Intel warns of the end of Moore's Law?

[vniow]

Looks like even Intel can't seem to make fast efficient chips either.

ONE OF THE MAJOR TECHNICAL HEADACHES facing chipmaker Intel is the leaking of current from inactive processors, company chairman Andy Grove told an audience at the International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco yesterday.

"Current is becoming a major factor and a limiter on how complex we can build chips," said Grove. He said the company’ engineers "just can’t get rid of" power leakage.

The problem of leakage threatens the future validity of Moores Law. As chips become more powerful and draw more power, leakage tends to increase. The industry is used to power leakage rates of up to fifteen per cent, but chips constructed of increasing numbers of transistors can suffer power leakage of up to 40 per cent said Grove. In chips made up of a billion transistors may leak between 60 and 70 Watts of power, he warned. The power is largely dissipated as heat causing cooling problems for powerful chips.

 

[kenkooler]

Good chance for other chip makers to catch up...

 

[MrMacMan]

I thought Moores law only delt with the processor MHZ-GHZ speed, not really everything in a chip...
Techinally Intel will now focus now only increasing it's GHZ but also other features.
HT Tech anyone?

 

[P-Worm]

moore's law is stupid. there has to be a limit because we simply do not have the resources to keep making things faster. It's just like bacteria. They can double in size every hour, but that can't do that forever. If moore's law is true then it wouldn't take long for chips to get so fast that we would not have a number for the speed anymore. I can't believe people buy into this stuff.

P-Worm

 

[4409723]

N

Originally posted by MrMacman
I thought Moores law only delt with the processor MHZ-GHZ speed, not really everything in a chip...
Techinally Intel will now focus now only increasing it's GHZ but also other features.
HT Tech anyone?

Moore's law has nothing to do with ghz but rather the number of transistors.
For more info go here: www.mse.berkeley.edu/faculty/sands/ MSE125%20alias/TICS6GRP2.pdf