Moore's Law: 1965-2015, May It Rest In Peace

The demise of Moore's Law is in sight. Well, maybe not Moore's Law itself, but the end of the ability of the silicon chip to double computing power about every two years--Moore's Law--is a decade away.That's the gist of a report from the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors to be released Saturday, according to an article in The New York Times Thursday. The roadmap is a tool employed by chip makers to plan where best to place their R&D money. And, it's in nanotechnology. A growing confidence exists among chemists, physicists, and electrical engineers that new technologies will create electronic switches from single molecules or even single electronics at reliably low costs. The transition to new nanotechnology techniques could occur around 2015, the newspaper says. "In between 2003 and 2005 there has been a tipping point," Philip Kuekes, a physics researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, told The Times. "All of the buzz is about nanotechnology."