[edge17]

It looks like we are approaching the end of Moore's law. Heat is making it impossible to add additional transistors into CPUs and GPUs and the end result is that today’s computer technology is about as fast as silicon transistors can go. Future gains are going to have to be based on architecture changes in the hardware to be more efficient and software algorithm improvements. That's not going to bring gains at the same pace we've seen in the past.

I'll put my money on the creativity and imagination of the engineers that build this stuff, the business men behind it that demand it, and the marketers that will convince you it's not true.

If Moore's Law hadn't taken hold so prominently, it's possible that the level of aggressiveness the industry took towards shrinking chips would not have been 2x every 18 months. Most people inside the industry will tell you it's more of a self-fulfilling prophecy

People also never seem to realize that Gordon Moore made his prediction with only four datapoints... He's clearly a brilliant man, but that's usually hardly enough data to claim anything :)

original graph on page 3 -

ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Articles-Press_Releases/Gordon_Moore_1965_Article.pdf