Since Moore’s Law was first formulated in 1965, it’s pretty much dictated the speed of technological progress. But all that could change in the near future.
The law basically states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. The trouble, as theoretical physicist Michio Kaku explains, is the materials we currently use to build chips. More specifically silicon.
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Once a chip gets past 5nm across Silicon simply starts to overheat. That’s it, as soon as we reach that limit Silicon is finished.
There are a couple of possible solutions — such as quantum, optical and molecular processors — but they come with their own set of challenges.
For now, manufacturers such as Intel are pushing the boundaries of Silicon chips as far as they can with multi-core processors and 3D transistors.
Kaku is a professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York of City University of New York. He’s also a futurist, a “populariser” of science, a futurist, and a co-founder of string field theory.
