Moore's Law

[mukaan]

I once heard someone state that if Moore's Law applied to the auto industry, then your car would get a million miles per gallon by now. However, Moore's Law (more specifically) refers to the increasing number of components of integrated circuits. Applied to the auto industry, it does not mean that your car should be getting a million miles per gallon. In fact, it means that your car should have an engine composed of millions of cylinders with very tiny displacement.

[jeneric]

I thought Moore's Law was that CPU speed should double every two years.

[TonyPSchaefer]

I always applied Moore's Law with a broad brush: the number of circuits on a chip, the speed of the CPU, in short the technological improvements of any technological device.

[flynz4]

I picked this up from a google hit of the Portland Business Journal:

Years ago, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore put the computer industry's quantum evolution into comparative terms when he declared: "If the automobile industry had advanced as rapidly as the semiconductor industry, a Rolls Royce would get 500,000 miles to the gallon and would be cheaper to throw away than to park."

/Jim

[TonyPSchaefer]

Yeah, but what does HE know?

It's sort of sad that while some industries have progressed at alarming rates - to which concepts such as nanotechnology, quantum mechanics, and self-assembling molecules are commonplace - other industries has chosen to reintroduce 'retro' versions of products.

[jfschultz]

Originally posted by flynz4@Jan 2 2006, 05:46 PM
I picked this up from a google hit of the Portland Business Journal:

Years ago, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore put the computer industry's quantum evolution into comparative terms when he declared: "If the automobile industry had advanced as rapidly as the semiconductor industry, a Rolls Royce would get 500,000 miles to the gallon and would be cheaper to throw away than to park."

/Jim

[snapback]183229[/snapback]

Actually, it would get much better mileage. He forgot about the reduction in size. The problem is that the Rolls would fit in your pocket and the question would be miles per shoe!

[DaveinOlyWA]

when considering scale, its obvious that automobiles could never progress at the same rate as computers. and what is to say that they have not??

do you really think that computers would have been as fast and as popular if someone died every time they crashed??

cars have progressed EONS...its just that their progress is measured in so many different and MUCH MORE valuable ways. processors are only measured by speed and nothing else. just because they are 1000 times faster, does that mean they are 1000 times more efficient?? we all know the answer to that one.

besides Moore's law stated that the number of transistors will double every 18-24 months while the cost of its production would be halved.

[ceric]

Moore's law has slowed down quite a lot (50% according to some). IC design and fabrication is hitting a wall. 65nm (transistor gate size, 'nm'= 1e-9 meter) is a challenge. No one know what problems lie ahead at 45nm. 45nm may be the end of Moore's law w/o major breakthru. Your newest Pantium was fabricated with 90nm. 65nm is used in most advanced DRAM today. The next Intel CPU will be fab-ed in 65nm. This year (2006), some advanced DRAM will use 45nm.

[JackDodge]

Originally posted by jfschultz@Jan 4 2006, 11:26 PM
Actually, it would get much better mileage. He forgot about the reduction in size. The problem is that the Rolls would fit in your pocket and the question would be miles per shoe!

[snapback]183792[/snapback]

you're hilarious, Jim. As far as the American auto industry goes, I think that the law they should be applying it to is the second law of thermodynamics.