Moore’s Law says that computer Power doubles every 18 months. However this “guideline” is in the process of breaking down. The limits of silicon technology are becoming apparent and new technology will need to be developed in order for computing power to progress.

As theoretical physicist Michio Kaku says, computing power simply cannot continue at the exponential rate Moore’s law predicts. Sooner, rather than later, pentium chips won’t get any smaller. Once they get down to about 5 nanometers, they overheat, and dual and quad cores will eventually not be enough.

He predicts these limitations on silicon do not necessarily mean the end for Moore’s Law. Eventually non-silicon computing will take-over and the rapid growth of processing power will continue.

Kaku puts his money on using optical, three dimensional, and parallel chips in the near future (in the next ten years), and other technologies in the future. This ten year span will hopefully be enough to lay the groundwork for a switch over to post-silicon technologies.

He continues to expound on what he thinks will happen in the post-silicon era. Molecular computing and eventually quantum computing will take over as Moore’s Law breaks down. Apparently, to Kaku, protein and DNA computers are not in our future, since some of the basis for molecular computing is already in existence.

[Source: Big Think via Gizmodo]