Silicon tech today
Silicon chips have increased speeds, but sustainability is an issue
Traditional silicon chips are reaching their physical and technological limits, which poses a future problem. Since our computing demands continue to grow, there is a danger that our expectations will one day be frustrated by stagnating chip production. Without significant progress, computing performance would suffer, and innovation slow.
The big issue is that for decades, engineers have increased computer processing power by constantly increasing the number of silicon transistors on a one–inch computer chip.
In 1965, Intel co–founder Gordon Moore said the number of transistors would double in number every year. In reality, that stretched to 18 months and then two years, and the time between this doubling is getting longer still. There’s a simple reason for this: we’re now close to shrinking and fitting as many transistors on an integrated circuit as it’s possible to achieve, because we’re approaching the size of atoms that Moore himself has said, is “a fundamental barrier”.