Gordon Moore first promulgated his now well know law in an “Electronics” magazine in 1965, that the number of transistors that could be packed onto a standard chip would double every year for at least 10 years. Moore updated his forecasts in a 1975 presentation but the general direction has held true now for over 50 years.
In 1955 when the transistor was first commercialised, they cost $5 each, now they cost billionths of a cent each, an astonishing change.
If this development trajectory were to be repeated, even 100th of it, the dreams of politicians trying to sell the notion that a carbon tax will lead to an explosion of technical development in renewable energy, will be realized. Perhaps this is not as far fetched as the notion in 1965 that the number of transistors on a chip on would double every year?
Trackbacks/Pingbacks