> The ongoing miniaturization of silicon technology has to end fairly soon, as the atomic scale is approaching rapidly. Again: The issue is not the material s

> The ongoing miniaturization of silicon technology has to end fairly soon, as the atomic scale is approaching rapidly. Again: The issue is not the material science or the physics, it is the economy of scale. Even if miniturization stopped tomorrow, there would be bigger wafers, or 3D stacking, or wafer-scale integration, or (insert favorite technology here.) Those economics are very tough to compete with. The net effect is that other materials are relegated to markets where there is an honest differentiator. For example: III-V's are much superior lasers compared to Si-based technologies. (Look up "Direct Bandgap" as to why.)