But let's blow that up, so it's now the size of Shea Stadium, host of the famous 1965 Beatles concert. And just to give you a sense of just how dramatic this exponential shrinking is, I'm going to give you a little metaphor.ĬOLE: So let's say the transistors that are around when Moore first made this prediction back in 1965, those were about 100th of an inch wide. And it's - it's turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy because companies like IBM and Intel, they'll set goals based on this law of how small they want their transistors to be. Did this two-year prediction pan out? Was Moore right?ĬOLE: It turns out, you know, for the last 50 years he's pretty much been spot on. WARD: So the transistors are getting smaller. He said every two years about you'll be able to fit twice as many transistors on a chip. And in 1965, he made this observation that it seemed like transistors were getting smaller and smaller at an exponential rate. What is Moore's Law? Who was Moore?ĪDAM COLE, BYLINE: So Gordon Moore is one of the co-founders of Intel. He's a science reporter here at NPR and he's the curator of the Skunk Bear Tumblr. I go directly to where my colleague Adam Cole sits. RACHEL WARD, BYLINE: When I have to look into something sciencey, I take a very quick shortcut. We sent MORNING EDITION producer Rachel Ward to find out more. Developments like this come approximately every two years. Smaller transistors means more powerful chips, which means, in turn, smaller, more powerful devices, like smartphones. IBM announced yesterday that a coalition of researchers has built the world's first computer chip featuring transistors just seven nanometers wide.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |