3 ms·

Absolutely not. “Worse is better” applies on all levels: microarchitectures, ISAs, operating systems, applications, languages, computing paradigms, etc. Once M

Absolutely not. “Worse is better” applies on all levels: microarchitectures, ISAs, operating systems, applications, languages, computing paradigms, etc. Once Moore’s law is truly over, we will be forced to make some real progress in areas other than shrinking silicon features.

K0SM0S 7y ago
That was kind of my intuition, from what little I know about these things (nerdy culture, but tangential and second-hand at best). Tangential remark, however, I hope there's room for post-silicon / -electronics technology. We are far from some of the more advanced use-cases of computing (currently "sci-fi" but hard/real science, just hard problems in technology as well), in ways that no cleverness nor cheat (e.g. qbits) could substitute for actual processing capability. I don't know how many orders of magnitudes silicon still has to go, but my impression is that it's relatively limited physically, compared to what could be. But that's a topic for the 2030's and later, probably, hopefully. Here's to the quest for Landauer's limit!
galangalalgol 7y ago
I feel the same. I long for a stagnation in processing tech so that we can go back to weird assembly tricks being commonplace and necessary to keep up. But gan or diamond will probably step in and prevent that.
EdNutting 7y ago
There's a nice quote on this topic from David May, ISA designer of the Transputer, at the end of this article (available free if you sign up - irritating pay wall): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/12/06/end-moores-law-will-usher-new-era-computing/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/12/06/end-moores...
- layoutIfNeeded 7y ago
  No signup needed, just change your user agent to "Googlebot" :) >“Moore’s ‘law’ came to an end over 20 years ago,” says David May, professor of Computer Science at Bristol University and lead architect of the influential "transputer" chip. “Only the massive growth of the PC market then the smartphone market made it possible to invest enough to sustain it. >“There’s now an opportunity for new approaches both to software and to processor architecture. And there are plenty of ideas – some of them have been waiting for 25 years. This presents a great opportunity for innovators – and for investors.”
  - lproven 7y ago
    Thanks. That enabled me to find non-paywalled versions: http://www.impactlab.net/2019/12/09/how-the-end-of-moores-law-will-usher-in-a-new-era-in-computing/ http://www.impactlab.net/2019/12/09/how-the-end-of-moores-la... or https://moosegazette.net/how-the-end-of-moores-law-will-usher-in-a-new-era-in-computing/146992/ https://moosegazette.net/how-the-end-of-moores-law-will-ushe...

K0SM0S 7y ago

That was kind of my intuition, from what little I know about these things (nerdy culture, but tangential and second-hand at best). Tangential remark, however, I hope there's room for post-silicon / -electronics technology. We are far from some of the more advanced use-cases of computing (currently "sci-fi" but hard/real science, just hard problems in technology as well), in ways that no cleverness nor cheat (e.g. qbits) could substitute for actual processing capability. I don't know how many orders of magnitudes silicon still has to go, but my impression is that it's relatively limited physically, compared to what could be. But that's a topic for the 2030's and later, probably, hopefully. Here's to the quest for Landauer's limit!

galangalalgol 7y ago

I feel the same. I long for a stagnation in processing tech so that we can go back to weird assembly tricks being commonplace and necessary to keep up. But gan or diamond will probably step in and prevent that.

EdNutting 7y ago

There's a nice quote on this topic from David May, ISA designer of the Transputer, at the end of this article (available free if you sign up - irritating pay wall): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/12/06/end-moores-law-will-usher-new-era-computing/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/12/06/end-moores...

layoutIfNeeded 7y ago
No signup needed, just change your user agent to "Googlebot" :) >“Moore’s ‘law’ came to an end over 20 years ago,” says David May, professor of Computer Science at Bristol University and lead architect of the influential "transputer" chip. “Only the massive growth of the PC market then the smartphone market made it possible to invest enough to sustain it. >“There’s now an opportunity for new approaches both to software and to processor architecture. And there are plenty of ideas – some of them have been waiting for 25 years. This presents a great opportunity for innovators – and for investors.”
- lproven 7y ago
  Thanks. That enabled me to find non-paywalled versions: http://www.impactlab.net/2019/12/09/how-the-end-of-moores-law-will-usher-in-a-new-era-in-computing/ http://www.impactlab.net/2019/12/09/how-the-end-of-moores-la... or https://moosegazette.net/how-the-end-of-moores-law-will-usher-in-a-new-era-in-computing/146992/ https://moosegazette.net/how-the-end-of-moores-law-will-ushe...