier to understand why it has proven to be so accurate. Whether the law has to be adjusted or replaced entirely with a new one in 2015 however, remains to be seen.
Author Bio: Ron is likes writing articles for http://www.mooreslaw.org