"A major breakthrough in chip design by European chip company ST Microelectronics will result in cheaper, more efficient semiconductors. The has found a way to insert optical components into silicon chips. These components exchange signals through photons of light, and silicon chips usually contain wires that exchange signals through electrons." http://vnunet.com/News/1136392
According to Moore's Law, "The density of transistors on a chip will approximately double every 18 months". This law has held true since 1978, but we're quickly approaching a limit due to the speed of electrons through conductive metals being finite (~speed of sound?) The future options to stay in accordance with Moore's Law seem to be: 1) Superconductors 2) Optical Processing (3*10^8 m/s!!) 3) Biological Processing (Biological cells such as nerve cells can perform complex logic operations) Since the first two are currently under development, who reckons the pentium 5/6 will rely on biological matter? How can you overclock tissue? Will we eventually overclock neurons in our brain...? // Realises that this started as a reasonable post, but has now gone to pot.... ARRGGGGHHH! The men.... The one's with the coats!! Not the long sleeves.... PLEEEEASE!!!!!!
It's a natural progression though (not the brain bit, but using nerve cells). We'll tell our grandchildren how we used to have chips, and they'll laugh like when were told about the original machines using mechanical valves. SCARY.
nah, that would cause sluggish, sporatic performance. Plus, if you wanted to photoshop anything it wouldn't be able to do a straight ling
Glad to see that even modgods indulge in dragging threads down to my level Thought I posted a reasonable (compared to my usual babble) reply. Glad someone smacked me across the face with a silly-stick before it became a bad habit. So, let's talk about beer....
