Future Computer Speeds and Moore’s Law
Video processors for personal desktop computers have been accelerating (through various technologies) personal computer graphics for advanced games and software-based production. What was seen as science fiction yesterday is now fact. Our technological fantasies are rapidly becoming realities.
So you think your personal or mobile computer is fast?
It is, when you consider that, spanning 30 years, processing speeds have moved from thousands to millions to billions of bits per second. The term Hz (hertz) represents cycles per second. According to quantum physics experiments, pulse technologies demonstrate that it may be possible that computers will be able to reach speeds at Petahertz (PHz). A petahertz is one quadrillion bits per second and scientists believe computer processing speeds may reach and exceed 1PHz by 2022. The prediction is based on a theory conjured up by Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel and is known as Moore’s Law. Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on a chip will double approximately every two years. Physicists clamor at not only increasing processors but improving the speeds of performance.
Modern information processing allows for breathtaking switching rates of about a 100 billion cycles per second. New results from the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics (LAP) of Prof. Ferenc Krausz (Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), Garching, and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich) could pave the way towards signal processing several orders of magnitude faster.
According to results from a series of experiments, processing speeds for computers and mobile devices may be significantly faster in coming years. This opens the door for signal processing rates reaching the petahertz (1015 Hz) domain, about 10,000 times faster than it is possible with the best state-of-the-art solid state microchips. The experiments were carried out by researchers from MPQ, LMU, and Technische Universität München, in close cooperation with the theoretical group of Prof. Mark Stockman (Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA).
It was less than 10 years ago when most home televisions were not 1080p. Today, 1080p HDTV is commonplace. At the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, 2160p televisions will be introduced and Asians are working on developing 4320p over the next ten years. These are the new realities that are rapidly emerging through electronics. The expansions of lifestyle electronics, from entertainment to medicine, are moving rapidly closer. Moore’s Law is constantly being reproved and improved. Only unreasonable human conflicts can halt all the benefits we are yet to achieve.
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